The Fair Unknown

In this Exceptional story, you investigate a man and a doctor who love each other but who are willing to go to any lengths to help each other, even against the others' will.

This ends up with you and them being pulled into a jousting tournament in the land of dreams, where you must decide who to support and whether you'll take the prize for yourself.

The characters in this are drawn broadly from mythology, including the legends of Reynard the Fox, Arthurian legends, and Fallen London's own chess mythology/lore. So figures include red queens and white kings, magical stags, etc.

The bright point to me were these characters, as well as side characters (including a snake jousting with multiple lances).

The drawback to me was that it was fairly constrained. We've been spoiled a bit by very nice Exceptional Stories in the past with a variety of mechanics. The bulk of this one lies in one continuous string of actions, with the main choices being who to talk to each day and who to support in the jousts. It felt like I didn't have much agency in the story, which probably helped it be more focused and well-written. It's hard to say what they could have done differently.

In the end, though, it was a fun play and one I think I'll remember fondly.