History TabletopGame / Space1889

* NoWomansLand: Victorian Britain treats respectable women with heavy-handed patronisation and women they choose not to respect horribly. The books state this, but the misogyni is de-emphasized in the stories and mentiones several women who managed to break out of their gender role and still be considered respectable -suggesting the female characters could be like those.

* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: Mostly averted. The books describe the time period quite correctly and certainly do not deny that the Victorians looked down on uneducated workers, people of other cultures and races and treated respectable women like second class citizens in need of guidance and protection and women they choose not to respect downright terribly. These aspects of Victorian society are downplayed in the adventures though and in illustrations aristocrats, workers and women seem to be in the same adventuring party, even if the men often seem to make an effort to put the women out of harm's way. The books give some historical examples of female adventurers in the era and imply that players wanting to play female characters could play such a rare person. All or almost all illustrations seem to imply that the player characters are white humans though.

* ToplessnessFromTheBack: There is an illustration like that from Beastmen of Mars showing male and female PCs [[spoiler: stripped to the waste to be sacrificed -they survive))

* WhoWantsToLiveForever: A fair clever version is a plot point in [[spoiler: Beastmen of Mars. A precursor society discovered a medical treatment that gave them something very close to complete immortality. As long as there is a place that can sustain life they live, regenerating any injuries and suspended animation when the necessities for life is abscent and regeneration from suspended animation to regular form as soon as the necessities for life is present again. Paradoxically this made them terrified of and obsessed with death. A mortal fears sickness, an immortal fears the enthropy death of the universe. They also lacked memories to handle vast amount of time. Paradoxically immortality drew them to suicide by completely destroying their bodies. The only being capable of psychologically handling immortality is one person who is whimsy and forgetful to the point of being hopelessly insane.]]

* WhoWantsToLiveForever: A fair clever version is a plot point in [[spoiler:
Beastmen of Mars. A precursor society discovered a medical treatment that gave them something very close to complete immortality. As long as there is a place that can sustain life they live, regenerating any injuries and suspended animation when the necessities for life is abscent and regeneration from suspended animation to regular form as soon as the necessities for life is present again. Paradoxically this made them terrified of and obsessed with death. A mortal fears sickness, an immortal fears the enthropy death of the universe. They also lacked memories to handle vast amount of time. Paradoxically immortality drew them to suicide by completely destroying their bodies. The only being capable of psychologically handling immortality is one person who is whimsy and forgetful to the point of being hopelessly insane.]]

* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Plot point in Beastmen of Mars. The only being capable of psychologically handling immortality is one person who is hopelessly insane.

* SpartanWay: Skrill Rider training kills 60% of their male population. Understandably, they are not monogamous.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Less often than you would expect. Female American journalist Nellie Bly appears in one adventure. Quite a few are first class passengers on the Ether Flyer in the adventure Canal Priest of Mars.

* Handwave: A few times. For instance, in the game Mars has a surface gravity is just a little bit lower than Earths. In reality it is less than half of Earth’s surface gravity. In the core book it is mentioned that Mars’ gravity is significantly higher than scientists had expected and that they have no real explanation for this.

* RagnarokProofing: When the Ancient Martians built the Canal system and the Cities it supported, they already knew their world was declining. Hence, the cities were designing to be rather self-sustaining- Martian sewage is converted by bacteria deep under the city into gas which produce gas for lighting and heating, the buildings were made to be incredibly sturdy and the Canals themselves leak-by design- into the surrounding countryside, which creates a water table to support agriculture all along the canals. Some of the pumping stations have failed, although the stations have been built to many different designs, so although some complex systems are irreparable, other, very hardy and simple pumps look like they will continue to work for the foreseeable future. In any case, Mars is very short on raw materials- there is little metal or fuel on Mars, except for renewable resources like trees and the only arable land exists in bands around the canals which vary in width from 10 to 50 miles. Mars has stagnated, and seems unable to pick itself back up

* ReligionofEvil: Cult of the Worm

* {{Steampunk}} one of the oldest examples, from roughly about the time the term was invented, but before it was spread.

* NobleSavage: Mostly played straight with the nomadic Hill Martians. The feral, barbaric High Martians, however are clearly un inversion.
* OfCorsetsSexy: Given that it is the late 19th century, all women are expected to wear this and the figures of the women in the illustrations seem to strongly support this. You do not see the actual corset of course. That is underwear.

* CoolAirship

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Less often than you would think. Female American journalist Nellie Bly appears in one adventure. Quite a few are first class passengers on the Ether Flyer in the adventure Canal Priest of Mars.

* OrCorsetsSexy: Given that it is the late 19th century, all women are expected to wear this and the figures of the women in the illustrations seem to strongly support this. You do not see the actual corset of course. That is underwear.

* {{Steampunk}}

* ReligionofEvil: Cult of the Worn

* Religion of Evil: Cult of the Worn

It is set in an AlternateUniverse Victorian era, where [[AllTheoriesAreTrue the scientific theories of the day are true]]; a luminiferous aether fills the depths of space, which is what people use to travel from world to world in {{Cool Airship}}s. Indeed, the game describes itself as Victorian era science fiction. As the game is set in an alternate-Victorian era, all the great powers have colonies on the other planets.

Space1889 is a SteamPunk Tabletop Roleplaying Game by Frank Chadwick, and published first in 1988 by Game Designers Workshop, then by Heliograph Inc.

It is set in an AlternateUniverse Victorian era, where [[AllTheoriesAreTrue the scientific theories of the day are true]]; a luminiferous aether fills the depths of space, which is what people use to travel from world to world in {{Cool Airship}}s. Indeed, the game describes itself as Victorian era science fiction.
This being an alternate-Victorian era, all the great powers have colonies on the other planets.

It had at least two TabletopGame semi-spinoff/semi-expansions; Sky Galleons of Mars, which provided detailed rules for ship-to-ship combat, and the Soldier's Companion, which provided rules for playing a minitures game.

* SteamPunk

* ExcessiveSteamSyndrome: All Spaceships are powered by Solar Boilers, which are heated by huge parabolic mirrors mounted to the outside of the Spacecraft. However, as the strength of the Sun's rays diminishes as the craft travels further from it, the light becomes insufficient to heat the Boiler. Until a better power system is developed, Humanity cannot travel beyond the Asteroid Belt.

* StanleySteamerSpaceship: Quite Literally. All Spaceships are powered by Solar Boilers, which are heated by huge parabolic mirrors mounted to the outside of the Spacecraft. However, as the strength of the Sun's rays diminishes as the craft travels further from it, the light becomes insufficient to heat the Boiler. Until a better power system is developed, Humanity cannot travel beyond the Asteroid Belt.

This show provides examples of:

It is set in an AlternateUniverse Victorian era, where the scientific theories of the day are true; a luminiferous aether fills the depths of space, which is what people use to travel from world to world in {{CoolAirship}}s. Indeed, the game describes itself as Victorian era science fiction.

* AllPlanetsAreEarthLike: Mercury, Venus and Mars can all support Human life quite easily, although only Mars has any sort of civilization on it- Mercury has only very basic life, such as trilobites, Venus has Sentient Lizardmen, although they are only at the Stone Age level. Mars has an ancient Civilization based around their canals, although they have lost the technology necessary to build new canals or even to maintain their cities. The Moon can also support life, although there is no atmosphere on the surface- it only exists nearer to the Moon's core.
* AppliedPhlebotinum: Largely absent, except for Edison's Etheric Propeller, whose workings are not disclosed and Martian Liftwood, a Martian Tree whose specially treated wood can be used to make flying ships. Rest assured, all the Earthly Powers with influence on Mars are desperate to control more of this material which can create air born Dreadnoughts.
* LostTechnology: The Martians were once a highly advanced Space-faring civilization, but have heavily declined over the millennia, until they reached the state that we find them now- a decadent Renaissance level world. Mars is a vast desert, and life only exists around the canals that the Martians built hundreds of thousands of years ago. The pump stations and power stations which enable their culture to exist were built for extreme long-use, but the more complex systems have failed, and some canals have disappeared as the water which filled them dried up. Martian cities are enormous and filled with gigantic skyscrapers, but the smaller populations who now inhabit them only live on the first few floors in the towers closest to the canals- the cities are too big and too tall to transverse by foot, but there are rumours of unexplored rooms with ancient Martian devices....
* RagnarokProofing: When the Ancient Martians built the Canal system and the Cities it supported, they already knew their world was declining. Hence, the cities were designing to be rather self-sustaining- Martian sewage is converted by bacteria deep under the city into gas which produce gas for lighting and heating, the buildings were made to be incredibly sturdy and the Canals themselves leak-by design- into the surrounding countryside, which creates a water table to support agriculture all along the canals. Some of the pumping stations have failed, although the stations have been built to many different designs, so although some complex systems are irreparable, other, very hardy and simple pumps look like they will continue to work for the foreseeable future. In any case, Mars is very short on raw materials- there is little metal or fuel on Mars, except for renewable resources like trees and the only arable land exists in bands around the canals which vary in width from 10 to 50 miles. Mars has stagnated, and seems unable to pick itself back up

* StanleySteamerSpaceship