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One of the great things about Call of Cthulhu and the BRP system is that both the rules and the setting can be moved to different historical eras with relatively little effort. A good historical sourcebook should provide you with all the basic information you need to do this and save you a lot of time consuming research. The original Cthulhu By Gaslight did not do this, instead it seemed obsessed with trying to crowbar the fictional character of Sherlock Holmes into the Cthulhu Mythos ( despite what seemed to me to be an obvious contrast in styles ). This new edition recognises this mistake from the start and concentrates instead on providing more historical background information. As a result it is a much more comprehensive volume.
To begin with the book is a well produced softback with a glossy cover, clear printing and layout, and black and white illustrations throughout. The cover art is quite a nice painting of a Mi Go hovering over a body in a foggy London alley which is very atmospheric. The quality of the interior art varies but is on the whole of reasonably good - there are no really poor pictures but also no really great pictures. There are however some really good quality maps - both in the general background and in the sourcebooks two scenarios. Unfortunately though the "two colour fold out map of the City of London" promised on the back cover does not seem to be included, at least not in my copy. Perhaps a last minute decision to cut costs that they forgot to edit ?
The book itself starts off with character creation. As you might expect this follows the same procedure for sixth edition Call of Cthulhu rules but with a few odd changes. I say odd as all the new additions seem both unnecessary and in many cases poorly thought out. Take for example the "Sexist Option" rule which suggests that female characters should reduce STR and SIZ by 1 to reflect their smaller stature. They may then add the 2 lost points to either INT, DEX, APP or EDU. This is all very well, except if we are being realistic shouldn't EDU be reduced as well ? Before the 1920's womens education was vastly inferior to mens - it was extremely difficult for women to gain a place at Oxford or Cambridge and even then they were allowed to study but were not allowed to graduate. So I certainly don't think actually increasing their EDU is going to make things more realistic.
Character Creation includes a number of suitable Victorian Era Occupations. These are on the whole similar to the 1920's occupations, although I notice that they seem to duplicate themselves quite a bit. There seems little difference between an Aristocrat and a Dilettante, an Ex Military and a Soldier or a Consulting Detective and an Inquiry Agent. Its not a major problem, it just seems a bit redundant.
Another new aspect which is introduced are Character Traits. This sort of advantage / disadvantage system is common in other games where it is usually presented as part of a points buy scheme. Here it is introduced into character creation as the result of a random roll, but with the proviso that you can ignore any roll you don't like, or gain extra skill points to compensate. Most of the results seem to be flat increases or penalties to skills - for example Marksman gives a bonus to firearms but Sickly gives a penalty to CON. I'm not sure of the value of this system as it doesn't seem to add much to the game. It would have been better presented as a list of possible ideas of suitable character quirks that players can choose from for roleplaying purposes only, and I'm sure most GM's will treat it as such.
At the end of the character creation section is a discussion of weapons, equipment ( and 1890's prices ), clothing and slang. A lot of this has been taken from the earlier edition of Cthulhu by Gaslight but it does provide a lot of useful practical information which would otherwise take some time to research.
Beyond character creation is a large section on The Victorian World. This provides very basic information about the world of the 1890's, as well as maps, timelines and simple biographies. There's not a lot of detail here, which is understandable given the massive scope involved, but it does give a good general outline. The focus then shifts to London and Victorian England, the focus of the campaign. Although you could set Cthulhu by Gaslight in any other country the sheer size and power of the British Empire in the 1890's means it makes sense to make England the focus of this book. Once again there is so much to cover it can only do so in limited detail but there is a lot of basic information to help with running a game in Victorian England - selected London Locations, London Stores, travel and rail networks, media, law and order, clubs, hotels and coaches are all covered here.
Following on from this potted social history the book then goes on to detail Strange Britain ( nothing to do with Britains Got Talent ). This covers the occult in the 1890's from the clubs and societies that formed to the sort of spiritualism Arthur Conan Doyle was so interested in. A Gazetteer of Selected Strange Sites in Britian is included, although this seems very limited in both detail and scope. There are enough books on haunted and supernatural Britain available that can provide much greater detail. Information about the Cthulhu Mythos in Britain is provided, with a focus on the Severn Valley, although this is quite a short section. I don't mind that however as too much detail suggests some sort of meta-campaign with adventure seeds you may wish to ignore. The Severn Valley idea comes from Ramsey Campbell's Goatswood stories, which vary a great deal in quality. I certainly don't consider them part of the Cthulhu Mythos the same as I would H P Lovecraft's stories so I will happily ignore this section.
Although the Sherlock Holmes meets Nyarlathotep idea has been forgotten this book does include a section on Victorian Fictional Characters. This includes the good Mr Holmes and reads a lot like the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Just because a fictional character comes from the literature of the Victorian era doesn't necessarily mean it fits the style or genre of the Cthulhu Mythos. I'm sure its a matter of taste but to me Captain Nemo and Martian war machines have nothing to do with Call of Cthulhu.
What is more useful is the section after this that provides some sample statistics for Non Player Characters of different professions. Here at last there is also a section which provides some ideas on running a Victorian campaign. Unfortunately though this is far too short and not nearly detailed enough. It seems to have been thrown in as an afterthought when it should have been the focus of the book.
Rounding off Cthulhu by Gaslight are two full length adventures. I don't want to go into too much detail in order to avoid any spoilers, but these are both fairly average scenarios with nothing particularly original about them. They are surprisingly lengthy for inclusion in a supplement like this but at the same time I did not find anything specically Victorian about them which would make them stand out. Either scenario could easily be transplanted to the 1920's. What is particularly annoying ( and common in Call of Cthulhu adventures ) is neither makes any real effort to discuss who the player characters might be and why they would want to get involved. This is the sort of practical detail that the sourcebook should be providing - how to get the characters involved in adventures.
At the end of the book is a long list of suggested sources from both literature and film reccomended to GM's hoping to run a Cthulhu By Gaslight campaign. There is also a revised 1890's character sheet with only a couple of skills changes ( detailed in the character creation section ). My favourite section of which has to be the new box for Household Staff - "I say Curruthers old chap, do be a good fellow and hand me the larger of my two elephant guns, there's a good man".
So how could this book have been improved ? Well, to start with I am puzzled on why the authors have continued to concentrate on the 1890's as I would have preferred to see the whole 19th century opened up. This would have allowed Keepers more options in when the game was set and the writers would have been able to refer to sources such as Charles Dickens for more detail on their descriptions on Victorian life.
I would also liked to have seen much more emphasis on practical advise on running a Victorian game. How do you deal with parties of mixed social class, how do you get the characters together without stretching realism, what motivates them to investigate these events ? Although as I said I dislike metaplots a more detailed discussion with suggestions of how and where different mythos entities might be encountered would be useful to a GM. This was still an age where large parts of the world were undiscovered so information on possible adventure sites would have been very useful.
With all that said Cthulhu By Gaslight is still a very useful sourcebook and it is certainly a great improvement on the original. The information provided is well researched and presented, and should hopefully provide GM's with a starting point to creating their own Victorian adventures. It is dissapointing that the book does not include more practical advice and GM's may find that a lot of research remains to be done. But despite its flaws Cthulhu By Gaslight provides a refreshingly different setting for Call of Cthulhu that will be welcomed by both GM's and players.
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