Um, I'm working on an alternate history alien invasion RPG, set in a fictional Eastern European country, in 1887... It's gonna include all the things that get me going: conspiracy theories, secret societies, inverted clichés, Greys and gaslights. So basically it's Illuminati! meets Doctor Who meets War of the Worlds meets X-Files meets Eastern Europe. Right now I'm in the brainstorming phase. So it's not even "raw material" yet..
Do you guys know of anything similar? RPGs, novels...
Victoriana (written by our very own Corone and published by Cublicle 7) is in the same era but is much less specific. I think what will provide you with plenty of novelty is 'meets Eastern Europe' because I think most of the planet is ignorant of what went on in Eastern Europe at that time. It should give your game a distinct and welcome flavour.
What stage are you at? Got anything written? Any system chosen?
I think clichés will work really well here rather than being historically or geographically accurate. You can take the most interesting features from each of the different countries.
As for aliens, I think the aliens-being-nasty has been done to death. Perhaps, instead, they rather like the human race but just despair at its faults.
Or I can go for the "holy jeebus, these alien folks are actually super-nice when compared to us humans" effect..
Right now I'm going for the peaceful co-existance of the two races - the aliens are permitted to mine on the country's territory (in exchange for certain technologies maybe? Nah, that'd be an American scenario. The aliens bribing a limited number of city council members sounds more like 19th century Eastern Europe...). This is what goes on on the surface (pun not intended). Whether the aliens have a hidden agenda or not I'm purposefully leaving to the imagination of the players; I want to implent a few groups/secret societies, who all have different opinions. Truth, after all, is not unique. Everyone has their own take.
Edit: by the way, the working name for the country is Boleslavia so far.
Boleslavia is a great name and keeping the connection with the aliens vague is good too. Absolutes can hurt a setting. Perhaps the aliens could be mining something we don't need. A certain type of rock we have loads of, like marble or limestone.
You can read the first half of the "Setting" chapter here It's not too much (not that I plan it to be more than approx. 20 pages). I'll be adding updates now or then.