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With 24 days still to go on Kickstarter, Fallen London: The Roleplaying Game has not only been fully funded, but has also shot to the top as the most funded tabletop RPG in 2025. So far, fans have pledged more than $687,644 – that's around £545,933 for those of us near actual London – to bring this Magpie Games design to life.
If you're not privy to Fallen London's real-world history already let me enthrall you with the game's legacy thus far, because we may be onto a contender for one of the best tabletop RPGs here. Back in the ancient time of the noughties (2006 to be exact), Fallen London was released as a browser-based game. It ushered players in with the promise of a dark and hilarious narrative set in gothic London, having been engulfed in a gigantic cavern and overrun with bats, devils, and tentacle people.
Later came the fully-fledged Fallen London app for IOS and Android devices, which our Susan Arendt reckoned you should be playing if you were any kind of gentlefolk, though sadly the app was retired back in 2018. In their previous chat around the app they noted "Fallen London’s rich narrative lends itself extremely well to lush roleplaying, as you can design a character who’s bookish, vicious, devious, romantic, or all of the above.
"The story goes in about a zillion different directions, but you don’t have to follow up any threads you don’t want to. If a particular plot line is boring you, just stop pursuing it; there’s always something else waiting for your attention."
As you might have guessed, this isn't the first roleplaying game that's popped up based around the Fallen London setting. After Failbetter Games came out with two digital spinoffs, Sunless Sea and its sequel Sunless Sky, the company went on to successfully crowdfund pen-and-paper RPG Skyfarer. Set in The High Wilderness, the game sees players living and working aboard a jury-rigged sky vessel.
Another TRPG from Blades in the Dark's John Harper and other legends was to be based on, and share its name with, Fallen London's messed up murder sport Knife & Candle. Sadly the game never saw the light of day and the site still asks you to "Whisper your identity" to get updates about the long-forgotten project.
As for the Fallen London tabletop game currently crowdfunding, the game is designed to support 3-6 players (including the GM) who together will assemble a concern, "a single group devoted to a grand ambition." Set in the Neath, players must navigate "inconsistencies in the basic laws of reality," "Rubbery Men with tentacled bodies and squid-shaped heads," and the strange impermanence of death in this twisted world.
Fallen London uses the new Ædana System, which works with "a simple central dice mechanism alongside more complex and intricate conflict systems to flesh out exciting moments."
You can still back the Fallen London Kickstarter now, if all that gothic strangeness sounds like something you'd be interested in. You've got a fair while to get on the hype, and if you're looking to dive in right now you can still sign up and play the Fallen London browser game for free. Backers of the Kickstarter also get an exclusive magpie companion in the browser game who will bring you assorted trinkets.
For more recommendations, why not check out the best D&D books, or head over to check out some of the best cooperative board games for more to play with friends.
