Onward To VENUS !

Space 1889 kickstarter edition calls to you urgently !
If you were dithering, now is the time to step forth !  Indeed, at this juncture the noblest of the noble are Urgently needed to sur-pass the threshold of sub-scription that will allow the publication of  the Venus Source-book, perhaps one of the Finest Supplements ever since......ever, which is to include the Wonderful and fabulous cover illustration depicted above !  Should any more details prove necessary than are provided by the above illustration, or the below advertisement, please consult this hyper-link to the kickstarter page of this fine and necessary project, placed here for your convenience.

LOCKED £34,000 - The Venus Sourcebook!!! The Venus Sourcebook will be roughly 190 pages and will not only feature expanded information about the history, geography, flora and fauna of Venus but also take a close look at the human settlements of the German, British, Italian and Russian colonists as well as the native population of lizardmen (and dinosaurs!). We’ll also be revealing ancient secrets that lie beneath the impenetrable jungles and dangerous swamps that surround them. This book will feature information about living, exploring and conquering the wilderness of Venus, as well as new rules, new archetypes, and hints for gamemasters to run extended campaigns on the greenhouse of our solar system. 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/440453703/space-1889-sf-role-playing-in-a-more-civilized-tim

"Ugly Bugger with the Wings, Private Jones 261. Three rounds rapid if you please ! " Only The First And Best Victorian SF RPG ever written coming back !

 In which our tardy correspondent from the blog-o-sphere does gush forth his fanboy affection for a very different kind of role-playing game; various components of other less satisfying systems discussed; comic British public school wallah accent attempted; main advantages of 1889 enumerated; a picture stolen to good purpose; commands to the reader; to which extensive informational and educational afternotes are appended


So, Space 1889 is back (again), and no surprise, it's a kickstarter, with the same setting, but a new rules system.  I think its the same rules system as Hollow earth adventures, so, cool there - at least they know how to do pulp right.  me, I actually liked the old (much berated) system, even the combat, but hey.  In this case, the game is the setting. 

Seriously, probably the best actual Victorian SF game with the possible challenge of Forgotten Futures.  - See, shortly thereafter Falkenstein and Amazing engine took it off to Vicotrian/Gothic Science fantasy by adding in the supernatural, Airships, brass,  leather corsets with goggles and called it steampunk. Or Spells, wizards, Elves, Dwarves,Sprites, Pixies, Lady Cottingly's unpressed Fairies and making it all Romancey* Gothicy Victoriany.  and  No complaint, and a favorite genre of mine, but as an old colonial miniatures player, this is always my go to game for Victoriana.  Not Punk, nor neccessarily Steamy, it simply says, "I say, what if all the boffo chaps in the labs made some ships that let us bring the benefits of modern plumbing, education and heavily favorable trade to the poor benighted Martians and what not, eh ?   Whizzers, I say !"  And off we go with an electric Ether flyer, a red coat** and a Webley pistol.

 1889.  No Elves.  No Magic.  Steam Optional.  Science, Rifles and unabashed colonialism in the solar system.

Role playing in a more civilized time. ***

This game is great.  I'm backing it****.  Read about it here (and back it. So let it it be done !)

Just Shut Up and SHOOT colour Sergeant !

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/440453703/space-1889-sf-role-playing-in-a-more-civilized-tim




 * Romance in the older use - a fantastical adventure, without the ripped bodices and bad boy seduction now associated with the term

 ** yes, yes, for the three of you who spotted this, I know that the well before 1889 the British army was no longer using Red for service uniforms -going over to mostly Khaki, with Red or Blue for most units on home service. But see, Mars is the RED planet, so a RED service coat will clearly blend in just smashingly, eh wot?

*** As long as one is British, at least.  I mean, we all know that savages begin at Calais, after all.

****I also bought the Savage worlds adaptation, and while it was mostly excellent (for my money it underplayed the role of  class in Victorian society which messes up the flavor, but far from fatally ), but it seems to have lost support.

Traveller Hellhole Monday: Corrosive atmosphere, 10 Billion population = resort planet ?

So, one of the more persistent criticisms of PlanGen in Traveller is the old "overpopulated hellhole" canard. Specifically, that one can generate Huge populations on profoundly uninhabitable planets. Specifically, Venus (ATM B or C, depending) with 10,000,000,000 inhabitants. Orbital habitats don't seem to be a good enough explanation for serious rules lawyers: they technically "aren't on the planet", and are rather fragile compared to surface based habitats. However, some serious science thought has been put into exactly this issue -and suggest that Venus may actually be the best bet for extraterran settlement - and could support massive populations. How ?

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20030022668_2003025525.pdf

TL:DR version, at 50Km altitude on Venus, conditions are 1psi, temp 0-30c , good abundance of basic earth life elements : (C, H2, O2, Ni ), and lots of solar power opportunities. The basic atmos is unbreathable, but in that mix of atmosphere, normal breathing air  (O/N)is a lifting gas ! Build a huge zeppelin protected against the sulfuric acid atmospheric component (easy, really), and live inside.  Serious golden age Sci Fi. And since OTU Traveller has Gravitics good enough for floating palaces at Imperial tech levels (12+, IIRC), one doesn't even need the lift provided by the breathable atmosphere except, perhaps, as a backup !

Cool, huh ?

And given that the living space is very thick (probably a kilometer or two before any bad effects of pressure or lack thereof show, there's room for LOTS of people in floating archeologies.  So we have these elegant bubbles floating serenely across the sky, occasionally spawning smaller bubbles, using resources drawn from various atmospheric depths as well as the hellish surface of the planet - which is a mine head, only.  No one lives there, they just commute in, oh, I don;t know.  Armored flying submarines and ground hugging mecha ?

Tell me there isn't a campaign in that.
The linked paper is actually 7 years old at this point: I'm mildly embarrassed that we didn't find this in the play test discussions about habitable worlds. Quite a bit of opinionizing could have been avoided...perhaps. (There was at least one content area "expert source" there that would have argued with his own shadow, as is required in any gaming forum.)
Now, if I can just get some real numbers on the other issue - how long (in actual years) a small world can hold a standard atmosphere ?

Some good fiction led me to this : "Clever Mongoose", and no relation to the present publisher of Traveller: a ripping SF yarn with floating cities, high tech zombies, conspiracies, and alien invasion all with a steam punk scavenger tech sensibility and a high tech background.