Review: Victorian Lost

Originally published July 27, 2012

Cover for Victorian Lost

Victorian Lost is the latest Changeling: the Lost supplement. As the name implies it is focused on Changelings, people who have escaped the True Fae, in world of Late Victorian Britain.
On the plus side the setting is inherently evocative. The image of a changeling disappearing into the heavy fogs of London or a goblin working on some steampunk device is compelling. On the other hand this is more an aspect of Late Victorian Britain and the steampunk image it summons up for me and less any work by the authors.

What the authors have done, and done well, is to fit the Changeling setting to the culture of the period. Victorian Britain was a very class conscious society and that is reflected in the Lost society described in the book. The position of the various Seemings is described with the Wizened forced into the role of the humble servant (or disruptive anarchist) and Fairest holding a position similar to the noble class of the era. These ideas are well described in Chapter 3 of the book which is the strongest chapter in my opinion.

There are decent mechanical changes as well, discussed in Chapter 2. Two new Kiths are introduced, the Wizened Inventor and Darkling Lurker (though one wonders how many Jack the Ripper style foes the World of Darkness really needs). There are also some nice updates to the existing Contracts to allow for the lower level of technology and the Identity Merit for the weaker state of identity documents. Two new Goblin contracts allow new tools for Anarchists of the era (though sadly I feel this aspect of the period is only half heartedly discussed).

There are some serious shortcomings to the book. The worst is Chapter 1 which describes London and the culture of the period. While the material is fine, it is entirely transmitted via a series of letters by a Changeling to his sister. This makes it is hard to read and digest and worse makes it useless for referencing later. If you like reading the fiction you might find it enjoyable but for anything else I would ignore it and do some online research instead.

Another issue I have is with the book is the very limited scope. As I mentioned it is focused on Britain at the end of the 19th century. While this period has been focused on many authors (following in the steps of Dickens and Conan Doyle) it is singularly focused on that location and time. The material is much less useful if you are interested in the United States, Ireland or Paris during the same period, which had considerable differences in class and culture. While it discusses the wilds outside of London briefly there seems to be a strong discouragement of Changelings moving out to the country.

Chapter 4, is devoted to Storyteller advice and has much to say on theme and mood. Nothing here is spectacular though some good hints are given on highlighting a character’s alienation. A third of the chapter is given over to discussion of using Victorian Lost in a LARP. The ideas seem sensible though I personally have little interest in LARPs.

From Hunt Clubs and Rookeries

Two sample chronicles are provided. The Blackthorn Club involves a group of ne’er-do-wells of the upper crust trying to save Victorians from a True Fae trying to make everyone proper and mannered. It is up to them to lure the corrupted agents of the True Fae into scandal and giving in to temptation. Hunt Clubs and Rookies on the other hand follows the dredges of society as they investigate and attempt to stop a group of fetches and privateer Changeling nobles from killing them and their allies. Both are intriguing and well done with special rules to highlight the more magical aspects of the setting. I’m disappointed that there are only two. While a third chronicle might have made the book too long, I would have liked a page or two of story seeds like in Glimpses of the Unknown.

Master of All Men

The last two sections of the book present a sample adventure, Master of All Men, along with a set of characters called the Back Stairs Mob. The adventure is interesting and somewhat epic in scale with a bridge burning Changeling who decides to send a train (passengers and all) to Arcadia to destroy the True Fae. The characters are evocative and deep with lots of hooks for future adventures.

All in all the book is pretty good as long as you expect to run a Changeling chronicle in Victorian London. Outside of that the Back Stair mob and the adventure could be repurposed to a different city and the Mechanical changes would be useful throughout the time period. Outside of Changeling however I would not recommend buying this. The Victorian specific information is quite limited and describing an irritating manner and the ideas inside are hard to adapt to a different aspect of the World of Darkness.