I love books, which should be fairly obvious, as I take a great deal of time explaining to you on here, as to why I like or what I like about books. Normally I stick to Zombies/Survival Horror, not because that is solely what I read, as my house is quite literally overstuffed with books; but because I know that genre. I don’t live it; you won’t see me preparing for an all out zombie apocalypse on television or anything. I don’t live and breathe by Max Brook’s “The Zombie Survival Guide” though to be completely honest, after I read it; I did have the sudden urge to purchase my fair share of survival gear. But for the most part, on all conventional levels, I know that specific trope/genre/sub-genre extraordinarily well. It is often predictable; in its very nature is a formula, which is nearly standard issue for all true zombie/survival horror stories. It doesn’t mean that it is not enjoyable, that there aren’t a lot of really great character driven stories out there- because I think, if you have read any of the reviews I’ve done here and elsewhere, you know, that I believe that I have helped pick out some of the better pieces in the annuls of the living dead. But, every once in a while, just every so often- I choose to read something that is completely unassociated with the “living” dead or zombies or having to defend yourself against homicidal post apocalyptic cannibalistic mutated savages.

I’d wager that most people feel a kinship with one time period or another. Some love the Renaissance so deeply that they model their weddings around the era. For me, I’ve always held a deep appreciation for the Victorian Era. Despite the difficulty historians have attributing a date to it, I fall in line with the generalized trends and historical high points of that period. There is a rather rich environment of Victorian Era gaming; each seems to fill its own niche. Castle Falkenstein has little in common with Ghosts of Albion; however, both are fine games. One writing staple of the era is using ten words when one would do. Charles Dickens, a known abuser of this “sin,” could actually write around all the flowery language. I mention this because the title is a bit wordy and I’m going to refer to this game as Gaslight for the remainder of the review.

Earlier, I announced that the Ghosts of Albion eBook was now available from Eden Studios (the print version comes out next month). Today we’re bringing you a small preview of this new game.

Some may not be familiar with the Ghosts of Albion setting, so we’re going to start with a basic introduction to the world of Albion and introduce a bit of the cosmology. Further previews and teasers will explore more of the setting and the Unisystem elements of the game…

“The Age of Romance and Gothic Elegance” proclaims the first line on the back of Vampire by Gaslight, and the Victorian era certainly seems tailored to be the Age of the Vampire. No other period in human history seems to suit the proclivities of the Kindred more than the end of the nineteenth century, and so the expansion of White Wolf’s Minds Eye Theatre into this complex and rich historical period is both welcome and daunting.