Character Creation

Character attributes, which range from 1 to 6, are Strength, Agility, Endurance, Intellect, Charisma and Social Level. There are three methods of determining them: random roll, point buy, and the "distribution" method, which consists of assigning each of the numbers 1 to 6 to a different attribute.

Skills come next, and are grouped according to attribute. Each attribute has one or two "default" skills, which start out one point less than the attribute (except for Throwing and optionally Swimming, which start at half the attribute). Most of the default skills make sense; the exception is Riding, which is the default skill for Social Level. Personally, I think Leadership would have been a more logical choice.

There are also "cascade" skills, which have required specialties; for example, Close Combat is a cascade skill with specialties of Edged Weapon, Pole Arm and Bashing Weapon. When you gain a cascade skill, you choose a primary specialty, and gain all the others at half the level of the primary.

Although it's a bit fiddly, I have to say that I like this system's way of dealing with the perennial debate of whether skills depend on attributes. The default skills – those that anybody can attempt without training – are tied directly to attributes. The rest start from zero, although the cost of increasing them depends on the level of the associated attribute – unless you get them as part of a career package.

Which leads me to the next part of the rules: careers. You don't just get a bunch of skill points to spend however you like; instead, you choose either one or two careers from a list, each of which provides you with a preset skill package. If you pick two careers, you get two additional general skill points to spend how you like; if you pick only one career, you get six general skill points.

Most careers give a total of 7 skill points, although a few give more (Master Criminals have the most, 10 points) while Inventors gain only 6. Most careers have entry requirements, but the careers with more skill points don't seem to have stricter requirements on average than the rest. Starting wealth and income are determined by Social Level, and some careers get additional perks such as salaries, royalties from inventions, NPC companions, and so forth.

The overall impression is of a simple, organic and realistic character creation system hampered by a number of exceptions and "special case" rules. Most default skills start at one less than the attribute, but Throwing and Swimming start at half the attribute. The Close Combat skill can't be raised by more than 1 point above the level determined by careers. Skills have different point costs depending on the associated attribute level. Inventors have to roll dice each game year to determine royalties received, and the result one year can affect the dice rolled for following years. And so forth.

Character creation looks easy enough, but let's test it. I decide I'd like to create an Egyptologist. Immediately I run into a snag: there's no archeologist career. (In fact, there's a shortage of academic careers in general.) I could use the Explorer or Dilettante Traveler careers, but both of those give skills that aren't really needed by an archeologist. So I'll make my own! Requirements: Soc 3+, Int 4+; Skills: Science 3 (archaeology), Observation 1, Linguistics 2, Wilderness Travel 1. I could take this career twice, but to add some variety to my character I decide that he started out working in the colonial embassy. That career has an entry requirement of Soc 4+ (Gentry). Time to assign attributes.

I considered using the distribution system, but I don't really want him to have a 1 in any attribute, so I'll use free purchase instead. After allocating attribute points, I calculate his default skills, which gives me the following:

Str 2, Fisticuffs 1, Throwing 1 Agl 3, Stealth 2 End 4, Wilderness Travel 3 Int 5, Observation 4 Chr 3, Eloquence 2 Soc 4, Riding 3

The next step is to add his career skills (and select specialties for his cascade skills). I have two general skill points left, which I decide to put into Bargaining (always a useful skill for an archeologist). His final stats look like this:

Str 2, Fisticuffs 1, Throwing 1 Agl 3, Stealth 2, Marksmanship 1 (pistols) End 4, Wilderness Travel 4 (mapping) Int 5, Observation 6, Science 3 (archaeology) Chr 3, Eloquence 3, Theatrics 1, Bargaining 3, Linguistics 4 (Arabic, French, Greek, Hieroglyphs) Soc 4, Riding 3 (horse)

His Social Level gives him 1d6 x 50 pounds to spend.

Systems

There are two basic methods of event resolution, both of them simple and familiar. The first is the "skill dice/attribute dice" method used for key rolls, which involves rolling a number of dice equal to your skill or attribute and comparing the sum to a task difficulty level. The "quick roll" system involves rolling under your skill or attribute on a single d6. So far, so good. The problem is that there are many situations in which neither of these systems is used, as we'll see shortly.

Rewards and experience come in several forms, which is both clever and cumbersome. The five types are money, awards and renown, experience, knowledge, and souvenirs. Each of these has its own guidelines for giving it out. Renown points are allocated into several categories according to the type of deeds for which the PC has gained renown, although the functional purpose of these divisions is unclear. Experience points are used to improve skills, although a die roll is required to raise a skill above the level of the associated attribute. Knowledge comes in the form of research dice, which are explained in the Science chapter.

Combat

Combat rounds are 30 seconds long, and you can take four actions per round – unless you're in "close combat" (i.e. within 30 feet of an enemy), in which case you get a number of actions equal to your Agility or Close Combat skill, whichever is higher. This means that some characters can take more actions while in close combat than they can out of it. Also, the only way to enter close combat range is by charging.

There's no initiative system; NPC actions are declared first, then PC actions, and they're resolved simultaneously. This repeats until everyone runs out of actions, then the next round begins.

The system for melee attacks is unlike any I've seen before. Each weapon has a number of "hit dice" reflecting how easy it is to handle – unarmed attacks have hit dice equal to the attacker's Agility. (Sabers and knives are best, and the only advantage sabers have over knives is their longer reach; both do the same amount of damage.) To hit, you must roll equal to or below your relevant weapon skill on at least one of the hit dice. Both the target number and the hit dice are penalized if your Strength is less than needed to use the weapon properly, and the target number is penalized if your weapon has a shorter reach than your opponent's.

If an attack hits, the opponent gets to make a "saving roll" to soak the damage, by rolling equal to or below his armor value + 1. Against unarmed attacks, the target number is (Strength + Endurance - attacker's Strength), which means that armor gives no protection against unarmed attacks! In any case, a saving roll is an all-or-nothing proposition.

You can also attempt to preemptively dodge an attack (success on a roll against Agility lowers the attacker's target number by one), and/or block it (which is resolved like an attack roll, with each success canceling one success on the attacker's hit dice, and any leftovers being rerolled for a counterattack). In fact, there's no reason not to do both, since you can combine a dodge with any other action.

Missile attacks work similarly, except that the "save number" has a base of 1-2 depending on the weapon used, modified by range, cover and other factors. Again, armor offers no protection. Some weapons allow multiple shots in a single action, and you can also fire and make a melee attack in the same action. (Both incur a -1 penalty to all hit numbers.) The Close Combat skill (based on Strength) is used in place of Marksmanship when making ranged attacks in close combat.

A character's wound points are equal to Strength + Endurance, which gives a range of 3-12 for most people. Lose more than half of your wound points, and you lose consciousness. Lose all of them, and you die. Most weapons do 1 or 2 points of damage per hit (though great swords and axes can do up to 4 points when wielded by a strong person), which means that an average person can take 2-4 hits before falling down.

Science and Inventions

Researching new inventions uses yet another system, based on "research dice". Each character starts with a number of dice equal to the sum of their Intellect and technical skill scores, and can gain more through in-game experiences. These dice can be allocated to research in several different fields, each of which has a number of potential inventions associated with it. If the player's dice roll in a given field exceeds the "minimum research level" of an invention in that field, he can attempt to invent it by rolling an additional research die to beat the invention's "experimental success number" (which ranges from -3 to 5). The margin of success determines the invention's reliability rating; additional dice can be used to try to improve the reliability. The reliability rating means different things for different inventions (as explained in their individual descriptions), and in some cases seems to have no significance at all.

There are no guidelines concerning how much time is required for either the research or design stage. There's nothing in the rules as written to prevent a player from using all his starting research dice right away, though any sensible person will no doubt wait and see which inventions are most needed. There are also no guidelines for inventing things not listed, aside from "make up [your] own inventions, using those listed here as a guide."

Aerial Combat

I've never had much interest in wargames, so I can't compare the rules in Space: 1889 with other games – nor do I know how they differ from the rules in Sky Galleons of Mars, which are designed for the same setting. However, my impression of them is that they're simple and fairly complete, though perhaps lacking in tactical options. Their main shortcoming, as with the rules in general, is a lack of consistency. All actions are resolved by rolling 1d6, but in some cases it's better to roll high and in others it's better to roll low. Furthermore, the rules are completely different from those for personal combat. A gunshot hits on a roll of 3-6 at close range and 5-6 at long range; the type of gun determines the ranges. A successful hit requires a roll on a hit location table. Armor reduces damage by half (or more) if its value exceeds the penetration value of the gun.

Ramming is successful on a roll of 4 or less, with the target number reduced by the number of movement points the target uses on evasive maneuvers. Grappling succeeds on a roll of 5-6. An accidental collision occurs on a roll of 1-2 when two ships enter the same space. And so forth.

Travel

As previously noted, these rules deal with costs and hazards of land, water and air travel (including random tables for climbing accidents, river navigation hazards and weather effects), as well as the means of financing expeditions, and a description of the different types of encounters a referee might use. I was disappointed by the lack of detail with which space travel was treated. There's no description of how ether flyers are sealed against vacuum, or rules for the effects of vacuum on a person. There are no rules for combat between ether flyers, or even any explanation of whether such a thing is possible. Also, the rules for calculating travel distances appear reasonable on the surface, but on closer inspection reveal some shaky assumptions. ⁽²⁾

Style

Let me start with the high points: the editing and layout are, in most respects, fantastic. Aside from a few small errors in the labeling of illustrations (a deck plan on p. 133 and a map on p. 143), I only noticed one typo. ⁽³⁾ The really remarkable feature, however, is the page layout. Almost every left-facing (i.e. even-numbered) page begins with a new topic heading. And yet, the text on every odd-numbered page runs to the end of the page – there's hardly any superfluous white space at the end of a column of text. (Flipping through the book, I find only two exceptions: a large blank space underneath the text on the first page of "The Victorian Age", and a small gap between two paragraphs on p. 49.) A feat like this must have required meticulous care in the placement of illustrations.

Sadly, the organization is not up to the same high standards. Setting chapters are sandwiched in between rules chapters. The skills are listed on p. 11, but aren't defined until p. 18, after the careers. Inventions are described before the system for inventing them. The three types of Martians aren't described until near the end of the chapter on Mars. Details on international relations among Earth nations are stuck in the middle of this chapter, instead of in the chapter on "The Victorian Age". Weapon stats don't appear in either the equipment chapter or the combat chapter – instead, they're buried among the reference charts at the end of the book! Likewise, the rules for critical hits on aerial vessels (including the definition of "loss of trim", which is referred to several times in the aerial combat rules) are in the back of the book with the deck plans. To make things worse, although they're referenced by page number in the text, these tables don't actually have page numbers.

The poor organization extends even to the small details. The skills aren't listed or described in alphabetical order, although there are few enough that it's not a big deal. The skills each career gets seem to be listed randomly – they aren't ordered alphabetically, or by point value, or grouped by attribute. On p. 99, the different types of ammunition for field guns are described in one order, listed in a different order under "Burst Area", and in yet a different order on the table of hit and save numbers, which makes it harder to cross-reference the different sections. The adventure in the chapter on Luna refers the reader to "the equipment list elsewhere in this book" for the stats of a freeze ray, but gives no page number. (I had to search the chart in the invention rules to find what research area the freeze ray was listed under, then turn to the appropriate section of the equipment chapter.)

The artwork consists of black-and-white drawings. Most of them are competently done, if not particularly exciting; the full-page illustrations at the beginning of each chapter are the only real stinkers. Most of these show what appears to be the same man and woman in a variety of situations, but the woman's face looks like a painted doll's face, with grotesquely large eyes, lashes and lips. The same artist contributed a page of character headshots (along with an assortment of paper-doll style headgear) among the endpages, but all the women have very similar facial structure, and all appear to be blonde. With these exceptions, the artwork on the whole is comparable to what you might expect to find in an average GURPS supplement.

Putting it all together, the individual style ratings break down something like this: Writing 4, Layout 5, Organization 2, Artwork 3. If I weighted all factors equally, they'd average to 3.5. However, since the poor organization could be a serious handicap in actually using the book, I've rounded down to a 3 for Style.

Substance

Taken individually, the rule systems in Space: 1889 are simple and for the most part seem well-designed. The problem is that there are just so many different rules for different situations, that I imagine that it would difficult to keep track of them all while running a game. Then again, it would be fairly easy to put together a cheat sheet summarizing the important points.

What about other systems? Despite its fantastical premise, Space: 1889 is essentially a hard sci-fi game at heart (from a Victorian perspective, that is), so there are no special rules for magic or superpowers or psychic abilities or cybertech, which are generally the most difficult part of a system to convert. The review I linked to at the beginning recommends using the Forgotten Futures rules, since they're specifically designed for a Victorian-era setting – but I suspect it would be just as easy to run a Space: 1889 game using GURPS, or Savage Worlds, or FATE, or BRP, or Adventure!, or D6 Adventure, or even Star Wars Saga, depending on your tastes, with a minimum of conversion work. (The most difficult part of converting Space: 1889 to another system may be deciding how to handle Social Level.)

I'd rate the rules as a low 3 or high 2. While not badly broken, they don't stand up well against other systems, especially more modern ones. The setting, on the other hand, rates a high 3 out of 5. More specifically, I'd give it a 4 for quality and a 3 for quantity. It's not enormously detailed or totally original, but it does stand out from other RPG settings, and it seems well-suited for adventure. I'm aware that the setting was fleshed out considerably by the sourcebooks, but I don't have any of those; I'm only reviewing the core rulebook. I would have gladly done without the 6 pages on canal construction in favor of some information on daily life in Martian society. If the concept really rocks your world, and you don't mind making up some of the details yourself – and if you're willing to live with the clunky rules or swap them out for better ones of your choosing – then bump the Substance rating up to a 4.

(1) On the whole, this is a good adventure, but it tends to make assumptions about how the PCs will act. The most egregious example is on p. 147, which flat-out tells the referee that "At this point they stop descending..." Granted, continuing onwards would be potentially suicidal given the circumstances, but there are no guidelines on what to do if the players don't realize this.

(2) The average distance between planets is supposedly the average of their closest and farthest separations, which turns out to equal the distance from the Sun to the farther out of the two planets. However, this would only work if the other planet moved back and forth on a straight line passing through the Sun. In reality, at the midpoint between closest and farthest approach, the planets would be separated by 90 degrees in relation to the Sun, therefore the distance between them should be equal to the hypotenuse – which will obviously be longer than the distance of either planet from the Sun. (I suppose this is partly compensated for by the fact that the rules for variance in travel time are heavily skewed towards voyages taking longer than their supposed average.)

(3) On p. 168, there's a reference to gumma, which is spelled gumme elsewhere in the text.