I’ve just found an old, almost prehistoric notebook of mine from the mid-nineties. What’s unusual about this particular book is that it contains quite a sizeable chunk of a role-playing game that I had put quite a lot of work on, but that I had completely forgotten about until now.
The game idea, from what I can make out of my faded teenage writing, appears to be based around a Gothic Victorian, or maybe Edwardian, Earth.It certainly seems to be set sometime in the late 1800s and early 1900s, but the setting is fairly indistinct. I could argue that that was deliberate to avoid having to prescribe too much to potential players, but I think that it’s far more likely that I didn’t know enough about the period in question to write a comprehensive background section. In an age just before the emergence of the World Wide Web information like that took time and effort to research and the history section of the school library wasn’t exactly overflowing with information.
I think, from what I’ve read and what I remember, it was partly inspired by the Ravenloft setting for Dungeons and Dragons, or maybe by some of the HP Lovecraft books that one of my friend’s had. I also sense a slight hint of maybe White Wolf and their World of Darkness edging in, but the. Strangely it also bears some resemblance to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Van Helsing and several similar “action/horror” movies that came out in the early to mid 2000s.
The setting and tone are very rough around the edges, and I’ve returned the thing to its hiding place lest it be purged during one of my folk’s regular top-to-bottom clear-outs, but it has intrigued me. Imagine it, a gothic horror version of London, or maybe even Glasgow. A city trapped on the cusp of a new century, but being held back by the demons and ghosts of the past. A metropolis trapped in curling, endless fog and long cold nights. Strict class divisions, strange artefacts from foreign lands that stand as horrible sentinels in monolithic museum. Maybe an ancient evil stirs in the filth alleys and dingy workhouses. Then a lone crusader, a saintly hero or a dark anti-hero, strides out into the night to do battle with it. The fate of the British Empire, civilization and the world!
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