Introduction
First of all, this is my first review, so any and all constructive criticism and feedback is welcome.
I consider it good for a reviewer to be upfront about their personal preferences so readers know the background of the review. I'm a big setting person - rules aren't as important to me as a good, well-written setting that both intrigues me and provides much fodder for adventure of many kinds. Rules-wise, I prefer medium-heavy systems that have a non-even probability distribution.
Ever since playing the PC game Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura I have been kind of intrigued by the possibility of some time running or playing in a similiar world. From time to time, I looked into steampunk RPG's that I heard about but Victoriana was the first one I actually bought and thus could read through.
The Book
The book is a typical paperback RPG book, neither exceptionally well-made nor of particularly poor quality. The art is also firmly average in quality, without much in the way of either horrific or terrific illustration. The layout is clean and easy on the eyes, with just under 3cm (or just over an inch) wide margins at the sides and top. The book is black-and-white, but it feels appropriate for the subject material and the book does what a good book does: presents the subject in an easily readable format. There are typoes and grammatical hiccups as well, but the book is still clear and easy to read.
Some of the problems include one or more spells being out of alphabetical order, magical school (thaumaturgy, demonology, etc.) descriptions being located between spell format description and the actual spell descriptions themselves, but overall nothing too serious.
Society
The first real chapter, after the initial introduction that contains the obligatory "what is roleplaying" explanations and such, is called Society. 33 pages long, it does a pretty good job at describing the culture, society and class system of an alternate Earth in the year 1867. The world is very similiar to ours at the time, with the biggest difference being that magic and fantasy races exist, and the history, while having all of the elements of ours (Roman Empire, etc.), gives some of them a few tweaks. For example, Roman Empire was famous for its destructive sorcery, and in Middle-East, a man called Justas formed a religion called the Aluminat, which preached a peaceful existance. The Aluminat, like Christianity in our world, gained a dominant position in Europe, driving the pagan faiths and their magics into remote regions. And a few hundred years ago, there was a great "Thirty Year War", in which the Aluminat and the (Mages') Guild waged a war on all non-Guild magic users, almost obliterating all other magic.
The setting is very much like a fantasy steampunk Europe, with a very heavy emphasis on the "punk" part of the term. This is probably the single most notable thing about the game; it makes no attempt whatsoever of being an even-handed, grey-scale setting. The game assumes that PC's will be people with at least some degree of rebellious outlook, and several different non-main stream ideologies (Communism, "chartism" which is an equal votes movement, the libertarian ideal, nihilism, etc.) as well as detailed descriptions of the three social classes (upper, middle and lower) and their perspective to the life, with a description of the three different forms of Aluminat. (The main church, the Anglican sect and the fanatical Puritanical Evangeslist movement.) If you have a great dislike of games which tell you outright "the establishment is bad!", then this is not a game for you. It's about as neutral in regard to the social attitudes of the setting as Cyberpunk 2020 is in regard to corporations. The chapter ends with a short introduction into the pagan faiths (which are all considered to be "user interfaces" between people and the Earth Goddess) and demon worship, specifically the Lady Paline, the "Lady of Subversion".
The cultural description is focused on Britain, but the implication is that with some local variance, it's essentially how things are in every country in Europe. The social class distinction is given a great deal of wealth, and held forth (explicitly so!) as one thing for player characters to fight against, violently or not. The different races (dwarves, elv... I mean, eldren, ogres, etc... Standard fare, except for human-animal hybrid "beastmen") are not discussed very much, giving the impression that they're meant mainly to accentuate and bring attention to archetypal characters rather than being a major aspect of the setting. In my opinion, they are such a small part of the game that their inclusion in a campaign is a very simple "on-off switch" that there is no reason whatsoever to pass over the game if the idea of gnomes in an industrial revolution era England seems silly.
The chapter is, if the heavy-handed approach to culture doesn't bother the reader too much, a pretty good and concise introduction to what life is like for all three social classes, and does a good job of introducing the social ethics of not only the social classes, but all the religions and ideologies as well in a to-the-point manner, which should be very helpful to get into the right mindset. I'm a bit ambivalent about the inclusion of the different races and their half-hearted portrayal, but since removing them from the game is supremely easy without changing anything, I cannot consider it a serious flaw.
Science&Steam Power
Next up is a short chapter dealing with the level of technology in Europe. As expected, it hews pretty close to the late 19th century Earth - primitive industrialisation, coal burning steam power, telegraphs, travelling speeds using different modes of transportations, and such. It also makes some comments on how magic has changed things - medicine is even less advanced than it was on Earth during the time, since the rich can pay Guild mages for healing magic. It also discusses "wonders" - the steampunkish stuff like cyberware, flying ornithopters, airships and even power armour. These things are magical in nature and described in general terms without game stats; the assumption is that they are unique or nearly so, and not very cost-efficient for mass production. (For example, the experimental power armour is mentioned as having a one-hour magical maintenance interval.) Ornithopters are described as using magically enhanced steam power. Overall, it's a short, to-the-point chapter without anything special in either the positive or negative sense.
Europe&The Rest Of The World
This chapter is a breakdown of the European nations, as well as some countries around the world, such as Japan, America, China, India, etc. Listed is a breakdown of racial structure (human 50%, eldren 20%, etc.), social class breakdown, literacy rates, main languages, main religions and a fair amount of text on the country, as well as a description of the capital. It is to be noted that the timeline has been messed around with to a degree to make the political situation in Europe as interesting (and volatile) as possible, though my knowledge of this period history isn't good enough to say how much and what has been changed. There are a few interesting twists (like the Czarina of Russia being a fallen angel, and wyvern cavalry used by a few countries) but most of the time it's pretty down-to-earth. In a politically uncorrect fashion, Africa seems to be the only place in the world with orcs, including the Zulu nation. However, as a conciliatory point, the description of their culture isn't one of mindless savagery. Still, the decision seemed odd, although Africa, like every other place, still has humans as the majority. Also, the map suffers from being printed out in greyscale in the book; the ones downloadable from the game's homepage are much clearer.
With the exceptions noted above, this chapter like the technology one is of average quality, without anything too special either in either the positive or negative sense.
Character Creation
Character creation is notable in that the social class of the character affects the character greatly. For one, it determines the number of attribute points the character has to distribute, with lower classes getting more as a balancing factor. Other than that, it obviously dictates starting money, but also what backgrounds (you pick a childhood and a past career background, which together give you a list of skills you can spend your skill points on) you can select. The backgrounds available for female characters are specially marked - and they aren't nearly as numerous as those of men's, especially in the middle and upper classes. This is in line with the game's way of focusing on the worst aspects of Victorian culture and assuming the PCs will be the exceptions to the rules, rebels of a sort. In general, a few more backgrounds would have been useful, though making more is simplicity itself - just picking a name and a few skills. Also, some of the backgrounds have only one or two skills listed, with quite elementary blind spots. Granted, it's easy to add in the lacking skills as needed, but it does give off an unpolished impression.
Finally, there's a pool of Option Points you can use to buy miscellaneous things, like improving skills (though, notably, not attributes, only derived attributes!), contacts, miscellaneous advantages and property/assets. Having the potential for magic use costs points. It's notable that while Guild membership is available exclusively to middle and upper class characters, after buying lodging and income for the character, there isn't a great many points left for buying spells, meaning that beginning spell casters will have a pretty small selection of spells available if they want to buy anything beyond their likely assets and magic. (Like improving skills.) Some of the special qualities buyable with points are interesting, like Private Club Membership and such. Also, for those to whom it is important, for everything except spell costs, chargen uses fixed costs but the in-game experience system uses a system where higher levels cost more points. A character may take "complications", which give additional Option Points, but the first gives the full five points, the next only three, and the third two. Further, only one is allowed to be a mental handicap. This system should be a functioning handicap for points-whoring. Here, too, are some unconventional but interesting choices, like "irksome neighbours" or "police harassment". All in all, I like the choices offered in this part of chargen.
The character creation process is a fairly standard process compared to other games, but there's one aspect I really liked: characters have a "petty cash" stat. It measures the amount of cash the character can be assumed to have with them at any given time in-game. If they want to buy something more expensive, the difference will come out of recorded money. I like this system a lot - it's a very good compromise between bean-counting and the usual abstract resource system found in White Wolf games, for example. Beginning characters tend to be fairly powerful in terms of attributes, especially those coming from lower class - an unusual departure from the generally gritty tone of the game in general.
Skills
This is the chapter that lists the basic game rules. Victoriana uses the Fuzion system, which I haven't had previous contact with. However, it is a pretty basic 3d6+attribute+skill+modifiers vs. target number system. The characters are pretty capable - a beginning character is likely to have an attribute of 6 or more and a similiar level of skill in their area of expertise, and a "Really Difficult" level task has a target number of 22. The scale goes on for quite a bit after this, though - apparently in anticipation of progress. There's a fairly nifty "complementary skill" rule that allows you to use skills that aren't the focus of a roll to boost your chances of a roll. For example, if evaluating the value of a sword, you might be able to roll an Intellect+Fencing roll and gain a bonus to your evaluation roll depending on how well the previous roll went. A small detail that caught my eye was that two of the skills were named a bit oddly - Bull! is the skill of lying, and Dodge! is the dodging skill. None of the other skill names have exclamation marks behind them, but those two always kinda confuse me.
All in all, it looks like a tidy enough basic system. And it has a non-linear probability distribution, which I greatly prefer.
Combat
Combat in Victoriana seems to be relatively lethal, with weapons having relatively high damage values compared to the number of hit points characters have, as well as slowly but steadily mounting action penalties. One shot is rarely enough to put a character out of action, but two or three seem likely to do so. This is increased a fair amount if the target is armoured, however, in which case the average damage becomes frequently fair low, but with still a chance of a severe hit on a good damage roll.
The maximum amount of actions a character can take in a round is governed by your initiative roll, with latter actions potentially coming after other characters have acted in the interim. Also, multiple actions give significant penalties to all actions during the round, so in general they would seem to be ill-advisable. The combat system is basic fare, not too different from most games. The quality of hits does not increase damage, though as characters without armour are relatively fragile anyway, this isn't too big a matter. With ranged combat relying on static difficulty levels based on range (and modifiers) rather than evasion (except in the case of an all-out evasion, which increases the difficulty to hit the character somewhat), the overall effect is that combat is a fairly gritty affair. Characters whose damage exceeds their total health do not die immediately, however, but start bleeding to death, and quite slowly, giving a significant amount of time for stabilisation by first aid for all but the most severe of wounds.
This chapter also includes a detailed descriptions on the different types of firearms available, of which there is quite a fair number, ranging from primitive muskets to lever action rifles and some more exotic firearms, like pepperbox-type revolvers.
Other Dramatic Systems
This chapter contains the mechanics that do not fit elsewhere; mechanical representation of drugs and alcohol, poisons, disease, experience systems, chase rules, recovery from wounds and so on. A notable feature is that drugs, as well as alcohol, cost resolve, which is also used as magic points. This means that spellcasters are likely to be as a rule a pretty sober bunch, though this isn't discussed explicitly. It's a basic chapter, without much to distinguish it from similiar chapters in other books.
Magic&Mediums
Given how big a deal the game generally makes about magic being rare I was surprised to find the magic chapter one of the best in the book. Magical ability is divided into mediums and sorcery, and those further into subcategories. For mediums, characters that get their powers from natural talent, those categories are Sensate (ESP), Channelling (connection with other planes; the most "basic medium" archetype) and Faith, which is channelling divine power. Notably, only the Anglican Aluminat characters can have Faith, the other factions being against magic use. Sorcery is divided into Enchanting, Thaumaturgy, Demonology and Necromancy. All the sorcery "schools" are given their own social ethics breakdown. Enchanting is pagan magic, channelling the powers of nature. It consists of charging focus items with magical power and then using those items as needed. In many cases, the ritual of enchanting the item is described in sparse but evocative detail. Thaumaturgy is the "scientific" magic of the Guild and resembles the magic of most fantasy RPG's. Necromancy and Demonology are schools of evil thaumaturgy, but generally a bit more powerful. They both have a corruptive effect on characters, with their use gradually becoming visible in the character's appearance. Using Necromancy for banishing the dead bleeds off acquired corruption, but though there is a picture of a priest banishing a demon from a person, there is no such mention for Demonology. Whether this is intentional or simply an oversight, I do not know. Each school of magic is also given a breakdown of social ethics of the typical practitioner, similiar to those given to different religions, social classes and ideologies.
The chapter also lists "relics", or magical items. No system is given for characters to create any of their own, though. Most of the relics are given a fair bit of description and there are no generic +x items.
The chapter doesn't detail a great number of spells, but they are generally speaking interesting, and I couldn't help chuckling at the thaumaturgic spell called "Emperor's New Spell", which makes the caster, but not his clothes, invisible. Many of the spells are utilitarian rather than combative in nature, although there is an interesting spell called Etheric Barrage in thaumaturgy that gives the caster a duration in which he can launch powerful ranged blasts against opponents. I like this one, since it models the powerful lasting power blaster mages from some sources of fiction.
The Supporting Cast
This chapter is one that describes NPC's of the "supporting cast" type, which are NPC's with greatly simplified ability stats but work as normal character otherwise. They aren't like the mooks of other systems, paper tigers easily put down, just NPC's whose abilities are listed as generic Mental Competence and Physical Competence values, with some short special skills listed. Some of these "skills", however, are more like personality descriptions, like "be very, very arrogant" or "be really stupid in front of strangers". Included are also some non-PC races like Russian Steppegoblins, giants and such, as well as demons, undead, animals and other such adversaries.
Running The Game
This is the "how to run this game" GM advice chapter. It presents a number of different ways of running the game (though introduces a few as unoptimal ways to run the game) ranging from grim reality to farce to "golden age of the empire" to "long live the revolution!". It has a simple random encounter table, for those moments when you need to buy a little time. It also goes to more detail regarding th metaphysical laws of the setting, including the different planes of existence and the war between Order and Entropy. It describes the main branch of the Aluminat Church to have undergone corruption and moved from the domain of Order to creating the domain of Dogma, with its angels taking an iron, construct-like version of the angelic shape, and taking an inquisitorial attitude against any and all magic use, occasionally (though rarely) going after powerful relics or magic users. There is also Harmony, the neutral ground between the two, as represented by the Earth Goddess, but she was seriously weakened in the Thirty Years War which saw Dogma rise to prominance among the domains. The most important planes are described in moderate detail, though the existence of others in hinted at.
I dislike how the advice in the chapter leans a bit too heavily towards the "make the villains able to run away" line of thought, but there's something there that strikes me as a great idea and totally vindicates the shortcomings of the chapter; action scene location descriptions. These are one page to (mostly) an opening lenght descriptions of different classic combat scenes, with pretty thorough descriptions of the kinds of cover, props, common action modifiers, complications and other such features described for set pieces like The Rooftop Chase, The Kitchens, The Bar Room, The Train and such. I wholeheartedly support this section which goes to great lengths to help the GM to make action scenes more interesting by giving them plenty of ideas to work with. It's something that should become a lot more commonplace in game books.
At the end of the book, there is an introductory adventure (not too interesting, but fairly open in structure), outside sources for more information (like bibliography and filmography - including movies like From Hell and plenty of works of research literature) as well as a conversion to/from standard Fuzion rules.
Overview
The book is generally clear and easy to read, though it would have benefitted from more editor attention. The rules are basic but functional, and the setting description is interesting if you can ignore or get past the almost black-and-white tone and constant sniping at the mainstream societal values. The magic schools are interesting and flavourful, though could have benefitted from a few more spells apiece. All in all, the game is a rough diamond, earning it a Style of 3 (thanks mostly to the clear presentation) and, after a lengthy consideration between 3 and 4, I'm assigning it a 4 on the condition that the reader isn't put off by the social commentary.
Review Summary