…
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.
Is this related?
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.)
Besides Shadowrun, wasn’t there an RPG actually called Cyberpunk? I remember seeing it in the stores in the early-mid '90s.
Yes, it’s still around – the overall system is the “Hero System.” “Champions” books are specifically for superheroic settings (as “Fantasy Hero” books for fantasy settings in that system, “Star Hero” for SciFi, etc.). It is quite well-supported, the suppliments are well-written… and the art has turned distressingly poor since the publishers started having cash flow issues a year or so back.
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
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!!!
Thread moved. This one was in Cafe Society because The Game Room wasn’t around at the time.
My group made a serious try at Boot Hill back in the day, the rules were a bit too restrictive for character growth, and a bit too deadly to run a steady campaign. It was great for setting up mini-simulation style one-off battles (e.g. Car Wars) though, we recreated every spaghetti western movie battle we could think of.
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.
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.
As a complete hijack, if anyone is interested in Victorian/Steam(elf)punk gaming, might I recommend Castle Falkenstein? The card mechanic is unique but actually works very well in play.
Yeah ,I think Im going to try using the white wolf system world of darkness … , not sure how to incorporate social standing in character generation , any suggestions ?
I don’t know anything about the new WOD system.
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.