Space: 1889: If you've just joined the party

Space 1889, conceived by Frank Chadwick and published by GDW in 1988, is a space-faring Victorian-era role-playing game. That is, the year is 1889, Queen Victoria is still on the throne (and will be for another 11 years), imperialism is in full swing, and for 21 years the world has been utilizing steampower and the unique properties of the interplanetary ether to reach and colonize other planets. The central conceit of Space 1889 is that the scientific principles that were used by Wells, Verne, and Conan Doyle as the basis of their scientific romances were correct: "What if instead of quantum mechanics and relativity, there was only 'the ether'?" (p. 5). Or, as the back of the book has it: "Everything Jules Verne could have written. Everything H.G. Wells should have written. Everything A. Conan Doyle thought of but never published - because it was too fantastic. Everything you need for the adventures of the century. Science-Fiction Role Playing in a More Civilized Time."

It's probably obvious that I enjoy this game very much. The setting is open to many great adventures - just begin to think about the possibilities of interplanetary exploration, big-game hunting on Venus, political intrigue, and, of course, conquest and war. You can imagine how interested I was when I heard that Heliograph, Inc. was reprinting the original books.

Overview: War, huh, what is it good for?

The Soldier's Companion is one of the Heliograph reprints, and is, as its name indicates, all about war. It is not just a sourcebook for the roleplaying game, but also features miniature rules. In fact, it might be better to reverse that, and call it a sourcebook for miniature rules that includes some roleplaying information. The book is separated into four books (the descriptions are from the back of the book, the page count is my own):

• Book I: The Rules of War
"constitutes the miniature rules."
• A: Basic Rules, 20 pages
• B: Unit Organization, 3 pages
• C: Mechanical Conveyances, 21 pages
• D: Advanced Weapons, 8 pages
• E: The Defense of Places, 13 pages
Book II: The Road to War
"provides brief campaign rules and rules for integrating Soldier's Companion into Space: 1889 role-playing games."
• A: Role-Playing Character, 3 pages
• B: The Military Campaign, 3 pages
• C: Sample Scenarios, 2 pages
• D: Sample Campaigns, 2 pages
Book III: The Sinews of War
"covers the wealth of military equipment available, including artillery and naval vessels."
• A: Artillery of the Worlds, 5 pages
• B: Conveyances, 6 pages
Book IV: Army Lists, 74 pages
"provides an extensive listing of all of the major armies of Earth. In addition, the lists detail the colonial and native armies on Mars (including a full British order of battle for the red planet), Venus, and Luna."
Book V: Charts and Miscellaneous, 27 pages
"puts all the game's charts in a single spot, along wth designer's notes and bibliography."

(In case you're wondering, and are as slow with numbers as I am, that's 192 pages for the book divided into title page {1}, credits page {1}, table of contents {1}, introduction {2}, miniature rules {65}, roleplaying rules {10}, equipment lists {11}, army information {74}, and charts and diagrams {27}.)

I am a roleplayer, and though I sometimes enjoy looking at miniatures, and watching a bit of a wargame, I don't pretend to know very much about rules for miniatures. This review is going to be (primarily) about how useful this book will be to a roleplayer.

Art: Black and Tan and Black and Blue

I don't mind having no color pages in a role-playing book (in the original book the interspersed glossy color pages are almost distracting), but I do demand that my art be interesting. I used to read the text of the books and hardly ever look at the art. Now I read the text, and I still enjoy the reading; but I only play games whose art grabs or inspires me. I may be in the minority here on this, but that's the way it is. So what I can say about the art in this book is that if this were the only Space: 1889 book I ever saw, I don't think I would play it.

The cover is the best bit of art, showing a British land juggernaut (tank) supported by infantry (colonial service, judging by the uniform) that have just stormed a German colonial machine-gun emplacement. Throughout the rest of the book there are five illustrations of exciting events happening. I like all of them, though love none. Every other picture in the book is either a catalogue-like illustration of a piece of equipment, a photograph of miniatures (mostly too dim, but some depicting interesting scenes), or (mostly, it seems) drawings of different national uniforms. With the emphasis I put on art I may be in a minority, but I don't know many people who will be inspired to play a game by a black-and-white drawing of Rumanian uniforms.

But as a roleplayer I might be missing something. Perhaps these uninspiring, catalogue-like illustrations would be more useful when putting together and painting an army than any inspiring artwork could ever be. I hope so, because there are thirty drawings showing the martial uniforms of many nations, and only four would be impossible to find in other books (the armies of Luna, Venus, Mars, and the Martian Colonial Establishment).

Honestly, the art in the original book was not fabulous, but even though sometimes cheesy, and sometimes not very good, it at least made me interested in the stories that could be told in this setting. The art of this book unfortunately inspires no such feeling. (The one benefit of those thirty illustrations of different uniforms is that I can recognize that the British infantry on the cover are colonial service.)

Book I: You can't hurt me with the things you do, I'll pick up dandelions and I'll give them to you

Book I is the miniature rules, and they are perfectly fine miniature rules. The basic rules for miniatures were oddly captivating to me, who never thought to go farther into wargaming than Stratego. To be brief, the rules here seem both somewhat simple, and somewhat flexible. There's rules on formation, movement, small arms and artillery fire, and, most importantly, morale. After a read-through of the basic rules I feel that I could join in a colonial war that did not involve any sort of fantastic science or too many artillery pieces. Frank Chadwick has written in the Introduction that his first goal was to provide solid rules for colonial miniatures, and I think he has provided them.

Then you add on the rules for the science-fictional elements of the Space: 1889 world, for both the mechanical conveyances (the land juggernauts, the hydrofoils, the autogyros, and aeroplanes), and the advanced weapons (underwater guns, lightning cannons, heat rays), and even that seems manageable. There are lots of somewhat special situations, but what are the chances I'll need to remember the rules for submarines and for planes at the same time?

The siege rules provided in "The Defense of Places" are as oddly interesting as the "Basic Rules" were for me, and somewhat different. Sieges are like a separate game entirely, and only during sorties or assaults are basic battle rules invoked. There are rules for building and destroying all sorts of fortifications, along with mines, bridges, and rules for bombardments. These rules were interesting, and unlike the rest of the book, actually made me think of a scenario or two that could involve using them. This section also includes instructions on modeling the fortifications for tabletop use.

My overall feeling about this main section is that it is interesting, and, of course, necessary if you are planning on wargaming in the Space: 1889 world. These are the rules that one would use, and they seem well-suited to the task. Would any other wargamer be well-served by these rules. Not knowing much about other miniature rules, I would say that there are probably rules that are designed specifically for what game you want to play, and that you don't really need these rules. Having said that, I would add that these rules are maybe worth a look if you are playing 19th Century colonial wargames.

If you are roleplaying in the 19th Century, you certainly don't need this section, unless you really want to incorporate some large-scale battle into your game. (Perhaps there are cultists of Shub-Niggurath leading the Mahdist army against the British in the Sudan.) Of course, if you are playing another game, it might be difficult to adapt the rules to fit. Still, it might be interesting.

An easier time would be had by a Space:1889 player who wanted a military interlude. Many of the rules here for armies are really quite logical extensions of the rules for personal combat that were provided in the main rulebook, which would make learning these rules that much easier. And just as the Basic Rules are mostly extensions of the personal combat rules, the vehicle rules are by-and-large just extensions of the aerial combat rules found in the main rulebook. In fact, some of the information here seems to be less an extension of those original rules, and more a reprint, which mars an otherwise good section.

Book II: An Army of One

What I really wanted in this book was information about war and the soldier's life that would be applicable to the roleplaying game. Unfortunately, this 10-page section is what I got to answer my questions and flesh out my soldier characters, and only three pages of that is roleplaying-relevant. What you get in these ten pages is information on converting role-playing characters to miniature characters, the possible war experience of British soldier characters (these two topics taking up those precious three pages); campaign rules for miniature games (that is to say, long-distance movement and rations); two sample scenarios for miniatures (both look fun, but are obvious, and perhaps a bit disappointing in that both feature a Martian uprising); and four sample campaigns (that are really just ideas that need a lot of fleshing out, but are probably my favorite part of the book as they provide the most ideas for adventures).