Victoriana

About this board game

Victoriana is a cooperative game for 1–4 players that takes about 90 minutes, set in the heart of 19th-century London. Players become exceptional investigators recruited by Queen Victoria to uncover a dire conspiracy and protect the British Empire.

Each investigator has influence within a different realm of British society: politics, science, the occult, or the underworld. Before play begins, the conspiracy’s mastermind, plot, and locale are secretly selected through cards and tokens. The players must identify this hidden combination while time steadily runs out.

Investigators move throughout London, visiting notable locations and revealing facedown lead cards. They spend influence tokens to acquire leads, then decide how to apply those clues toward the conspiracy’s unknown elements. Careful resource management is essential, since mishandling the clock or influence can cause leads to go cold, traumatize investigators, and bring the plot closer to its dreadful realization.

• Cooperative investigation for 1–4 players
• Hidden conspiracy built from a mastermind, plot, and locale
• Movement through London and facedown lead cards
• Influence management across four realms of British society
• Agents that disrupt the investigation, discard influence, or cause trauma

As the investigators approach the truth, the mastermind sends agents to obstruct their progress. These agents can disrupt efforts by forcing influence tokens to be discarded or cause trauma through assassination. The pressure grows as the team tries to assemble the precise evidence needed for a final confrontation.

In Victoriana, victory requires identifying the conspiracy’s elements, gathering the correct combination of influence, and assembling at the right locale. The queen is saved if the investigators succeed, but too many cold leads, a midnight chime from Big Ben, or excessive trauma brings a dire fate.