Victorian Roleplaying Themes

This page describes a variety of different themes that could be used in a Victorian era RPG advanture. These are not adventure seeds, but rather "backdrops" that help set the stage for the storyline. Included are examples of overtones common to the stories in a theme. The overtones given tend to be found more often with a single theme but also can cross over into other themes. Also included are some historical notes listing people and events apropos to the various themes. Additionaly, some examples of books, movies, comics, and other tales that typify a theme are listed. Lastly some roleplaying references are listed that could be used for a theme-based adventure.

Sources

Where possible, links are provided to public-domain literature made available on the following sites:

• Project Gutenberg which includes this ponderously long listing of 19th century literature
• Literature.org
• The Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia
• The On-Line Books Page
• Google's Electronic Text Archives which includes a long listing of 19th century British authors and a long listing of 19th century American authors.
• Numerous other sources

Scope of the "Victorian Era"

The Victorian era is strictly defined as the period durring which Queen Victoria reigned in England from 1837 to 1901. The astute reader will observe that not all of the people, events, and literary references mentioned on this page fall exactly into that date range. Rather than be pedantic, I have taken a broad view of what material could acceptably be described as "Victorian era". The following is a listing of terms used to describe this period:

• "Romantic Era" (late 18th century to early 20th century)
• "Steam Age" (mid 1700s to late 1800s)
• "Industrial Revolution era" (mid 1700s to early 1900s)
• And of course, "Victorian Era" (1837-1901)

It is a bit difficult to define exactly when the "Victorian Era" began. It could have been with the invention of steam power, it could have been with the early development of the Industrial Revolution, or it could have began with the end of the Neo-Classic era. The end of the Victorian Era is not nearly as vague; it ended decisively at 1914 with the assasination of Archduke Ferdinand and the beginning of the first World War.

Given their close proximity, the Georgian era (pre-Victorian) and the Edwardian era (post-Victorian) are also fair game.

The alert reader will also note that throughout this page I frequently make reference to people and works that are very much pre- or post- Victorian and I don't stick exclusively to English authors. Likewise, I have provided numerous references to thematically-relevant roleplaying games and suppliments, which are decidedly contemporary. If this bothers you, remember: we're just playing a game here; we're not doing an honor's thesis.

Disclaimer / Warning / Notice / Caveat / Frosty Bananas:

As everything else on this site, this page is a work in progress. If you can think of any examples to add or links to make, please tell me.

This subset of themes deals with the more reality-based stories of the Romantic era.

These themes might seem a little boring at first glance, perhaps a little tragic at second glance, and a bit silly at third glance. Keep in mind that even if you don't have an adventure that is wholy confined to the "Life and Times" themes, these make for a nice backdrop upon which you can set more elaborate or interesting props.

Further Reading

• The Victorian Web is a website that contains a collection of information about the history, art and culture of the Victorian age. Lots of the stuff on here would serve as a good backdrop or visual aids for an adventure.
• This site has a very good listing of other Victorian web sites and 19th century authors.
• A Page of Fantastic, Mysterious, and Adventurous Victoriana "In which Your Humble Correspondent endeavours, with what he hopes is at least Partial Success, to list some of the Notable and Obscure Characters and Places of popular Victorian Fiction"
• 1900 House is a "reality-based" PBS show where some folks tried living for 90 days just as people lived in the year 1900.

Steeplechases, stately mannors and matters of church and state characterize this theme.

Historical People and Events

• Jane Austen (1775 - 1817) - (bio1, bio2, bio3) was an influential writer known for her ironic sense of humor (a hallmark of contemporary English humor), depictions of English country life and occasional serious overtones. Many of her works are available online.
• Emliy Dickenson (1830 - 1886) - (bio1) A very private and reclusive individual, Dickenson's wrote most of her poetry in the space of several years but very little of it was published until after her death. (Note: Any Emliy Dickenson poem can be sung to the tune of "Yellow Rose of Texas".)

Books, etc.

• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. Now a major motion picture.
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
• Howard's End (warning: this one moves a little slow)
• Mrs. Brown is a show that recently aired on PBS stations about the alleged love story of Queen Victoria and her Highland cheif of security, John Brown. Judi Dench gives her usual stellar performance.
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
• Emma by Jane Austen. This story was brought into a modern era and used as a basis for the movie Clueless.
• Room With a View this movie is slightly post-Victorian (Edwardian, I believe), but still a very good English period film.
• Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Sufferagette, strife between the classes, the abolition of slavery and reconstruction, the integration / exclusion of minority groups, immigration, the plight of orphans. (I need to turn this into an "Overtones" section)

Historical People and Events

• Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892) - (bio1, bio2) Nature lover, democrat, free spirit, and lover. In a nutshell: the original Beat Poet.
• Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870) - An English writer who penned a number of stories, many of which dealt with social conditions and inequities.
• Leo Tolstoy was an influencial Russian novelist who often included moral overtones in his novels regarding social morality and inequities between the classes.
• Benjamin Disraili (1804-1881) - (bio1, bio2) - Disraeli the first Jewish Prime Minister of England in 1868. This is the fellow who first said: "There are lies, there are damn lies, and then there are statistics."
• 1840 The harsh British Poor Law increases immigration to America [TH]
• 1846 The European potato famine causes a surge in immigrants. [TH]
• 1882 A US - China agreement restricts immigration [TH]
• 1892 Ellis Island, New York, opens to deal with the massice amount of European immigrants. [TH]
• In 1808 Slave imports were banned in the U.S. [TH]
• 1833 Quaker James Mott forms the American Anti-Slavery Society in Philidelphia. [TH]
• 1859 John Brown, an anti-slavery campaigner is hanged for leading a pro-slave demonstration which has to be broken up by soldiers [TH]
• In 1863 (right in the middle of the Civil War) The Emancipaiton Proclomation is signed by President Lincoln freeing slaves in both the Confedracy and the Union. The former does not recognise the Proclomation. In 1865, at the conclusion of the War, slavery is made illegal in the USA due to the Thirteenth ammendment to the Constitution. In 1866 The Equal Rights Act was passed by Congress giving full citizenship to everyone born in America, except Indians. In 1868, Black males were allowed to vote and by 1868, Black Americans are granted full citizenship after the fourteenth ammendment. In 1875, the Civil Rights Act is passed, giving black people equal rights in public places. [TH]
• The NAACP was founded in the early 1900s.
• 1869 The American Woman Suffrage Association is formed in Boston. [TH]
• 1872 Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nomiated to run for President. [TH]
• Naomi Woolfe was a female author who's writings were transitional, bridging from the Romantic to the Modern era. She is regarded as an early femenist. She is also regarded as the pioneer of the "stream of conciousness" writing style.
• The Salvation Army: In 1865, former Methodist minister William Booth left that denomination to begin an evangelistic mission in the East End of London. His main belief was to adequately address the spiritual concerns of people you must also address their physical needs.

  Booth and The Salvation Army were responsible for helping the fight for improved labor conditions, particularly at match factories, Booth's son Bramwell was briefly imprisoned during the "Maiden Tribute" scandal that helped to raise the age of consent in Britain, "General" Booth, as William was later known as, published a book on social reform that had a major influence for many years to come, and at his death in the early 20th century, Booth's funeral was one of the largest London had ever seen. [HH]

Books, etc.

• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy is a social commentary on the condition of women durring the 1800s. She has an affair, has a child out of wedlock and is ostracised, persecuted, etc. Her male lover, on the other hand, received no special treatment, good or ill.
• Little Women a story of a houshold of sisters who grow up in post-Civil War America.
• 20 Years in Hull House
• Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft (Shelley)

Comedic dialogue, cinematic scenery, terribly theatric and characiture-ish people.

Historical People and Events

• Gilbert and Sullivan produced a number of marvelous plays. Sullivan wrote the music to te hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers". Gilbert died while saving a girl who was drowning in a mill pond. See also The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive.
• Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900) - (bio1) - Wilde wrote a number of novels and plays. He had a gift for being able to combine a moving narrative, piquant social commentary and peppered the whole thing with wonderfully witty turns of phrase. Wilde was convicted of homosexuality and served many years in prison. He was eventually released from prison but died shortly thereafter, the time spent in jail having taken its toll on his health.
• Ambrose Bierce was a humorous writer (and very quotable to boot). He wrote The Devil's Dictionary among other things.
• Mark Twain was an American writer with a real gift for making quotes that would last the test of time. A collection of his quotes can be found here.

Books, etc.

• The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
• An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
• Blackadder is an amusing British comedy that starred Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson, Steven Fry, and Hugh Lorry. The 3rd incarnation is especially apropos to Victorian era campaigns.
• The Pirates of Penzance is a wonderfully comedic pirate play. (But we are starting to get into the 'High Seas' theme here...)
• H.M.S. Pinafore by Gilbert & Sullivan
• The Mikado by Gilbert & Sullivan
• The Lamplighter; a farce in one act by Charles Dickens

The Victorian era was a time of great increases in education that led to rapid technological progress. Inventors of this day and age strived not only to come up with new inventions, but find ways to apply new knowledge to day-to-day affairs.

An adventure based on one of these themes could become a Scientific Romance adventure with just a little encouragement.

Educational Reforms

The following table shows advances in education in England durring the 1800s:

1840	The first teacher training college opens in London.
1844	The Factory Act requires that factory children must have six half days of schooling every week.
1870	The Education Act creates Board Schools. It costs parents one penny per child per week although there is a special deal that three can go for the price of two! This creates bad feelings amongst some families: the children cannot go out to work and earn money, instead they now cost money. Many children do not go.
1880	Compulsory schooling for children aged 5-10.
1891	Board school fees abolished.
1899	School leaving age raised to 12.

Children were taught the three R's; Reading, wRititng and aRithmetic. Girls are also often taught domestic subjects whilst boys are taught craft subjects.

Paper, pens and ink are expensive so children write on slates, wiping them clean after each topic, ready for the next, new one. Hence the expressions "start with a clean slate" and "wipe the slate clean".

As society became more literate, there became a greater demand for new reading material. Novels, newspapers (no longer taxed after 1855), magazines, travel guides (and other non-fiction), comics etc were becoming more freely available. The steam printing press (1814) ensured quantity so costs were reduced.

Many Educational reforms were made in the U.S. as well. By 1860 all states had some elemntary schools supported by taxes. However, the majority of high schools are in the North. Greater literacy led to greater availability of literature: in 1835 The New York Herald was first printed, cost one cent; in 1851 The New York Times wass first printed. In 1879 in Pennsylvania, a school was established by Richard Pratt to teach Indian children.

[TH: whole section]

Industrialization

The elements of this theme are trains, steam ships, factories, and telegraphs. The characters in this theme are factory workers and robber barons.

Overtones

• One overtone to this theme is "The Wonders of Industry": transportation, long-distance communication, and machine power. This is the "bright side" to Industrialization.
• An opposing overtone is "The Horrors of Industry": the plight of workers, child labor, pollution, the disolution of family life, dehumanization of labor and the atrocious condition of factory life. (Industrialization-themed stories tend to borrow some of the 'Social Reform' overtones of the Literary theme.) This is the "dark side" of Industrialization.
• Another overtone that crops up from time to time is that as new technologies emerge, they give us new perils as well as new benefits, e.g. with steam-powered travel comes train wrecks. This is a recurring motif that dates back to the discovery of fire (it give us light and heat, but it can burn us, too).

Historical People and Events

• The industrial revolution began durring the mid 1700s and culminated in the early 1900s; it was a huge part of the Victorian era, and signaled a dramatic change in working and social conditions for everyone.
• The steam engine was invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1705. James Watt (whose last name would become immortalized as a unit of measure of power) made large improvements to Newcomen's steam engine in 1769. Steam engines powered all early trains, boats and factories, and served as the foundation of the industrial revolution. (For a more detailed description of steam engines, see the article How Steam Engines Work.)
• Robert Fulton (1765-1815) - (bio1, bio2) - Engineer and inventor, Robert Fulton saw the utility of steam engines in boats and went on to invent the steamboat, a system of inland waterways wherein steamboats could serve as public transportation, a submarine, and a steam warship.
• Samuel Morse (1791 - 1872) invented Morse code, giving it's first demonstration in 1844 when he sent the message "What hath God wrought." [TH]
• From 1862 to 1936, the Flying Scotsman regularly made the 392 mile trip between London and Edinburgh. To begin with, the round trip was approx 10.5 hours, being reduced to 7.5 hours non-stop in 1930. [TH]
• Freidrech Engles published his book The Condition of the English Working Class in the 1840s in 1849. In 1868, Karl Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto while exiled in England. Engles and Marx were writing partners.
• Lincolin Stephans was a newspaper and book writer who... (need brief bio and bio links)
• The Great Exhibition of 1851 was the first World's fair. It also marked the first exhibition of international trade advertising on a grand scale. They had machinery, weaponry and transport on display. This was when the Crystal Palace was built.
• The Spinning Jenny was invented in 1764 by an English engineer James Hargreaves, naming it after his daughter. This increased the amount of threads that could be spun at once. The first model was hand-driven. The Rev. Edmund Cartwright built the first mechanical loom in 1784. [TH]
• Jess Hawley suggested the digging of the Erie Canal. Work started in 1817 and the first boats sailed down it in 1819. [TH]
• (Some reference to J.P. Morgan)
• John Davison Rockefeller (1839 - 1937) created the Standard Oil Company. [TH]
• Child victims of the industrial revolution a rather grim accounting of the typical life of many orphans.
• 1837 William Procter & James Gamble establish the Proctor & Gamble store. [TH]
• 1860 The Pony Express appears. [TH]
• 1866 Jesse Chisholm makes the Chisholm cattel train between Texas and Kansas. Also, the Goodnight-Loving trail is formed between Texas and Wyoming by Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving. [TH]
• 1869 The transcontinental railway is celebrated at Promontory Point, Utah, with a gold rail spike. [TH]
• 1886 Bloomingdale's department store opens in New York [TH]
• The Environmentalist movement can trace it's roots to the Victorian era. It was a direct response to the industrial revolution's pollution and resource-ravaging robber barons. Some key figures include: John Muir, John Autobahn, and Teddy Roosevelt (instituted the National Parks system with the Antiquities Act, starting with Yellowstone). The Sierra Club was also founded at this time.
• Several parks were established in the 19th century as a result of Environmentalist efforts. In 1858 Central Park opened in New York. In 1872 The first National Park, Yellowstone, is opened in Wyoming. [TH] In 1891, U.S Congress authorizes land for presevation, Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming is the first. [TH]
• 1889 The Refuse Act is passed, allowing polluters to be fined [TH]
• "People like to imagine that because all our mechanical equipment moves so much faster, that we are thinking faster, too." - Christopher Morley, writer (1890-1957)

Books, etc.

• Around the World in Eighty Days also by Jules Verne tells the story of a gentleman named Phileas Fogg who made a wager that he could travel around the world in (you guessed it) 80 days.
• The Other Log of Phileas Fogg by Philip Jose Farmer tells the interesting "behind the scenes" stuff that was going on durring Fogg's tour around the world. Quite a bit of 'Scientific Romance' here.
• The poem I like to see it lap the miles by Emily Dickenson describes her fascination with steam trains.
• The Gilded Age by Mark Twain
• The Way We Live Now
• Les Miserables by Victor Hugo is a story about the plight of the French working class in the 1800s.
• Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
• The Jungle by Upton Sinclair described the attrociously unsanitary conditions of food and meat packing plants in the early 1900s.
• Titanic they built a big ship, they said it was unsinkable...

Roleplaying Resources

• On Dreambird's GURPS pages you will find a Technological Timeline of Late TL 5 (1801-1889),

Electricity, medical advancements, other technological discoveries, and the invention of many new games and other forms of entertainment.

The "Spirit of Invention" of the 19th centry has carried well through into the 20th and 21st centuries.

Historical People and Events

• Everything that can be invented has been invented. -- Charles Duell, Director of U.S. Patent Office, 1899
• Nikola Tesla (1856 - 1943) - (bio1, bio2) was a Serbian inventor / engineer who discovered the properties of alternating current, radio waves, the magnetic field of the Earth, and numerous other discoveries and inventions that are now mainstays of electrical engineering (dynamos, transformers, induction coils, motors, generators, and others). The Tesla coil, which he invented in 1891, is widely used today in radio and television sets and other electronic equipment. In 1898 Tesla demonstrated his invention of a teleautomatic boat guided by remote control. In 1899 Tesla produced man made lightning. In 1900 he picked up signals on his electro-magnetic equipment in his Colorado lab that he thought were from outer space.
• Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855)
• Emmy Noether (1882-1935) a German mathematician who made important contributions to algebra and physics. She was a leading member of the Göttingen mathematics department until two years before she died.
• Wilbur and Orville Wright (bio1), owners of a bicycle shop, inventors of the airplane.
• Wilhelm Roentgen discovered X-rays in 1895.
• The first fuel cell was built in 1839 by Sir William Grove, a Welsh judge and gentleman scientist. A fuel cell is a revolutionary type of engine that uses chemical reactions rather than combustion to produce energy. Serious interest in fuel cells did not arise until 1960 when NASA decided to use them in the space program. It is only very recently that commercial fuel cell engines have become available.
• The astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington
• The study of forensic medicine was first developed and used beginning in the mid-1800s. Ignaz Semmelweis discovered that child-bed fever could be virtually eliminated by washing hands using antiseptic fluids.
• Morton (?), an American doctor discovered the use of ether during surgery. His discoveries paved the way to modern surgery and forensic medecine, including fingerprints, blood-typing and so forth.
• 1878 A yellow fever epidemic sweeps southern USA, Martha Jane Canary (Calamity Jane) nurses the sick. [TH]
• In 1821 the card game Poker evolved in New Orleans [TH]
• 1820 Students play ball-own, the early version of American football. [TH]
• 1839 A debate begins on the origins of Baseball. Ideas are split between a new game devised by Abner Doubleday or an evolution of the English game of rounders. [TH]

  Update:

  Abner Doubleday was born in 1819, and therefore was only 20-years old at the time he is credited with inventing the modern game of baseball.

  In truth, the whole Doubleday myth has been thoroughly debunked. Credit for REFINING and POPULARIZING the game of baseball goes to Alexander Cartwright, but credit for inventing the game cannot be pinned down, as a version of baseball, call Town Ball, was played in America even before the American Revolution - and it is clearly descended from Rounders. [CF]

• 1850 Ten pin bowling is established. [TH]
• 1873 In Amrican Football, Princeton beat Yale 3-0. [TH]
• 1876 Polo is first played in New York [TH]
• 1876 The National League of Professional Baseball is formed, later to become The National League of Major League Baseball. [TH]
• 1881 The Ice Yacht Challenge Pennant for ice yacthing is established. [TH]
• 1895 The first automobile race is held - Chicago to Evanston and back. [TH]
• 1898 National Basketball Laegue starts in Philidelphia. [TH]

Books, etc.

• The Daguerreotype - an article written by Edgar Allan Poe for Alexander's Weekly Messenger (Jan. 15, 1840). Poe describes the significance of this early photography technique and his fascination with it.
• Stories From the Diary of a Doctor by L T Meade and Clifford Halifax MD who presented mystery cases from a medical point of view.
• Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions By Edwin Abbott Abbott,Dionys Burger. This story speaks to the higher education and thoughtful ponderings of the Victorians. In this story, a square who lives in a 2-dimensional plane gets in trouble with the authorities upon sharing his vision of a third dimension. There have been at least three books claiming to be sequels to Flatland, they are: Sphereland, written in 1960 by Dionys Burger, Geometry, Relativity, and the Fourth Dimension, written by Rudolf v. B. Rucker (aka Rudy Rucker) in 1977, and Flatterland by Ian Stewart.

  (I can't think of a whole lot of fiction that would go in here. If anybody's got links to 19th century scientific articles (such as The Daguerreotype), I'd love to put them here.)

  (There's got to be some stories that featured a new discovery as a major plot device, i.e. some new medical discovery. Some of the 'Mystery' stories could probably go here.)

Clues, detectives, and no-goodniks-on-the-loose characterize this theme. Many of scientific, medical and technological the advances of the 19th centry were applied to forensics and detective work to help solve mysteries and apprehend criminals.

"Detective" stories became very popular in the 19th century. The reader liked being challenged (can they work out who did it before the end?) and since many stories were set in the great capital itself, the stories were brought closer to home and familiar. Huge compendia of Victorian detective fiction have been compiled, including: Rivals of Sherlock Holmes edited by Alan Russell, Victorian Detective Stories edited by Michael Cox, and The Mammoth Book of Golden Age Detective Stories edited by Marie Smith. [TH]

Adventures based on this theme would contain mysterious clues and cryptic notes that slowly paints the whole picture and leads the adventurers through a series of puzzles and traps. 'Mystery' adventures begin to edge more into the realm of the creepy and the weird and can be spiced up with a dollop of the Horror or Supernatural themes.

Overtones

• The "Whodunnit" / Murder-mystery case is such a common overtone to Mystery stories That it almost forbears mentioning. Someone has been killed and the detectives need to deduce who the killer is.
• The "Manhunt" is another typical mystery-story formula. Some psychopath / serial killer has escaped or is otherwise at large and needs to be apprehended. Typically the detectives follow a bloody trail left in the killer's wake as they attempt to hunt him down.
• The "Secret Agent" character is a popular one. The most well-known modern example is James Bond, but the Victorian era had some interesting agents in the form of the Pinkertons.
• "Locked Room" mysteries were a favorite type of detective story. In these, the crime has been commited in a room with no apparent means of entry or exit.

Historical People and Events

• Edgar Allan Poe was the first author to write the "classic detective story" featuring a character by the name of Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin.
• Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) wrote the first full-length mystery novel.
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was arguably the author who created the most well-known character in English Literature: Sherlock Holmes. Holmes himself appeared in a total of 56 short stories and 4 novels as well as some shorter productions. This listing contains a number of his Holmes stories.

  Two factors contributed greatly to Holmes' popularity: Holmes' quirks and his assistant Dr. Watson. People enjoyed reading Holmes stories just to see what he would do next or to hear his "signature" lines ("It's elementary, my dear Watson"). During Holmes' absence when he apparently fell over the Reichen Back Falls in 1893, many other detectives sprang up to fill the gap, each having their own quirks to make them different. The use of Watson as a foil was a great aid to readers, because even if the reader couldn't match Holmes' deductive capcity, compard to Watson the reader was way ahead and possibly felt superior. It was a great combination. [TH]

  As a testament to the enduring popularity of Sherock Holmes, many modern Holmes stories have been written and can be found the in the compilations The Further adventures of Sherlock Holmes edited by Richard Lancelyn Green and The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures edited by Mike Ashley. [TH]

• Jack the Ripper is one of the most enigmatic figures in history. His serial murder of women, his keen medical knowledge, and his undiscovered motives have kept him alive well past the 19th century in the realm of contemporary fiction. Arthur Conan Doyle recommended that Scotland Yard use the fingerprinting techniques developed by Morton to discover the identity of Jack the Ripper.
• Robert Peele - (1788 - 1850) - (bio1) - In 1829 Robert Peele (with the political assistance of the Duke of Wellington) organized the London Metropolitan Police. The police force became known as "Peelers" or "Bobbies". It was Peel who coined the term "The punishment should suit the crime" (it used to be that you were hanged for any crime in England, so theives would kill any witnesses.)

Books, etc.

There were a number of noteworthy mystery-solvers and mystery-makers in Victorian times.

• The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe, featuring his detective Monsieur Dupin. Poe also wrote a few sequels that featured Dupin, including The Mystery of Marie Roget, and The Purloined Letter. These were the first "detective stories" ever written.
• The Moonstone and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. These were the first full-length mystery novels.
• The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring Sherlock Holmes.
• A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring Sherlock Holmes.
• The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring Sherlock Holmes.
• The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux. In the original story, this was very much a mystery / thriller.
• The Assassination Bureau is a lighthearted 'Victorian secret agent' type movie.
• London's Underworld by Thomas Holmes.
• Hunted Down the detective stories of Charles Dickens.
• The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens.
• The Experiences of Loveday Brook, Lady Detective a collection of stories about a woman detective written by Catherine Louisa Pirkis. Said the author: "Loveday has the faculty - so rare among women - of carrying out orders to the very letter". [TH]
• Martin Hewitt, Investigator by Arthur Morrison [TH]
• The Hammerpond Mystery by H.G. Wells [TH]
• Mysteries of Great Cities by Baroness E. Orczy [TH]
• The Story of the Man With the Watches a rare non-Holmes detecive story by Arthur Conan Doyle [TH]
• The Story of the Lost Special Where a train goes missing! Another rare non-Holmes detecive story by Arthur Conan Doyle [TH]
• Gotham by Gaslight - An "alternalte Earth" Batman comic that depicts the Dark Knight in an 1889 Gotham city, trying to track down Jack the Ripper.

And some not-quite-Victorian stories that still fit well in this theme:

• Agatha Christie has written numerous mystery stories. One of her more well known characters is Hercule Poirot, a roaring 20's detective. [TH]
• The movie Clue, and arguably the board game as well.
• The Private Eyes some humor in this one.
• Seven characterizes the "Manhunt" overtone. Warning: a bit grisly.

This next subset of themes depicts the spirit of "discovering new horizons" that characterized the Victorian age. Pick one of these themes if you want to take the adventuring off shore, see the wonders of the world, and maybe have a little "Indiana Jones" style fun.

High Seas

The elements of this theme are ships, pirates, buried treasure, and giant sea monsters. You could pepper this theme with elements of the 'Fantasy' theme (mermaids, hidden paradisical islands), or with elements of the 'Horror' theme (a la Rime of the Ancient Mariner).

Overtones

• There is one overtone popular to a great many High Seas stories: buried treasure.
• A fairly common overtone to a lot of these stories is that the lead character typically gets involved against his will, via kidnapping, stowing away, shipwreck, and so forth.
• Another overtone that you find in a number of High Seas stories is an exploration into the psychological transformation of men out on the sea when they realize that there are no police, no courts, and no laws other than "might makes right".

Historical People and Events

• Blackbeard The Pirate - (1680 - 1718) - (bio1, bio2, bio3) - Born as Edward Drummond, he changed his last name to Teach and then took on the moniker "Blackbeard" when he raided ships durring the early 1700's in the Carribean seas. A bit pre-Victorian, but kind of the poster boy for this theme. Lots more information about him here.
• Captain Kidd, born approx 1640. A successful privateer, was asked by England to captain the Adventure Galley with the orders to capture French ships and pirates. Recruited a new crew which nearly mutinied, resulting in Kidd raiding all ships. His downfall came when he attacked the Quedagh Merchant ship owned by the East India Company. When he tried to sell his ill gotten gains in America he was arrested and transported to England where he was tried and executed, his body displayed as a warning to other pirates. [TH]
• The first mention of Davy Jones is in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle written in 1751 by Tobias Smollett. No relevant real individual has been found; Davy Jones is likely to be a sailor's story about evil sea sprits possibly based on the biblical story of Jonah. [TH]
• A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates
• (Should mention how steam power changed seafaring)

Books, etc.

There is a variety of high-seas fiction written by 19th century authors, and a good deal written by modern writers.

• Moby Dick by Herman Melville is the classic story of a sea captain who becomes obsessed with finding a great white whale.
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson is perhaps the most well-known "Pirate Treasure" story in English literature. It has a moving pace, a lively narrative, and an extrordinary villain in the figure of Long John Silver.
• Kidnapped also by Robert Louis Stevenson. This story has a wonderful Scottish tone throughout the whole book.
• Mutiny on the BountyA by Nordhoff and Hall. This story is set in the late 1700's but was first published in 1932.
• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe portrays the life of a shipwrecked Englishman who is stranded on a remote island. Defoe also wrote a sequel called The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe .
• The Gold Bug by Edgar Allan Poe is a story about a man who discovered a map to Captain Kidd's buried treasure. This story contains an interesting and detailed description of the steps taken by the lead character to decipher the clues on the map.
• The Mutiny of the Elsinore by Jack London.
• Cutthroat Island is a recently made action / adventure pirate-treasure movie in the spirit (and period) of the rest of the stories in this theme.
• The Rescuers is a story about a little girl kidnapped by a wicked woman in order to steal a giant diamond. She is subsequently rescued by two mice and an albatross. I guess this one is more "High Swamps" than "High Seas", but it still fits.

Roleplaying Resources

• There is a GURPS Swashbucklers sourcebook that has received rave reviews on a number of different fansites I have visited.

The 19th century was a period of great exploration and discovery.

Exploration-themed adventures have the greatest chance of bridging into another theme. The characters could enter a hanted house / cursed catacomb at which point it becomes a 'Horror' adventure. The characters might stumble through a portal of some sort that takes them to Wonderland, Narnia, or Oz at which point it becomes a 'Fantasy' adventure. Their explorations might take them off the continent at which point it becomes a 'High Seas' adventure. Alternatively, the characters could find a lost, prehistoric island, at which point the adventure becomes a 'Scientific Romance'.

Overtones

There are several, somewhat complementary overtones to the Exploration theme:

• Traveling to uncharted, undiscovered places.
• Fascination with primitive / native man.
• Finding remnants of the prehistoric world (i.e. fossils, dinosaur skeletons, or even the dinosaurs themselves -- alive and well).
• Exibitions of all these wonderful things people have discovered (usually with a strong commercial slant).

Historical People and Events

There were a great many explorers in the Victorian age.

• Charles Darwin publised his book The Origin of Species in 1849. This was a landmark work in the field of science, presenting the theory of Natural Selection as an explanation for the current state of living creatures on the Earth. His theory got people thinking in different directions and has influenced many scientists and fiction writers that lived durring his time and into the present day.
• (Mention Alfred Wallace? Made similar discoveries as Darwin, completely independently.)
• Richard Burton traveld up and down the Nile.
• Robert Falcon Scott died during his travels to the South Pole.
• Stanley & Livingston, of "Dr. Livingston, I presume" fame. Stanley was a reporter who tracked down Doctor Livingston in Africa.
• In the "New World" the 19th century was a time of great Westward expansion.
• The entire Western World became very interested in aboriginal / native peoples: American Indians, Africans, Polynesians, Aboriginal Australians. The 19th century was also a period of tremendous immigration (especially from the Old World to the New World). Australia was still a Brittish prison colony (officially) but a lot of other people moved there too.
• Hyrum Bingham (?? - ??) - The Indiana Jones movies are very much post-Victorian era but the Indiana Jones character was actually based on an archeologist named Hyrum Bingham whose explorations reached their height in 1911. He was notorious for doing things like, say, trading his brass coat buttons for an old clay pot.
• The Great Exhibition of 1851 was the first World's fair. It also marked the first exhibition of international trade advertising on a grand scale. They had machinery, weaponry and transport on display. This was when the Crystal Palace was built.
• 1853 The US World Fair opens in New York. [TH]
• 1876 The Centenial Exhibition opens in Philidelphia. [TH]
• (Might mention Ripley of "Believe it or Not" fame.)

Books, etc.

• Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne tells the story of a boy and his uncle who descend deeper and deeper into the Earth, discovering fantastical underground caverns populated with prehistoric creatures. Mr. Verne's interest in geography is apparent here. My favorite line: "In connection with the sciences there are many almost unpronounceable names -- names very much resembling those of Welsh villages"
• The numerous Tarzan stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs characterizes the "fascination with primitive man" overtone rather well.
• At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs
• The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, the sequel The Second Junble Book, and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, a story from the Jungle Book describing a mongoose's fight with a big black cobra.
• The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle told the story of some explorers who discovered an Island where dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures were preserved from extinction. There is a good deal of 'Scientific Romance' here. Doyle also wrote a sequel called The Poison Belt.
• Out of Africa a movie based on the memoirs of Danish writer Karen Blixen who has a coffe plantation in present-day Kenya.
• The Story of an African Farm, a Novel by Olive Schreiner. Different story, different woman, different farm.
• The Iron Ring by Lloyd Alexander is an adventure story set in India. It's got a very "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" feel.
• The Frozen Deep by Wilkie Collins.
• Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes by Robert Louis Stevenson.
• Hottentots the second of the novelettes from Paul Di Filippo's Steampunk Trillogy describes a biologist named Missiour Agasitz who is trying to come to grips with Darwin's Evolutionism, Marxist employees, his racial predjudices, and fish-people (among other things).

And here are some not-quite-Victorian-era resources that could still be good places to get ideas.

• The Mummy is an old and recently remade film that is mostly an Exploration-themed show with some Horror elements added.
• Any of the Indiana Jones movies: Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade. All you really need to do to convert Indiana Jones adventures to Victorian adventures is just substitute French soldiers in place of German soldiers.
• Romancing the Stone and the sequel Jewel of the Nile.
• Seven Years in Tibet - This movie tells the story of a German mountain climber who met and befriended the Dali Lama. We see what he learned, and how he grew from his learning.
• The old TV show Tales of the Golden Monkey. Arguably an Indiana Jones ripoff, but still a fun show.

Roleplaying Resources

• This issue of the Victorian Gamer featured a good deal of information on exploration and discovery.
• There is a GURPS sourcebook called Warehouse 23 which describes the contents of all the crates inside the warehouse where the Ark of the Covenant was stored at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Some of these mysterious objects would probably be good treasures to hunt for in an Exploration-themed adventure.

There were a number of wars and imperial conquests during the Victorian era. Cannons, generals, navy ships, and spies characterize this theme.

Historical People and Events

• Napolean Bonaparte was the leader of the French armies during the height of the French empire. Slightly pre-Victorian, but the influence of his conquests was felt long into the 1800s.
• The Duke of Wellington - (1769 - 1852) - (bio1) - Also known as "The Iron Duke", Arthur Wellesley was a military leader who began his career fighting in India against the Tippoo Sahib of Mysore (one of the last Indian provinces to fall to the British). He fought against the French in Portugal, Spain, and even in Toulouse. He is best known for defeating Napolean at Waterloo.
• Admiral Nelson was killed at Trafalgar while fighting the French.
• Charles "Chinese" Gordon was an English General who fought the Chinese navies (hence the name) during England's imperial expansion.
• The Crimean War was fought between the Turks and the Russians. The Brittish armies eventually came in on the side of the Turks. The Turks prevailed.
• In 1800 Washinghton D.C. (pop approx 8000) became the capital of the United States, taking over from Philidelphia. [TH]
• Samuel Colt invented the revolver in (date???). It was later said of his invention: "God created men, but Colonel Colt made them equal."
• 1811 The Battle of Tippencave. U.S. General William Harrison defeats the Indian confederation. [TH]
• 1817 A treaty is signed by Native Amricans in Ohio surrendering 4 million acres to the USA. The Semimole war starts in Georgia by Indians. [TH]
• 1824 Some Native American Indians are murdered by settlers. They in turn are convicted, found guilty and executed. The first time settlers are executed for killing Native Indians [TH]
• 1812 U.S. War with Britian. American ships passing through the blockade of France is a contributory factor. In 1814. The British capture Washington and a peace treaty is signed. [TH]
• 1823 Britain supports America in it's decision to disallow European intervention in it's affairs. [TH]
• In 1819 Spain handed Florida to America [TH]
• 1835 Texas settlers revolt against the dictator in charge and start to fight for independence. [TH]
• 1836 The Alamo [TH]
• 1848 War between Mexico and the United States. [TH]
• In 1860 South Carolina leaves the Union setting up it's own capital it Richmond. Ten more states join them as they all wish to keep slavery. In 1861 The Civil War begins and lasts for four years as Confederates attack Union held Fort Sumter. In 1877, Reconstruction of the Southern states came to an end when the last troops left. [TH]
• 1867 Alaska is purchased from Russia. [TH]
• 1890 The Battle of Wounded Knee. The last major resistance by Native Americans is led by Chief Big Foot. [TH]
• In 1898 the U.S. declared war on Spain. It ends with the Treaty of Paris [TH]

Books, etc.

• The Scarlet Pimpernell by Emmuska Orczy (Baroness) was a story about a character who helped Frech aristocrats escape during the revolution. This was made into a wonderful made-for-TV movie. The Baroness wrote a sequel called El Dorado, an adventure of the Scarlet Pimpernel.
• The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas.
• The Captain Horatio Hornblower stories by C. S. Forester were set in the early 19th century and published in the 1930s.
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy is a perfect example (it's right there in the name). Warning: Long.
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas (the father) was set in the early 19th century and published in 1844.
• The Man Who Would Be King
• Jack of All Trades was a short-lived TV show that portrayed an American revolutionary (played by Bruce Campbell) and an English freedom fighter off in a Pacific-rim island fighting the French. Very tongue-in-cheek, very cinematic. Many of the inventions that Emilia produces have a decidedly Steampunk feel to them.

No discussion of the 19th century would be complete without a mention of the Wild, American West. Gun-slinging cowboys getting into barfights in tumbleweed-strewn mining-towns typifies this theme.

Overtones

• A common overtone to many Wild West stories is the idea of how men behave when they're out on the fringes of civilization, often making their own laws to live by. This is an overtone shared with a number of High Seas stories.
• Another common overtone to many Wild West stories is the conflict between outlaws and sheriffss who are trying to uphold the law.
• The Westward push and "Manifest Destiny" were strong trends in the 1800's.
• The "Gold Rush" is a big part of the Wild West.

Historical People and Events

• Billy the Kid
• Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday
• Jesse James
• 1883 A Wild West show is opened in Nebraska by "Wild Bill" Cody. [TH]
• In 1806 William Clark & Meriwether Lewis, two American explorers, become the first to cross the continent. [TH]
• 1826 Jedediah Smith, a fur trader, crosses the Mojave and reaches California, opening a route for wagon trains. [TH]
• 1830 The first wagon train crosses the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains and settles on the West coast. Elisha Root mass produces axes which speeds up settlers' production of houses, shop [TH]
• 1833 Joe Walker, a trapper, crosses Nevada through Yosemite Valley to California. A pass is named after him. [TH]
• 1841 Pioneers use the Oregon trail and reach the Pacific. [TH]
• 1844 4,000 Mormons travel to Salt Lake [TH]
• In 1848 gold is found in California. In 1849 the Gold Rush starts. The population of San Francisco village increases to 25,000 in a few months. Just when everyone thought it was over, in 1896 Gold was discovered in Klondike creek. [TH]
• 1842 John Fremont, after an expedition to the West, produces a report that convinces Congress the land is fertile and encourages expansion. [TH]

Books, etc.

Numerous Wild West stories have been written by modern authors, a testament to the enduring appeal of the Old West.

• Jack London was an American author who wrote numerous stories about the American west and Alaska. Other well-known works of his are Call of the Wild, To Build a Fire, and The Sea Wolf.
• The "Man with No Name" Spaghetti Western Trillogy that includes Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad And The Ugly are still classic Western Flicks.
• Tombstone a movie about the legend of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holladay.
• Young Guns a movie about the legend of Billy the Kid and the sequel Young Guns II.
• Shane

  (Man, there are a ton of other stories / movies I could mention here.)

Roleplaying Resources

• Deadlands and The Weird West by AEG are sourcebooks for a gameworld set in the Wild West with heavy Steampunk elements. There is also a GURPS adaptation of Deadlands.
• There is a GURPS Wild West sourcebook

This next subset of themes concerns all things strange and peculiar.

Horror

Vampires, werewolves, zombies, and all the denizens of the Lovecraftian bestiary characterize this theme. The characters could run into strange occultists, curious artifacts and ancient leather-bound books that will drive you insane should you attempt to read them. Here's your chance to blow the dust of the fright check table and give it a workout.

The 'Horror' theme could be considered the "universal donor" of all the themes; you can add horror elements to nearly any of the other themes mentioned on this page. While the 'Horror' theme can work well as a standalone, it often works better for "peppering up" some other theme.

Overtones

• The best of the traditional horror stories begin with a character who discovers something curious that warrants his investigation (i.e. the adventure begins as a 'Mystery' or 'Exploration'-themed story). For the first half of the story, the protagonist is compelled to descend deeper and deeper into a house / cave / ruin / swamp / etc. Arriving at the heart of darkness, the protagonist realizes the awful horrors that are within and the last half of the story is spent following the character as he frantically tries to escape, or is slowly driven insane...
• Some "Gothic Horror" stories tend to have angst-ridden overtones that center on sins-of-the-past and redemption. These can be tedious at their worst, however it is possible to pull this off with some aplomb, but you usually need the help of the players to do so. The Angel TV show characterizes this overtone well. Most of the Gothic Horror RPGs from White Wolf use this overtone.
• A recurring overtone in a number of horror stories is the notion that the Dark Creatures Of The Night were the original inhabitants of this Earth. Through folly or carelessness, they lost their birthright and the Earth was turned over to humans. But the Dark Creatures still exist, lingering in deep caverns, oceans, or dreams, just waiting for humanity to let their guard down for long enough so that they can return and reclaim their birthright.
• There is a strain of horror known as "Splatterpunk" that is simply an excuse for a big gore-fest. Zombies are cheap and plentiful and the tool shed contains an arsenal of Zombie-maiming tools. If you're going to do a Splatterpunk adventure, don't forget to add a healthy dose of humor, it will really make a difference.

Historical People and Events

• Edgar Allan Poe was an American author who lived from 1809 to 1849 and wrote a variety of horror stories. A listing of many of his works can be found here.
• H. P. Lovecraft was another American author who lived from 1890 to 1937. Many of his stories were horror (although some were fantasy) and a good number of them were set in Victorian times. Those that weren't can easily be transplanted by substituting "London" for "Boston". This page gives a detailed list and description of many of the monsters and grimoires featured in his stories, among other things.
• Ann Rice has done a number of contemporary vampire stories and has helped keep the "Gothic Horror" genre a living tradition.
• The practice of body snatching was rife in the UK & US until late into the 19th century. This ghoulish practice is portrayed in the stories The Plague Cellar, Thrawn Janet and the Body Snatcher. [SP]

Books, etc.

The Victorian age was rife with horror stories:

• The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe. A chilling story about an ancient mansion that has been in the family for years, despite the fact that each generation of the Usher family only manages to produce one successor...
• Markheim by Robert Louis Stevenson is a story about a theif who breaks into a shop and finds the counter being tended by Lucifer himself.
• Dracula and the short story Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker.
• Three Ghost Stories: The Signal-Man, The Haunted-House, and The Trial For Murder by Charles Dickens. These have a streak of 'Mystery' in them as well.
• To Be Read At Dusk by Charles Dickens.
• The Rats in the Walls by H.P. Lovecraft tells of a man who moves into a house that is infested with vermin...
• Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft is the tale of an investigator who discovers a bizarre group of cultists who worship an ancient, monstrous god.
• Tales of Terror and Mystery by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
• The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, a classic example of gothic horror.
• The Hounds of Tindalos by Frank Belnap Long is a story about a man who uses drugs to propel his consciousness back in time and learns the horror of the hounds who track people through angles in space.

  Holy cow, there's a crapload of other stuff I could put here. Somebody help me out with some other references / links.

And some not-quite-Victorian-era stories that fit well into this theme:

• The Blair Witch Project
• Something Wicked This Way Comes is a bit post-Victorian, but fits this theme very well.
• Sandman was a long-running comic book series by Neil Gaiman that features numerous Fantasy / Horror stories, a number of which were set in Victorian times.
• Interview With a Vampire by Anne Rice
• X-Files by Chris Carter. Often features a lot of traditional 'Mystery' type plots with modern horror themes.
• Ghostbusters Ivan Reitman's 1984 movie classic about a misfit squad of supernatural exterminators who save the world.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Joss Whedon. Plenty of humor here.
• Angel a spinoff of Buffy. Often features a good 'Mystery' type plot and an ongoing "redemption for past misdeeds" overtone.
• Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness - Definitely Splatterpunk. Definitely lots of humor.

Roleplaying Resources

• The Call of Cthulhu RPG is based on Lovecraft's Cthulhu-Mythos stories and is set in an early 1900s period.
• There is a GURPS Horror sourcebook that features a whole section devoted to the Victorian era.
• GURPS Undead "everything you need to inject new life into your undead".
• Here is a Complete listing of all the Horror-related GURPS sourcebooks.
• White Wolf has done a number of Gothic-Horror RPGs such as Vampire the Masquerade and Werewolf the Apocolypse.
• Heather L. Schultz has written a number of Horror-themed GURPS adventures. Most of these are set in present-day Earth.
• A slurry of Victorian-Horror characters from the online archives of the Roleplayer newsleter.

This theme explores the fantastical worlds that lie just ouside our reach: the lands of dreams, the astral plane, Fairyland, or even the magical land of Oz. Obviously, this theme presents numerous opportunities for world-hopping. This theme also presents opportunities for the characters to gain some magically-conferred advantages.

Victorian Fantasy stories have their own feel to them; they are not "hardcore" fantasy a la Conan or Dungeons & Dragons, nor are they "mythic" fantasy a la Hercules or Xena. Instead, Victorian Fantasy has more of a Fairy Tale quality (complete with pixies, mermaids, wood nymphs and brownies); much more light-hearted and impish. The movie Willow, for example, captured a lot of those Fairy Tale qualities in its depiction of magic.

Overtones

• Some fantasy stories are simply reality-based stories with a few fantasy elements scattered here and there to make things interesting (such as a leprechaun or a magic wand). Rumplestilskin is an example of this.
• The "down the rabbit hole" overtone is seen in fantasy stories where the characters from this world are transported to a world beyond by some means of conveyance, be it a wardrobe, a looking-glass, a bedknob, a beanstalk, a sidewalk painting, a sprinkle of Pixie dust, or (last but not least) a rabbit hole. These worlds can be somewhat akin to our own world but with a higher mana level. Alternatively, these fantasy worlds might be topsy-turvy, dreamlike places that border on the hallucinogenic, a la Alice in Wonderland. Some creative uses of the fright check table might be employed.
• Neil Gaiman once said: "If the world is literature, then Fantasy and Horror are twin cities seperated by a river of black water." The fantasy and horror themes are composed of very similar elements and can cross over quite a lot. Darby O'Gill and the Little People is an example of a show that uses the twin themese of Fantasy and Horror.

Historical People and Events

• Lewis Carroll (1832 - 1898) aka: Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson - (bio1, bio2, bio3) - Lewis Carroll was an English Math professor who wrote the "Alice" stories about a young girl's adventures in Wonderland. "Alice" was the name of the second daughter of Henry George Liddell, the head of Oxford college where Carroll worked. Carrol also penned a number of nonsensical poems, including The Jabberwokky and The Hunting of the Snark which describe some fantastic creatures and the brave adventurers who hunted them. This page on the Victorian Web offers a wealth of information on his life, works, themes in his stories, and more.
• Edward Lear
• The Grimm Brother's fairy tales
• Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales
• Aesop and his fables.
• The nursery rhymes of Mother Goose

Books, etc.

There is a large number of 19th century fantasy stories. The characters could be whisked away to any of these fantasy worlds.

• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass, and Alice's Adventures Underground by Lewis Carol tells the story of a girl who fell down a rabit-hole into a fantasy world.
• Peter Pan by Sir James Matthew Barrie and the sequel Peter Pan In Kensington Gardens depicts the story of a boy who wouldn't grow up and would fly away with like-minded children to never-never land.
• The Happy Prince and Other Tales is a collection of fairy tales by Oscar Wilde.
• Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift is a story about a fellow who sets sail on a ship and visits some marvelous lands populated by tiny people and giants, among others.
• Rewards and Fairies by Rudyard Kipling.
• The Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby and The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens - (Do all of these belong here?)
• Mr. Skelmersdale in Fairyland by H. G. Wells. (You'll need to scroll down just a bit before you get to this one.)
• The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a 20th century movie adapted from the 19th century publishing of some dramatized children's stories about an 18th century person who would tell astonishingly tall tales that got taller with every retelling. The latest incarnation in movie form is yet another work of art by Terry Gilliam.
• Mary Poppins originally by Pamela L. Travers depicts a nanny with magical powers who transforms the lives of two children and their parents.
• The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, of which, the most well-known volume is The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.
• The numerous 'Oz' stories of Frank L. Baum.
• Stardust by Neil Gaiman "Being a Romance Within the Realms of Faerie". At the dawn of the Victorian era, a young man and the woman he loves are looking at stars. Seeing one fall, he promises her that he will retrieve it for her. Little does he know that the Faerie folk are looking for it too...

And some not-quite-Victorian-era stories that fit well into this theme:

• A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
• The Tempest by William Shakespeare
• Bedknobs and Broomsticks is another fun show along these same lines.
• Labyrinth was a fun movie that depicted a young girl who wanted, more than anything, to be transported from the "real" world into a world of wonder. She got her wish, but not quite as she expected.
• A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeline L'Engle. There are some elements of Scientific Romance here, too.
• The Books of Magic, also by Neil Gaiman depicted a boy who possessed remarkable magical ability and was being introduced to the world of magic by four strange men.
• The Dreaming Place by Charles de Lint (and the sequels that take place in his 'Otherworld' universe) are an example of "Urban Faerie".
• The Nightmare Before Christmas by Tim Burton
• The Harry Potter book seires.

Roleplaying Resources

• Castle Falkenstein is a popular RPG that depicts an alternate-earth where magic and dragons abound in the Victorian era. Lots of Steampunk elements, too. There is a GURPS sourcebook for this game as well.
• GURPS Goblins is a sourcebook for playing horrible, beastly goblin characters in a Georgian setting.
• The GULLIVER Rules Upgrade for GURPS is a re-examination of the GURPS rules with attention paid on designing very small and very large characters. These should help you design those pixies and brownies.
• The Ultimate Best Faerie List on Amazon.com has books for every visual aid you might need.

These tales were termed "Ghost Stories" by the Victorians. Here we delve into man's dealings with spirits and beings from beyond the grave. Ghosts, mediums, psychic powers, crystal-ball readers, are the elements of this theme. Quite possibly, some angels and devils could show up as well.

This theme can borrow quite heavily from the Horror theme but there are some characteristics that set it apart. Where Horror has zombies and vampires, Supernatural has ghosts and angels. Also, Supernatural-themed stories tend to have more of a moral story to them and often a happy ending. Some Supernatural-themed stories contain no blood or gore and are not scary at all.

Overtones

• A common overtone to many Supernatural stories is that there is "unfinished business" left by a dead person or "something awry", so their ghost visits one of the living and gets them to help take care of it.
• Some stories in this theme describe characters who are transported beyond this world and visit the afterlife for awhile, be it Heaven, Hell, or otherwise and then return to this world with their tale.

Historical People and Events

• In 1882 the Society for Psychical Research was founded. It's purpose was to explore psychic / supernatural phenomenons such as clairvoiyance, hypnotism, seanses, extra-sensory perception and telekenesis. It was at this Society that the term "telepathy" was first coined. People who attended this group included such luminaries as Henry Sidgwick, Arthur Conan Doyle, Sigmund Freud, and Carl Jung. The Society is still active today and publishes a regular journal. (Side Note: This would make a good Unusual Background for a Victorian era Psi character.)
• Daniel Douglas Home - (1833 - 1886) - Known as "the only medium who was never exposed", Douglas Home seems to have possessed some remarkable powers of Psychokinesis. In 1868 three respectable gentlemen witnessed him levitate out of a third-story window, and float back into the building through another window.
• Helena Patrona Blavatsky - (1831 - 1891) - She was the founder of Theosophy, a school of occultism that believed in the Astral Plane and the lost city of Atlantis. Blavatsky claimed that these things were revealed to her by the spirits of the dead durring her journeys in Tibet.
• Harry Houdini - (1874 - 1926) - (bio1, bio2, bio3) - Born in Budapest, Hungary as Ehrich Weiss, he changed his name when he became a circus / stage performer and astounded audiences with amazing feats of escape. A lifelong pursuit of his was to disprove any claims of the supernatural made by fortune-tellers, tarot card readers, and showmen.

Books, etc.

The Victorians took a singular interest in the supernatural:

• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, where an old codger is shown the meaning of Christmas by three ghosts.
• The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a poem about a ship that heads off to sea. Everything begins normally enough, but then the ship drifts off course and all the crew dies save for one man. While he is despairing about the impossibility of piloting the ship on his own, the dead-bodies of his fellow sailors are re-animated by their ghosts and help him steer the ship back to port.
• The Cremation of Sam McGee
• Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain also by Charles Dickens.
• The Inexperienced Ghost by H.G. Wells.
• My Own True Ghost Story by Rudyard Kipling.
• Stories Of The Supernatural by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman.
• Walt and Emily the third of the novelettes from Paul Di Filippo's Steampunk Trillogy depicts the romance that might-have-been between Walt Whitman and Emily Dickenson when they took a journey to the afterlife.
• Batman: Houdini aka "The Devil's Workshop" - Another alternate Earth Batman comic that depicts a 1907 Gotham city where the Dark Knight allies himself with Houdini to expose the fraudulence of a Seance circle and discover who is stealing Gotham's children.

And some not-quite-Victorian stories that fit well into this theme:

• Dante's Divine Comedy is very much pre-Victorian, but is a good example of someone getting transported to the afterlife.
• It's a Wonderful Life characterizes this theme well. It almost seems to have taken some cues from Dickens' Christmas Carol.
• Sixth Sense is a movie about a boy who can see and communicate with the ghosts of people who have died.
• Ghost, where a dead boyfriend learns to say goodbye to his living girlfriend.
• Always is a movie that tells the tale of a forest-fire-fighter who learns to say goodbye to piloting and to his wife.
• The Devil Went Down in Georgia is an old folk song that fits in here pretty well.
• Monkeybone by Tim Burton

Roleplaying Resources

• This issue of the Victorian Gamer dealt with all kinds of supernatural studies and phoenomenon in the Victorian era.
• There is a GURPS Religion sourcebook (out of print) that gives rules for characters associating with deity, recieving blessings, curses, etc.
• SJ Games also publishes an RPG called In Nomine where demigods and demons duke it out in the afterlife. There is also a GURPS sourcebook.

This is Victorian era science fiction. Here we begin to explore such things as space exploration, invaders from outer space, and even time travel. These type of stories are often referred to as "Scientific Romances" because they are sci-fi stories that were written durring the Romantic era. Some opportunities for world-hopping here.

Scientific Romances were the predecessors of "Golden Age of Sci-Fi" stories and are very much in-line with the gameworld and technologies of "Golden Age" stories. There are time machines, spaceships and ray-guns but the details of how they work needn't be laboriously explained. There are computers but they are rather primitive (little more than Babbage engines) and have little or no concept of networking (hence, there are no "netrunners" or "cyberdecks"). There are no man-machine hybrids (hence, no cyberware) except to show some symbolic moralism (i.e. Darth Vader). There can be aliens, but they're usually either "Little Green Men from Mars" or some variation on the "giant insect" motiff. Multi-tentacled aliens are not unheard of, either (a la Kang and Kodos from The Simpsons). For inspiration, think along the lines of the original Flash Gordon series, the original series of Star Trek, the original Twilight Zone, or the long-running Dr. Who.

The term "science fiction" may have first been coined as early as 1851. (Unconfirmed, can anyone refute / confirm that?)

Weird Science

This theme explores such ghastly ideas as vivisection of men and animals to create monstrous creatures and remarkable chemical concoctions that can alter one's character. This theme typically includes elements of both the 'Scientific Romance' and the 'Horror' themes.

Overtones

• A recurring "moral to the story" that is expounded in nearly every one of these stories is "The dangers that lie in the inky depths where Man Ought Not Probe". Any experiment that some wacky scientist or inventor performs will invariably backfire, creating a monster that will wreak havok on the town.
• Another overtone to a lot of these stories is that the scientists who engage in their wacky experiments were ostracized by their peers, hated by society, and eventually driven to becoming a pariah and performing their strange experiments in secret. One is left to wonder if things might have turned out a little better if these scientists had only been supported and encouraged by their peers, instead of rejected and left to their own machinations...
• Many Weird Science stories have a common conclusion where the evil concoctions and horrific monsters cooked up by the mad scientists, along with all the knowledge they gained to create them, are thankfully lost.

Historical People and Events

Please note that even though the title of this theme is "Weird Science", the historical people / events listed here are by no means "weird" at all. Rather, they demonstrate the inventive and avant-garde experiments of the Victorian era, some of which have proven very useful in modern medicine.

• Mary Shelley (1797 - 1851) - (bio1, bio2, bio3) - In the pantheon of "Great Ancestors of Science Fiction", there must surely be a place reserved for Mary Shelley. At the age of 19 she published Frankenstein, one of the most gripping monster stories of all time, and one of the first to probe into the dangers of unbridled ambition in the name of science. Four years later she published The Last Man, an experiment in "expanding the boundaries" of what could be presented in novel form. She followed the progress of science closely and wrote stories that combined her observations with harrowing events in her own life (the death of a child, the drowning of her husband, among others). In so doing, she demonstrated first and foremost that what makes a good science fiction novel is not expounding on dazzling scientific discoveries, but showing how those discoveries affect people's lives. (Unfortunately, all to many contemporary science fiction writers have failed to learn this lesson.)
• The first successful transfusion of human blood was performed in 1818 by James Blundell, who transferred blood from a husband to his wife via a syringe. Unfortunately, blood types were not identified until 1907, which made transfusions a bit risky. In 1908 a French surgeon named Alexis Carrel transferred blood between two subjects by stitching the vein of one to the other. While this method proved impractical for transfusions, it paved the way to organ transplanting.
• Mention Phrenology.

Books, etc.

• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is one of the original monster / horror stories. The Frankenstein tale has been told and retold, over and over, but the re-tellings have usually strayed from the original story. In Shelley's book, the Frankenstein monster was the perfect man. The only problem was that he couldn't heal from any wounds and quickly took on a hideous appearance as he became more and more scarred.
• The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells depicts an island inhabited by an ostracized scientist who has been performing strange and unsavory vivisection experiments on animals. This story has been made into a movie several times (but none of them have been as good as the book).
• The Invisible Man also by H. G. Wells tells the tale of a young scientist who experiments on himself and becomes invisible. Unfortunately, he cannot reverse the process and is driven mad by his condition. This story has been made and re-made into numerous movies and TV shows.
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. This story uses the premise of a scientist's transformation into a monster as a metaphor for a virtuous, composed man being overtaken by his violent, animal side.
• The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H. P. Lovecraft tells of a young man who finds a remarkable chemical concoction that can control his aging and metabolism -- but at a price.
• Herbert West: Reanimator by H.P. Lovecraft is a story about a medical student who discovers a fluid that can bring dead tissue back to life. This story was made into a movie called Re-Animator.
• Victoriathe first of the novelettes from Paul Di Filippo's Steampunk Trillogy describes an inventor named Cosmo Copperthwaite who makes a replacement for a missing Queen Victoria out of a very large newt.
• Homunculus by James Baylock is a a contemporary, alternate-19th century novel which (among other things) tells the tale of a hunchback who works to bring the dead back to life.

And some not-quite-Victorian stories that fit well into this theme:

• Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, featuring a (mad?) scientist who creates an island populated by dinosaurs.
• Little Shop of Horrors, featuring man-eating plants and a wacky dentist.
• There are so many Dr. Who episodes that characterize the Weird Science theme that it's almost silly to try to list them all. Here are a selection of a few that are especially Weird Science-ish: The Brain of Morbios, The Seeds of Doom, and many, many more.

This theme is essentially the 'Industrialization' theme taken beyond it's logical extreme. 'Steampunk' has become a literary genre in its own right, portraying an alternate reality where the computer revolution occurred a hundred years earlier, coinciding with the industrial revolution. It depicts a mid/late-1800s England replete with Babbage Engines, steam-powered carriages and submarines, clockwork automatons, rapid-fire rifles, and numerous other incredible gadgets. This theme is often used as a cheap excuse for people to have essentially modern adventures (with all the computers, vehicles, weapons and gizmos they could want) in a Victorian setting.

Perhaps more than any other theme, Steampunk requires the most alterations to the gameworld you are playing in. With just about any of the other non-reality-based themes, you can have elements that suddenly appear and disappear (a ghost manifests, the adventurers discover a time machine, zombies rise from the grave, you fall down a rabbit hole, etc), but in order to rationalize a Steampunk-themed adventure, the historical timeline needs to be altered and there needs to be a certain amount of infrastructure in place. Engine technology would need to be to be highly-developed and used for a variety of tasks: printing, textiles, computation, data storage, tax records, etc.

Overtones

• The name 'Steampunk' derives from the 'Cyberpunk' genre which depicts a bleak, high-tech, corporate-controlled near future. Many Steampunk stories also carry this bleak overtone, portraying an overpolluted England that has everyone's name in a thinking machine somewhere.
• The Cyberpunk genre typically features characters who don't accept the laws on the books, seek to undermine the megacorps, or are attempting to execute some subversive agenda of their own using high-powered computer systems. Many Steampunk characters tend to have similar qualities: they might eschew Victorian standards of sexual propriety, favor Darwin's evolution over creationism, be plotting to subvert the monarchy and lordships, or attempt to use the power of Babbage Engines for some subversive purpose. Hence the "punk" suffix in both names.
• Another common overtone in Steampunk stories is that of the Luddite crusade to halt the development of computing engines and steam-powered automation that threatens to replace and dehumanize human beings. Player characters could find themselves on either side of this fight, depending.
• A overtone that seems to come up in a number of Steampunk stories is the idea of some vast, lurking conspiracy that the heroes get drawn into and need to figure out. (Steampunk stories occasionally borrow a bit from the Mystery theme.) The nature of these conspiracies can begin to border on Illuminati style stories.

Historical People and Events

• Charles Babbage (1791-1871) - (bio1) - Babbage made a computing device called "The Difference Engine" which was the world's first programmable computer. He wanted to make a more powerful computing machine driven by steam that he would have called "The Analytical Engine". He never got the funding he needed to make it, though. (Minor bit of trivia: In the small-computer world, the hunk of silicon that does the bulk of the computation is referred to as the 'CPU', but in the Mainframe world, they are still referred to as 'Engines'.)
• Lady Augusta Ada Byron (1815-1852) - (bio1) - Lady Byron (after marriage, "Lady Lovelace") was hired by Babbage to write programs for his difference engine, which consisted of holes punched in cards. She was the world's first computer programmer. In honor to her memory the Ada programming language bears her name.
• Jacques de Vaucanson (1709-1782) - This page describe's Vaucanson's most famous automatons -- 18th century robots. He made a flute player that had a repetior of twelve different songs. His most famous was "The Duck", a mechanical beast that could flap it's wings, swim around, and eat and digest grain. Each wing in the Duck had over 400 moving parts. His original Duck and the plans for it have been, unfortunately, lost. He was eventually appointed inspector of silk manufacture in France and made some sweeping changes to textile manufacture, one of which involved using punch cards to automate weaving.
• Joseph-Marie Jacquard (1752-1834) - (bio1) - The industrial revolution had automated the process of weaving textiles, which previously all had to be woven by hand. But machines of the day were still inadequate for producing anything other than a plain fabric. A Frenchman named Jacquard solved this problem in 1804 when he invented a loom that would take a series of punched cards as input and generate a woven pattern from the cards. In so doing, he created what was perhaps the first stored-program computer and revolutionized the French textile industry.
• Pierre Jacquot Droz built a clockwork doll in 1774 called The Writer. It was a child writing with a pen. It was capable of writing short sentences. [TH]
• The Turk (article1, article2, picture1) was the name given to a remarkable machine built by Wolfgang von Kempelen in 1770 that was capable of playing chess. It turned out to be a hoax (there was a man hidden inside), but it is believed that The Turk inspired Charles Babbage to build his engines later on.
• An ancient power distribution system was used in London in the late 1880's that ran compressed air (pressurized to hundreds of PSI) to factories through cast-iron pipes from central steam-powered compressor stations. The power system was shut down in the 1910's, but the pipes are still in the ground and are currently used by Mercury Telecom who have run fiber-optic cables through them to deliver phone traffic.
• Pneumatic Capsule Pipelines were used to make early mail-delivery systems and even some experimental mass-transit systems; the same kind of tubes are still used by drive-thru bank tellers. As well as numerous messages in bottles, it is rumored that a live cat was once transferred through a capsule pipeline.
• 19th Century Contributions and their Impact on Elements of Modern Computers an essay describing the contributions of our Victorian forefathers to contemporary computing practices.

Books, etc.

The alert reader will note that none of the works cited below were written by authors living in the 1800's. This is because the Steampunk genre is a wholly contrived mllieu that has sprung from the minds of contemporary writers who have jettisonned the Cyberpunk genre back a couple of hundred years.

• The Difference Engine, named after the invention by Charles Babbage, is a novel by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, two notable cyberpunk genre authors who delve into the realm of steampunk. This story explores an alternate reality that could have played out if Babbage had received the funding he needed to make his Analytical Engine.
• Wild Wild West is a movie remake of an old TV show. The original TV show had some mildly steampunk elements, but they decided to really go over the top in the movie.
• The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. was an old TV show that featured Bruce Campbell as a cowboy in a wild-west setting with a healthy dose of steampunk gadgetry.
• Sebastian O - This was a fun comic book three-parter written by Grant Morrison (who also did Doom Patrol & Animal Man) which portrayed a wildly fantastical Steampunk-genre Victorian setting. I have seen this described as: "The Matrix starring Oscar Wilde".
• Of Tangible Ghosts and The Ghost of the Revelator are both Steampunk books with a strong Supernatural overtone.
• Infernal Devices by K.W. Jeter about a watchmaker who gets a strange sort of clockwork device to work on...
• The 21 Balloons by William Pene du Bois. This is a children's story that was written in 1947 and tells the adventures of a group of families who live on an exotic island and come up with all kinds of odd steam-powered inventions. Think of it as "Steampunk for Kids".
• There is an ongoing comic book series called Steampunk
• Steamboy an Anime by Katsuhiro Otomo that depicts revoulutionary advances in steam power and the effect that it has on it's inventors and the society around them. (Note: Viewers of this show need to have a high tolerance for repeatedly seeing pipes bursting.)

And some not-quite-Victorian stories that fit well into this theme:

• Pasquale's Angel by Paul J. McAuley - This portrays the world of Micaelangelo and De Vinci where all they're forward-thinking inventions came to pass.
• Sneakers - Everyone's hunting for a box that is the ultimate "code cracker". This could have easily been a Steampunk story if it was set a hundred and fifty years earlier.
• Pi - A "Math Thriller", if anything. Some guy's found a number that is "the answer" to nearly anything. Again, could'a been Steampunk if it was set a little earlier.
• The Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson is a cyberpunk novel set in a "Neo-Victorian" 21st century Shanghai.

Roleplaying Resources

• Iron Empire is a Steampunk RPG created by Post Mortem Studios. This was written by the same pair of miscreants who authored The Munchkin's Guide to Power Gaming. The spirit of the Victorian era is well preserved in their game system. Some of your character statistics are: 'Brawn', 'Intellect', 'Aesthetics', and 'Visage'.
• There is a GURPS Steampunk sourcebook that was recently published.
• This issue of the Victorian Gamer was dedicated to Steampunk and includes a copious listing of information. Definitely worth a click.
• Phil Masters has written up a list of Steampunk Resources that lists a number of literary and gaming references.
• S.J. Games is working on a "Steam Tech" sourcebook to complement their "High-Tech" and "Low-Tech" sourcebooks.
• Age of AEther A play-by-email RPG with a strong Victorian/Steampunk theme. It's Recently formed and looking for players, so give it a gander.

Victorian authors marveled at the wonderous steam-powered machines of their day and age, and further marveled at what machines might be built in the near future...

Historical People and Events

• Jules Verne (1828 - 1905) - (bio1, bio2) - A French writer and another "Grandaddy of Science Fiction", Jules Verne was very interested in geography and the physical sciences. Many of his well known stories are constructed around a scientific premise with an exploration into "what if this were possible?", and occasionally include (dramatized) incidents from his own life. He brought these elements together inside a moving storyline and set an example that has been imitated by nearly every sci-fi writer since.
• Rudyard Kipling (? - ?) - (bio1) - Kipling was a major influence on the development of the science fiction genre. Many of the literary devices and attitudes in his stories would end up dominating "Golden Age of Science Fiction" literature.

Overtones

• The remarkable airships, seaships and land rovers of Scientific Romance stories typically feature them being used in terrible wars or as instruments of opression.

Books, etc.

A number of these stories described inventions that didn't exist at the time they were written, but eventually became a reality.

• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. This is a prime example of how Science Fiction can foreshadow eventual technologies. At the time this story was written, it was pure fantasy to propose the idea of a submarine vessel powered by primary batteries, people walking on the ocean floor in suits made of India rubber, breathing compressed air held in a backpack, and firing air-powered harpoon rifles.
• The Land Ironclads by H.G. Wells described huge, iron-sided, steam-powered vehicles used in some future war. This book was first published in 1903, a little over a decade later, tanks would be used in World War I.
• The War In The Air by H G Wells describes a terrible World War against the Germans fought using heavier-than-air aeroplanes. The book was first published in 1907. Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first, manned, heavier-than-air machine-powered flight in 1903. World War I, featuring airborne dogfights involving such luminary German pilots as "The Red Baron", began in 1914.
• With the Night Mail: A Story of 2000 A.D. by Rudyard Kipling, published in 1905 was a story about an airborne fleet of zepplins that exerted great influence over the world by controling and delivering all of the world's mail. The military that piloted these zepplins was portrayed as a large, hierarchal, parlimentary organization and the theme of "the manly duty of military service" was explored in some depth. The influence of this work can be seen in many of Robert Heinlein's novels.
• The Digging Leviathan by James Blaylock.

Overtones

• A recurring overtone in a number of "Space Travel" stories is "Man's indominable will", or "a monument to Man's achivements". This is a blend of some of the overtones of the Industrialization and Exploration themes, cast into the distant reaches of space.
• In any Scientific Romance featuring aliens, they typically have one of two goals: 1) Take over the Earth, or 2) Blow it up. (You can be a little more creative than that if you want to, though.)

Books, etc.

Many Scientific Romance stories depicted travel to the moon or nearby planets. Like the 'Marvelous Machines' stories above, many of these stories came true.

• War of the Worlds also by H.G. Wells, portrayed the invasion of Earth by sinister, alien forces. This plot has been done so many times in sci-fi stories through the years that it has become an utter, utter cliche.
• From the Earth to the Moon and Round the Moon both by Jules Verne depict a man who traveled into space by climbing into a cannon ball and getting shot out of a cannon. I wonder if the first astronauts sent into space would find the "cannon" metaphor accurate...
• First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells.
• The Barsoom world portrayed in the Mars chronicles by Edgar Rice Burroughs is slightly post-Victorian, but still pretty close and a good source of material. This listing contains a number of Burroughs' Mars stories that are available online.

And some not-quite-Victorian stories that fit well into this theme:

• Explorers - a movie about three young boys who discover a means to take them into space.
• Them!
• The Day of the Triffids - by John Wyndham. A wave of man-eating plants invades Earth after a meteor shower blinds the populace.
• Stargate, certainly has the "down the rabit hole" overtone.
• The original Twilight Zone series featured a number of episodes involving aliens visiting Earth and toying with humans.
• V - the 80's made-for-TV-movie about aliens who dress up like humans and come to Earth, acting all friendly-like, but they really want to use us for food! (the horror...)
• All of the "arc" episodes of the X-Files typify the "alien invasion" overtone.

Historical People and Events

• H.G. Wells (1866 - 1946) - (bio1, bio2, bio3) - It is probably not an exaggeration to refer to Herbert George Wells as the "Grandaddy of Science Fiction". He wrote a number of marvelous tales that explored such topics as time travel, and alien invasions. Any contemporary story involving alien invasion has taken cues from War of the Worlds and any contemporary story involving time travel has taken cues from The Time Machine.

Overtones

• Many of these stories feature some sort of contraption that takes the protagonists to another time. This is very similar to the "down the rabit hole" overtone in the Fantasy theme.

Books, etc.

• The Time Machine by H.G. Wells explored the idea of time travel to a distant future where this Earth is populated with strange and terrible descendants of humans.
• Morlock Night by K.W. Jeter, published in 1979. In this story, the Morlocks of H.G. Wells's The Time Machine steal the invention and return to Victorian London. Some elements of 'Fantasy' in this story, too.
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain.
• The Last Man by Mary Shelley depicts a distant future when all the Earth's resources have been exhausted and mankind is becoming extinct. This topic has been treated in a number of contemporary stories including The Children of Men by P.D. James.
• Somewhere in Time by Richard Matheson is a story about a Chicago playwright who uses self-hypnosis to find the actress whose portrait hangs in a grand hotel.
• A Nomad of the Time Streams : A Scientific Romance is about a time-traveling Edwardian hero named Oswald Bastable who visits several alternate-history Earths where steam age technologies advanced in place of their modern counterparts.
• The Talons of Weng-Chiang a Dr. Who episode that describes the Doctor's journey back to the 19th century to apprehend a refugee criminal / mad scientist from the 51st century.
• Pyramids of Mars a Dr. Who episode set in the early 1900s featuring old Egyptian gods who were anxious to rise to power again

And some not-quite-Victorian stories that fit well into this theme:

• Back to the Future by Robert Zemeckis. The second sequel does a lot more time-jumping and the third sequel has a fun old-west flare to it.
• Time Bandits by Terry Gilliam tells the story of some little, impish people who take a boy with them on their travels through time.
• 12 Monkeys by Terry Gilliam. The bleak future depicted by Gilliam has a number of Steampunk elements to it.
• Quantum Leap
• Voyagers - an old, late 70's TV show about two guys who leap through time with the help of a pocket watch to "give history a hand".
• The old BBC series Dr. Who featuring the time-traveling Doctor.

Roleplaying Resources

• Space 1889 is an RPG that is devoted entirely to the idea of late-19th century space travel.
• Forgotten Futures is a role playing game written by Marcus Rowland based on the Scientific Romances of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There's all kinds of good stuff on there. Also, Forgotten Futures Online.

Using the Themes

The above list of themes has been divided into logical groups to help you use them. The gameworld you play in could be centered around a particular group of themes, such as the Scientific Romances, or focused on a single theme, i.e. Gothic Horror. If this is the desire of the players, some consensus should be built around what theme (or themes) you want to build the gameworld around.

Another use of these themes is in character design. The character would have motivation(s) that lead him into adventures based on that theme: if it's High-Seas, he wants to go find treasure; if it's Mystery, he's a police detective; if it's Fantasy, she's curiouser and curiouser.

Above all, the themes can be used to make backdrops for adventures and provide a nice fertile ground where some adventure seeds could grow. But the above list is by no means exhaustive, and you should not feel like you need to stick doggedly to any single theme. Having a series of adventures that draws from a variety of the above themes will make for a more varied and interesting campaign. Feel free to color outside the lines and feel free to engage in...

Mixing the Themes

There are several ways to mix up the themes in an adventure. The first way is to have the adventure start out looking like it's themed one way, but then it changes course. The Exploration and Mystery themes work particularly well as gateways into more fantastical themes. Gulliver's Travels starts out as 'High Seas' and becomes 'Fantasy'. The Rats in the Walls by H. P. Lovecraft starts out as a 'Mystery' and becomes 'Horror' halfway through.

Another way to mix up the themes is to have a single adventure that carries two or more of the above themes from start to finish. A good example of a story with a blend of the above themes would be The Island of Dr. Moreau: the 'High Seas' theme is there (it's an island); the 'Mystery' theme is there (find out what the good doctor is up to); the 'Weird Science' theme is there (incredible vivisections perfomed on animals); and the 'Horror' theme is there (nasty mutant animals that incur fright check rolls). Another good example is 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which also has a good blend of different themes: 'High Seas' (right there in the name), Steampunk (Dr. Nemo is very much a Steampunk character, countryless, godless, a seperatist) 'Horror' (big, nasty squid) and 'Marvelous Machines' (A submarine powered extensively by electricity).

Rather than taking all the trappings of a theme, part and parcel, you can instead use just an element or two as a plot device. For example, instead of having a Steampunk-themed adventure that is heavily decorated with Engines and Automatons, you could instead have a Mystery themed story where a prototype Engine has been stolen and the detetives need to discover who stole it. In this example, the Steampunk Engine is merely a plot device and not a major theme.

It might be a bit of an overload to try to mix all of these themes into a single adventure. If you can pull it off though, more power to you.

Beyond the Themes

The purpose of the page is to incite the imagination, not to dampen it. The themes presented here should help to give you some ideas of adventures you might do, but please don't feel like you need to limit your adventures to just the themes on this page. You could invent some kind of Victorian era Gangster / Mafia organizaion that the characters go up against. If the adventurers were to get inside H.G. Well's Time Machine, they could very well find themselves transported to a distant Caveman setting or forward to a Brave New World setting. Experiment, and enjoy.

Scraps

This is the dumping ground for all the little tidbits that I think are neat but haven't found a place for yet.

There are several other themes I might add:

• Martial Arts: mention Boxing, started by Daniel Mendoza, Judo in Japan and numerous Jiu-Jitsu schools that popped up everywhere. A Steam Age campaign set in Japan or China could be lots of fun.
• Religion: a great many new religions where founded in the 1800s, and prevailing attitudes about religion changed significantly. Might mention H.G. Well's God the Invisible King
• Romance: this is where Madame Bovary and Room With A View could go. Both of these tend to be more in line with 'Hight Society' though.
• Education: It's practically it's own section anyway.

Historical People and Events

I'm not quite sure where to put these.

• The classic SF short story "Inflexible Logic" by Russell Maloney (?)
• 1801 Census. USA total pop 5 million. GB 10 million. New York 60,000 London 850,000 [TH]
• 1803 Louisian purchased from France for 60,000 francs. [TH]
• 1824 None of the four U.S. presidentail candidates reach a majority. The political party collapses and splits to form the two groups, Republican and Democrats, still in use today. [TH]
• 1863 The first national Thanksgiving Day is set. [TH]
• 1871 PT Barnum sets up "the greatest show on earth", his circus in New York. [TH] (This was the guy who said "There's a sucker born every minute")
• 1871 A great fire sweeps Chicago, making 90,000 homeless. Due to the exceptional hot, dry, summer, and the all wood buildings, the flames even cross the river. [TH]
• 1878 The Jehovah's Witnesses are established in Pennsylvania by Charles Russell. [TH]
• 1879 The National Archery Association is formed [TH]
• 1886 The Statue of Liberty, a gift from France, is unveiled on Beldoe's Island. [TH]
• 1889 Land in Oklahoma is divided into plots and the land race starts. First to a plot, prviously owned by Indians, can claim it. [TH]
• 1890 U.S. population reaches 50 million [TH]

Books, etc.

• When the Sleeper Wakes by H.G. Wells

Contributors

Numerous contributions to this page were made by a fellow Victorian gamer on the net, Tim Hewitt. His additions are denoted with [TH].

Stuart Park, another Victorian afficionado, made some contributions to this page, indicated by an [SP].

Cameron Fairchild, a Space, 1889 player, set us straight on the origins of Baseball. His comments are labeled with a [CF].

Hank Harwell informed me of the role of William Booth in founding the Salvation Army. His comments are labeled with [HH].

Disclaimers

GURPS is a trademark of Steve Jackson Games. This text on this page is an original work, is not official, and is not endorsed by Steve Jackson Games.

None of the images on this page are mine and all of them link back to the sites where I found them.