Practical Eschatology: RPG Saturday: Space: 1889

Saturday, June 27, 2026

RPG Saturday: Space: 1889

Space: 1889 was a Victorian Era era role playing game released by Game Designers Workshop (GDW) in 1989. It did not see the commercial success that GDW wanted and was quickly cancelled by GDW in 1990. This is somewhat amazing to me, as interest in the game has held on with subsequent versions (same setting but different game mechanics) being published by several companies over the intervening years.

The game is an amalgam of the science fiction of Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, H.G. Wells, and Edger Rice Burroughs, combining the fantastic elements of their stories with the scientific theories of that day and age, giving an early steam punk vibe. It reflects an alternate history of the Victorian Era where Mars and Venus are habitable and interplanetary travel is possible. The result is the colonial revelry of the Great Powers extending to include the inner planets of our solar system.

The basic background of the game is informed by certain theories of the period: that Mars was a world slowly dying from lack of water, crisscrossed by canals; that Venus was a hothouse world covered with thick jungles, swamps, and oceans much like a primordial Earth, hidden under a permanent haze of clouds; and that space was filled with the Ether--the medium which transmitted light waves and gravity.

The alternate history used by the game begins with Thomas Edison inventing an Ether propeller that can move a craft through space. However, the propeller will not work until a craft is lifted to altitude of 24,000 feet on Earth. Once a working device was developed, Edison and a Scottish adventurer named Jack Armstrong set off for Mars in 1870. The initial lift was provided by a hydrogen balloon after which the Ether propeller took them to Mars where they made first contact with the Martian inhabitants. With their return to Earth, the race to colonize Mars and the other inner planets took off. Because the power for the Ether propeller comes from solar boilers, Ether ships are limited to the inner solar system, so the outer planets remain unexplored.

While Zeppelins and dirigibles are used for airships, one of the most valuable exports from Mars is liftwood--a naturally occurring tree wood that when correctly harvested and shaped has antigravity powers. By a system of louvers made of lift wood, a ship can control its lift and maneuver above a planetary surface. So the best airships use lift wood.

There is other "mad scientist" type technology that you can incorporate into your game--lightening cannons, freeze rays, and mechanical men, for instance--but other than the Ether propeller and other technology necessary for space travel, most of the other technology in the game is either technology that existed or extensions of the same that could have been possible if the right inventor (and investors) had come along.

One of the three main types of Martians

The game system was actually quite simple. Characters were primarily defined by six attributes: Strength, Endurance, Agility, Intellect, Charisma, and Social Level, with scores ranging between 1 and 6. Unlike some other games that incorporate some version of social level as an attribute, it makes a real difference in this game as it limits which careers are open to a character and also is used to determine their wealth--basically the amount of money and other resources available to the character.

But this is also a skill based game system. Characters can gain skills in three ways: default skills which are associated with certain attributes, with the character receiving one for each of the attributes (plus "throwing"); skills awarded by virtue of the character's career; and skills "purchased" by use of skill points or experience points.

There are two basic game mechanics in the game. In one method, the player rolls a number of 6-sided dice equal to the score of the attribute or skill being used and compares it against a target number based on the difficulty of whatever the character is doing. For instance, if a character was trying to force open a door and had a Strength of a 4, the player would roll four dice and add up the total. If it was equal to or greater than the target number--say, 12 because the task was "difficult"--then the character would succeed in forcing the door. However, for quicker play for things of a "standard" difficulty, the player would roll a single die, and if the result was equal to or less than the appropriate attribute or skill level, the character would succeed in what they are doing.

Combat has special rules. In Melee combat, each weapon has a number of hit dice that are rolled to see if the target is struck, which number may go up or down depending on certain modifiers. The person controlling the character being attacked also rolls a number of dice to block or parry blow. Each successful blocking die cancels out a successful attacking die. If the number of successful blocking dice exceeds the number of successful attack dice, not only has the attack been stopped, but the extra die or dice can be used for an immediate attack (e.g., a parry and riposte with sword). This seems complex and slow, but I believe the intent was to try and capture the feeling of two opponents trading blows.

Missile attacks (e.g., shooting a rifle, throwing a spear) are resolved similar to the basic game mechanic, but with modifiers to reflect different situations or the distance to a target.

And there are special rules for mixing both melee and missile attacks (e.g., Martians armed with spears attacking a British officer armed with a revolver). And the game has fairly detailed rules on fights between airships, fighting animals, using heavy weapons or explosives, and so on.

If you want a more detailed explanation of the rules, see the video at the bottom of this post.

But beyond the rules is the setting of the game. There is a lengthy chapter just describing the Victorian Age, space travel (including rules on creating Ether ships), different types of equipment and weapons, inventing new devices, and, of course, the descriptions of the different bodies that the characters could travel to: the Earth's Moon (including a sample adventure), Venus, and, of course, Mars.

I have to admit that I haven't really played this game much. It was published during a period when I was living overseas. Sometime after I returned, a friend of mine had bought it and, looking through it, I was intrigued. But I think we only played through one adventure ... and I'm not sure we even finished that adventure. This friend like buying a game, playing one or two adventures and then, seemingly bored, would move on to something else. And that seemed to be the case here.

But the setting intrigued me, so when I came across a copy of the game a couple years back, I picked it up. Later I stumbled across a copy of the Referee Screen which I picked up as well. In addition to the actual screen, it also included a booklet with some additional or expanded rules.

I still haven't put together an adventure--time and other commitments--but as I look through it again while writing this, I sure want to give it a try.

There were a surprising number of supplements and adventures published for Space: 1889 including rules for a miniatures war game. A computer game was even released. The rule book, supplements and adventures are available as PDFs on Drive-Thru RPG.

Interestingly, someone even produced a full length fan film based on the game setting (see the video at the very bottom of the post).