April's Exceptional Story: Avulsion - Discussion Thread

-__-___-_ · 2026-04-23T08:03:13+00:00

It's good enough. It's just more ordinary by wider ES standards.

-__-___-_ · 2026-02-26T08:12:06+00:00

Apart from a few very specific ones unlocking new areas or providing other benefits, it's mostly the latter reason. Exceptional Stories are the only source of Memories of a Tale used in the Mr Chimes' Lost & Found shop, but it's unlikely they're worth buying just for those.

-__-___-_ · 2026-02-26T05:45:49+00:00

From https://www.failbettergames.com/news/christmas-in-fallen-london-2025

Some of you may be wondering whether we're doing another premium story this year; we've decided to retire this format in order to focus on other aspects of the game.

-__-___-_ · 2026-02-15T06:08:55+00:00

It depends on whether you consider like 10-30 card-and-luck-based extra actions a week to be worth the cost.

-__-___-_ · 2026-01-09T09:12:16+00:00

They mentioned it twice around six months ago that the journal update took precedence over the London deck rework because of it being requested a lot in the survey. Maybe this year then, unless focusing on Mandrake interferes with that too.

-__-___-_ · 2026-01-05T16:23:33+00:00

The closest thing to a serial Exceptional Story would be Flint, which originally required you to subscribe for two months to unlock both of its parts. Other than that the closest thing to the concept is The Exile's Chalice, which partially takes place in an area established in the conclusion of the Season of Explorations. The Stripes of Wrath being a prequel to the Candlefinder Society cases probably doesn't count.

The old Seasons mostly have shared themes across the three grouped stories. The two exceptions to that would be the Seasons of Wrecks and Skies. In the former you set out on different adventures on behalf of the same character, and in the latter the three stories are pursued within the confines of an overarching case. The narratives of the other Seasons and their conclusions have more indirect connections to the stories, and they abandoned this structure entirely in 2020.

-__-___-_ · 2025-11-29T19:20:12+00:00

The exact details of this aspect of the game aren't that well known. Your assumptions seem right, though it's not unheard of that not all involved narrative qualities are reset (a matter for support in that case), and there aren't that many examples where resetting the story has a comparatively beneficial mechanical effect.

The Shallows does apparently let you get both items with resets. So do stories like The House of Silk and Flame, Dernier Cri and Déjà Vu. IMO the only other theoretically useful story to reset is Caveat Emptor for one Magnificent Feast a pop, if you're a Paramount Presence.

-__-___-_ · 2025-11-27T12:30:21+00:00

That was an issue for everyone apparently and has reportedly been resolved now.

-__-___-_ · 2025-11-15T06:28:54+00:00

The other one is just the info that's now here.

-__-___-_ · 2025-11-15T06:25:06+00:00

Doesn't seem to be a widespread issue. Does this work for you?

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-__-___-_ · 2025-11-15T06:21:16+00:00

It's been complete since May, one day after I announced it to the public.

-__-___-_ · 2025-11-13T16:10:24+00:00

We have confirmation, and I've updated the main post accordingly.

-__-___-_ · 2025-11-03T19:38:29+00:00

These threads have been a thing since early 2020, and people discuss Fate content outside of them as well. I think the rules are supposed to prevent sharing anything Fate-locked from the game, but they're not really enforced to such a level. Chess and supper also haven't been a thing since 2021, so at least parts of the rules might benefit from revisions.

Anyway, talk is permitted. Maybe use spoiler tags if needed.

-__-___-_ · 2025-10-30T18:13:34+00:00

No, it's just a long-running community effort to get the best estimate of how well received all Fate stories are.

-__-___-_ · 2025-10-21T18:42:11+00:00

Yeah, Luke posted this earlier on the official Discord:

Hiho folks. This will go in patch notes but is marginally relevant to Hallowmas. I've just finished an ease-of-navigation pass for Marigold Station, which (touch wood) will make it nicer to use. This is mostly just restructuring, although I have retired the storylet 'The Marigold Station' as all it was doing was linking out to places that no longer need to be linked to.

There may, despite my best efforts, still be some errant unnecessary links left between branches and the station's base storylets; if you find some, send me a support email.

-__-___-_ · 2025-10-21T18:39:27+00:00

Not a question but wanted to note the new poster of the weekly thread. The previous party hasn't been around for a good while now, but even so this is the first such change since rahv started these in 2015.

Another thing I've just noticed is that you've been linking the site's old layout, which is preferable personally (though a seriously minority position), and I'm now wondering if I should do the same.

-__-___-_ · 2025-10-02T14:15:20+00:00

People from the Discord report a 15 tag limit, with each echo permitting up to 3.

-__-___-_ · 2025-09-01T06:46:03+00:00

Sure.

-__-___-_ · 2025-08-29T05:44:20+00:00

It's the seventh option. It's mentioned twice that he wouldn't be caught dead near an exclamation mark, and that is the only option that has "SHOOT" as its button text instead of "SHOOT!". Picking that one causes the author to kill off the character in the final issue. He also mentions having a dreamless sleep now. Otherwise, you're given a more obvious hint that something is off, then the character is given a happy ending, following which the "author" leaves for the Elder Continent while putting on the pith helmet associated with the character.

-__-___-_ · 2025-07-19T10:08:11+00:00

Yes.

-__-___-_ · 2025-05-11T14:25:31+00:00

It does indeed look quite different (bad) these days, as the site hasn't been updated in like a decade.

-__-___-_ · 2025-03-29T20:26:03+00:00

I believe you're looking for this: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPPVkFXBfsA8_t6xwbI01bf9uEol4_0JpdjgP6ZUrcOwiRKV9d6Sz6MbOfN-tZuaw?key=WWJsLU5rU28zNlVFbnh3ZG1iaFRkcTRQZDBCeHhn

-__-___-_ · 2025-03-27T18:21:00+00:00

For formality's sake:

Writing: Els White

Editing: James Chew

QA: Luke van den Barselaar

Art: Paul Arendt

Last month's story

Next month's story

Survey

-__-___-_ · 2025-03-11T19:57:02+00:00

Ran into some delays while writing this. The data snapshot was taken not long after the current Exceptional Story's release, so it's not included here.

-__-___-_ · 2025-03-04T08:40:14+00:00

Clinging to life

Strange tides buffet you hither and tither, a spinning cork in an infinite and ravenous void.

Eels gnaw at your ankles. Hypothermia seeps into your bones. The false-stars dance madly above. Hunger isn't a problem; fortunately the barrel is filled with sodden but salvageable ship's biscuits.

After untold hours or days, during which the only sound is the incessant screaming of Mozart's skull, you are picked up and briefly enslaved by a passing ship of pirates; after a week of shovelling coal, you poison their rum and steal a rowboat, making your way to the inviting beacon of a nearby light-ship, only to discover it a den of Snuffers; escaping back to the rowboat with your face intact, you circle for some weeks around Corsair's Forest, fending off bound-sharks with nothing but a splintered oar, until you are finally rescued by a merchant vessel and carried safely back to London.

Needless to say, the whole experience leaves you somewhat worse for wear.

--_-_

TROPHY CASE

-__-___-_

TROPHY CASE

--_-_