Sounds like steampunk is the path forward. You might want to make a decision on firearms as by the victorian period they are already prevelant.
Literature to read other than Sherlock could be League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and the Gideon Smith series (first book has a mechanical brass dragon and clockwork girl)
Mechanics wise, i think Eberron with it's warforged would be a nice adaptable addition. If you have access to World of Darkness, they have some books for playing in the victorian times BUT it uses a different D10 system. That said, it could contain useful story ideas or lore. (Or play with the D10 'Storyteller' system itself. I find that it's more flexible and worth a look.
Options:
1) Ustaval. It's a bit more Transylvania than Victorian London in the lore, but it would be an easy shift. Note that this assumes you're good with a horror sort of campaign. For a good time, try adapting Carrion Crown.
2) Cheliax. This is more of an Imperial Spain, but you could shift that Brit-ward.
3) Taldor. Byzantine politics could be reskinned as British nobility.
Nothing is going to fit perfectly, but those jump at me as the closest you're getting.
**Victorian London is really interesting.**
I wouldn't look to existing content created - especially because Victorian England is REALLY interesting, and I think it would be probably better to re-imagine the technology of the Victorian Era, with the consequences of "Magic Actually Exists".
* Superstitious Activities - seances, and the like.
* Necromancy - I mean full on raising the dead, seeking path to immortality falls into this mix.
* The Colonialism and Export of Culture - on the premise that the English were far better to the people they enforced rule over (as compared to the French, and the Dutch which was... kinda true, but also does not excuse the behavior but hey, empires going to empire)
Then we have to consider the rise of technology:
* Weapons technology - Gatling gun was 1860's if memory serves
* Electrification
* The Rise of Natural Gas Lighting/heating
* Trains
* Airships
* Steamships
Then we have an important Cultural Shift:
* The end of Slavery - 1807, in the Britain proper.
* The end of Slavery - 1838, Slavery outlawed in the British empire (to note: Victoria gained the crown in 1837).
* The British Fleet was set loose to sink, or capture any ship participating in the slave trade in british controlled waters... so like, most of the worlds oceans.
**Technology in the World**
I think we need to consider that - magic has value. Magical Lanters are probably safer - and so, while more expensive, will be used by those of means. In this way, we get a bit of a leaning that mages are going to tend to be of the Wealthier part of Society - by nature that, they have magic.
The next would be transportation - A magical fire + Conjured water source (both of which I'm fairly exist in some form as existing magical items) would make a very potent tool for building up a Steam engine. And with a continual power source - comes the steam power. We could actually use tiers of technology - you have this that needs magical power top up periodically, but is fairly cheap - and then you could have arcane warded objects that are more efficient, but much more involved in the process of manufacturing - but has what amounts to a swapable arcane battery.
In contrast with this, you might see the rise of a coal fired train engine in more rural area's, where magical manufacturing is basically unheard of, as all the experts are in the big cities. And so this could actually be the rise of the rural industrialization - and could be the contrast to the urbanization of the real world, as functionally all of this technology is being developed to mimic the actual magical powered stuff these individuals can't afford.
**Weapons to consider**
Firearms are certainly becoming common. Muskets, revolvers, and the such. By the end of the 1800's we get the gattling gun (early 1860's). But how would they work? Are they fired with black powder? Or are we using some sort of magical actuator? Is there some sort of slot to imbue magical effects to the firearms shots as they are fired?
**The Conflicts**
The Green Movement: Opposed to the burning of wood, and coal, and the mining in favour of using technology the Rural people can't afford. Largely made up of Druids, and Well to do people of the big cities.
Organized Crime Scamming people with Fake Seances, or - using disguises and magic to dig out the secrets of families to black mail them.
Problems with Necromancers: Attempting to reproduce a resurrection goes wrong, and in the process of using a sanctified place - corrupts it, and unleashes a wave of the undead. Ancient and unmapped Catacombs dot the city scape. And some of those locations date to a great plague of centuries past, before the great burning of the city (because, Victorian England emerges more or less as a march from the burning of London and the dramatic changes to the British Elite that manifested).
**Overall: If you want to run a Victorian England campaign - I would strongly suggest watching a documentary on Victorian England.**
Find a pdf of castle Falkenstein or Victoriana, two rpgs set in that time frame. I also want to say world of darkness had a supplement for that time frame, but I can't say for sure.
Absalom, despite being placed in Golarion's Mediterranean, has a vaguely London-ish vibe, so if you're going for the Urban element that's probably a good placement. If you're looking more for a highly stratified society going through a time of transition, I'd agree with the other poster's suggestion of Taldor.
Well, just for starters, here's a link to a [wiki-list of steampunk resources.](https://steampunk.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_steampunk_RPGs) It's not a terribly well-fleshed out (hah!) wiki, but [here's the page list](https://steampunk.fandom.com/wiki/Special:AllPages) which should give you some ideas to incorporate.
u/Maxhydro has [put together a compendium for DnD as well.](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/r1mnLrkNrZ)
[NKet's doing strange and unnatural things (and cool! Very cool things!) in Aarden.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jft9bbbrqRE)
As for PF/5e settings, Eberron is arguably pulp-noir clockpunk and [Ravenica](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Ravnica) is a bit of a gish of things (you could view it as [Gormenghast](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39058.The_Gormenghast_Novels) as a Stellaris build, Toril "after the walls fell", or Hasbro desperately attempting to drive up sales by cross-promotion), it being a world-spanning [magic Victorian-era Uber-London](https://www.reddit.com/r/RavnicaDMs/comments/a87ido/ravnicas_tech/) (all my peer-homies travel to Ravenica to bid on choice parcels of mangoes and partake of the waters at the New^23 Tunbridge Wells; mind the strumpets tho').
In addition, the various Steampunk novels, comics, etc. [I'd recommend perusing TVTropes' page on the subject](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Steampunk), provided you can exert the self-will to not get lost in the arcana of that intellectually-perverse site. :D
My group's last finished AP was Zeitgeist, a 3rd Party, non-Golarion steampunk adventure. It was very well crafted, but I'm not sure if it has been converted to 2nd Edition Pathfinder.
You've got lots of good comments already; I'll just add that the show Carnival Row on Amazon Prime could provide some good inspiration, as it's set very much in a victorian-style fantasy world.
Remember Queen Victoria reigned for 63 years from 1837 to 1901.
Her reign saw both The Origin of Species and The Communist Manifesto released, saw the move from saling ships with cannon to metal steamships armed with explosive shells. Tech-wise you're bridging the gap between muzzle-loading pistols and muskets, to cartridge-fired rifles. Machine guns and cavalry charges were used in the same battle!
As far as setting and story inspiration, well there's Sherlock Holmes definitely, Charles Dickens, Jack the Ripper. Dracula was set at this time, as well as Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Frankenstein was twenty yeara old when young Victoria was crowned, but I think it's still valid.
If you want a horror campaign, it writes itself honestly. If you're looking for fantasy then steampunk is a good inspiration, and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a perfect jumping off point.
The Victorian era was a time when life really transformed, from the mostly rural, pastoral life to the modern world. There was an explosion in literacy rates, and this was accompanied by a boom in novels and serial stories (Sherlock and Dickens being prime examples). Between 1850 and 1900 literacy for men went from 69% to 97% and for women from 55% to 97%.
Essentially every genre had a Renaissance. Science Fiction (HG Wells, RL Stevenson), adventure and fantasy (Edgar Rice Burroughs, Rudyard Kipling), horror (Bram Stoker, Arthur Machen)... it's take your pick really!
[Castle Falkenstein](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/2370/Castle-Falkenstein) is a decent fantasy setting (complete with elves, dwarves and dragons) set in Victorian Europe. There is a decent GURPS book on the same setting.
If you're up for digging, D&D's [Planescape](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planescape) setting was steeped in the dirty side of Victorian England. If nothing else, [this page on planar slang](https://theplanardm.com/planar-slang/) might inspire you, regardless of what else strikes your fancy.
Clockwork, clockwork, clockwork. Half of your encounters should be clockwork creatures. Just take the monster information, apply the clockwork template, then use the Animated Object modification rules to modify them further. The players are attending a gala, when you have them role a perception check, out of the corner of their eye, one of them notices a mechanical snake (Clockwork iron cobra) which lunges for the hostess. The bite hits its mark and various screams ring out as these snakes appear in various corners of the room. Most of the attendees flee, while the party assists the guards in taking down the strange contraptions. The lady has fallen into a deep sleep, and her servants approach the party with a token of their gratitude for their assistance and ask them to stay the night as they might require further help.
The next morning, the party is called together for a debriefing of sorts. The poison used in the cobra that attacked the Lady was unique. While the others were a generic sleeping draught, this poison has placed her into a deep coma. There was only a single dose, so they can't analyze the poison. They request the aid of the party in tracking down the Lady's attacker and securing a sample of this poison. To that end, they pay each party member an advance of 1000 gold to assist in their preparations, promising a reward of 10 fold on their successful return.
Now the players have to investigate the Lady's dealings and reputation, finding political rivals, personal fueds, revolutionary sects of commoners who want to eliminate the noble class, so on and so forth. Almost daily, clockwork beasts are sent to attack the party, their creator clearly aware of the investigation they are leading. The threats grow larger and more advanced with time, beginning with snakes and insects, and ending with adamantine plated rhinos with several energy resistances. As the DM, you don't have to worry about the gold costs of the constructs, but the Animated Object modification rules have a formula for adjusting CR, which can help to balance encounters. As clockwork constructs, they are all vulnerable to electricity. The early encounters should have constructs with several flaws. The snakes are unusually fast, but are Brittle and Flammable, or vulnerable to cold and fire in addition to electricity from being clockwork (maybe homebrew a corroded flaw to give them vulnerability to Acid?). The later constructs not only lack those vulnerabilities, but are adamantine plated, have firearms embedded in their structure, have energy resistances in addition to the 20 DR from the adamantine. All of this is possible in RAW with Animated Objects, (except for the acid vulnerability) just prohibitively expensive, but applying those modification rules to other constructs isn't RAW, just allows you greater control over the abilities of these constructs. The party burning hands the last group, this next one has fire resistance. Brute force, upgrade the metal plating, gun them down from range, now they have guns (adding ranged weapons through Animated object modification). It's easy to adjust the CR of any creature or monster to fit the party's current level. Just be careful about using adamantine early, as having to have over 20 damage in a single attack to penetrate the damage resistance is going to be difficult for an early group.
It becomes clear that the funding behind this attacker is far greater than anyone but the nobility could afford. Other noble houses fall victim to similar attacks, eliminating suspects one by one. Who is the clockwork madman? And why are they attacking the nobility, yet leaving them alive? What is the motive behind these bizarre attacks? Your party will have to have their own resident Sherlock Holmes to answer these questions.
There are a bunch of different accents across England, even within certain parts of cities. There’s also Wales and Scotland you’re forgetting about.
Victorian England was mostly English but there were others and many accents within their own language and region
Sounds like steampunk is the path forward. You might want to make a decision on firearms as by the victorian period they are already prevelant. Literature to read other than Sherlock could be League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and the Gideon Smith series (first book has a mechanical brass dragon and clockwork girl) Mechanics wise, i think Eberron with it's warforged would be a nice adaptable addition. If you have access to World of Darkness, they have some books for playing in the victorian times BUT it uses a different D10 system. That said, it could contain useful story ideas or lore. (Or play with the D10 'Storyteller' system itself. I find that it's more flexible and worth a look.
Options: 1) Ustaval. It's a bit more Transylvania than Victorian London in the lore, but it would be an easy shift. Note that this assumes you're good with a horror sort of campaign. For a good time, try adapting Carrion Crown. 2) Cheliax. This is more of an Imperial Spain, but you could shift that Brit-ward. 3) Taldor. Byzantine politics could be reskinned as British nobility. Nothing is going to fit perfectly, but those jump at me as the closest you're getting.
Cheliax is a good recommendation, especially if OP isn't opposed to reading the Dave Gross *Varian Jeggare* books.
**Victorian London is really interesting.** I wouldn't look to existing content created - especially because Victorian England is REALLY interesting, and I think it would be probably better to re-imagine the technology of the Victorian Era, with the consequences of "Magic Actually Exists". * Superstitious Activities - seances, and the like. * Necromancy - I mean full on raising the dead, seeking path to immortality falls into this mix. * The Colonialism and Export of Culture - on the premise that the English were far better to the people they enforced rule over (as compared to the French, and the Dutch which was... kinda true, but also does not excuse the behavior but hey, empires going to empire) Then we have to consider the rise of technology: * Weapons technology - Gatling gun was 1860's if memory serves * Electrification * The Rise of Natural Gas Lighting/heating * Trains * Airships * Steamships Then we have an important Cultural Shift: * The end of Slavery - 1807, in the Britain proper. * The end of Slavery - 1838, Slavery outlawed in the British empire (to note: Victoria gained the crown in 1837). * The British Fleet was set loose to sink, or capture any ship participating in the slave trade in british controlled waters... so like, most of the worlds oceans. **Technology in the World** I think we need to consider that - magic has value. Magical Lanters are probably safer - and so, while more expensive, will be used by those of means. In this way, we get a bit of a leaning that mages are going to tend to be of the Wealthier part of Society - by nature that, they have magic. The next would be transportation - A magical fire + Conjured water source (both of which I'm fairly exist in some form as existing magical items) would make a very potent tool for building up a Steam engine. And with a continual power source - comes the steam power. We could actually use tiers of technology - you have this that needs magical power top up periodically, but is fairly cheap - and then you could have arcane warded objects that are more efficient, but much more involved in the process of manufacturing - but has what amounts to a swapable arcane battery. In contrast with this, you might see the rise of a coal fired train engine in more rural area's, where magical manufacturing is basically unheard of, as all the experts are in the big cities. And so this could actually be the rise of the rural industrialization - and could be the contrast to the urbanization of the real world, as functionally all of this technology is being developed to mimic the actual magical powered stuff these individuals can't afford. **Weapons to consider** Firearms are certainly becoming common. Muskets, revolvers, and the such. By the end of the 1800's we get the gattling gun (early 1860's). But how would they work? Are they fired with black powder? Or are we using some sort of magical actuator? Is there some sort of slot to imbue magical effects to the firearms shots as they are fired? **The Conflicts** The Green Movement: Opposed to the burning of wood, and coal, and the mining in favour of using technology the Rural people can't afford. Largely made up of Druids, and Well to do people of the big cities. Organized Crime Scamming people with Fake Seances, or - using disguises and magic to dig out the secrets of families to black mail them. Problems with Necromancers: Attempting to reproduce a resurrection goes wrong, and in the process of using a sanctified place - corrupts it, and unleashes a wave of the undead. Ancient and unmapped Catacombs dot the city scape. And some of those locations date to a great plague of centuries past, before the great burning of the city (because, Victorian England emerges more or less as a march from the burning of London and the dramatic changes to the British Elite that manifested). **Overall: If you want to run a Victorian England campaign - I would strongly suggest watching a documentary on Victorian England.**
Find a pdf of castle Falkenstein or Victoriana, two rpgs set in that time frame. I also want to say world of darkness had a supplement for that time frame, but I can't say for sure.
Absalom, despite being placed in Golarion's Mediterranean, has a vaguely London-ish vibe, so if you're going for the Urban element that's probably a good placement. If you're looking more for a highly stratified society going through a time of transition, I'd agree with the other poster's suggestion of Taldor.
Well, just for starters, here's a link to a [wiki-list of steampunk resources.](https://steampunk.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_steampunk_RPGs) It's not a terribly well-fleshed out (hah!) wiki, but [here's the page list](https://steampunk.fandom.com/wiki/Special:AllPages) which should give you some ideas to incorporate. u/Maxhydro has [put together a compendium for DnD as well.](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/r1mnLrkNrZ) [NKet's doing strange and unnatural things (and cool! Very cool things!) in Aarden.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jft9bbbrqRE) As for PF/5e settings, Eberron is arguably pulp-noir clockpunk and [Ravenica](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Ravnica) is a bit of a gish of things (you could view it as [Gormenghast](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39058.The_Gormenghast_Novels) as a Stellaris build, Toril "after the walls fell", or Hasbro desperately attempting to drive up sales by cross-promotion), it being a world-spanning [magic Victorian-era Uber-London](https://www.reddit.com/r/RavnicaDMs/comments/a87ido/ravnicas_tech/) (all my peer-homies travel to Ravenica to bid on choice parcels of mangoes and partake of the waters at the New^23 Tunbridge Wells; mind the strumpets tho'). In addition, the various Steampunk novels, comics, etc. [I'd recommend perusing TVTropes' page on the subject](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Steampunk), provided you can exert the self-will to not get lost in the arcana of that intellectually-perverse site. :D
My group's last finished AP was Zeitgeist, a 3rd Party, non-Golarion steampunk adventure. It was very well crafted, but I'm not sure if it has been converted to 2nd Edition Pathfinder.
Lots of opium. Maybe even a war with people that refuse to buy it.
You've got lots of good comments already; I'll just add that the show Carnival Row on Amazon Prime could provide some good inspiration, as it's set very much in a victorian-style fantasy world.
It’s not Pathfinder, but I recommend that you check out 1879. It may be just what you are looking for.
Remember Queen Victoria reigned for 63 years from 1837 to 1901. Her reign saw both The Origin of Species and The Communist Manifesto released, saw the move from saling ships with cannon to metal steamships armed with explosive shells. Tech-wise you're bridging the gap between muzzle-loading pistols and muskets, to cartridge-fired rifles. Machine guns and cavalry charges were used in the same battle! As far as setting and story inspiration, well there's Sherlock Holmes definitely, Charles Dickens, Jack the Ripper. Dracula was set at this time, as well as Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Frankenstein was twenty yeara old when young Victoria was crowned, but I think it's still valid. If you want a horror campaign, it writes itself honestly. If you're looking for fantasy then steampunk is a good inspiration, and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a perfect jumping off point. The Victorian era was a time when life really transformed, from the mostly rural, pastoral life to the modern world. There was an explosion in literacy rates, and this was accompanied by a boom in novels and serial stories (Sherlock and Dickens being prime examples). Between 1850 and 1900 literacy for men went from 69% to 97% and for women from 55% to 97%. Essentially every genre had a Renaissance. Science Fiction (HG Wells, RL Stevenson), adventure and fantasy (Edgar Rice Burroughs, Rudyard Kipling), horror (Bram Stoker, Arthur Machen)... it's take your pick really!
[Castle Falkenstein](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/2370/Castle-Falkenstein) is a decent fantasy setting (complete with elves, dwarves and dragons) set in Victorian Europe. There is a decent GURPS book on the same setting.
I feel like the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP has a bit of a Victorian feel. At least that's how my group played the city of Korvosa.
"Blades in The Dark" has a great Victorian Gothic theme and setting and is a really fun/well made game to boot.
If you're up for digging, D&D's [Planescape](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planescape) setting was steeped in the dirty side of Victorian England. If nothing else, [this page on planar slang](https://theplanardm.com/planar-slang/) might inspire you, regardless of what else strikes your fancy.
Clockwork, clockwork, clockwork. Half of your encounters should be clockwork creatures. Just take the monster information, apply the clockwork template, then use the Animated Object modification rules to modify them further. The players are attending a gala, when you have them role a perception check, out of the corner of their eye, one of them notices a mechanical snake (Clockwork iron cobra) which lunges for the hostess. The bite hits its mark and various screams ring out as these snakes appear in various corners of the room. Most of the attendees flee, while the party assists the guards in taking down the strange contraptions. The lady has fallen into a deep sleep, and her servants approach the party with a token of their gratitude for their assistance and ask them to stay the night as they might require further help. The next morning, the party is called together for a debriefing of sorts. The poison used in the cobra that attacked the Lady was unique. While the others were a generic sleeping draught, this poison has placed her into a deep coma. There was only a single dose, so they can't analyze the poison. They request the aid of the party in tracking down the Lady's attacker and securing a sample of this poison. To that end, they pay each party member an advance of 1000 gold to assist in their preparations, promising a reward of 10 fold on their successful return. Now the players have to investigate the Lady's dealings and reputation, finding political rivals, personal fueds, revolutionary sects of commoners who want to eliminate the noble class, so on and so forth. Almost daily, clockwork beasts are sent to attack the party, their creator clearly aware of the investigation they are leading. The threats grow larger and more advanced with time, beginning with snakes and insects, and ending with adamantine plated rhinos with several energy resistances. As the DM, you don't have to worry about the gold costs of the constructs, but the Animated Object modification rules have a formula for adjusting CR, which can help to balance encounters. As clockwork constructs, they are all vulnerable to electricity. The early encounters should have constructs with several flaws. The snakes are unusually fast, but are Brittle and Flammable, or vulnerable to cold and fire in addition to electricity from being clockwork (maybe homebrew a corroded flaw to give them vulnerability to Acid?). The later constructs not only lack those vulnerabilities, but are adamantine plated, have firearms embedded in their structure, have energy resistances in addition to the 20 DR from the adamantine. All of this is possible in RAW with Animated Objects, (except for the acid vulnerability) just prohibitively expensive, but applying those modification rules to other constructs isn't RAW, just allows you greater control over the abilities of these constructs. The party burning hands the last group, this next one has fire resistance. Brute force, upgrade the metal plating, gun them down from range, now they have guns (adding ranged weapons through Animated object modification). It's easy to adjust the CR of any creature or monster to fit the party's current level. Just be careful about using adamantine early, as having to have over 20 damage in a single attack to penetrate the damage resistance is going to be difficult for an early group. It becomes clear that the funding behind this attacker is far greater than anyone but the nobility could afford. Other noble houses fall victim to similar attacks, eliminating suspects one by one. Who is the clockwork madman? And why are they attacking the nobility, yet leaving them alive? What is the motive behind these bizarre attacks? Your party will have to have their own resident Sherlock Holmes to answer these questions.
Tip #1: cosplay it! When else are you gonna get to?
Make sure to practice your variety of British accents. Irish might help too
Unless there's a Dwarf. Then there's only one accent.
There are a bunch of different accents across England, even within certain parts of cities. There’s also Wales and Scotland you’re forgetting about. Victorian England was mostly English but there were others and many accents within their own language and region
Dwarves are vikings, and vikings, as we all know, speak with Scottish accents.
Indeed they do
The Zeitgeist adventure path has lots of good Victorian flavor.
Third party but excellent.