I saw this kickstarter and I think I remember seeing the game on the shelf at my LFG back in the day. Is this a reboot and does anyone know anything about it other than what is on the kickstarter page?
Has anyone played it before? I am a fan of Spelljammer but didn't like they left out ship to ship combat. According to the kickstarter it is compatible with Spelljammer and has lots of ship to ship combat mechanics.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/strangeowlgames/space-1889-after-5e-empyrean-steampunk-rpg
No need to go kickstarter and its modern thespy nonsense, the old book still exists,
https://www.amazon.com/Space-1889-Science-Fiction-Civilized/dp/0966892690
Quote from: Kyle Aaron on December 01, 2022, 11:48:48 PM
No need to go kickstarter and its modern thespy nonsense, the old book still exists,
https://www.amazon.com/Space-1889-Science-Fiction-Civilized/dp/0966892690
At a more reasonable price https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/59092/Space-1889
Quote from the Kickstarter:
"After GDW closed their doors, Heliograph Games kept Space 1889 alive, and in 2010, Pinnacle Entertainment produced the Red Sands Plot Point Campaign (tm) for Space 1889 in the Savage Worlds system. German publisher Uhwerk Verlag acquired the license in 2012 and began to print an updated version of the game that used the Ubiquity system, first in German and then later in English."
However, it should be pointed out that some of the Uhrwerk publications such as the source book about Phaeton (Vulcan) only exist in German. Moreover, while GDW practically focused exclusively on the British and perhaps American POV, Uhrwerk's version also put a spotlight on the German colonies and activities in space. As for the new Kickstarter version, I have my doubts. Not only do I not like the idea of a post-war setting for Space: 1889, the character options are too Spelljammerish, especially the automaton, "ogre," and moon-dwellers. Players have always had the option of playing Martians.
The premise of the original is absolutely absurd but if you roll with it you'll have lots of fun. Basically instead of John Carter you're an uppity British dilettante. I would also recommend the reprint vs. Kickstarter for now and wait to see how the new version looks before buying anything.
When we played Red Sands I played an American Baseball player with a 90mph speed ball and a trunk full of bats, balls, and gloves. I was off to Mars to promote the game. He died of the red plague. After that, I played a doctor with a bag full of cocaine, opium, and distilled spirits. Both would have been considered shockingly egalitarian at the time and shockingly racist now.
Quote from: Brad on December 02, 2022, 08:33:34 AM
The premise of the original is absolutely absurd but if you roll with it you'll have lots of fun. Basically instead of John Carter you're an uppity British dilettante. I would also recommend the reprint vs. Kickstarter for now and wait to see how the new version looks before buying anything.
I agree with you. A lot of the people I've introduced to Space 1889 have tried to take it seriously and apply real world science to it. It's not anything like that. Fundamentally you have to put yourself in the mind of an Englishman in the victorian era and what that man thought the future would look like based on the primordial ooze of some of the earliest attempts at Science Fiction. It is a look at the future, AS THE VICTORIANS SAW IT. Not the actual future we had with some weird pulp stuff. In fact, just going straight to pulp for this new addition is very alarming. You shouldn't have these kinds of weird races. It was perfectly fun being a colonial man trying to help British interests on Mars or Venus. Then going home to the British Empire to see what marvelous inventions have shaped this world. You don't really need to add much more to that other than lore fleshing out what different countries are doing and how they are reacting to the current setting.
If doing the Savage Worlds version, it would be interesting to merge it with Rippers.
I can remember not being able to see the attraction of Space 1889, but eventually it clicked for me, and over the years I've fallen in love with it. PCs are characters from a world somewhere between Jules Verne/HG Wells novels and The Man Who Would Be King / Allan Quartermain.
As others have said, don't sweat the science. It is internally consistent (at least in the old GDW stuff which is all I have), and that's good enough. There is even a sly joke in one of the old adventures about a crackpot scientist who doesn't believe in "the ether", and has mad ideas that are basically our real physics. (Think it's Canal Priests.)
I bought all the original books as .pdf's years ago. I love to read the matereal and steal ideas from it, but I would never run it as is. My intent was to run "Space 1599" as an Elizabethan Spelljammer game with all the same stuff as the 1889 setting but the campaign fizzled out.
The original books are well written and very inspiring to read.
Quote from: Marchand on December 02, 2022, 01:42:05 PM
As others have said, don't sweat the science. It is internally consistent (at least in the old GDW stuff which is all I have), and that's good enough. There is even a sly joke in one of the old adventures about a crackpot scientist who doesn't believe in "the ether", and has mad ideas that are basically our real physics. (Think it's Canal Priests.)
He's in a short Space: 1889 adventure set on a space liner. I used him & another NPC from the same adventure as time travellers in my Primeval Thule Mini Six campaign - http://smonstats.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-time-machine-d6.html
PROFESSOR OTTO STRABISMÄS is a scientific crank—a maverick who does not believe in the ether. Instead he supports a crackpot theory called "wave particle duality," which is obvious nonsense to anyone with any vestige of scientific knowledge (the theory was totally disproven by recent experiments carried out by a pair of American scientists). Despite his eccentricity, Strabismäs is very well informed on temporal theory and technology, and has 10D knowledge of the topic. A typical comment: "They all laughed at me at Heidelberg."(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gAypitFI4sA/XzENfUDdsyI/AAAAAAAAQFM/QF2Fhgzi4IkKzJDxk3kNp-hW3dqjJRNmACLcBGAsYHQ/s200/Professor%2BOtto%2BStrabismas.png)
For some alternate history if there was Ether stuff, check out Clash Bowlery's Lowel Was Right rpg.
I have the Savage Worlds version. It's a cool setting (I love the whole "what if this old scientific theory turned out to be true" angle), but I never actually got around to playing it. How was the original system? (GDW games are notoriously crunchy)
Quote from: Tasty_Wind on December 03, 2022, 12:10:21 AM
I have the Savage Worlds version. It's a cool setting (I love the whole "what if this old scientific theory turned out to be true" angle), but I never actually got around to playing it. How was the original system? (GDW games are notoriously crunchy)
You can also take a look at the material from Uhrwerk Verlag. They basically just added to the lore that GDW created, but they didn't try to change or subvert it like the new Kickstarter version seems to aim for. Although the Uhrwerk version uses the Ubiquity rules, they can be relatively easily converted to Savage Worlds.
Original = best, in this case.
Quote from: Simon W on December 03, 2022, 05:57:25 AM
Original = best, in this case.
Almost always so. That's when it was written with the most enthusiasm. Roleplaying games are like sex, enthusiasm is more important than skill.
Quote from: Kyle Aaron on December 04, 2022, 01:02:31 AM
Quote from: Simon W on December 03, 2022, 05:57:25 AM
Original = best, in this case.
Almost always so. That's when it was written with the most enthusiasm. Roleplaying games are like sex, enthusiasm is more important than skill.
Eh, in general yes, but not always. If the 1st edition is good, but amateurish (like say Champions 1st edition) then a later edition that just polishes the product (like say Champions 4th edition) is the superior.
If they reinvent the wheel with the later editions? Absolutely, I can't even think of a game that got better from being revamped.