#the bloody wallpaper

[esteemed-excellency]

[the-rosebush-mag]

Behind "The Bloody Wallpaper":

Designing Fallen London’s 100th Exceptional Story

by Chandler Groover

In “The Bloody Wallpaper” the player is conscripted to work in a luxury hotel for a single evening. But menial labor isn’t famous for being fun, and “The Bloody Wallpaper” is premium DLC for an online game: it needs to be fun, doesn’t it? In this article, Chandler Groover discusses the design of gameplay meant to evoke the frustration of menial labor without being frustrating.

Read the full article on The Rosebush.

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[alexis-royce]

You will provide excellent service, won’t you?

[thedeafprophet]

The ravеn ponders if he enjoys the gore While he takes the frontal lobe and eats some more Little miss, don't sit, come join the fun! We've only got twelve hours 'til the party's done Paramnesia rules this world, so fake a smile Take a shot, some scotch And wait until your trial

After playing The Bloody Wallpaper I was filled with Inspiration, and just had to draw something with The Manager and Jamie (they/them or he/him).

Love it when my PCs end up in situations.

( Also you should go listen to A Crow's Trial)

[the-avaricious-meddler]

Huh

Whuh

[friendlyfirestarter]

Hello, Todd!

[jane-d-ankh-veos]

Feeling feelings because of May and Clay Men: episode 999 💔

Resonates so well with FL:

[cadaver1ne]

it's amazing what a little trim can do for the servant's attitude.

[space-wizards]

This seems like a reasonable response to getting press-ganged into hotel drudge work while you sleep

[fallenlondonreviewed]

The Bloody Wallpaper

The Red and Gold Gala – the most prestigious event of the social season, hosted at the Royal Bethlehem itself – is approaching quickly and you are invited – to work for minimum wage. While you grind your teeth and keep up the ever-friendly smile, you get to know the guests who attend this gala, as well as the service workers behind the scenes, who are quite literally fighting for their lives in the fast reaches of the Royal Bethlehem. And just when you think your suffering is drawing to a close, the wallpaper is ripped off and you find out that nothing is what it seems. This celebrates 100 Exceptional Stories, and it is a celebration indeed.

MY RATING: ★★★★★ COMMUNITY RATING: none yet A surreal ride through the cosmic and existential horrors hidden in the service industry. With brilliant writing, great humour and a stunning amount of content, this ES is well worth its money. Main Focus: Royal Bethlehem, Parabola Secondary Focus: Society, Bohemians

Spoiler Free

Opening

You’re enjoying the life of a London socialite. Everyone keeps talking about the Red and Gold Gala, as dread creeps up on you – could it be that you’re… not invited? It’s getting so bad, you even start dreaming about the event. Then, finally, the Manager of the Royal Bethlehem invites you – to work. But there’s a talking lizard on the desk, so you’re a bit distracted when negotiating.

The opening is by far the weakest part of this ES. Any character who is not a dedicated socialite will feel like they’ve came down with a sudden bout of snobbery. On the plus-side, it’s over rather quickly. For my characters, I ignore the hyping up of the Red and Gold Gala and pretend the story only starts with the strange dreams. Because from there on, it makes sense for all sorts of characters to get roped up in this.

I would recommend this ES to any player and character alike. I can’t imagine someone not enjoying this (except the characters, those will suffer tremendously.) The Red and Gold Gala, as well as this ES, is one huge celebration of Fallen London. Players who are very invested in the lore will get an additional enjoyment out of this confluence of some of the Neath’s biggest players.

Review

This ES is an absolute treat! If asked what my all time favourite would be, I’d answer “The Bloody Wallpaper” without skipping a beat. It’s Chandler Groover at his very best – a maelstrom of surreal, colourful writing that evokes emotions powerful enough that you’ll forget about the actual story being told.

Due to it being the 100th ES and riding the hype of Mask of the Rose’s release only a month earlier, this ES is outstanding in several aspects. The most obvious of which is its length. It is a chonker. 80 actions at least, but with all the free actions it has, it feels like two to three times the length of an average ES. I broke up both my play-throughs, and still managed spend four hours on one sitting alone.

The length also reflects in the structure of this ES. It has two very distinct parts, separated at around the three-quarter mark. In addition to that, it offers half a dozen mini-storylines which you can explore at your own pace.

The by far best part about this ES is the craft, in my opinion. This story sits firmly in the horror genre – people get casually killed, you are repeatedly told how utterly unimportant and replaceable you are, and at the climax there’s a good dash of body horror in it as well. But the prose has a matter of fact-ness to it that states “just another Tuesday at Walmart” with a shrug and moves on. It starts out in a cynical, resigned tone which pivots to a desperate last claim for self-worth as reality falls apart more and more.

As said, you are a service-worker at the Red and Gold Gala, where you have to keep the guests happy and the party running almost entirely by yourself. “Who hurt you, Chandler?” I found myself asking more than once. The ES uses its prose, its story and even its mechanics to make you feel utterly powerless. As u/perkoperv123 put it: “My favorite part of FL, the thing that makes it unique tonally, is this exact kind of banal horror. […] This ES is a powerlessness fantasy. You're no longer a Person of Importance. You're barely a person at all. You are the help. If a guest demands the impossible, make it happen anyway.”

As a consequence of this complete lack of agency, there are no roleplay options. The entire ES has two decisions to make, and only one of them matters a little. On all other cards there is exactly one option to pick – whatever makes the guest happy. So you spend a lot of time navigating the mechanical side of this ES to get the orders and items to the guests. It requires a lot of clicking, which feeds into the feeling of futility. I’ve rarely seen FL (or other games) leverage its gameplay to enhance its narrative like this.

What the ES lacks in roleplay it makes up for in freedom to explore. From the beginning on, almost the entire hotel is open to you. Guests have requests, but it’s up to you in which order you serve them. A timer is running throughout the ES, and it will trigger certain events, which generates a false but effective sense of time-pressure. Despite it, there is no missable content.

Community opinion on this one is more divided than usual. Players either loved or hated it. An overwhelming majority praised it very much for the same reasons I listed above. But the people who didn’t enjoy it mostly pointed to the grindy and dull mid-game, as well as the disrespect against their character. And while these aspects are very much intended by the author, I can totally understand why that would take the fun away for some players.

Which brings me to the conclusion. In the end, your character has been used and abused by a power they can never compete with, and that couldn’t care less about what they have to say. Yes, the powerlessness might have been a nightmare, but in the real Fallen London, you might just be as disposable as you were when you had to wait on the most self-important people of London. To me, this downer of an ending didn’t really hit hard because I was still high on the prose (and my characters have an inferiority complex).

In total, I massively enjoyed this ES, and I will continue to recommend it to anyone, if only for the added content. A bit more art and half a soundtrack, and other companies would have sold this as a stand-alone graphic novel.

Additional Thoughts (Full Spoilers)

Only in Fallen London can the author pull the “but it was all a dream”-card and get a better product as a result.

I’m rarely moved by written horror these days. We’ve had 2020. But when the Gala was finally about to begin, when the Manager lead my character into the dining room and all other employees were either dead or mysteriously gone, I could feel my heartbeat in my ears. And the suspense!

Then, when the wallpaper came down, and I genuinely didn’t know any longer what happened, I was worried for my character. But I also couldn’t stop myself, I needed to know where this went.

Then, when all was said and done, and my character sat across the manager once more, I could feel his exhaustion. (story-time: Emanuel, my main FLPC, is stoic, devoid of any emotions, and can take tremendous amounts of abuse with a smile and a polite ‘thank you.’ And usually, I don’t feel bad for him. But when he sat there, I couldn’t help but think “you did not deserve this.”)

And all this because of tax evasion. (Who hurt you, Chandler?) I know he has his fans, but the Manager has very much cemented his place in my list of enemies now. As has the Northbound Parliamentarian. Can’t look at her card the same way as before now.

My favourite guest has to be the Red-Handed Prince. Not only am I is Emanuel a hopeless simp for the red-handed Queen, but if you present him with toxic and thinly veiled pillow talk from a good-looking guy in a suit, he looses all mental faculties. I think the Red-Handed Prince, who claims to be the Bloody-Handed Queen’s son, has not been mentioned yet in her list of avatars, so that’s an interesting addition.

And of course, there’s everyone’s favourite, the Butcher’s Boy. Not only is this a child who actually has two (2!) living parents, but he is also an absolute sweetheart and deserves nothing but the best.

The appearance of October, while stunningly beautiful, went entirely over my head at the time of playing, as did probably many other things. But I couldn’t care, I loved the ride (which is a statement I could make to many of the critiques of this ES.)

11/10 would recommend.

Credits for "The Bloody Wallpaper": Writing: Chandler Groover Editing: Luke van den Barselaar QA: James Chew Art: Paul Arendt

Link to the FL Forum

[lagotu]

[esteemed-excellency]

[helpmeeeeeeeeeeee1234]

blood words

[thedeafprophet]

The best part of the bloody wallpaper was the Manager saying he doesn't celebrate Christmas

Yes yes everything else is good but 'Not my religion.' Is 10/10

[the-avaricious-meddler]

I... Well. Ok. Hm. Yes. Ok.

[stuckinthedeadlights]

TJ MIKELOGAN'S HALLOWEEN 2023 EVENT DAY 16: Favorite gore/slasher film

My Bloody Valentine 3D Wallpapers

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