Victoriana is a role-playing game published by Heresy Games in 2003, with second and third editions by Cubicle 7 in 2009 and 2013.
Victoriana is a role-playing game published by Heresy Games in 2003, with second and third editions by Cubicle 7 in 2009 and 2013.
Victoriana is a game of roleplay in a fantasy alternative Victorian era.
John Tuckey, Scott Rhymer and Richard Nunn designed the role-playing game Victoriana (2003) utilizing the Fuzion system, and the game was released by British small-press publisher Heresy Games. The game was set in an alternate-history fantasy steampunk version of 1867. In 2006, Cubicle 7 acquired Heresy Games, and enlisted designer Ian Sturrock along with newly assigned Line Editor Andrew Peregrine to develop a revised edition of Victoriana. Sturrock and Peregrine replaced the Fuzion system with their proprietary Heresy Gaming System, which was a streamlined dice pool mechanic that incorporated both positive and negative dice, and was designed for simplicity and to remain unobtrusive. Cubicle 7 previewed the system in 2007, and received advance copies of Victoriana Second Edition (2009) barely in time for GenCon 2008, but the full print run was not released until mid-2009. [1] : 428
A third edition was published in 2013, again by Cubicle 7. This edition was designed to be compatible with the previous version of the game.
Shannon Appelcline in his book Designers & Dragons describes that "Victoriana's setting was so 'punk' that some people called it 'Victorian Shadowrun'. When first released by Heresy Games, Victoriana had gotten average reviews, with most people saying that its strength lay in its setting. Meanwhile, there had been criticism over poor proofreading and poor attention to historical dates." Commenting on the second edition, he felt that "This new simplified game system combined well with strong editorial work from Peregrine and McDowall-Thomas to put the focus of the game on what was actually its strength: the setting." He further noted that "Victoriana Second Edition was an attractive book spotlighting a unique setting that got good reviews. Though it did not knock the ball out of the park, it was enough to show that Cubicle 7 was emerging on the RPG scene as a professional and notable company. It was also a strong enough product to receive continued support, with more than a half-dozen supplements published since… even as Cubicle 7 has gone on to much bigger things." [1] : 428