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#1
12-10-2007, 07:05 AM
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Anyone played the Space: 1889 RPG?
Way back in the day, I used to play a lot of AD&D 2.5 and Shadowrun 3rd Edition. While browsing through a stack of RPG books I picked up from a garage sale one day, I found one entitled More Tales From The Ether, which was an adventure supplement for an RPG I'd never heard of called Space: 1889, which is best described as "An RPG set in the Victorian British Empire on Mars". My kind of game, in other words.
 The thing is, no-one I know has ever actually played the game. I later bought the rule books and a couple of the sourcebooks because the scenario interested me a great deal, but to this day I've never some across anyone who has actually managed to run an expedition using the game's rules. which do seem somewhat... cumbersome, especially to someone who is used to the d20 or Shadowrun d6 system. Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone on the boards has actually played the pen-and-paper version of Space: 1889? How did you find it? And how did it compare to other RPGs youve played?
__________________
Note: Please consider yourself and/or your acquaintances excluded from any of the author's sweeping generalisations which you happen to disagree with or have different experiences of. 
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#3
12-10-2007, 09:04 AM
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EN World is mainly D&D and d20. I'd recommend trying the fora at RPG.net -- there've been a few Space: 1889 threads there in the past.
From what I recall, in the main: no, nobody actually played it. There were a few people who had houseruled it into something they'd play, and others who had used other games (e.g., GURPS) to play it. I've always wanted to play, but never thought it was the kind of game my group would grok.
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#4
12-10-2007, 09:19 AM
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I played it - as a player - back in the day. I have been trying to find a copy of the books for AGES. It was loads of fun.
Actually, I think the best way to run it (at least, this is how the adventure I was in was run) is like a cross between a standard AD&D d20 game, and the original Call of Cthulu. But I haven't played in nearly 20 years, so I'm not sure how good my opinion would be in this area. However, if you can tell me where you came across the books, etc, I would be greatful. (As I look at the website, I think we ran one of the pre-done adventures, but I'm not sure. Oh, and never having the books, I wouldn't know if we house-ruled it or not. I don't think so, but I could be wrong. I don't have contact with that group much anymore, unfortunately.) Last edited by Indyellen; 12-10-2007 at 09:21 AM. Reason: forgot something
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#5
12-10-2007, 10:08 AM
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I played it just once, in 1988 for
Jim
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#6
12-10-2007, 12:43 PM
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I played once at a gaming convention (4 hour session) a few years ago. Don't remember the rules other than 1d6 acted differently than xd6 for no reason whatsoever.
Apparently it is back in print http://www.heliograph.com/space1889/ Brian
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#7
12-10-2007, 05:20 PM
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As I recall, a Steampunk oriented game.
Beyond that, I got nuthin'.
__________________
There's an Initiation Ceremony. It involves a Squid and a Goat. You're gonna be good friends with that Goat. The Squid will not exactly be a stranger, either. ~~Me, on the SDMB Initiation
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#8
12-10-2007, 05:24 PM
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I believe I Played an add on to it called Sky Galleons of Mars. That was fun. The More Martian wood you blasted from your enemy's ship they more he would sink until it Crash onto teh Martian surface. That was All I remember.
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#9
12-10-2007, 05:57 PM
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Know it, but haven't played it in years. Cool concepts, but the rules mechanics were, well, pretty clunky. (Not as clunky as some - I ran a Space Opera campaign, once upon a time - but pretty clunky, nonetheless.)
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#11
12-11-2007, 03:08 AM
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Quote:
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Last edited by Martini Enfield; 12-11-2007 at 03:09 AM.
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#12
12-11-2007, 05:49 AM
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It's a problem that a lot of "cool setting" RPG's have: what's cool to some people ("OOOOH!! Victorian spaceships and scientific romance!") is too high concept for the vast majority of RPG players. I know it's odd saying that something is too "high concept" for people who the top two favorite games are Tolkein-esque fantasy and vampires but there's a handful of very comfortable settings for 90% of the already small market of RPG players and they refuse to step beyond that.
Personally I like the idea of high concept, short campaign games but that's not what the industry is built on and its unlikely that they'll ever gain any steam. I've never played Space: 1889 but when I heard about it I really wanted to try it. Last edited by Just Some Guy; 12-11-2007 at 05:49 AM.
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#15
12-11-2007, 07:54 AM
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As Just Some Guy says, 90% of all RPGs involve either Tolkeinesque High Fantasy or Vampires. Even Shadowrun- which I reckon could be a great Cyber-noir adventure game in the vein of Blade Runner- has Orcs and Elves and Trolls and Magic Spells in it because, it seems, that's what people want in their RPGs. Personally, I prefer my RPGs to be distinctly free of Magic, Elves and Vampires, but apparently I'm in the minority there...
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#16
12-11-2007, 08:09 AM
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Are there really no major sci-fi games that are popular currently? Now, I have always preferred the Tolkienesque High Fantasy, but I am a Tolkien fanatic and I started playing D&D before there was an AD&D. I am trying to recall, but I think the old 3 book White Box set actually called Hobbits, Hobbits. I know we did. I just started back up a 1st edition based, Middle-Earth campaign that another doper is actually playing in along with some old friends. In fact one of the players I have known since 1976 when we were happy to have the Monster Manual. Jim
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#17
12-11-2007, 08:52 AM
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Yes, tragically this is one of those games more talked about than played, like Boot Hill. If they've re-issued it I hope they've re-vamped it in accordance with new enthusiasm for Victorian sci-fi.
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#18
12-11-2007, 08:58 AM
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#19
12-11-2007, 09:08 AM
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The Serenity RPG is apparently going to be putting out new items in the next year, so it's not what you'd call dead. Mind you, if I were to run a Firefly game, I'd probably want to do it in the Savage Worlds system, which is not that different from Serenity's Cortex system. The Cortex system is also being used for the Battlestar Galactica game, but I have no idea how well that's being supported. If you want to get into sci-fi roleplaying, you might consider picking up the old Alternity stuff. If you buy one supplement a month off of eBay, it'll be like you're getting a year's worth of the best supported sci-fi system ever. And it'll be cheaper than if it were new. Personally, I love the Star*Drive setting for Alternity. I've been running it in d20, and I've recently converted some of its concepts to Savage Worlds, so players of that system can enjoy it.
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#20
12-11-2007, 09:10 AM
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Is Champions still around? I use to play that late 80s and early 90s. Its weird, I am not a comic book guy, but everyone enjoyed my NYC based campaign. I think because I played up the humor & relied heavily on the scary reality of 1990 NYC. Jim
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#21
12-11-2007, 09:10 AM
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..
Last edited by What Exit?; 12-11-2007 at 09:12 AM.
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#22
12-11-2007, 11:01 AM
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I've played both. Albiet, Space 1889 I only played once. The idea that it's too 'High concept', I think, is right on the head. People are thrown off by the idea, and then take a dislike to playing it. I find this a sad state of affairs, as I have all manner of RPG's that I'd love to play, but that don't fit into the 'standard' RPG mold. Ah well. To answer the question- when we played, much fun was had, but yes, the dice system is very, very clunky.
__________________
"Try this: Before you post, say what you wrote down out loud. If you find yourself shaking your head and exclaiming something along the lines of, "What the hell does that mean?", delete." -Czarcasm
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#24
12-11-2007, 01:17 PM
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For Scifi RPG I always loved Paranoia. Now that was a fun game and with enough players the Guy running it didn't have to come up with too complex a story as everyone was inevitably dead by the end of the first mission breifing or Trip to R&D.
(Kid's when offered to test a powered destrocto Rifle with Super Fusion Backpack Generator, just say no, or at least don't power the sucker up in a confined area.)
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#26
12-11-2007, 01:49 PM
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Their "Pulp Hero" and "Star Hero" genre books are fabulous, with tons of useful information on running in the genre, that can be easily used without committing to the Hero System. However, I would say that the only "Big" SciFi game/setting nowadays is WoC's Star Wars Saga Edition. The others -- even licensed properties like Firefly -- just aren't supported enough. GURPS, I suppose, has good SciFi support, although not so much on setting support -- TransHuman Space, although fabulous, isn't really supported anymore. And GURPS Traveller likewise. Traveller is coming out with yet another couple editions -- Mongoose Traveller (updated little black book rules), and Marc Miller's Traveller 5th edition (updated... some other edition I can't remember). Plus Traveller d20, GURPS, and scads of other incarnations are still available. Maybe it'll see a resurgance. carnivorousplant, that SteamTrek doesn't seem connected to Space: 1889, it does seem to exist in the very same ideaspace. Neidhart: Cyberpunk 2020 Last edited by Lightray; 12-11-2007 at 01:51 PM.
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#27
05-25-2012, 10:16 AM
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Bump,
The game room might be a better spot for this game I got a group of my friends to let me run The Complete Canal Priests of Mars, a premade adventure for Space 1889, The group has a big game hunter, a retired navy captain, an ex gunnery sergeant turned tinkerer and an elderly lady with two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. We kick of in two hours and I have no idea how the rules are supposed to work... How much damage does an unarmed attack do?what if a player decides to try a grapple Panic!!!!!!!!
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#29
05-25-2012, 10:34 AM
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On the sci-fi side, we played Star Frontiers heavily. It had a good library of modules to play, and a fun efficient space combat system. Fun times  If we'd have known about Space:1889 we would have been all over it.
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#30
05-25-2012, 04:55 PM
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I've got the core book.
The rules (especially the combat rules) are unwieldy and overly complex. The included adventure is the worst rails I've ever seen. There are numerous points where if the players don't do what they're supposed to, things collapse. Willthekittensurvive? My advice is to run the adventure using a completely different system.
__________________
Nothing is impossible if you can imagine it. That's the wonder of being a scientist! Prof Hubert Farnsworth, Futurama
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#32
05-26-2012, 05:22 PM
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#33
05-26-2012, 05:26 PM
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Using the old WOD system, I'd give everybody an average station for free. If they want higher than that, they can buy a merit. If they want lower than that, they can take a flaw.
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