Shadows in the Fog is a tabletop roleplaying game designed by Chris Lehrich. It is a game of occult horror set in Jack the Ripper’s London. The game leans very heavily on historical information to weave together a convincing and disturbing framework for conspiracies and magic.

Some of the game uses real history. Much of it is invention. One of the points of the game is that during play, it is difficult to tell the difference.

Shadows in the Fog is about occult themes and historical violence and horror. We recommend that this game, and this site, be restricted to mature readers.

What is the Shadows in the Fog Cyclopedia?

Because Shadows in the Fog is so dependent on real history, and because few players have extensive knowledge of 1888 London, we have set up the Cyclopedia as a quick way to learn. We began with a bunch of links and a bibliography, and then started adding small essays on Victorian people, places, events, and themes.

But we set this up as a wiki, not a regular website, because we want others to contribute what they learn and invent. If you have found out some interesting tidbit of information about the Monument, for example, we’d like you to contribute that. If your play group invented a wild conspiracy involving Freemasons and blood sacrifice, we’d like you to contribute that too.

It would be nice, of course, if we could just put all that information in one place and leave it at that. The problem is that not everyone likes every invention. In addition, we’d like to get contributions even from people who don’t play Shadows in the Fog, and we’d like the site to be useful to them as well—two things that go together, actually. And if little-known historical information is stuck in cheek-by-jowl with wild fantasies about subterranean albino pigs, the historical solidity of the site will begin to sway and shake.

To counteract this effect, we ask that everything posted be documented and flagged. The documentation should tell us where you got your information. The flag tells us whether you believe it to be historical fact, something you borrowed from a fictional work, or a personal or in-game invention. That way if a reader wants to use everything, it’s all there. If someone just wants to stick to history as it appears in reputable sources, that’s clear as well.

Incidentally, the albino pigs in the sewer? That’s documented, as a claim anyway, by Henry Mayhew, The People of London. No joke.

See, that’s the point. Where else would you learn that piece of weirdness? Where else would you find a clearing-house of the sort of information that usually slips through the cracks, but is nevertheless historical reality of some sort?

That’s what the Cyclopedia is for.

What if I Don’t Play Shadows in the Fog?

Well, clearly you should. But let’s set that aside.

The authors of the various pages assert that everything flagged as History is established fact, and the authors provide a source or sources to back that up. You should be able to rely on what you find flagged that way. If you find that something there isn’t true, is an old canard, or whatever, you should add an Editorial remark to that effect—and cite your sources.

The authors of the various pages assert that everything flagged as Fiction was borrowed from a publicly-available work of fiction, and the authors provide their source or sources. If you find that something there is wrong, or alternatively is historical fact borrowed and used in a fictional work, you should add an Editorial remark to that effect—and cite your sources.

The authors of the various pages assert that everything flagged as Invention was made up by them, in their games or their private musings. You should assume that everything marked Invention is complete fabrication. If you should happen to find that something there is actually true, or very close to it, you should add a History remark to that effect—and cite your sources.

A lot of material whips by and could use more depth. An historical personage gets mentioned, but the article author doesn’t know much about him. If you do, why not make the name into a link and add a page? Or suppose in one of the game Inventions, the characters visit the church of St. Anne’s, Limehouse, which the players found conveniently on a map. But you happen to know, of course, that it was built by Nicholas Hawksmoor as part of the post-fire reconstruction and urban renewal project. Okay, so add a link and tell us all about St. Anne’s, Limehouse. While you’re at it, add a link to Hawksmoor, and include a list of major works, including a back-reference to St. Anne’s. Oh, and of course Christchurch, Spitalfields. And St. George’s-in-the-East. And Kensington Orangery. And....

See, that’s the kind of thing we want to know. Lots of it. So if you know something and have sources, and you don’t see it here on the wiki, we’d like you to add it. If you already have or know of a great website that discusses exactly this information, just add a brief page telling us what the link is and add the link below.

It’s that easy.

Oh, and thanks!

So What if I Do?

Good! We hope you like it!

We don’t recommend restricting information on here. So if you’re a Host, don’t post secret information until the players have already encountered it. We recommend, in fact, that every player be pointed to the wiki as soon as possible, because it’s a great starting-point for getting a grip on the world of Shadows in the Fog.

Post your characters in People. Post places they visit in Places. Post events that happen to them in the Events timeline. And set up cross-references to everything you can think of.

Just be sure that whatever you post, you flag correctly. Your PC that you made up is an Invention. You can tell, because you can’t find him in a London Directory. Or can you?

As you go scurrying around London, across the Web, through newspapers and magazines and dictionaries and guidebooks and histories, you’ll be on the lookout for wild things to throw at your friends in the game. As soon as you do, post that stuff right up here. If you find more than you can use for the moment, post it all now and see what you come up with later.

There is a section of Tarot cards. Here you can post ways people have Interpreted cards, which may be helpful to other players. Reading what others have done may also help you get the hang of Interpreting for fun and profit. Try to give us a nice rich account of what you did.

If you want to set up a link to your campaign, with pages for your PCs and so forth, feel free. This can be very handy when posting Tarot Interpretations and PCs elsewhere, because you can just add a link with the title of your campaign so we can get context for your nifty Invention.

Bear in mind that whatever you invent, you may if you like cite sources. Which you may also happily invent. Just be sure to flag these posts Invention so everyone’s clear on what’s what.

I would recommend that you take everything flagged History as true, everything flagged Fiction as fiction until proven otherwise, and everything flagged Invention as rumor, to be proven or disproven as the case might be. That allows you to make use of other people’s material as inspiration and support without being locked into it.

If you have concrete suggestions or comments about gameplay, or just want to rehearse war stories, that’s what the Shadows Pub is for.

-- ChrisLehrich^? - 22 Dec 2004