This post was updated on September 29th with information on changes to the Rat Market – see the end of the post for more details.

Hello, Delicious Friends!

Normally we don’t release things on Fridays, which should make this a surprise announcement. We like to keep you on your toes.

Today we are launching a small new area in Fallen London: The Rat Market is now accessible in the Flit.

(Note for newer players: If you haven’t been to the Flit yet, you should be able to unlock it after the first stage of Making Your Name: A Name Whispered in Darkness. You’ll find that the Rat Market becomes more relevant when you’re further along in the game, though.)

The Rat Market is a small area that we expect to play a big role in the future of Fallen London, so we’d like to take the time to talk about it – and about future things like it.

At the Rat Market, you will be able to sell certain items and exchange them for rat-shillings, which can then be traded for other items – including certain rare economy items, as well as equippables. Some of the equippable items sold at the Rat Market are existing ones, though they are cheaper or easier to obtain than they were before. Some equippable items are entirely new.

The Rat Market changes week to week and season to season. What the ratty vendors are buying, and what they are selling, will vary over time. The market itself is also only available some of the time.

What the Rat Market buys will change according to the current rat-season, on a predictable schedule week to week – but you’ll have to discover the specifics yourselves. The Rat Market buys items at a substantial markup relative to what you could sell them for at the Bazaar, though selling at the Rat Market does cost actions.
What the Rat Market sells will change at random week to week, based on the phase of the rat-moon and the direction of the rat-wind. Some things it will sell are items you can equip; some are economy items. Some can only be obtained here; others have already existed in the game, though they may be cheaper or easier to get to than they were before.

The Rat Market opens only on weekends – specifically, from Friday morning until Monday morning, at 11AM UTC.

Items sold at the Rat Market are exchanged for rat-shillings, which are worth about 1/10th of an echo each. Beware: You cannot leave the market without spending all your rat-shillings. To obtain what the market is selling each week, you will have to provide it with what it wants on that same week.

The goal here is to encourage pursuing different opportunities and playing different areas of the game week to week. Sometimes the Rat Market won’t have anything you want. Sometimes it’ll have an item you must have. If you miss an opportunity, though, don’t worry – it’ll come back around. Eventually.

There are also four new items that the Rat Market sells on a seasonal schedule – Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. The first of those items, the Venge-Rat Waders, are boots that increase Kataleptic Toxicology; they will be available at the Rat Market until the onset of London’s false-winter, in the first week of December.

Introducing Living World Events

There are other World Quality-driven things coming to Fallen London in the not so distant future. Their specific nature is left as a surprise, but expect to see them in the coming months, in between bigger new content releases and seasonal festivals. Currently, we have two of those in the pipeline, with more to come in the future depending on how you all react to this set.

These events are small, designed to last for about a week, and with durations and outcomes that depend on what players do. They are meant to be recurring, appearing several times throughout the year.

This is another part of ongoing experiments with Fallen London’s design, refining ideas developed by the dynamic bone market and the Grand Clearing-Out. We hope you’ll enjoy them.

To help you keep track of all this, we are also adding a new feature – the Unexpurgated Gazette can be read in your lodgings for hints that point you towards current Living World events in London, including the state of the Bone Market and the week’s Rat Market. Eventually, you will also see headlines about other goings-on in London.

Though the Rat Market column in the Gazette may be a little cryptic. We expect you all to take some time to understand what it all means. But once you do, you’ll be able to know what the Rat Market will want, and what it will be selling, ahead of the weekend.

Update 09/29: Having seen all your feedback after the first Rat Market weekend, we have implemented a few changes to the Rat Market. These will be effective starting this weekend.

You can now leave and re-enter the rat market freely while carrying rat-shillings.
However, all of your rat-shillings will now revert to an equivalent amount of rostygold 72 hours after you entered the Rat Market for the first time in a given week.