It’s very nearly December already. The festive season creeps steadily closer to Fallen London. Today I’d like to introduce you to this years’ premium story, and to a selection of other holiday delights.
Premium Story: A Dream of a Thousand Tails
You dream that a story lives in your walls. It has got its teeth into your pantry. It tells itself in little leavings by the skirting board. You hear it when you’re in bed, in the dark, scampering towards an ending.
The story has whiskers, and it goes like this: ‘There is a king little bigger than a finger, who sits in a garden beyond the edge of telling. The king ties itself in knots, and feasts upon stories like a rat upon cheese…’
A Dream of a Thousand Tails is our yearly premium story for 2023. Delve into the mysteries of ratty dreaming to tell the ancient myths of ratkind. It’ll be available on December 12th, and can be unlocked if you have access to a base-camp in Parabola. The story includes a persistent new activity set in a small new area within Parabola.
Like past premium stories (The Poisoner’s Library and Mushroom’s Dream), it will cost 25 Fate.
The Fallen London Advent Calendar!
A beloved London tradition continues this year, with the daily distribution of treats. Advent begins on December 1st and runs through December 25th, with rewards being claimable until the end of the year.
We’re making a few changes this year. Advent started out as a way of encouraging players to follow our social media accounts; over the years, the role it played for Fallen London players has drifted, and so we’ve decided to change it to better fit what it’s become. We’re retiring the separate Advent web page, and making Advent a story available from anywhere in London, instead.
With this, come a few specific mechanical changes.
- You now need to claim all Advent rewards in order. You’ll be able to ‘catch up’ and claim any and all rewards until the end of the year; previously, access codes would only stay active for a few days.
- However, opening the doors on the days when they become available will give you a little extra.
- You’ll need to be in London to do this.
- Having Advent be a full-fledged storylet lets us do a few things we couldn’t before.
As ever, rewards for Advent shift year to year, though there are some fixed points. Old doors are retired, new doors are added. Remember always that some doors cannot be unopened.
Sackmas!
Starting this year, we are no longer adding new branches to the ‘12 Days of Mr Sacks’ story. It was getting to be unwieldy, and the design of the story made it impossible for players to ‘catch up’ and collect existing items.
The existing stories will, of course, continue to be available as usual. This doesn’t mean we’re doing fewer new stories this year; instead, we’re introducing a new element to the festive season…
Mr Treats’ Ratwork Emporium!
A totally-legitimate Master of the Bazaar. A little shop that wasn’t there last week, and which will be gone with the thaw. What could go wrong?
The Ratwork Emporium sells unusual items with unusual stories. For its first year, there’s only one item available; we’ll leave it for you to discover what it is. These stories cost Fate and play out over the course of the season, similar to Sackmas. But unlike Sackmas, you won’t be restricted to playing just one each year.
The Ratwork Emporium opens on December 4th and is available to all players.
Christmas Cards!
Tell your friends you are thinking of them this festive season. (Don’t tell them what you are thinking of them.) Neathy Christmas cards are now available in four designs, with room for your own message!
Your stock of cards will be replenished weekly by Time, the Healer, from noon on Friday, December 1st.
You need to be acquaintances with another player before you can send them a Christmas card. Attend to Matters of Society in your Lodgings, where you can send a calling card to a contact to make their acquaintance.
Find friends to exchange cards with on our forums, in the #fallen london tag on Tumblr, on the Fallen London subreddit, or the Official Failbetter Discord.
The Incarnadine Robe of Mr Sacks!
Last but not least: There are, indeed, new items to collect this year.
and require a more delicious morsel. And cats hate sneks! I’m going for cats and rats vs Fingers!