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After some brief research and discussion, a consensus was reached that the Victorian Age section of the Through the Ages timeline will likely focus on the British Raj - ie: the British control of India.

The Victorian Age core book for V:tM assumes a game taking place sometime between 1880 and 1897 - the later is the year of publication for Brahm Stoker's Dracula, which was the end of an era for Cainites and an enormous and almost uncontainable Masquerade breach. Brief discussions had previously supposed a start date sometime in the late 1860's or early 1870's. After further research I'd like to propose a start date sometime between 1870 and 1880; in addition to previously discussed reasons (Second Opium War completed in 1860, Japanese ports opened by the US in 1854, Crimean War complete in 1856, Britain stops sending convicts to Australia in 1868, conclusion of the American Civil War in 1865, the rise of the British Raj in 1858), we have the event of the opening of the Suez Canal in late 1869, which made travel to and from the Far East, including India, much faster (down from 6 months earlier in the century to around 3 weeks with the use of steam ships, the canal, and railways through the middle of Europe).

We discussed character ages and presume they will be of low-ancilla rank and experience. I have proposed a collaborative character creation process. We also plan to discuss the nature of the game itself, including who might run, and the trade-off of GMing duties, possibly depending on location, theme, or some other factor. It was generally agreed that character concepts should probably focus on the British or other European (though much less common) occupation of the region and their role as the ruling outsiders.

Prospective players are heavily encouraged to do a little historical research or read/watch a period novel/movie in order to get a good feel for the era, its level of technology, and the behavior of its denizens. Here's IMDB's list of Victorian Era period dramas to get you started.

A timeline of the Victorian Era: http://users.clas.ufl.edu/snod/vicagetimeline.html

A thought for character creation is to have preludes take place as mortals taking place 50 or so years before the start of the game. We were custom picked by Justicars for this assignment.

Several things came up in chatting with Cheyne and Haley about the game earlier tonight. For one, it'd be nice to see some doubling-up on clans - not necessarily from the same sire, just to sort of show off the breadth of the clan. Not every clan is a monolith, after all (in fact, virtually none of them are). Ideally this doubling-up should include the Ventrue, who are certainly the clan with the most invested into the British Raj.

Cheyne would like to see a concentration on the conventional Cam clans, minus the Malks and the Tremere, plus the Ravnos and maybe the Caps if they survive GioChrons1 (for those not playing the home game, that'd be Brujah, Gangrel, Nosferatu, Toreador, Ventrue, Ravnos, and maybe Cappadocians). Personally, I just don't want to see another Tzimisce or Salubri, as we've had several of both (particularly Tzimisce) as PCs in this timeline so far and it'd be nice to branch out some. Tzimisce don't make much since as globe-trotters anyway; it isn't in their nature, and their flaw makes it both expensive and dangerous. Assuming they survive, I'd definitely like to see someone play a Cap (if they don't, fuck 'em).

We chatted a bit about the premise of characters being Archons for a Justicar and the idea came up that perhaps 1 or 2 of them are Archons of one or two different Justicars and are there to observe and report to ensure that there's no impropriety or overreach on the part of any given Justicar.

Cheyne mentioned wanting to see some sort of prelude to the game take place in 1879 and having the game start in 1880 (which coincides with the assumed start-date in the VicAge book). Maybe 1879 is when characters are selected as Archons and a year or so is spent training them for the mission and then shipping them off? Just an idea.

If anyone wants the Victorian Age: Vampire book, let me know the next time I see you and we can probably make the transfer without much fuss. The rules are basically the same, but the book does have 3-4 page entries for the clans to describe what they're generally up to during the time period and some other stuff that could be useful for setting building.

I am wanting to mess with the caps. Others can double up with me, but I am thinking this is a great chance to help add the game world

British Raj
1879 (preludes), 1880 (start)
Archons? Mostly or entirely.
Ancilla starting stats
8/6/4
15/11/7
6 discipline dots
10 backgrounds (Per Victorian Age book, generation starts at 12th before background points)
7 virtues

Game GM in charge of sections
Cheyne – “Indian stuff”
Steven – “Things in Indian cities”
Paul – “NPCs Indian and British and Cathayan NPCs”
Jason – Western European adventures
Angela – 1-2 exploratory one-shots and self-contained sessions
Chris – power-point history presentation for setting

Ventrue Justicar (who many characters work for)
-strongly invested in East Indian Company; was a merchant during the rise of the merchant class in late middle ages - Jason may be doing a writeup

Who is playing what?
Steven – City Gangrel – Col. Sir William Arthur Reginald Strickland III, KCB, FRGS, adventurer to Africa, the Middle East, the Orient, and beyond – a founder of the Midnight Society Gentlemen’s Club
Paul – Toreador - Doc Holiday, American west, possibly from a different Justicar
Chris - Toreador – Australian, attempt to reclaim lost birthright, Bon Vivant, decedent of criminals sent to Aus – a founder of the Midnight Society
Jason – Cappadocian – already a noble, lore, culture, mysticism
Adam – Lasombra - steamboat captain and sailor, has possibly worked for the British-India Steam navigation company
Angela – Ventrue - Laura Bell – courtesan, involved with Nepalese Prime Minister at some point
Haley – Setite (Serpent of the Light) - lower end, one of too many daughters, gone to India to tutor British children – monitor and indoctrinate important people
Cheyne – Ventrue - Indian cultural sellout, went to England, got an education, government position, back to homeland to teach them how to live right in the British way
Alternate concept. For anyone – Foghorn Leghorn, homosexual, lisp

Initial projects –
Bring feudal princes to heel to some degree, work them into some sort of network we can use
Bring order to the cities so that they’re not the dins of supernatural ‘crap’ that they are now
Increase flow of resources from the region
Dealing with the Ravnos and Cathayan problems

This post reserved to expound upon my character for the setting.

Colonel Sir William Arthur Reginald Strickland III, KCB, FRGS. Often writes his name either Wm.A. Reginald Strickland, W.A. Reginald Strickland, or W.A.R. Strickland. Grandfather was called William, father is called Arthur, so he is called Reginald. KCB = Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. FRGS = Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society Was born the son of a military officer the same year Victoria herself was born (1819). Purchased a commission in the Infantry at age 16 (1834) with the help of his father. Promoted to full lieutenant at 17 (1835). Captain at 19 (1838). Major at 25 (1844), lieutenant colonel at 34 (1853), and colonel at 38 (1857). His valor and bravery, as well as effective command, in the field had him appointed as a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1852 (during the Second Anglo-Burmese War) and invested as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1858 (during the Second Opium War). Both awards were fairly common for someone of his rank, social standing, and military service. His service took him primarily to the Orient when he was not stationed back home.

Reg met his sire, Bernadette, at a fundraising party hosted by the Royal Geographical Society in 1858 during a lull in the war, shortly following his knightly accolade. He was not Embraced that night, or even that year. A few years later, during redeployment to China during the closing days of the Second Opium War he was ambushed and Embraced by his sire. The subsequent hunger frenzy finished off his immediate subordinates and consequently all of the witnesses. Official records indicate that he was missing in action and presumed dead.

Following this event, he was briefly indoctrinated into vampiric culture and the Path of the Gray Hunter and then abandoned to his own fate. Sometime in the following years he met Chris's character and formed the Midnight Society. Using connections with the Royal Geographic Society, he managed to join an expedition to Africa at some point. There he met some of the strange vampires native to the continent and attempted to establish a decent relationship with a few that seemed to be distant cousins.

Was chosen to be an archon approx 5 years ago, despite being Kindred for only about 15 years at the time; his extended life experience (owing to being older than the average neonate at age 41) has been judged to make up for a whatever lack he might have had. His specialized combat skills were also judged valuable and post-Embrace training has only augmented his abilities.

Uses his war and adventure stories to try ingratiate himself with other Kindred and mortals. Tries to have one of these adventures at least once or twice a decade. He rates as being distinctly bourgeois in terms of family history and financial means; the only thing that enabled him to buy his way into a commission was the fact that his father had done so already and had pay sufficient to allow him to do so as well. That he happened to be a decent commander on top of that was only a bonus for the Army.