1889 and Beyond

As I said a few days back, I'm getting some folks into Space: 1889. I've never played it before. I love Edgar Rice Borroughs, though, so that gives me a leg up. The discovery of S89 (as I'm now dubbing it) was fortuitous in the extreme. While on a trip to the Galapagos Islands Jocelyn and I came up with an idea for a game that has both a PnP and a Board Game expression. The idea, which I'll expound in some later blog post, is currently called The Amazing Journey and focuses on the adventures of a group of explorers (the PCs or boardgame players) from the 1800s journeying through a one-way magical wormhole to a procedurally generated world of science-fantasy Vernian madness and trying to find a way home.

We have yet to play it. However, my preliminary instincts are that it's great. Even if the rules are absolutely awful (which I don't think they are), the attention to detail throughout the main rulebook is stunning. There is an entire chapter on Martian canals, their anatomy, how they intersect, their pumps, etc. The history sections are very detailed and accurate, and interpolate the alternate history of the ether, Edison's landing on Mars, and the British Crown Colony of Syrtis Major with excellent style.

This ain't Steampunk, son. This is Sword and Planet. And I love it.

We've been making characters for the past few hours as I write this. The biggest focus currently is on the science and invention section. The rules are great. WAY better than the clumsy card drawing of Deadlands. Just thought I'd throw that out there. A problem I've found is that the organization of the book has either hidden from me the maximum carrying capacity of a character or else there simply isn't one. Other than the fatigue penalties at the end of a travel period, I'm not sure why someone couldn't carry their own body weight in gear.