For many of us who started gaming in the tail end of the 1970s, The Handbook for Space Pioneers: Exoplanet Colonies (1978) by Wolfe and Wysack was basically the first space game supplement that wasn't intended for RPGs at all... and yet...
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For many of us who started gaming in the tail end of the 1970s, The Handbook for Space Pioneers: Exoplanet Colonies (1978) by Wolfe and Wysack was basically the first space game supplement that wasn't intended for RPGs at all... and yet...
It provided fully realised worlds, maps, races, threats, economies, deckplans, personality tests, and recruitment ideas for characters.. er.. cough the readers.
Perfect for traveller or Star Trek and packed with colonial issues too.
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For many of us who started gaming in the tail end of the 1970s, The Handbook for Space Pioneers: Exoplanet Colonies (1978) by Wolfe and Wysack was basically the first space game supplement that wasn't intended for RPGs at all... and yet...
It provided fully realised worlds, maps, races, threats, economies, deckplans, personality tests, and recruitment ideas for characters.. er.. cough the readers.
Perfect for traveller or Star Trek and packed with colonial issues too.
@Taskerland and I were discussing Mythic Iceland being a great supplement because of how much it provides the GM, and while the Handbook for Space Pioneers is very dated now, I think it's one of the unsung heroes of "a book that was simply waiting for RPGs"
Why is this important now?
I just found it was on the internet archive
Enjoy!
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For many of us who started gaming in the tail end of the 1970s, The Handbook for Space Pioneers: Exoplanet Colonies (1978) by Wolfe and Wysack was basically the first space game supplement that wasn't intended for RPGs at all... and yet...
It provided fully realised worlds, maps, races, threats, economies, deckplans, personality tests, and recruitment ideas for characters.. er.. cough the readers.
Perfect for traveller or Star Trek and packed with colonial issues too.
@Printdevil Are there any actual towns built as concentric circles? Maybe Soviet industrial cities
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@Printdevil Are there any actual towns built as concentric circles? Maybe Soviet industrial cities
@Taskerland Each of the worlds has different approaches to colonisation. So there's plenty of different things. The agency is called GAIL and they use a modular approach. Really just opening it there's a game, but even if you ignored the background there's enough flesh for say a "one off CoC set on.." and stuff like that.
The whole thing is deeply 1960/1970s sci-fi beige computer CRT tech, and I love it. 2001, Logan's Run, Dark Star. Long slow space travel, and one colour jumpsuits.
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@Printdevil Are there any actual towns built as concentric circles? Maybe Soviet industrial cities
@Taskerland @Printdevil Napoleonic Paris?
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@Taskerland @Printdevil Napoleonic Paris?
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I assume everyone knows this book anyway, it is very old and a bit of a classic, I was just flagging it up for the younger generation and noting it was on the internet archive.
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@Printdevil @Taskerland I can't help picturing my players laying out a buggy racing course.
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@Printdevil Are there any actual towns built as concentric circles? Maybe Soviet industrial cities
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@Printdevil @Taskerland I can't help picturing my players laying out a buggy racing course.
Rubbish buggies are pretty much a staple of low budget 60s-80s Sci-Fi. With guns that are a pipe and a grip that does "zoot zoot" and makes a smoke effect.
Smoke Effect disintegrations are of course the pinnacle of FX and have never been bettered.
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Rubbish buggies are pretty much a staple of low budget 60s-80s Sci-Fi. With guns that are a pipe and a grip that does "zoot zoot" and makes a smoke effect.
Smoke Effect disintegrations are of course the pinnacle of FX and have never been bettered.
@Printdevil @Taskerland And monorails! Especially if the monorail is slower than walking.
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@Taskerland and I were discussing Mythic Iceland being a great supplement because of how much it provides the GM, and while the Handbook for Space Pioneers is very dated now, I think it's one of the unsung heroes of "a book that was simply waiting for RPGs"
Why is this important now?
I just found it was on the internet archive
Enjoy!
@Taskerland As a quick addendum the whole book is written with a straight face, and as the manual for new pioneers, so the material is all ready to be handed to players, with no "gm only" redactions to be made. You could actually just buy old copies of the paperback of the book for £10. The handsome hardback is a lot pricier. But I think you'd just print a chapter out for a game because the players are hopefully all going to the same place*
*knows this is never true in practice
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@Printdevil @Taskerland And monorails! Especially if the monorail is slower than walking.
"ambient monorail zoooo-p noises intensify*
*refuels a buggy with a pipe full of christmas tree lights*
*dances with Gil Gerard*
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@Taskerland As a quick addendum the whole book is written with a straight face, and as the manual for new pioneers, so the material is all ready to be handed to players, with no "gm only" redactions to be made. You could actually just buy old copies of the paperback of the book for £10. The handsome hardback is a lot pricier. But I think you'd just print a chapter out for a game because the players are hopefully all going to the same place*
*knows this is never true in practice
@Printdevil @Taskerland Now I'm reminiscing about explaining realistic space travel to players. "So you thought Horror on the Orient Express was on rails? Ain't got nothing on this, your options are 'arrive where and when you planned' or 'die'"
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@Taskerland As a quick addendum the whole book is written with a straight face, and as the manual for new pioneers, so the material is all ready to be handed to players, with no "gm only" redactions to be made. You could actually just buy old copies of the paperback of the book for £10. The handsome hardback is a lot pricier. But I think you'd just print a chapter out for a game because the players are hopefully all going to the same place*
*knows this is never true in practice
@Taskerland Even this paragraph is full of foreboding for me. If this was what the GM gave me as my introduction I'd already assume horror was about to break out everywhere.
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@Printdevil @Taskerland Now I'm reminiscing about explaining realistic space travel to players. "So you thought Horror on the Orient Express was on rails? Ain't got nothing on this, your options are 'arrive where and when you planned' or 'die'"
There's an entire chapter about that in the book. Not so much the dying, but explanations of time/time dilation, the weeks to arrive (all calculated for you)
Also preparation for the atmospheric and gravitation changes.
There's a few game weeks alone in that actually shipboard, which would make for a good Session Zero/skill system learning period, followed by "oh dear the planet you've arrived on is overrun with bald feet Dereks"
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@Taskerland @Printdevil Napoleonic Paris?
@RogerBW Yeah... Fair point. I think that is literally the canonical example of concentric city planning. @Printdevil
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@Taskerland As a quick addendum the whole book is written with a straight face, and as the manual for new pioneers, so the material is all ready to be handed to players, with no "gm only" redactions to be made. You could actually just buy old copies of the paperback of the book for £10. The handsome hardback is a lot pricier. But I think you'd just print a chapter out for a game because the players are hopefully all going to the same place*
*knows this is never true in practice
@Printdevil I feel that SJG's Transhuman Space books are the spiritual descendants of those non-fiction science fiction books. Terrain Trade Authority and all that.
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@RogerBW Yeah... Fair point. I think that is literally the canonical example of concentric city planning. @Printdevil
I think if you projected forwards you could imagine cities built that way, because there's basically nine different types of world, one already distinctly capitalist, but the social-frame of the game.. cough cough.. book is very pioneer era supported via occasional drops. It's very "you make it here yourself, for a new life on Weirdo XII"
Which is of course totally stressfree
In a game
Which of course this isn't
<_<
>_>
totally is..
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@Printdevil I feel that SJG's Transhuman Space books are the spiritual descendants of those non-fiction science fiction books. Terrain Trade Authority and all that.
@Taskerland Certainly had a lot of influence on a lot of Sci-Fi peeps. This book was very very popular in the 70s, and then.. vanished. I've never heard it referred to in the RPG circles, which I just assumed was that I didn't really move in them, but with @strangequark and I discussing Space1999 a bit recently it popped up on my suggested reading lists and I got a bit nostalgic and was surprised just how good a supplement.. er.. book it still is. It smokes Barrier Peaks for example.
