A dark setting in which Victorian London has been swallowed up by the earth sounds like fun to you? Then it’s time for a pen & paper campaign in this place.
For over 15 years, fans of Fallen London have been living in a dark and distorted version of Victorian London. The role-playing setting originally came from a browser-based text role-playing game, then provided the background for some well-praised PC games and is now to be revived as a pen-and-paper setting.
A new campaign by the role-playing professionals at Magpie Games has been running on Kickstarter since February 11 The Fallen London: The Roleplaying Game campaign has got off to a strong start and has already smashed its crowdfunding target. 47,000 euros were requested, 655,000 euros have been raised so far. However, not all stretch goals have been reached yet.
What makes the world special
One reason for the huge success of the Kickstarter campaign is undoubtedly the game world, which was already very popular as a setting for the browser role-playing game 15 years ago. If you have ever played Sunless Sea or Sunless Skies, you are familiar with it! Both action role-playing games were released in 2015 and 2019 and were extremely well received by fans and critics alike.
In Fallen London, you and your self-created hero or heroine find yourself in Victorian London, albeit in a rather distorted version of it. In this version, the city has been taken over by bats (yes, you read that right) and transported underground to a place called The Neath in 1859 The former cosmopolitan city stood in this gloomy place for 40 years and was increasingly transformed by this unreal environment.
The result is still the dark, gothic cityscape, complete with gas lamps, top hats and long coats, as we know it from this period. However, you may also encounter strange figures on the city streets.These include octopus-headed humanoids or rats that create culture – even demons from hell scurry through the city’s dirty alleys Above all, death plays only a minor role, since many people return sooner or later.
A perfect sandbox for countless stories of great mystery, dark intrigue, and self-destructive ambition.
How the game works
As a pen-and-paper role-playing game, Fallen London is of course about you joining forces with like-minded people and working together on assignments to achieve a specific goal. A game master controls the world and all its inhabitants with whom you interact.
As a dice system, Fallen London relies on its own set of rules, which uses six-sided dice. The more advantages your character has in a particular test, the more dice their player takes for the test. For example, one for each attribute point, one for special abilities, one for a helpful item and one for favorable circumstances.
With these dice, you have to roll at least a five or a sixto at least not fail completely. The more successes like this, the better the result of the test. If you roll three or more fives and sixes, the test was a spectacular success!
Every hero has one or more obsessions that can give additional bonuses when making checks. However, this can also lead to the character losing their mind at some point. Above all, Trap London is intended to be a narrative system that relies on “mini-games” called conflicts for fights or chases, but don’t expect a fully developed combat system.
