#Victorian Horror

[tfinnbarr]

Slightly Fishy Alley

(for SWILL, an upcoming game by Max Fitzgerald. Posters are available as a sheet of printouts for your own ramshackle buildings! https://www.patreon.com/posts/adverts-and-98215139)

[theatsthetic]

After the funeral, Mary saw her husband everywhere. She wished she hadn't.

[ibrithir-was-here]

Tada! Did a line up of Arthur's Round Table in Blood of My Blood

(There are more agents then just these in his organization and I might doodle the few that have been name dropped but these are the main guys :)

Alwyne Hargreaves nee Sargent is from Allen Upward's "The Ghost Hunters" series

Ben Edwards is the hithertoo unnamed narrator or E. F. Benson's "The Room in the Tower"

Henry Harrington is a character from M.R. James' excellent "Casting the Runes"

And Kate Reed was a cut character from the original Dracula novel, a friend of Mina and Lucy and Jonathan's from school.

[vanivesstudy]

Vanessa 'Van' Ives Study

[nothwell]

What if the monstrous was the feminine and the feminine was the monstrous but also the monstrous and the feminine made out. What then.

[explicette]

[anushica]

god i love this movie so much

[greenh0ur]

[myecandy]

Monsters of old London

[theresattrpgforthat]

Is there a ttrpg like Blades in the Dark but with more character options & mechanical depth?

THEME: Crunchy Dark Victorian

Hello friend! I am assuming that this request is asking about genre, which I'd classify as dark fantasy/steampunk or fantasy/Victorian. I have a few ideas for this game, going in a few different directions. (I'm also interested to see if any of my followers have something they can add to this list!)

Malifaux, by Wyrd Miniatures.

Welcome to Malifaux, a twisted mirror of an alternate Earth in the 1900s; a world of gothic horror, Victorian structures, steampunk constructs, and wild west gunslingers. Rife with undead amalgamations, monstrous vengeful apparitions, and other creatures that bump in the night, these near-lawless lands are still worth treading for some, as the Soulstones deep within the cavernous catacombs are worth more than the sweat and blood it takes to obtain them.

I don’t know how I feel about equating tactical gameplay with mechanical depth but right now it’s still the first thing I think of when that term shows up describing ttrpgs. You will need a map to play this game, and something to represent buildings, trees, and other types of terrain. You will also need small figurines to represent your characters as you track the battle. Players manage Crews, rather than a single player character. Each member of a crew will have a stat card that will help you track things such as Cost, Characteristics, Health, Abilities and Stats. I think it’s very unique that this game uses playing cards rather than dice to help you determine what happens during play.

This is a setting full of assassins, mercenaries, necromancers, and scoundrels, all who contribute differently to the battles that you’ll play in. If you want a game that’s more like a tabletop game than a skirmish game, then you might want to look at Through the Breach instead (or alongside Malifaux), published by the same company.

Cthulhu by Gaslight, by Chaosium.

IN THE 1890s, Cthulhu and his minions share the globe with the mighty British Empire. But they owe allegiance to an empire of their own — a dark and cruel design on ownership of the world and on the dreams of humanity. Even among the green fields of rural England, only thoughtful and energetic intervention keeps the shadows at bay.

This is a supplement to help you play Call of Cthulhu in a Victorian setting. Call of Cthulhu uses a percentile system, in which you must roll under your skill number to succeed. This means that if you have a stealth skill of 50, you have a 50% chance of success. Characters are expected to die and die quick in Call of Cthulhu, so it’s recommended that each player creates a cast, with plausible reasons for each character to be drawn into the mystery as you play.

The book’s main purpose it to set the original game into a new setting, so it contains a primer on the Cthulhu mythos in Victorian England, as well as tips on running the campaign, a selection of friends and foes, as well as a couple of scenarios that you can drop into a Cthulhu game. If you’re a fan of making your dark game even more horrific, you might want to check this out!

Bloodclotte, by Nick Duff.

Bloodclotte is a tabletop RPG about doctors in a world of Gothic horror, where alchemy, reanimation and medical astronomy are used to save lives every day. Player characters work in a war hospital settled inside an abandoned castle, treating the soldier and civilian casualties of a continent in violent chaos. As patients develop unusual symptoms, the war unfolds, supply lines falter, and morale breaks down, the doctors must work together to keep the hospital from being overwhelmed.

Bloodclotte uses the Resistance Toolkit, which rolls small pools of d10s, with staggered successes to replicate layered storytelling. It has a great amount of potential for varied and interesting character classes, such as a Yellow Chemist, a Metaphysician, or a Death Priest. There are varying levels of Difficulty, and a resource called stress that pushes you closer and closer to Fallout.

I haven’t played a Resistance game so I don’t know how complex it is mechanically to Blades in the Dark. I don’t think it’s less complex than Blades - but it’s definitely different, so I think this system its at least worth checking out. To get an idea of how the system works, you can always look at the Resistance Toolkit, on Rowan, Rook & Decard’s website.

Also...

I've done a similar recommendation for Fallen London games before, many of which lean towards a streamlined or narrative kind of play, but I talk about Unhallowed Metropolis, by Strix Publishing there. You can read more about it in that post, but it's basically a zombie apocalypse happening during Victorian times, and it's definitely on the crunchier side. Worth checking out!

[runner-owen]

Figured I'd share this on Tumblr - really well made video that I think you gothic fiction lovers and dark academia fans will enjoy. Happy Halloween!

[devileaterjaek]

Nightmare Creatures II (PSX) Join our community on //Discord// Support me on //Ko-Fi//

[chaoticdesertdweller]

The Demons of Ludlow, 1983

Dir. Bill Rebane

[ibrithir-was-here]

Apotheosis of the Queen of Carcosa

[vanivesstudy]

A study in Vanessa 'Van' Ives

[stardustandrockets]

What's your favorite color combo?

Even though my favorite color is emerald green, the cohesion of the dust jackets and naked hardcover might just be my new favorite. I'm not generally a purple fan (my school colors from kindergarten through 12th grade were purple and white), but I love this!

The spoiler card art from the September box was sadly not included, but it should be in the October box (which is currently out for delivery as I type this at 9:15 am). I'll post it in my stories (on insta) when I've retrieved it after work.