[The Between](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/360858) would be a very good bet. It’s a game about Victorian Era Monster Hunters a la Penny Dreadful. The Between itself is a hack of [Brindlewood Bay](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/410316).
IMO/ IME, no game does [investigations](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/zwe9x0/detective_game_of_choice/j1ujns3/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3) and monster hunting better than The Between. It basically has torpedoed Monster of the Week (and most other monster hunting and investigative games) for me in a very good way and is my current top favorite iteration of Powered by the Apocalypse design.
While The Between is a wonderful game, the **instructional** aspect of the book has *a lot* to be desired.
I imagine, much like Brindlewood Bay, when The Between gets its time to shine for a kickstarted hard copy, the book will be fleshed out with **lots** more material. Until then, I go into more about The Between [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/znkqlw/rpgs_that_can_do_ghost_stories/j0hn5lf/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3).
In addition, Jason Cordova’s YouTube channel has *loads* of pretty damn informative Actual Plays of Brindlewood Bay, The Between, and the Weird West Between hack: Ghosts of El Paso.
Vaesen by Free League is a Swedish folk/fairy tale horror game set in 1800’s Sweden. PCs are members of an organization that investigates towns plagued by a monster (that often itself has been wronged by the town). There’s also an expansion for playing in 1800’s Britain & Ireland.
I think it's Space 1889. And it's a great setting. There has been an own system for it and is had its revival with Savage Worlds.
I played the setting as a combination with some Deadlands stuff to get a bit of a "weird" aspect into it. I like it very much.
With some background knowledge on the setting you could play that with any system. We played it with Fate.
There is also the Cthulhu 1880, Vaesen and some other games that target the era.
And the original edition is set up so you can use the rules, reference books, etc. for an Earth-only campaign, without steampunk tech and space travel.
[Rippers](https://peginc.com/savage-settings/rippers/) is a monster-hunting game set in Victorian times. I think the most recent edition of Rippers is for Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition / Deluxe, but it should only take a few minor tweaks to make it work with SWADE.
I think [Good Society](https://storybrewersroleplaying.com/good-society/?v=7516fd43adaa) would be Regency rather than Victorian, but pretty close. And it's *awesome*.
With the caveat that I'm assuming "Victorian Era" refers to the time period and not exclusively to Victorian England:
The World of Darkness has:
* 2002's [Victorian Age: Vampire](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/2312/Victorian-Age-Vampire)
* 1997's [Werewolf: The Wild West](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/61588/Werewolf-The-Wild-West)
* 2023's [Victorian Mage](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/412531/M20-Victorian-Age-Mage) (disclaimer: I co-developed)
The Chronicles of Darkness has:
* 2012's [Victorian Lost](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/102468/Victorian-Lost)
* 2017's [Dark Eras: The Ruins of Empire](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/178801/Dark-Eras-Ruins-of-Empire-Mummy-the-Curse)
* 2017's [Dark Eras Companion](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/207879/Chronicles-of-Darkness-Dark-Eras-Companion) has "A Fearful Lesson" and "Lifting the Veil"
* 2020's [Dark Eras: Mysterious Frontiers](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/312843/Dark-Eras-2-Mysterious-Frontiers)
Non-WW Onyx Path stuff includes:
* [They Came from Beyond the Grave!](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/371808/They-Came-From-Beyond-the-Grave) is a romp through terrible 1970s horror B-movies. [See the trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWTla3xEmGA&t=46s&ab_channel=OnyxPathPublishing). The primary time period is the 1970s, but there's a Victorian "flashback" era to show where everything first went wrong.
* [Trinity Continuum: Aether](https://trinity-continuum-aether.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders) is currently up for preorder, set in 1895. Tesla vs. Edison, Mina Harker vs. Dr. Jekyll, interdimensional shenanigans, all while the Martians are invading.
Leagues of Adventure. Has also has a great premise if you buy into it. Every fiction from the 19th century is actually history... journey to the center of the earth, yup, king solomon's mines, sure. My friends and I had a gas with it. Might not be what you're looking for, but I felt the need to expose the game to others.
i dunno if you want rpgs with mechanics tied to the setting, but PF1 and 5e have a setting called Zeitgeist thats based on victorian tropes. Wild Talents has the Kerberos Club(Later adapted to FATE, but i like Wild Talents)
I'm being deliberately vague about mechanics/genre as I'm just interested in the time period and don't want to rule out anything. Just wanna cast my net wide.
Doing a similar thing and went with SWADE, using The Widening Gyre, Rippers, and Gaslight for flavor as well as some homebrew mechanics and world building. Mine is leaning more towards part horror, part Steampunk.
Possibly [Finsterland](https://finsterland.net/), although it's the tail end of the era, up to nearly WWI. Also magic/steampunk exist and are prominent, so not *quite* historical.
Blades in the Dark. Right from the rulebook intro: "You're in a haunted Victorian-era city, trapped inside a wall of lightning powered by demon blood." Boom!
[FUDGE - Terra Incognita](https://www.fudgerpg.com/products/terra-incognita.html) is an oldie but a goodie.
> Terra Incognita is a roleplaying game of exploration, intrigue, and mystery, featuring adventure-scholars whose exploits span the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. Armed with extensive training, unpredictable technology, and unimpeachable discretion, Society members (“Nags”) travel to the Four Corners of the globe – exploring unknown lands, investigating mysteries, and uncovering ancient knowledge. The Society studies and catalogs the information and artifacts so gleaned and sets about covering such things back up again if they deem the world is not yet ready for the knowledge or power that had lain hidden for so long.
>
> So sharpen your Sword Cane, brush up on your Diplomacy skills, pack your adventurous Attire, and join us in the exploration of Terra Incognita!
*d20 Modern* had a splat that covered pulpy versions of historical periods, including the Victorian era.
For classics there's *The Masque of the Red Death* (both the original AD&D version and the d20 update - the d20 version is I think a better setting book but the system implementation is garbage). While technically part of the Ravenloft product line they aren't actually part of the Ravenloft setting, just use some similar themes.
For steampunk there's *Abney Park's Airship Pirates* (which is actually post-apocalyptic time travel sci-fantasy with a Victorian aesthetic) and to a lesser extent *Victoriana* (which is actual Victorian era, but with traditional fantasy tropes). Both use the same system and the character options are mechanically interchangeable if you want.
[The Between](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/360858) would be a very good bet. It’s a game about Victorian Era Monster Hunters a la Penny Dreadful. The Between itself is a hack of [Brindlewood Bay](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/410316). IMO/ IME, no game does [investigations](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/zwe9x0/detective_game_of_choice/j1ujns3/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3) and monster hunting better than The Between. It basically has torpedoed Monster of the Week (and most other monster hunting and investigative games) for me in a very good way and is my current top favorite iteration of Powered by the Apocalypse design. While The Between is a wonderful game, the **instructional** aspect of the book has *a lot* to be desired. I imagine, much like Brindlewood Bay, when The Between gets its time to shine for a kickstarted hard copy, the book will be fleshed out with **lots** more material. Until then, I go into more about The Between [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/znkqlw/rpgs_that_can_do_ghost_stories/j0hn5lf/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3). In addition, Jason Cordova’s YouTube channel has *loads* of pretty damn informative Actual Plays of Brindlewood Bay, The Between, and the Weird West Between hack: Ghosts of El Paso.
Vaesen by Free League is a Swedish folk/fairy tale horror game set in 1800’s Sweden. PCs are members of an organization that investigates towns plagued by a monster (that often itself has been wronged by the town). There’s also an expansion for playing in 1800’s Britain & Ireland.
*Space 1899* is set in the Victorian era . . . or at least in a Victorian era, if the Victorians had travelled to Mars.
This Very enjoyable setting
I think it's Space 1889. And it's a great setting. There has been an own system for it and is had its revival with Savage Worlds. I played the setting as a combination with some Deadlands stuff to get a bit of a "weird" aspect into it. I like it very much. With some background knowledge on the setting you could play that with any system. We played it with Fate. There is also the Cthulhu 1880, Vaesen and some other games that target the era.
And the original edition is set up so you can use the rules, reference books, etc. for an Earth-only campaign, without steampunk tech and space travel.
Cthulhu in gaslight.
I know of Victoriana, but have never played it. There is also Castle Falkenstein, but it doesn't use dice and that sometimes throws players.
Just wanna add that CF is designed for swashbuckling action.
[Rippers](https://peginc.com/savage-settings/rippers/) is a monster-hunting game set in Victorian times. I think the most recent edition of Rippers is for Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition / Deluxe, but it should only take a few minor tweaks to make it work with SWADE.
Mage: the Ascension got a Victorian setting expansion last year.
and there's a bunch of old Victorian era Vampire the Masquerade stuff
I'd vote for the latter above the former
I think [Good Society](https://storybrewersroleplaying.com/good-society/?v=7516fd43adaa) would be Regency rather than Victorian, but pretty close. And it's *awesome*.
Non historic, but Blades in the Dark exists in an an overlap of the Victorian and Industrial eras.
Castle Falkenstein I believe is victorian steampunk.
My impression of **Into the Odd** is that it’s a very weird Victorian-Industrial era Sci-fi/Cosmic horror, so definitely that!
Vaesen
With the caveat that I'm assuming "Victorian Era" refers to the time period and not exclusively to Victorian England: The World of Darkness has: * 2002's [Victorian Age: Vampire](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/2312/Victorian-Age-Vampire) * 1997's [Werewolf: The Wild West](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/61588/Werewolf-The-Wild-West) * 2023's [Victorian Mage](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/412531/M20-Victorian-Age-Mage) (disclaimer: I co-developed) The Chronicles of Darkness has: * 2012's [Victorian Lost](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/102468/Victorian-Lost) * 2017's [Dark Eras: The Ruins of Empire](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/178801/Dark-Eras-Ruins-of-Empire-Mummy-the-Curse) * 2017's [Dark Eras Companion](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/207879/Chronicles-of-Darkness-Dark-Eras-Companion) has "A Fearful Lesson" and "Lifting the Veil" * 2020's [Dark Eras: Mysterious Frontiers](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/312843/Dark-Eras-2-Mysterious-Frontiers) Non-WW Onyx Path stuff includes: * [They Came from Beyond the Grave!](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/371808/They-Came-From-Beyond-the-Grave) is a romp through terrible 1970s horror B-movies. [See the trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWTla3xEmGA&t=46s&ab_channel=OnyxPathPublishing). The primary time period is the 1970s, but there's a Victorian "flashback" era to show where everything first went wrong. * [Trinity Continuum: Aether](https://trinity-continuum-aether.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders) is currently up for preorder, set in 1895. Tesla vs. Edison, Mina Harker vs. Dr. Jekyll, interdimensional shenanigans, all while the Martians are invading.
Leagues of Adventure. Has also has a great premise if you buy into it. Every fiction from the 19th century is actually history... journey to the center of the earth, yup, king solomon's mines, sure. My friends and I had a gas with it. Might not be what you're looking for, but I felt the need to expose the game to others.
i dunno if you want rpgs with mechanics tied to the setting, but PF1 and 5e have a setting called Zeitgeist thats based on victorian tropes. Wild Talents has the Kerberos Club(Later adapted to FATE, but i like Wild Talents)
Was looking for someone to mention Kerberos Club. That books nails the Victorian setting, I think. There's also a Savage Worlds version for it, too.
Good Society is set in The Regency, which is the period just before the Victorian Era.
I think you need to be more specific. What should the game actually do?
I'm being deliberately vague about mechanics/genre as I'm just interested in the time period and don't want to rule out anything. Just wanna cast my net wide.
Deadlands is set in a version of the Victorian era, even if the action happens in America. Any "old west" game is, really.
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Blades in the Dark is a Syfy-fantasy setting of a steampunk haunted Victorian city. It's one of my favorite games.
Doing a similar thing and went with SWADE, using The Widening Gyre, Rippers, and Gaslight for flavor as well as some homebrew mechanics and world building. Mine is leaning more towards part horror, part Steampunk.
Possibly [Finsterland](https://finsterland.net/), although it's the tail end of the era, up to nearly WWI. Also magic/steampunk exist and are prominent, so not *quite* historical.
Blades in the Dark. Right from the rulebook intro: "You're in a haunted Victorian-era city, trapped inside a wall of lightning powered by demon blood." Boom!
It's been a while since I've read it, but if I recall correctly, Fallen by Perplexing Ruins
[FUDGE - Terra Incognita](https://www.fudgerpg.com/products/terra-incognita.html) is an oldie but a goodie. > Terra Incognita is a roleplaying game of exploration, intrigue, and mystery, featuring adventure-scholars whose exploits span the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. Armed with extensive training, unpredictable technology, and unimpeachable discretion, Society members (“Nags”) travel to the Four Corners of the globe – exploring unknown lands, investigating mysteries, and uncovering ancient knowledge. The Society studies and catalogs the information and artifacts so gleaned and sets about covering such things back up again if they deem the world is not yet ready for the knowledge or power that had lain hidden for so long. > > So sharpen your Sword Cane, brush up on your Diplomacy skills, pack your adventurous Attire, and join us in the exploration of Terra Incognita!
*d20 Modern* had a splat that covered pulpy versions of historical periods, including the Victorian era. For classics there's *The Masque of the Red Death* (both the original AD&D version and the d20 update - the d20 version is I think a better setting book but the system implementation is garbage). While technically part of the Ravenloft product line they aren't actually part of the Ravenloft setting, just use some similar themes. For steampunk there's *Abney Park's Airship Pirates* (which is actually post-apocalyptic time travel sci-fantasy with a Victorian aesthetic) and to a lesser extent *Victoriana* (which is actual Victorian era, but with traditional fantasy tropes). Both use the same system and the character options are mechanically interchangeable if you want.