Fallen London: Colours of Midnight

🦇Welcome, Delicious Friend🦇

Before Reading Further: This is a completely AI-free game. I ask that players do not use generative AI/LLMs in any way to generate text during character creation or gameplay. This is non-negotiable, and I will ask players who use AI to leave. If you don't like this restriction, then this is not the game for you!

The Gist: I am looking for 4–6 players to investigate the disappearance of a revolutionary painter in a weird gothic-horror alternate-history London that was taken by bats into a cavern beneath the earth where the laws of nature are flexible. Oh, and Hell is right next door, right next to a giant subterranean sea full of monsters.

The Setting/Premise: Forty years ago, London was stolen by bats and brought to a colossal cavern beneath the surface of the Earth where the Sun never shines. Free of the Sun's tyranny, London has changed considerably: death is just a suggestion, mushrooms are the new flowers, abstract concepts are tangible commodities, a massive sunless sea sprawls to the east, Hell looms in the west, and the city's power now lies in the claws of the chiropteran Masters of the Bazaar.

Fallen London is set in an alternative Victorian London (in the eternal year 1899) located on the edge of a vast sunless sea in a massive subterranean cavern called the Neath. It draws heavily on gothic and cosmic horror, with elements of steampunk, surrealism, and urban fantasy sprinkled heavily throughout.

The core conceit of the setting is that, to save her husband's life, Queen Victoria sold the city of London to the mysterious entities known as the Masters of the Bazaar, who transported it down to a cavern beneath the earth and now rule over it from the shadows to their own inscrutable ends. Because the Sun's light does not touch the Neath, the Laws of Nature it enforces are instead rough guidelines, so things have gotten... weird. Intelligent rats, talking tigers, actual devils, golems, and rubbery squid-people walk the streets alongside humans; death tends to be a temporary inconvenience instead of a permanent end; dreams and ideas are almost as real and concrete as the waking world; and impossible things that could never survive the light of day live openly under the false-stars.

Notably, there is no traditional "magic" in this setting; instead, those with sufficient power, equipment, and knowledge can bend reality to their whim, though often at great cost and always with significant effort. In this sense, the setting's equivalent of magic is akin to a bizarre collection of contradictory pseudo-sciences.

The Venture: Famed artist Cyril Zografos was due to unveil a new painting, Breaking the Chain, at an art show. This painting was to make extensive use of an impossible pigment: the legendary artificial eighth colour of the Neathbow. The day before the show, Cyril vanished from his townhouse. His studio had been ransacked, and his painting—not to mention the impossible pigment—stolen. You and your associates have taken a keen interest in this, whether you are interested in the painter, the painting, or the paint. You plan to track down one, or all three, of these, and find out what happened to Mr Zografos. Was he kidnapped by the Masters or the Crown? Did radical revolutionaries want to use his painting to inspire their fellows? Were his fellow artists eager to get their hands in his new pigment? Or maybe someone else took action?

The Mechanics: This game will be using the newly Kickstarter backer-released official Fallen London roleplaying rules (quickstart rules available here). No familiarity with the setting or rules is required; character creation will include all you need to know to get started. The system uses a simple D6 pool system where you try to maximize the number of successes, and the game has a wealth of fun items and quirky skills and talents.

Content Warning: The setting of Fallen London contains elements of both gothic and cosmic horror, though handled in a lighthearted, absurdist manner. However, the setting has some moderate body horror baked into it, and those with arachnophobia might find some parts of the setting difficult.

Posting Guidelines: As mentioned above, no generative AI/LLMs can be used to write or edit text for this game. I would much rather have an error-ridden genuinely human post than a polished AI-written one. Other than that, I am aiming for roughly two posts a week to keep things moving, and I ask that everyone treat one another with respect. That's it!

To Apply: Check out the Basic Character Creation post here and follow the instructions if you are interested. No familiarity with the rules of setting are required; background information on the setting and a summary of the basics from the quickstart rules are provided in the Resources tab. Gameplay will be designed around teaching players both the mechanics and the setting. :) Feel free to ask any questions in the Character Creation OOC thread or the Application question thread.