Space 1889: Science Fiction Role Playing in a More Civilized Time [Hardcover]

Frank Chadwick (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Game Designers Workshop (December 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0943580803
• ISBN-13: 978-0943580807
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,912,276 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tim Bradstreet is an American artist and designer best known for his Eisner Award-nominated work in graphic novels. He currently works as a conceptual artist for film and entertainment media. Over the past twenty years Bradstreet has worked for a number of publishing houses, including Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics (as well as their imprints Vertigo, and Wildstorm), Fantasmagraphics, IDW Publishing, Image Comics, Marvel Comics, and White Wolf Studios.

In 2000, Bradstreet collaborated with director Guillermo Del Toro on the concept work for the film BLADE 2. In 2003, he provided the art for movie posters promoting the film PUNISHER, a film by Marvel & Lion's Gate. In 2007, he worked with actor/director Thomas Jane as the production designer for the independent film DARK COUNTRY.

Tim Bradstreet's website can be found at RawStudios.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars FANTASTIC setting; lousy system, September 16, 2004

By 

J. Angus Macdonald "bibliovore" (Concord, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Space 1889: Science Fiction Role Playing in a More Civilized Time (Paperback)

I love old Victorian- and Edwardian-era adventure books. Give me Jules Verne, H. Rider Haggard, Arthur Conan Doyle, H.G. Wells and their ilk and I am quite the happy camper. As such Space: 1889 well fills this need. The pushing of The Great Game into outer space, replete with colonies, cloak & dagger work, army regiments, the raj-mentality (with all its pitfalls, questionable notions and nobility) are here, taken not just to Mars, but also to Mercury, Venus and the Moon. With a bit of work, who knows? Perhaps the very stars will eventually be available!

For those who love this type of adventure, a touch of the movie "Zulu" meeting John Carter with a nod to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, you will find all sorts of ideas to mine. The Canal Martians, and then their less civilized brethren, provide exotic scenes, moral quandaries, wily enemies. How "realistic" you play all of this is up to you, anything from a "Gandhi" tone to one of Pure Heroism.

The problem, however, is the system. It is clunky, simplistic, and in the end quite broken. In attempting to keep everything to d6 rolls, you end up with either binary results or the old "bucket load o' dice" scenario. I have tried playing the system several times (at least three different GMs) and it has never felt satisfying. On the other hand I ported the setting over to other systems (Harn, Over The Edge, BRP/Runequest/Call of Cthulhu, etc.) and found it worked emminently well!

In the end, I would suggest this book as a supplement to anyone interested in roleplaying in this sort of era. Ditch the system, keep the setting, and you will have a blast!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The classic Victorian SF game, August 28, 2000

By 

J. McClure "Jedo" (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Space 1889: Science Fiction Role Playing in a More Civilized Time (Paperback)

Space:1889 predated the coining of the term Steam-Punk by several years, and is notable for taking a variety of sources, (E.R. Burroughs, Jules Vern, Victorian scientific romances, Kipling, Flashman, 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen', etc,) and combining them into a tight and well thought out alternate history. Like the other products of the late GDW, Space:1889 has a very detailed setting, and excellent maps & (for the most part) artwork. Since it was designed as a companion to the wargame for the same setting, the RPG rules are rather simple, and geared toward swashbuckling combat- a much stronger emphasis on role-playing then on dice rolling. The setting rules, (presumably due to the source material,) are decidedly Anglo-centric, with the typical villain assumed to be German, or at least foreign. However the game has a devout fan base, and plenty of additional material has been released by as books by the Royal Martian Geographical Society (available here on Amazon) or a selection can be viewed online at their website... .

Despite the fact that I am a big fan of the game, I have to say in all honesty that this is a high quality game, and it is a great thing that it is back in print. The main book is a complete game and setting, (unlike some recent game releases,) and so you are getting a lot for your money.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great Game, Terrible Production, September 24, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Space 1889: Science Fiction Role Playing in a More Civilized Time (Paperback)

Space: 1889 was a really cool game back in the late 80s. At first, I was delighted to see it back in print. Now that I have a copy, I'm not so sure.

See, the original was a sewn-bound hardbound work with glossy full-colour pages interspersed throughout. Very nicely done. Some of the art was lacking, but that was GDW in the 80s. It was still put together wonderfully.

This version, however, leaves a lot to be desired. Almost twice the original price of that beautiful book they put out, this is simply a collection of xeroxes of the original book with Heliograph's logo stuck in it im places over where it used to say GDW. Further, the cover is a pseudo-laminated colour laser print of the original work's cover.

All this low, low quality for the price of a brand new D&D book or other top-shelf work (I don't like new D&D, but the books are put together beautifully).

It's a good thing Frank Chadwisk isn't dead -- if he were, he'd be rolling in his grave over this shoddy production of a great game.

Go buy a used copy of the original.