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This is my first review, so forgive any errors I might make.
Having recently taken a look at the state of my financial situation and my greatest expenses, I had made a solemn promise to myself that I should not spend money on rpgs or any such frivolous things until my next paycheck graced my wallet.
Two days later, at my FLGS, I saw Victoriana. Dull cover, I thought but picked it up anyhow to flip through the pages. Fist picture, a victorian gentleman. Nodding approvingly I flipped another page and saw... a gnome. Needless to say my cash was on the counter within a a few seconds. I can't help it, those two have been my weak spots for a while now and to find both in the same book? Jolly good!
Anyhow, the initial excitment has passed now and I am ready to look at things more neutrally now. Victoriana is a big book, almost 300 pages. Softcover, the binding seems good enough. The layout is clear and I had no major problems finding information despite the lack of an index. The art is all right, nothing that stands out and nothing that pokes my eyes out either.
So what is this then? Well, it's our world as we know it in 1867. With magic. And dwarves, gnomes, beastmen, elves (called eldren here though), halflings and ogres. Imagine if you will a Shadowrun but with steam, where the lower class lives in squalor while the middle class fights to keep their modest stability and the upper class just parties it all away. In fact you are encouraged to play a "gutter-runner" which seems to be a sort of shadowrunner.
After an initial fiction we are treated to a very meaty setting indeed. The setting goes into the three classes (upper, lower and middle), the law, arts, what people do for fun and games, vices, dress codes, clubs and the list goes on. And it's a fun read, I actually laughed out loud when I noticed that there is a large gnome population in Switzerland...
The world as we remember it is pretty much the same, but the American Civil War seemingly hasn't occurred yet judging from the flufftext on the USA. Magic is rare since the 30 Year War and is now handled by The Guild, which runs all magical operations and education, they also are responsible for hunting down demonologists and nercomancers, both being punishable by hanging by the way.
All in all the setting drew me in at once, it's a delightful read.
The rules are Fuzion and while I am not the greatest fan of the Fuzion system, I find them simple and elegant enough for my taste.I don't think the rules are any different from regular Fuzion although I am not certain about this as I have limited knowledge of other Fuzion products. One thing about character creation: First you pick class. Then race. Class is more important than race by far and to make things easier for the downtrodden proletariat they get more points to buy attributes for while the upper classes get... well, wagonloads of cash and respectability?
The last bits of the book contains sample NPC's, a starting adventure and a few typical locations of a victorian city and what can happen if you would fight in them. Needless to say, if you want to evade the police the almost mythical London fog is a good thing.
So what's bad about this game? The world map. I guess it was a hoot while in color, but when printed in greyscales I cannot see the difference between British colonies and French ones. The servant has a skill called "trust" but it is nowhere to be found in the skill lists. No index.
Oh, and it doesn't say anywhere in the book if the London police wears those funky helmets or not so I had to look it up. In 1867, they wear top hats. A copper in a top hat and with a truncheon in hand, that really puts the fear of the law into almost anyone doesn't it?
And the good bits? The setting. That's it. Don't get me wrong, the setting is a gem.
I have since I bought it shown Victoriana to seven gamers and the worst reation it got was "Wow, this seems interesting". The others sounded far more enthusiastic and demanded that a date should be set for them to make characters.
And I can understand them. This is a game that deserves better than to be left collecting dust on some shelf because some full-color harcover games got all the spotlight. This is one of those games I'll be telling my grandchildren of.
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