DMMike wrote:Hey Lurker,
Rather than go into the tired litany of "Its your game, run it how you want!" I'm going to try and actually be helpful.
I understand where you're coming from. When I first started Victorious as simply a campaign setting rather than its own RPG, I took several ideas for adventures from Chaosium's Cthulhu by Gaslight. While I'm not a "Dark-Horror-Everything" kind of GM, I do think the occasional horror keeps players on their toes and realizing that the world isn't sweetness and light. I even provide a section of the Victorious rulebook called "Victoria's Secret: The Darker Side of the Victorians". This is to remind people that "Mary Poppins" and "My Fair Lady" are no more the genuine Victorian era than "Leave it to Beaver" was the American 1950s.
Ask Liz about her heroine Dancer having to fight two Hunting Horrors at Sandringham or the Shoggoth loose in the Blessing Asylum and you'll get quite a story of horror!
Mike
Thanks for the reply and explanation, especially the 'try and actually be helpful'
I guess I oversimplify my posts ... to be closer to the mark, I should have said that normally a steam punk / suppers game wouldn't draw me. However, everything I hear about Vicky draws me closer to that type of setting/game than any similar games. Then there is all the good things Tree and others have said which further interest me. Finally, the grim element puts a bow on the package and take me from 'curious & interested' to 'intrigued and must have'.
Oh yeah, all the great info you have shared with me and on the boards helps too !
Now chasing the rabbit back to the 'I like the grim part' That example is perfect on how I look at 'horror' roleplaying. I always disliked the Lovecraftesk effect of no matter what you will eventually go insane or die or both. I always felt the horror should add good spice to the game not overpower it. From your examples it sounds like Victorious gets that balance right. That makes we wonder just how will it play (or better put, how good can I run it) with the steampunk trappings and suppers abilities, but with the grim elements that hook me into the game.
Oh yeah, rgr that on Victorian reality having a darker underpinning. As a history guy, I understand what you mean. When you think about it, it is those dark truths that led to Marx/Engles, to anarchists, and other issues that effect us to this day. Now throw fantastical/horror on top of that reality, and you have a game that calls out to me ...
Ask Liz .... Hmmmmm do tell ....