RPG a Day 2015 Challenge – Day 27

This post brought to you by hurricane preparedness and emergency shopping! Just kidding… Currently Puerto Rico is under tropical storm warning, and we are preparing for the arrival of tropical storm Erika. Everything should be fine, but if I miss my post tomorrow, you’ll know we lost power due to the winds. Hopefully tomorrow’s post should be on time. But you are not here for meteorological update; let’s get to today’s topics for #RPGaDay2015.

Day 27 – Favorite idea for merging two games into one

Space 1889

If you are a regular reader of the blog, this pick should surprise you, and I know I’m not alone in my love for this game, Space 1889! Merging pulp adventures set in a Victorian word with super science based on the scientific concepts of the age produced a game that had a significant impact in me. I loved Jules Verne as a kid, my grandmother read me some of his works, I devoured comics based on his stories as soon as I could read, so the concept of adventure in the 19th century was immediately appealing to me, however when I began reading the book I realized how much I didn’t know about the epoch. Mind you I was 16, but I realized my history classed had glossed over much of the period. The game began a long love affair with learning about the Victoria era and eventually studying the literature of the age.

Frank Chadwick gave me proto-steampunk before I knew what Steampunk was! I own most of the book, as well as Red Sands, the Savage Worlds Space 1889 book and the new edition. If you are curious for all things Space 1889 make sure you check out Heliograph’s Space 1889 page.

Space1889_Larger.png

My second choice would have to be a Cthulhu mash up. Are you surprised? While Cthulhutech is definitely cool, my pick would be Cthulhupunk! On Day 20 of #RPGaDay2015 I jokingly shared the gaming bacon idea from Dork Tower, but here it proves true.

I describe it in a previous post on my five favorite Cthulhu products. Steve Jackson Games has an updated cover for it, which I reproduce below, but it seems it still is out of print. Well worth getting if you can in my opinion.

Cthulhupunk cover

What’s your favorite idea for merging two games? Has it been done? Let us know in the comments… See you all (hopefully) tomorrow!

Tropical Storm Erika

4 comments

comments user
Johnkzin

Dieselpunk version of Space 1889. Mutant Chronicles, Achtung Cthulhu, Space 1889 (and some elements of “Rocketship Empires”).

Edison’s ether prop didn’t get fully investigated in the timeline of 1889, it got shelved until after WW1. So, by the time it does get built and really takes off, we’re into the 1930’s. That fringe group from Germany? When their leader was supposed to get arrested and go to prison, they flee the planet, headed toward the moons of the gas giants. And they find some rather dark allies out there.

Instead of a Steampunk etherprop exploration of the solarsystem, it’s all dieselpunk. It’s more like the pulp era of the 1930’s, instead of the Jules Verne era.

(and, as I mentioned in a previous post’s comments, there’s some Spelljammer influences as well; but that’s more about the interstellar part of the setting, and the larger cosmology)

    comments user
    Sunglar

    I want that game, take my hypothetical money now! Sounds like a lot of fun…

    I also toyed with the idea of a game based in Space 1999, but the game takes place in the future of the Space 1889 universe, so it is a projection of the alternate history of the game into the late 20th, early 21st century.

    Thanks for the comment Johnkzin!

      comments user
      Johnkzin

      Yeah, I want that game too! I just don’t have enough time to make it a reality (nor the publishing skills to feel confident about giving it a wide audience if I ever finished my version of it).

      Think we can convince Modiphius to combine their various product lines into something like it? 🙂

      (they publish a space 1889-ish steampunk game now, they have the current Mutant Chronicles license, they did Achtung Cthulhu, and they can probably work out something like Rocketship Empires and/or one of the recent Spelljammer-ish FATE properties).

      As long as they did a FATE version (and perhaps also their in-house system for Mutant and Mutant Chronicles), I’d be all over it. Well, honestly, no matter what system they used, I’d be all over it. But I’d be especially into it if they did a FATE version.

        comments user
        Sunglar

        Let’s convince the guys at Modiphius, you do the FATE version, I do the Savage Worlds one! jejejje we can dream…