4. Space 1889 (GDW/Heliograph). In many senses, this was always everything I ever wanted from a roleplaying game: fantasy, alternate history, steampunk and pulp qualities, sci-fi, world exploration and so on. Unfortunately the game mechanics were cack and despite Nick and I both accumulating vast libraries of support material, I don't remember us ever actually playing a game.Which was a shame, because it was the incredible support material (particularly in the form of the Transactions of the Royal Martian Geographical Society books) that made me realise this games' enormous potential for long-term campaigning (always a point of personal importance to me when selecting a game).
The idea of exploring alien cultures within our own solar system, flying steam-powered ships between the planets, hunting dinosaurs in the swamps of Venus, defending the British colonies on Mars, was the stuff gaming dreams were made of; but I don't have the stamina to stick with a game if the rules just don't work for me. My days of completely rewriting roleplaying rules are long behind me. These days I'm lazy, I like games I can pick off the shelf and play.
3. Call of Cthulhu (Chaosium). The closest I have yet come to discovering the perfect game. It's over 25 years old, and despite going through six iterations, the rules remain virtually unchanged from when they were first published (what other system can boast that pedigree?). They remain simple (percentile-based) and intuitive, with inventive twists (like the 'sanity' track to record your character's decreasing mental stability) and a clever (and ultimately dangerous) magic system that says to the players: you can try magic if you like ... but it's going to cost!The monsters and challenges that the characters will face on their adventures are truly unique and frightening; the stories being inspired by the creations of one of my favourite authors (HP Lovecraft) and also drawing on my general love of the pulp writings of 1920s and 1930s.
However, the big problem I have with this game, and which accounts for only having actually played it a couple of times, is - because of the high churn-over of characters either going mad or being torn to shreds by 'Things Man Was Not Meant To Know' - there is no real capability for open-ended, long-term campaign play. Old CoC characters don't retire to reminisce about their escapades; they either end up chewing the walls in an asylum, buried face down in a shallow grave or digesting in the belly of a beastie!
However, things may change later this year with the (much delayed) publication of Pulp Cthulhu.
- Next time we discuss the Big Two: Villains & Vigilantes and Traveller!
Space 1889 is a wonderful game -- I do hope you get a chance to play it sometime. Great concept, but sometimes difficult to find players. It does have a little bit of everything.
ReplyDeleteI like the term "churn-over rate." Call of Cthulhu does seem to have that. At times, that works the other way. Players often do quite "heroic" things when they know life (or sanity) is running short in the game. There is always the mantra "don't read the book!"
It is possible for the investigators in Pulp Cthulhu to survive longer, although they might become a bit mentally twisted over time (as with some pulp characters).
Thank you for your comments, William. I'm keenly awaiting your Pulp Cthulhu book - I have a vague idea for a Pulp campaign bubbling away in my mind, but can't decide whether to use Savage Worlds, Pulp Cthulhu or some other system at present.
ReplyDeleteWe definately had one game of Space 1889, and am fairly certain you and Steve ended up on the moon.
ReplyDeleteI think your two characters in it were fairly similar to your Traveller characters.
Apologies for forgetting that one, Nick! I put it down to my increasingly suspect memory :-)
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