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

Quick review: Orbital by Zoser games. A traveller setting & sourcebook

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Orbital

A traveller setting & sourcebook

Paul Elliott & Ben Lecrone

From Zozer Games

From the blurb: Orbital is a science fiction setting for Traveller with a fairly realistic (TL 9) feel that is set within our own solar system.

Yeah, well I say, Orbital is great !  It is exactly what  Open source Traveler should be (and is) creating.  New campaigns in new settings, with all the bells and whistles; chargen, ship building, planetary info, etc. It’s a TL 9 setting  confined to the solar system – no FTL, no gravitics and actual rockets instead of grav thrusters – so, although they are super efficient &  advanced fusion rockets, fuel use and burns are important.

It includes rules for chargen appropriate to the setting, necessary modifications to ship design (spin-grav modules and fusion drives in particular), planetary lift off , re-entry and orbital travel rules; a bunch of stuff that does a very good job of adding granularity to the low tech levels in any traveler game, even one set in the Third Imperium.  It probably worth getting for that alone if you are a 3I purist.

The setting is cool, although I have to admit I freaked when I saw it described as Cold war (” Dammit ! pipped again ! ) – but, it turns out to be a late 80’s type cold war tech +100 years – and the main cold war is between earth nations and Luna.  So, cool; my retro cold war  setting is still viable (see this blog for details) (assuming it ever wakes back up)

 A very 1980’s SF setting, no cyberpunk, no transhumanism, just corporate greed and nationalism in space. 

Chargen is well modified for the setting, and presented with a minimum of “look it up in the core rules”, and a good selection of hardware and “stuff” is included.

Orbital tells you the events and timeline, discusses politics and society, and does it in an engaging and detailed manner;  It’s harder to do well than it seems –I’ve read quite a few attempts that seem more like an unusually dry  sixth grade social studies report copied from the encyclopedia than I care to think about. 

I heartily recommend Orbital.

Get it here at DTRPG

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/109160/Orbital