Fallen London: Where AAA Writers Unleash Their Wildest Ideas

Fallen London's Exceptional Stories attract writers from Baldur's Gate 3, Dishonored, and Stellaris, who craft unique monthly tales outside their AAA day jobs.

Ever wonder where the writers behind your favorite games go to cut loose? Deep beneath the earth, in a sunken Victorian city called Fallen London, the narrative masterminds of Baldur's Gate 3, Dishonored, Stellaris, and Destiny gather to tell stories you won't find anywhere else.

Fallen London is a browser-based text RPG from Failbetter Games, the studio behind Sunless Sea. It's been running for over a decade, a living world of comic and cosmic horror where your choices shape a sprawling, literary narrative. You play as a gadabout-slash-magnate, pursuing main quests that can take months or years to complete. But between those epic storylines, there's something special: Exceptional Stories.

These monthly, bite-sized quests are reserved for subscribers and often written by freelancers—many of whom are big names in the industry. That's why they feel like an anthology series, each one reflecting the unique voice of its author. Take Baudelaire Welch, the architect of Baldur's Gate 3's Dark Urge path. Their story, The Goblin Poet, follows a cult of BDSM bohemians through a mirror to the Reddest Keep, where they paint with their own lifeblood to capture the beauty of the Red-Handed Queen. It's viscerally horrible and deeply unsettling, especially when the artists turn on the queen for showing a hint of imperfection.

Then there's Tired of London by Paradox designer Giada Zavarise, which channels Sunless Sea's early hours. You travel north to the Tomb-Colonies, where an ingénue tries to escape noble obligations among the crumbling near-dead. It ends with a grand spectacle: a last cruise of the mummified living, a shipwreck, and a band playing as the vessel sinks into the black zee.

Nessa Cannon, a writer on Borderlands 4, offers Old, New, Drowned & Blue—a lethal love story in the deep-zee court of the Fathomking. And Hazel Monforton, who worked on Dishonored and Destiny, introduces a romanceable three-headed rodent in The Prince of All Rats. These are stories you'd never see in a AAA game, and that's the point.

It's not just about big names, though. Fallen London also gives indie devs like Heather Flowers—known for the mind-bending Unfair Flips—a place to experiment. The result is a constantly evolving collection of tales that feel personal, unpredictable, and refreshingly free from corporate constraints.

So, if you're a fan of great writing in games, Fallen London might just be your next obsession. Will you be diving into the Neath to see what these writers cook up?