Space 1889: Grit and Vigor

Space 1889 is a Victorian era science fiction role playing game by Frank Chadwick that takes place in an alternate universe that more resembles the worlds of Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs than it does our own. It a fun setting that I think needs to be looked at and developed a bit in my own special way. So I will be adapting it and some additional material for use in my home Grit and Vigor campaign. I will be detailing ships, settings, creatures and some material for my own campaign.
But first, an overview of the setting itself.

SPACE: 1889

In the universe of Space: 1889, Thomas Edison invents an "aether propeller" which could propel ships through the "luminiferous aether", and traveled to Mars in 1870 accompanied by Scottish soldier of fortune Jack Armstrong, where they discovered that the planet was inhabited (see Mars below).
Liftwood: One of the treasures that spurred the Europeans to Mars was "liftwood": a rare cultivated plant with anti-gravity properties that allowed for the construction of giant floating ships. While the Earthers used Martian sky galleons at first, they later constructed their own armored, steam powered flyers.
Aether Propellers and Aether Flyers: Though the æther propeller was invented by Edison, who obtained the first patent on an æther flyer. Scottish explorer, Jack Armstrong, later patented his own version of the æther propeller. Although not as efficient as Edison's design, the Armstrong æther propeller is used by all Royal Navy flyers and most British commercial flyers, as well.
In Germany, Count Zeppelin patented an æther propeller design, which is used by the German government for all its flyers, even though it is not as efficient as the Armstrong propeller. Additional competition from Tesla, Westinghouse, Behrend and others continue to drive down the cost of æther propeller's and make them readily available. And so the space race gets off to an early start in 1889.
Heliograph Stations: As radio has not yet been invented, orbital Heliograph stations transmit messages via semaphore. Britain and Germany own the majority of these.
Other Gadgets: The wonders of invention, both practicle and Pulpy are all possible in Space 1889, with inventors, chemists and industrialists taking on the role of wizards. Automatons, Invisibility Potions, Land Ironclads, Ray-guns, Supercrops and Tripods are all possible to name a few.
The basic setting introduction for Space 1889 can be downloaded for free here.


MARS

Mars is a dry planet crisscrossed by canals, bringing the scarce water of the polar caps to the dry seabed. Over the centuries, Martian civilization has declined from the great days of the Canal Builders and now exists at a level roughly equivalent to Earth in the 17th Century. Beginning in the 1870s, the colonial powers of Earth have used Ether-Flyers to extend their dominions to other planets.
There are three main racial grouping amongst the martian peoples. The High Martians, Hill Martians and the Canal Martians.
Canal Martians: The Canal Martians are the most advanced of the three Martian races, but their culture, though responsible for Mars' highest cultural and scientific achievements, has been in decline for millenia. The Canal Martians have been civilized for at least 35,000 years and are still consummate farmers, accomplished builders and skilled artisans. But they are obviously a culture in decline, as demonstrated by their inability to maintain the ancient technology of their forebears such as the canal pumping stations. The culture of the Canal Martians is stagnant and unchanging, their arts have become incomprehensibly baroque and degenerate, and their science is without the innovative spark that characterizes human intellectual activity.
Hill Martians: Nomadic by nature and less civilized than the Canal Martians (but more civilized than the High Martians), Hill Martians prefer the simple life of roaming the vast Martian deserts. Traders in spice, hand-made goods and livestock, the Hill Martians’ culture resembles the American Indians of the early 19th century.
High Martians: Of the three types of Martian, High Martians are least affected by civilization; they live in remote kraags and mountaintops, venturing out from time to time to capture slaves or to loot passing caravans. High Martians are like intelligent apes when compared to the Canal Martians, but with a difference: they can fly. High Martians (so called for their "altitude" rather than their accomplishments) never lost their lifting gland or its ability to carry them through the skies of Mars. Their behavior is bestial and barbaric in the extreme.

Colonialism: The most ambitious imperialist on Mars have been the British and the Belgians. Britain controls Syrtis Major, the richest city on Mars and is engaged with an ongoing war with the militaristic Oenotrian Empire. The Belgian Coprates Company conquered the great Coprates Rift Valley with an army of mercenaries and now ruthlessly exploits the region.

The most valuable resource on Mars is the incredible Liftwood tree. This plant grows only in the remote mountains, guarded by the savage, flying High Martians. When properly cut and cured, liftwood can be used to build ships that float in the air. Earth's Great Powers are scrambling to obtain supplies of liftwood, to keep up in the new aerial naval race that has begun.
America maintains several diplomatic missions on Mars, with a full Embassy in Thymiamata, a powerful trading city. Here it maintains inroads for American businesses and interests for US citizens. Many Americans are uncomfortable with the heavy-handed activities of the Belgians and (to a lesser extent) the British. However this is likely sour grapes on the part of more than a few US opportunists.


VENUS

Venus is a hothouse world of shallow oceans, steaming tropical jungles, bogs, swamps, marshes, perpetual overcast, and heavy rainfall. The dense jungles of the Venusian lowlands produce numerous plants for which there is a great demand on Earth by chemists, dye makers, pharmaceutical companies, and florists (the Cytherian Orchid is especially valued for its beauty and its hauntingly subtle fragrance). The lowlands are also home to hundreds of varieties of giant reptilian creatures (dinosaurs), prodigeous insect life and to the savage Lizardmen. Humans find the lowlands almost unbearable and tend to stick to the few highland plateaus, where life is more tolerable and the sun can occasionally be glimpsed through the overcast.
Colonialism: Although expeditions were sent to Venus as early as 1873 (using British made Armstrong Flyers), the first one to return was the German-backed Heidelburg expedition of 1878. The Venusian magnetic field, it has been discovered, accelerates liftwood decay. Within days of landing, the first three expeditions found their flyers would not leave the ground. Germany, unable to obtain large quantities of Iiftwood, was forced to make use of dirigibles as the lifting means for their Ether Flyers. Germany has dominated the exploration of Venus since that time and maintains several colonies.
The British, Russians, and Italians have all set up colonies, but by far the largest European settlement is that of the German empire. It's capital, Venusstadt, is the largest and most civilized city on the planet -- the residence of the Governor and his family boasts an air conditioning system!


LUNA
Mostly, as mankind spread out among the other planets, Luna remained of interest to only a few space mariners, and crazed Russian scientist, Vladimir Tereshkov, and rival American scientist Doctor Cyrus Grant. For a short time, the Russians maintained a secret mining settlement, enslaving the indigenous population, the Selenites, but were overthrown by the crew of HMAS Sovereign, with the help of Professor Nathanial Stone. At present the UK maintains an illegal research base on Luna, contravening the The Agreement Governing State Activities on Luna, which prevents any one nation setting up a presence on the moon. As a result there is much interest in Luna from the other major powers, but still the British Empire maintain control over the moon; a position precarious at best.


MERCURY
The innermost planet, Mercury, is a tidally locked world, with one side always facing the Sun, the other the void of outer space. Between the cold of the dark side and the heat of the light side, there is a narrow 100-mile wide temperate zone that circles the globe. All around the zone runs the World River, linking the various lakes and small seas, its flow driven by Coriolus effects. Along the river, exotic plant life and primitive shelled creatures (similar to those common on Earth during the Paleozoic Age) make their home.
Largely unexplored, there is only one permanent human settlement, a British scientific outpost named Princess Christiana Station, with less than a hundred residents. While molten tin and lead on the hot side of the planet and frozen fields of ammonia and carbon dioxide on the cold side are potential commercial products, the extremes of heat and cold have made exploitation impractical to date.
A recent scientific expedition to the dark side of Mercury has reported exotic life forms living in the extreme cold. Their body chemistry is based on ammonia, and the creatures catalogued included a primitive race vaguely resembling spiders or crabs. The expedition managed to establish communication with them, and they proved helpful in exploration of the area. It is also on Mercury that gravitar was discovered by Austrian geologists.

Pulp Age: Space Patrol

Space Patrol is an organization of peacekeepers in outer space, and central to the security of the United Planets (planets allied with Earth). This organization got its start shortly after the second Martian Invasion of 1932 when the need for patrol craft keeping watch along the space lanes was made apparent. At that time, most Western nations contributed resources to the Patrol, hoping to prevent further invasions and to help protect and supply the colonies.
Unfortunately, even with this effort, the Sarmak did invade again in 1953, and following biological and chemical terrors left by the Invaders and subsequent economic collapse left the earth Patrol to fend for themselves. During the long years of rebuilding the Earth and her allied planets into the United Planets the Space Patrol had its hands full protecting the Lunar and Mars colonies.
Now, in the year 2753, the Space Patrol is central to space travel. Not only does the patrol watch over the space-lanes, but it has the best trained pilots, engineers and ship-builders out there. Also, as the Space Patrol and the Selenites of Luna have control of the largest Hugmetite (needed to create anti-gravity fields) processing plants in the solar system grants them considerable leverage in the politics of space.
Space Patrol agents are a combination of Cops in Space and UN Peacekeepers, answering to the United Planets government (Earth, Luna, Mars and colonies).  They have jurisdiction between planets and in high orbits above planets, and on asteroids, dwarf planets, and on Space Patrol bases. Otherwise, its up to local or corporate police. This has a feel of Wild West Marshals, with agents often having to work alone or in small groups. Agents are frequently outgunned, underfunded and severely taxed.

SHIPS OF SPACE PATROL
The Space Patrol operates rocketships of nearly every size and description, from the massive new space dreadnoughts coming out of Ceres Shipyards to the tiny, one-man insertion rocketships used by the Space Patrol Intelligence Service to infiltrate enemy worlds for information.
The most often seen vessels of the Space Patrol are small craft such as the Patrol Cruiser and Personal Rocket Flyers, who do their best to watch the spacelanes. These vessels try to maintain a communication web of linked vessels in the hopes of preventing space piracy, and to watch for Sarmak troublemakers.


Patrol Cruiser
Gargantuan Construct
HD: 51 (179 hp)
AC: 17 (DR 12)
SPD: 90 mph
MVR: +1
ATK: 4 x rocket cannons (10d8)
CP: 4/12,
CARGO: 3000 lbs., the equivalent of 15 passengers or six passengers and four personal rocket fliers
WT 500lbs
Roughly 50-feet long, rocket cruisers are fish-shaped armed and armored spacecraft typically painted bright primary colors. Despite their steel plate and rivet appearance, they weigh only a few hundred pounds because of the Cavorite used in their construction. Unlike standard aircraft, they don’t have to expend energy to remain aloft. Their performance more closely resembles that of a dirigible than of an airplane. A cruiser’s cannon are mounted in two forward-facing turrets and two rear-facing ones.
Spindizzy Drive: This specialized engine, based on the work of Nikola Tesla (after studying captured Sarmak equipment), allows spaceships to travel the vast distances between planets at great speed. Simply put, when activated outside of a gravity well (an asteroid, moon or planet), a vehicle equipped with a Spindizzy drive can travel 100 million miles per day, or 4 million mph.


Rocket Flier
Large Construct
HD: 10 (30 hp)
AC: 15 (DR 8)
SPD: 70 mph
MVR: +4
ATK: One light rocket cannon on swivel mount (4d8)
CP: 1/2
CARGO:  400 lbs., the equivalent of two passengers or one gunner and one passenger
WT: 100lbs
Rocket fliers are 12-15 foot torpedo-shaped craft used for both civilian and Space Patrol  purposes. Armed with a swivel-mounted rocket cannon, they are fighter aircraft often used to complement rocket cruisers. Unarmed they serve as flying taxis or personal vehicles. Like rocket cruisers, they can hover in place or drift with the wind without expending power because of the Cavorite used in their construction.

Pulp Age: Space Battles

Space combat in the Pulp Age and Pulp Space Opera settings are dangerous affairs. Rather than the dogfights depicted in Star Wars, spaceship against spaceship combat is more like submarine warfare. Its more about long distance battles, often seen as mere blips on a screen for most gunners. However closer engagements do indeed occur, and are suitably terrifying.
For more information on these rules, check out the Grit and Vigor roleplaying game by John Stater. Its a fun game, and an entertaining read. Check it out.

SPACE BATTLES

Space battles are best handled on either a ship vs. ship basis, or a fleet vs. fleet basis, to keep things simple. The rules are essentially the same as for dogfights and naval battles. Each ship captain (or each fleet commander) makes a Spacemanship task check. The faster ship enjoys a +2 bonus to this task check. The captain that beats his target number by the most (or fails by the least) has the advantage, and can either close with his enemy or increase the distance between them.
If the ship with the advantage beats his opponent’s task check by five or more, he may make a full attack while his opponent may only make a partial attack. Otherwise, both vessels can make a full attack.
For our purposes, a full attack uses all the vessel’s ship-to-ship weapons on turrets, and half of its non-turreted ship-to-ship weapons. A partial attack only permits the vessel to use its forward or rear weapons.
The character on board a vessel with the best Gunnery skill makes the Gunnery task check to fire the weapons. Follow the normal rules for firing artillery (see Tools: Artillery).
Each ship deducts damage from its hit points, and makes a roll on the following table. If the ship has lost less than 25% of its hit points, roll 1d6. If it has lost 25-49% of its hit points, roll 1d8. If it has lost 50-74% of its hit points, roll 1d10. If it has lost 75-99% of its hit points, roll 1d12.

If a ship’s hit points are reduced to 0, it explodes in 1d6 turns. People aboard the ship have to either make their way to a lifepod or die instantly when the ship explodes.
Many ships can enter planetary atmospheres, but are clumsy (-2 to Maneuver) as they are built for space. While a spaceship is in an atmosphere, it is vulnerable to aircraft. Aircraft in the air can attack a ship each round, and in turn can be targeted by the ship’s weapons aboard. Use the normal rules for attacking vehicles to resolve attacks against aircraft, and attacks by aircraft.

Pulp Age: Pulp Space Opera

With the upcoming release of the Grit and Vigor RPG by John Stater, I thought I would fire up some articles for use with the game. So here is the first article detailing the "Pulp Space Opera" universe. A setting where a number of the works of Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G. Wells were all TRUE! Particularly the ones about space, aliens and science gone wrong. Into this mix I will be pouring some of my favorite authors of the 20's and 30's,  particularly Doc E. E. Smith, Jack Williamson, Olaf Stapledon, Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer to name a few.

OVERALL SETTING
The year is 2753 (or thereabouts), and after the Martian Invasions of 1898, 1932 and 1953, the majority of Earth was plunged into a Dark Age of plagues and petty despots. But after a hundred years of civilization building back up, mankind is now stretching out into space. This journey has been through a great many troubles of course. Wars between nations, skirmishes with Martian holdouts (and allies) as well as lots and lots of politics and economic struggles. But now, after all of this, mankind and allies is looking forward.
Technology is that of the interbellum era, which covers the time between the end of World War I and the start of World War II (TL 5-6). So Automobiles, mechanical calculators, telegraph, (telephones for the rich), radio, records, BOOKS, machine guns, railroads (subways included), airships, airplanes, biochemistry, etc, etc. All with the added bonus of Selenite and Martian derived hypertech, fuels and know-how. So spaceships, death rays and advanced power sources mixed with coal and gas powered gadgets and simple computer for a "deiselpunk" feel.
Culturally the world is all about Art Deco, Burlesque, Gangsters, Jazz, Raygun Gothic, Ragtime, and Noir. Despite the troubles looming on the horizon (and right next door), people are optimistic and energetic. Add to this crushing poverty, restrictive government and alien invasion.
The Planets are not as hostile to life as they are in our universe, though they are still dangerous. Mars has a breathable atmosphere, though thin and very dry, and Venus is a sweltering jungle (cross Tarzans Jungle with Skull Island and you get the idea). Of course this means that other things live there too...

EARTH
The Earth has been devestated by the repeated wars with the Sarmak Martians, and in battles between its own nations. These days, most people on Earth live in HUGE megalopolis cities. These super-cities are absolutley enormous. The lower classes live in subterranean dwellings, and the middle and upper classes living in skyscrapers and largely communal accommodations. Moving walkways interconnect the city, with fast air-travel and superhighways available between cities.  Governments as we know them are unknown of, with Mega-Corporations representing governments.
Generally speaking, most of Earth is peaceful and prosperous; many old political rivalries have now moved to the new frontier of space, others are now mainly economic. Naturally there are still dangers; China and parts of Africa are unsafe for anyone who appears to be wealthy or foreign.
In cities public transport uses subways, robo-buses and robo-taxis; monorails and rockets are used for most long distance travel. There are even a few ocean liners left, though their appeal is romanticism and nostalgia, not speed. For the wealthy, gyros were at one time the "must-have" status symbol, but as the price of basic models fall they are becoming more common for the merely well-to-do who need to commute long distances, since they can be flown without a full pilot's license. Most modern cities have flight lanes and landing pads for them.
The landscape of much of Earth will be farms, or wilderness. And much wilderness is choked with the Martian Red Weed. Farmers are constantly fighting off this invasive plant as well as mutated vermin. Still some small towns and communities do exist, but are either corporate holdings or petty warlords and squatter/survivalists.

POWER PLAYERS 

The White Council (The Sleeper Awakes and A Story of the Days to Come): A fascist cadre of technocratic Utopians. These guys rule, but keep mostly to the shadows of Mega Corporations and political puppets. They enforce the law with their G-Men and their Beast-Men (ala Island of Dr Moreau) goons. These guys are the power behind the throne, and don't normally get pushy. But they are a pain when they take notice. They are dogmatic in pursuit of "thought criminals" that are a threat. The White Council holds the secret for Cavorite and many other Martian technologies secret.

Colonies:  A number of colonies exist on Mars the Moon, and Venus many founded by Mega Corporations, existing as city-states. These colonies are often all that remains of what we would see as Americana. Most were built atop the ruins of Aurorean cities, but rebuilt for human and Selenite use. These colonies are pretty Wild West in their ruggedness though a few have achieved a Casablanca like elegance. Some of the older colonies were started in the 1920s and so are well established.

Aurorean Martians(War of The Worlds): These Martians are very different than the Sarmak. They dwell in the Xanthe region of Mars, near Auorae Sinus. The Auroreans (as humans have called them) stand nearly six feet in height, have brown skin, round erect heads, and large yellow eyes. Their society is highly cultured and scientifically advanced, but long warfare with the Sarmak has greatly diminished their numbers and potency. However despite hard times, the Auroreans retain several large cities of startling architecture. Many desire alliances with Earth Men, but others are cautious.

Sarmak Martians (War of The Worlds): The Sarmak Martians are the Invaders that brought so much calamity to Earth in 1898-1901, 1932-1953. These creatures live primarily in the Nodus Gordii region of Mars and are greatly feared by the other peoples of the Red Planet. Some of the aliens have made alliances with human groups, even going so far as creating human/Sarmak hybrids called the Star-Begotten. The Sarmak have a foothold in the South Seas of Earth, the South Pole and are presently working on the conquest of Venus. 

Selenites (The First Men in The Moon): The Selenites are the sapient insectoid inhabitants of the Earth's moon and many asteroids. They are vaguely similar to quasi-humanoid ants, about five feet tall. These creatures are all natural Monarchic Socialists, having a completely communal existance, but are stratified socially and biologically. The Grand Lunar officially allied with the White Council against the Martians, however that doesn't mean that all is friendly. Comparable to dealings with Saudi Arabia during WWII (tension and misunderstandings galore).

 More to come!