 October 28, 2012 - 7:11am | Funny thing happened in my email in box, there was an update on a yahoo group I'm a member of- someone posted links to a German character sheet and 20 page quick start guide for Space 1889. I just hadn't expected that with such a English centric rpg. I rather like Space 1889 but have not had a chance to play it. http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/S1889/ http://www.heliograph.com/space1889/ You can of course find originals via the usual venues (ebay and amazon) but there is a company that was selling reprints a few years back and most of my collection is reprints not originals though my core rule book and Soldiers Companion are original i think. My copies of the magazine are reprints. The system is emminently convertable to AD rules since all skills have 6 levels. Of interest might be the invention rules where a PC could invent and patent something and garner an in game income from it, and the rules for social status (which are essentailly the same mechanic as the skill system) though improvement is fairly static-still someone might be interested in converting it for use to SF though with greater opportunity for upward mobility. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 October 28, 2012 - 9:48am | Steampunk Star Froniters but did lend itself well to a wide variety of scenarios. Exploration, War, Spy, Trade, Scientific and just plane dungeon crawls. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
October 28, 2012 - 10:25am | Aye, and the material on Mars and Venus was in depth, you could go along time before exhausting the setting. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 November 1, 2012 - 10:41am | One of my favorite settings! The rules, not so much. It's a great system for miniatures, though, I've had a lot more fun over the years running/playing battles than as an RPG. Since I've come back into contact with Star Frontiers, I've noodled about with the idea of merging the settings. If High Martians can fly/glide, and so can Yazirians, and the insectoid Selenites can be Vrusk, then... Space:1889 only covered the inner planets of our system, but I've thought of adapting Volturnus as one of the moons of Jupiter or Saturn, and maybe some other SF modules the same way. Advance the technology 20 years, and run it as Space:1909. |
November 1, 2012 - 4:52pm | Space:1889 only covered the inner planets of our system, but I've thought of adapting Volturnus as one of the moons of Jupiter or Saturn, and maybe some other SF modules the same way. Advance the technology 20 years, and run it as Space:1909. What an interesting idea, sort of like that Harry Turtledove series of novels about a what if the South had fought the North to a stand still with the Civil War and then you advanced the timeline to WW1 and the North and the South went at it again falling out on different sides of the conflict. Custer was still alive an not the most sympathetic character and ended up as the general directing the war effort for the North. The tech is not that measurably changed from 1889 to 1909 though- a little but not that much. the 1890s is a period of rifles and machine guns already and victorian sci fi is liberal with its use of flying machines and steam conveyances and usually included a host of electric weapons. I suppose that Space 1909 would be more about the setting and since a major piece of Space 1889 was "the soldier's companion" and the arial combat and since 1909 is the age of the dread naught as the supreme naval power you'd might want to focus on the massed combat level of gaming- good news is that there is plenty of miniatures and models and you'd be able to use the same figs and models for straight up history gaming I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 8, 2012 - 8:25pm | The better news is that there have been more Martian military miniatures added in the last 3 years, so I can do more battles that way. I never caught the bug for that Turtledove series, dunno why. |
November 9, 2012 - 5:42am | I never caught the bug for that Turtledove series, dunno why. I read the World War series (with aliens landing in the middle of WW2 with 1980's level of technology aside from space craft) and some of his short story anthologies Alternate General was a good one but it was all short stories by a host of writers edited by him and Guns of the South (time traveling South African mercenaries bring AK 47s to the Confederates) but sort of lost interest in him after awhile. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 2, 2012 - 10:27am | This great heroic image was posted on the Space 1889 yahoo forums I really need to run a Space 1889 game some time. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 2, 2012 - 12:59pm | GDW's Space 1889 Complete Set [BUNDLE] They just dropped the price from 49.95 to 39.95 today. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
