The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Forgotten Futures hit me like a bullet the first time I downloaded it from the RPGnet free RPG archive. For a free game, it offers a stunning array of source material, simple and clean rules, and enough inspiration to kickstart a campaign with ease. Many games in the commercial market don't hit the mark like this, much less free games where financial survival isn't there to spur the creator to excellence.

The gaming engine behind FF is a fairly simple one that seems to borrow from the likes of FUDGE. While I haven't playtested it, the engine seems easy to learn, with a stress on rules-simple play. Combat in particular is geared to be quick and deadly -- in one of the few nods to realism in the game, characters generally can not take much damage, so those who engage in combat are both likely to put their adversaries away with ease, as well as make a quick trip to the hospital or morgue. If your looking to take out droves of bad guys with pistols ablaze, this game is not for you.

The setting is Victorian and Edwardian science fantasy, an interesting precursor of modern science fiction. But what's really great about this game is that Rowland doesn't just talk about what this setting is like, he actually delivers pieces of it to you! In a move worthy of the Gutenberg Project, Rowland includes with his game actual speculative fiction stories from the time. The age of these stories places them outside of modern copyright law, so Rowland can include them in his game without incurring any cost to himself or having to worry about infringement suits. He also includes scads of actual illustrations that accompanied these stories, which go a long way in bringing you back to the day when zeppelins were fanciful high-speed aircraft, colonial explorers discovered lands of dinosaurs, and astronauts might travel to the Moon in a bullet-shaped craft fired from a cannon.

There are six volumes of Forgotten Futures to date, each dedicated to a particular sub-genre of this…er…sub-genre. FF1: The A.B.C. Files is set in a 21st century "airship utopia" as envisioned by Rudyard Kipling. FF2: The Log of the Astronef involves the exploration of the Solar System in 1900 AD, and is based on George Griffith's "Stories of Other Worlds." FF3: George E. Challenger's Mysterious World involve Victorian adventure in prehistoric lands, with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's version of Indiana Jones (George E. Challenger) to provide the inspiration. Top hats and dinosaurs -- how can you go wrong? FF4: The Carnacki Cylinders concern horror and supernatural adventure in Edwardian England, as based on the stories of William Hope Hodgson's "Carnacki the Ghost Finder." FF5: Goodbye Picadilly… involves the destruction of London as seen by various authors at the turn of the century. Volcanoes, snow, fire, "Yankee commercialism and other disasters," all have their day here. And finally, FF6: Victorian Villainy dwells on the melodramatic villains of the time, as seen in plays such as "The Bells," "The Vampire," and "Frankenstein;" the first volume of E.W. Hornug's "Raffles" stories; and the novel "A Bid for Fortune," which introduces the dastardly Dr. Nikola, the prototype for legendary bad guys such as Carl Peterson, Blofeld, and Dr. Doom.

Every edition contains a copy of the FF rules, a worldbook regarding that edition's particular theme, and a few of the old-time stories that inspired the edition in the first place. The rules and the world books generally are over 100 pages each, are crisply written, and provide astounding bibliographies and reference indices for delving further into the world of old-time science fantasy. The bodies of stories vary in length and often are accompanied by a slew of period illustrations and other miscellaneous material Rowland threw in for kicks.

All of this is free for download from the Forgotten Futures website, http://www.ffutures.demon.co.uk/ff.htm. However, if you're flush with cash and would like even more source material, then you can order the most recent edition of the Forgotten Futures CD-ROM, which contains all six editions of FF as well as many megabytes of otherwise unreleased stories, pictures, and other interesting samples of Victorian literary history.

Having not actually played FF I can't attest to how well it stands up either as a single-session or campaign kind of game. I can tell you that the vast body of source material Rowland has developed is extremely inspiring and could probably be ported over to a bunch of other games and genres. So even if you're not interested in playing a Victorian SF campaign, checking this out might add a dash of spice to whatever game you are playing. Considering that it's essentially free, there is littler to lose.

My biggest complaint with this otherwise superb product is its presentation. The various editions are downloaded as zip files. Once you extract them, you realize that virtually every component of the edition has been saved as a separate file! This is really annoying when you want to view the artwork, since they come as a collection of little GIFs you must view individually. It also can be a little hairy plowing through the pile of files to find the ones you want. Some consolidation would have been nice, especially if Rowland did some layout and merged his stories with their accompanying illustration. Granted, I can't complain too loudly, since I didn't pay for this, but still, it would have made a great thing greater. I should point out, however, that the rulebooks and worldbooks come as single files easily read and printed out.

All in all, Forgotten Futures easily ranks as one of the best freeware RPGs that I have seen on the Web. It breathes life into a quirkly literary genre that might otherwise disappear from memory altogether if not for the preserving efforts of Rowland and a few othe choice novelists and RPG designers who have made this time and theme their passion. If you're into Victorian gaming or even if you just like copping RPGs for free, hustle over to the Forgotten Futures web site and begin downloading. You won't be disappointed.

Now if you'll excuse me, I must screw in my monacle and catch the next airship for Picadilly before Dr. Nikola destroys the city, thereby botching my planned expedition to the Mysterious World with Carnacki the Ghost Finder at my side. Oh, and when you book your next Venusian safari, would you be so kind as to relay my greetings to Captain Astronef? That's a good lad.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Forgotten Futures
Author: Marcus Rowland Category: game Company/Publisher: Forgotten Futures Line: Forgotten Futures Cost: Free Page count: Plenty! Capsule Review by Bill Coffin on 12/15/99. Genre tags: Science_fiction Historical Horror	Forgotten Futures hit me like a bullet the first time I downloaded it from the RPGnet free RPG archive. For a free game, it offers a stunning array of source material, simple and clean rules, and enough inspiration to kickstart a campaign with ease. Many games in the commercial market don't hit the mark like this, much less free games where financial survival isn't there to spur the creator to excellence. The gaming engine behind FF is a fairly simple one that seems to borrow from the likes of FUDGE. While I haven't playtested it, the engine seems easy to learn, with a stress on rules-simple play. Combat in particular is geared to be quick and deadly -- in one of the few nods to realism in the game, characters generally can not take much damage, so those who engage in combat are both likely to put their adversaries away with ease, as well as make a quick trip to the hospital or morgue. If your looking to take out droves of bad guys with pistols ablaze, this game is not for you. The setting is Victorian and Edwardian science fantasy, an interesting precursor of modern science fiction. But what's really great about this game is that Rowland doesn't just talk about what this setting is like, he actually delivers pieces of it to you! In a move worthy of the Gutenberg Project, Rowland includes with his game actual speculative fiction stories from the time. The age of these stories places them outside of modern copyright law, so Rowland can include them in his game without incurring any cost to himself or having to worry about infringement suits. He also includes scads of actual illustrations that accompanied these stories, which go a long way in bringing you back to the day when zeppelins were fanciful high-speed aircraft, colonial explorers discovered lands of dinosaurs, and astronauts might travel to the Moon in a bullet-shaped craft fired from a cannon. There are six volumes of Forgotten Futures to date, each dedicated to a particular sub-genre of this…er…sub-genre. FF1: The A.B.C. Files is set in a 21st century "airship utopia" as envisioned by Rudyard Kipling. FF2: The Log of the Astronef involves the exploration of the Solar System in 1900 AD, and is based on George Griffith's "Stories of Other Worlds." FF3: George E. Challenger's Mysterious World involve Victorian adventure in prehistoric lands, with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's version of Indiana Jones (George E. Challenger) to provide the inspiration. Top hats and dinosaurs -- how can you go wrong? FF4: The Carnacki Cylinders concern horror and supernatural adventure in Edwardian England, as based on the stories of William Hope Hodgson's "Carnacki the Ghost Finder." FF5: Goodbye Picadilly… involves the destruction of London as seen by various authors at the turn of the century. Volcanoes, snow, fire, "Yankee commercialism and other disasters," all have their day here. And finally, FF6: Victorian Villainy dwells on the melodramatic villains of the time, as seen in plays such as "The Bells," "The Vampire," and "Frankenstein;" the first volume of E.W. Hornug's "Raffles" stories; and the novel "A Bid for Fortune," which introduces the dastardly Dr. Nikola, the prototype for legendary bad guys such as Carl Peterson, Blofeld, and Dr. Doom. Every edition contains a copy of the FF rules, a worldbook regarding that edition's particular theme, and a few of the old-time stories that inspired the edition in the first place. The rules and the world books generally are over 100 pages each, are crisply written, and provide astounding bibliographies and reference indices for delving further into the world of old-time science fantasy. The bodies of stories vary in length and often are accompanied by a slew of period illustrations and other miscellaneous material Rowland threw in for kicks. All of this is free for download from the Forgotten Futures website, http://www.ffutures.demon.co.uk/ff.htm. However, if you're flush with cash and would like even more source material, then you can order the most recent edition of the Forgotten Futures CD-ROM, which contains all six editions of FF as well as many megabytes of otherwise unreleased stories, pictures, and other interesting samples of Victorian literary history. Having not actually played FF I can't attest to how well it stands up either as a single-session or campaign kind of game. I can tell you that the vast body of source material Rowland has developed is extremely inspiring and could probably be ported over to a bunch of other games and genres. So even if you're not interested in playing a Victorian SF campaign, checking this out might add a dash of spice to whatever game you are playing. Considering that it's essentially free, there is littler to lose. My biggest complaint with this otherwise superb product is its presentation. The various editions are downloaded as zip files. Once you extract them, you realize that virtually every component of the edition has been saved as a separate file! This is really annoying when you want to view the artwork, since they come as a collection of little GIFs you must view individually. It also can be a little hairy plowing through the pile of files to find the ones you want. Some consolidation would have been nice, especially if Rowland did some layout and merged his stories with their accompanying illustration. Granted, I can't complain too loudly, since I didn't pay for this, but still, it would have made a great thing greater. I should point out, however, that the rulebooks and worldbooks come as single files easily read and printed out. All in all, Forgotten Futures easily ranks as one of the best freeware RPGs that I have seen on the Web. It breathes life into a quirkly literary genre that might otherwise disappear from memory altogether if not for the preserving efforts of Rowland and a few othe choice novelists and RPG designers who have made this time and theme their passion. If you're into Victorian gaming or even if you just like copping RPGs for free, hustle over to the Forgotten Futures web site and begin downloading. You won't be disappointed. Now if you'll excuse me, I must screw in my monacle and catch the next airship for Picadilly before Dr. Nikola destroys the city, thereby botching my planned expedition to the Mysterious World with Carnacki the Ghost Finder at my side. Oh, and when you book your next Venusian safari, would you be so kind as to relay my greetings to Captain Astronef? That's a good lad. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)