Editing Assembling a Skeleton (Guide)/Tutorial

If you're involved with the Fallen London community, you've likely heard about the Bone Market. Maybe you've read a guide or two, and were still left scratching your head.

Fear not, I've got you covered. (I hope, at least). This page walks you through some first bone market actions step by step, explaining the what and why along the way. After you've followed these steps, reading [[Assembling a Skeleton (Guide)]] should make sense to you.

==Why Bone Market?==

The bone market offers efficient access to some resources that you need for example for the Railway.

These include:

* {{IL|Nightsoil of the Bazaar}} and {{IL|Preserved Surface Blooms}}, which you need to create {{IL|Perfumed Gunpowder}}, both for lab equipment upgrades and for the first stretches of railway tracks. (Note that you can now get both from the Rat Market as well)
* {{IL|Bessemer Steel Ingot}}, which you need a lot of to create {{IL|Railway Steel}} (90 ingots for 5 pieces of steel).
* {{IL|Hinterland Scrip}}, the currency of the Upper River (the stations you build during the railway project)

==Access to the Bone Market==

This is the progression that leads you to get access to the Bone Market:

* Become a Person of Some Importance, see [[A Person of Some Importance (Guide)]].
* Open up your own University Lab, see [[University Laboratory (Guide)]].
* Complete five research projects to bring {{IL|The Prestige of your Laboratory}} up to 5.
* Under [[Begin a Scientific Investigation]], select [[Accept a Palaeontological Task from the Dean]].
* Finishing this research project gives you {{IL|Route: The Bone Market}}.
* Now {{IL|Dept. of Menace Eradication}} has a new storylet, [[The Back Stair to the Bone Market]]. Play it to enter the Bone Market.

==Before you can Start==

Assembling your own skeletons requires you to [[Invest in a Stall of your Own]]. If you buy a small stall first, it won't make the upgrade to a larger stall any cheaper, so you might as well get the biggest one (the handsome dais) right away. But for the rest of this tutorial, a small stall is enough.

What's the difference between the stall sizes? It's simple, if you work with bigger skeletons (built on a {{IL|Mammoth Ribcage}}, {{IL|Prismatic Frame}} or {{IL|Leviathan Frame}}), the small stall isn't big enough.

==The Rhythm of the Bone Market==

The Bone Market is fundamentally an exchange, a market place. 

Interacting with it usually consists of these steps:

* Acquire some stuff to sell, often outside the bone market.
* Potentially assemble a skeleton out of your stuff.
* Approach a buyer.
* Sell your stuff.

(Later we'll revise these steps a bit).

Let's break this down based on an example.

===Example: Acquire Bessemer Steel Ingots===

We'll start with a simple example: Acquiring {{IL|Bessemer Steel Ingot|10 x}}.

These are the steps, more details to follow:

* Acquire a {{IL|Femur of a Jurassic Beast}}.
* (do not assemble anything)
* Approach the Enthusiast of the Ancient World.
* Sell him the femur.

The details are

====Acquire a Femur of a Jurassic Beast====

First, check your inventory, You might already have one.

If not, a simple but action-intensive method to acquire some is to use [[Brawling with Dockers (Guide)|Brawling with Dockers]] and chose the large crate from the bone market.

This will give you quite a few femurs, which might seem like a waste for now, but you'll need lots of these later on when building the railway, so it's not a waste.

There are other ways to get this and and other bones; if you're looking for a specific bone, it is usually advisable to check [[Assembling a Skeleton (Guide)/Bone Sources]].

====Approach the Enthusiast of the Ancient World====

In the Bone Market, select [[Seeking Buyers]]. One of the options should be [[Sell to an Enthusiast of the Ancient World]]. If this option is not available to you, it is because this buyer needs {{IL|Respectable}} of at least 3.

At this point in the game you very likely have enough equipment to reach this threshold; go to your possessions, filter your equipment to show Respectable items, and equip the highest you have per slot. If that doesn't bring you to three, you can buy a {{IL|Carnelian Sapphire Pendant}} from [[Trompowsky et Fils]] at the Bazaar, which alone brings in two points of {{IL|Respectable}}.

Other buyers have other requirements, we'll get to that later.

====Sell him your bone====

Once you have reached the Enthusiast, there is a checkless option [[Sell him a Jurassic Thigh Bone]].

It costs one action and one {{IL|Femur of a Jurassic Beast}}, and gives you {{IL|Bessemer Steel Ingot|10 x}}.

Congratulations, you have just finished your first Bone Market transaction.

Wasn't that bad, was it?

==Building your First Skeleton==

The Bone Market starts to get really interesting once you assemble skeletons and sell them.

To do that, you need your own stall, and you need a torso to start with.

The torso then dictates how many heads, limbs (arms, legs, wings) and tails you can attach.

At the end, you need to declare what your skeleton is supposed to be. If, for example, you started with a {{IL|Human Ribcage}}, attached two arms, two legs and one head, you can declare it a human.

If you didn't follow anything that fits into a pre-made category (such as human, ape, bird, ...), you can always declare it a Chimera. This automatically increases its {{IL|Skeleton: Self-Evident Implausibility}}, which makes it harder to sell.

Harder to sell means you need to pass a possibly steep {{IL|Shadowy}} check, and you gain {{IL|Suspicion}} on failure (and have to try again until you pass the check, or else decide to eventually break down your skeleton for parts, which isn't as profitable as selling it).

Other ways to increase Implausibility (which you should avoid, or at least limit), are:
* Doing something obviously unfitting, like using a {{IL|Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory}} instead of a head.
* Some attaching operations require an advanced stats check, like {{IL|Mithridacy}} or {{IL|Monstrous Anatomy}}. If you fail those, you can gain implausibility. 

But, enough theory, let's actually build something.

=== Start with a Plan ===

We want to build a human skeleton and sell it to the Enthusiast of the Ancient World.

This means we need

* one torso
* one skull
* two arms
* two legs

The Enthusiast wants at least one point of {{IL|Skeleton: Antiquity}} in its skeleton, and the easiest way to achieve that is by using a {{IL|Femur of a Jurassic Beast}} for one leg (or for both, if you like symmetry).

=== Selecting and Sourcing the Materials ===

The page [[Assembling a Skeleton (Guide)/Bone Sources]] gives a good overview over how you can get which bone. Which bones you use is dependent on availability and how well it fits into what you want to achieve.

==== Torso ====

The following torsos make it possible to build a human:

* {{IL|Headless Skeleton}}
* {{IL|Supply a skeleton of your own}} (only available if you have the Licentiate profession)
* {{IL|Human Ribcage}}
* {{IL|Thorned Ribcage}}

(How do I know that? From the clever table at [[Assembling a Skeleton (Guide)/Skeleton Types#Torso to Skeleton Types]]).

The first two of these aren't a good fit for what we want to do, because they only allow us to add a skull, nothing more, which makes it hard to get our Antiquity in.

For our purpose, {{IL|Human Ribcage}} and {{IL|Thorned Ribcage}} are equivalent; we'll go with the former, because it's easier to source. If you happen to have a Thorned Ribcage lying around, feel free to use it.

As to where to get it, I recommend consulting [[Assembling a Skeleton (Guide)/Bone Sources]]. If that overwhelms you: pick the Brawling with Dockers option if you have that unlocked. If not, gather 5 Constable favours and hand them in at the Shuttered Palace through [[A longer conversation with the Commissioner of Police]].

==== Skull ====

There are a lot of possible skulls to mount to the torso, see [[Assembling a Skeleton (Guide)/Bones#Skulls]] for the complete list. Most of these would work for us, '''except'''  for the {{IL|Carved Ball of Stygian Ivory}} (which counts as zero skulls) and {{IL|Doubled Skull}} (which counts as two skulls).

For simplicity, we'll use {{IL|Bright Brass Skull}}, which you can simply buy at the Bazaar. It costs 62.50 {{E}}, which isn't cheap, but that value gets transferred into the skeleton, so you'll recover it when you sell the finished skeleton. If you have access to a different skull, feel free to use it.

==== Arms ====

Any of the arms from [[Assembling a Skeleton (Guide)/Bones#Arms]] work for us, including two different ones.

If you don't have any in your inventory, exchange 5 Criminal favours in the Flit for {{IL|Human Arm|3x}}.

==== Legs ====

As mentioned before, one of our legs should be a {{IL|Femur of a Jurassic Beast}}, possibly from Brawling with Dockers. As the second leg, you can use another Femur, or any other leg you have access for, for example an {{IL|Unidentified Thigh Bone}}.

=== Enough Planning, Let's Build ===

Go to the Department of Menace Eradication, there take [[The Back Stair to the Bone Market]], and then on to [[Assemble a Skeleton]].

In this storylet, do the following. I'd also advise that after each step you got to the "Myself" tab and enter <code>Skeleton:</code> into the search box there, and observe the values of the qualities related to your skeleton in progress.

* [[Build on the Human Ribcage]], which gives you these messages
** ''You have begun work assembling a skeleton.'', a marker that your skeleton is a work in progress
** ''An occurrence! Your 'Approximate Value of Your Skeleton in Pennies' Quality is now 1,250!'' this transfers the value of the torso to your skeleton. Future actions will increase this.
** ''Your skeleton will need a skull.''
** ''Your skeleton needs four limbs to occupy all the joints available.'' This and the previous messages inform you what else you will need to do, attach one skull and four limbs (two arms and two legs, in our case)
** ''An occurrence! Your 'Skeleton: Torso Style' Quality is now 15 - Human!'' this might be different if you start with Thorned Ribcage, don't worry about it.
** ''You've lost 1 x Human Ribcage'' your torso is gone, it is now a skeleton in progress
** ''You've started work on a skeleton.'' {{IL|Palaeontologist}} counts how many skeletons you've built (or started to build, at least)
* [[Affix a Bright Brass Skull to your (Skeleton Type)|Affix a Bright Brass Skull to your Human Creature]]. This is a {{IL|Mithridacy}} check, and it's better for you to pass it than to fail it (more profit, easier to sell that way), but don't worry if you fail it, the project overall will still succeed. This step also needs {{IL|Nevercold Brass Sliver|200x}}, which I hope you have. If not, see [[Goods Grinding (Guide)#Nevercold Brass Sliver]] for where to get some
* Now attach your arms and legs (order doesn't matter for the result, maybe go first arms then legs to avoid confusion), for example
** ''Join a Human Arm to your Armless Human Creature'' twice
** ''Apply a Jurassic Thigh Bone to your Finless Human Creature''
* And finally, ''Declare your Incredible Partially Prehistoric Free of Rubbery Influence Creature a completed Humanoid''

These last three steps might have slightly different wording, depending on which materials you've used.

You have just built your first complete skeleton! Let's go on to sell it:

* [[Seeking Buyers]]
* [[Sell to an Enthusiast of the Ancient World]]. You need {{IL|Respectable|3}} for that, so equip your Respectable equipment items if necessary
* [[Sell your skeleton to an Enthusiast of the Ancient World]]. This is a {{IL|Shadowy}} check, more difficult the more Implausibility your skeleton has. Equip your best Shadowy outfit, you don't need the three Points of {{IL|Respectable}} anymore

If you fail this last check, try again.

You should get roughly {{IL|Unprovenanced Artefact|2x}} and {{IL|Bessemer Steel Ingot|167}}. The former reflects the points of {{IL|Skeleton: Antiquity}} you brought in (through the {{IL|Femur of a Jurassic Beast}}), the latter the {{IL|Approximate Value of Your Skeleton in Pennies}} divided by 50.

Afterwards, clean up after yourself (this is just the next, zero-action step after selling), and celebrate your first successful sale!

== Plan your Own Skeleton ==

At this point in the Tutorial, you might think "OK, I was able to follow a plan made for me, but what if I want to strike out on my own?". Or maybe not, but let's pretend you did.

Here's what you could do:

=== Decide Who to Sell To ===

Go to [[Assembling a Skeleton (Guide)/Buyers]] and select (from the first table) something that you want, and thus a buyer for skeleton.

=== Check The Buyer's Requirements ===

Most buyers have some requirements. Check that you can fulfill them. Some of these requirements can apply to you and your equipment, some to the skeleton you're selling to them.

For example, if you want to obtain {{IL|Crate of Incorruptible Biscuits}} from {{IL|A Theologian of the Old School}}, the table lists the requirements:

*{{IL|Bizarre|0|Appearance=}}
*{{IL|Skeleton: Amalgamy|0|Appearance=}}

The first one refers to yourself, you have to have an outfit in which you have 0 {{IL|Bizarre}}. This one is probably  not too hard to fulfill, but some require 15 of one of the BDR qualities, or 7 of one and 7 of another quality, for these cases it's best to check first if you can even approach the buyer.

The second one means there must be no {{IL|Skeleton: Amalgamy}} in the skeleton you're building. The easiest way to achieve that is to only use bones (torso, skull, arms, legs) that don't provide any {{IL|Skeleton: Amalgamy}}.

(If you want to achieve zero {{IL|Skeleton: Menace}}, you have more options, because there are bones that reduce the Menace of a skeleton, like the {{IL|Human Arm}}).

=== Decide On a Skeleton Type and Bones ===

In theory, you can always just combine everything you want (as long as there are open slots on your torso) and declare it a Chimera in the end.

In practice, this might lead to skeletons that are so hard to sell that you waste a lot of actions on selling, so it usually pays off to target a specific skeleton type.

Please check the page [[Assembling a Skeleton (Guide)/Skeleton Types]] for available types, and what they require.

'''Beware that all types except Chimera, Humanoid, Ape and Monkey require that you first finish a lengthy study about them in your Laboratory.''' Of course, you only have to do the lab research once per type.

Picking a skeleton type involves some tradeoffs:

* Some bone types make it easier than others to bring in some qualities. For example, if you want to build a skeleton with {{IL|Skeleton: Amalgamy}} and the only bone you have access to that grants that is a {{IL|Knotted Humerus}} (a type of arm), then you have to pick a skeleton type with arms.
* Some bone types make it easier than others to bring in lots of skeleton value. For example there are torsos with high value (like the {{IL|Leviathan Frame}}), and some skulls contribute medium-high values in the order of 50 to 100 {{E}}. It's hard to get hundreds of echoes in value just with arms and legs. If you want lots of whatever good you want to acquire, and your skeleton only has little value, you might need to build many of them, which consumes lots of actions.
* There are weekly-changing "Fads" that favor some skeleton types over others, meaning they produce a higher payout.
* Attaching many limbs takes many actions.
* You might prefer using bones you already have in your inventory, or those that you can get more easily.

=== Gather your Materials ===

Sometimes you need some materials (like {{IL|Bone Fragments}}) that are themselves best obtained by building skeletons (called "Generator Skeletons"). This is why you should first acquire the necessary materials and bones and then build, so that the Bone Market is available for the sourcing step.

=== Build ===

It's time to assemble your skeleton!

Stick to your plan. If you're prone to lose track of what you need to do, it's best to do all the tricky parts in one session. If you need to add a certain number of certain kinds of limbs, it's easier to keep track of them if you don't have to wait for action refreshes in between, so maybe start the limb part when you have enough actions to finish.

=== Finish and Sell ===

If you've done everything right, this part should be easy.

== What's Next? ==

I hope that by now, you have a basic feeling for how the Bone Market works.

However, I've skipped over a lot of nuance in order to keep this tutorial manageable, so it's best to also read [[Assembling a Skeleton (Guide)|the guide]].

When you get stuck, try asking for help on discord, people know that the Bone Market is confusing to newcomers, and usually somebody is willing to chime in.