Space: 1889


Space: 1889 is a tabletop role-playing game of Victorian-era space-faring, created by Frank Chadwick and originally published by Game Designers' Workshop from 1989 to 1990. It was the first roleplaying game to feature space colonization using steam technology in the style of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and Arthur Conan Doyle in what would later be called steampunk. The setting of Space: 1889 has not only produced roleplaying games, but board games, books, miniatures and a computer game.

Publication history

The first published description of Space: 1889 was in the "Feedback" column in the Ares Magazine in 1983, as a proposal for a board wargame.
GDW initially published the game in 1989, cancelling it a year later in 1990, as a commercial failure. Along with the RPG, a Space: 1889 computer game was produced in 1990 by Paragon. On the closures of GDW in 1995, the rights returned to Chadwick, with Heliograph, Inc. acquiring a reprint licence in 2000 and 2001.
In 2010, the Pinnacle Entertainment Group published a Savage Worlds edition of the game called Space 1889: Red Sands.
In February 2013 Chronicle City announced that it was working with the German publisher Uhrwerk Verlag/Clockwork Publishing on a new English edition of Space: 1889, which is based on the German edition from 2011 which uses the Ubiquity ruleset. In December 2014 Uhrwerk Verlag cut their ties with Chronicle City and continued the translation of the new English edition on their own. The PDF of the English Ubiquity core rulebook was released in October 2014, the print edition in November 2015.
In September 2019, after the announcement of bankruptcy by Clockwork Publishing earlier that year, Ulisses North America announced that it had acquired the rights to Space: 1889. Under license in December 2023, Strange Owl Games successfully crowdfunded Space: 1889 After, which is set ten years after 1899 and has two different sets of rules: Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition and a new system called Empyrean.

Setting

The game presents an alternate history in which certain discredited Victorian scientific theories were instead found to be true and have led to the existence of new technologies. In the setting, Thomas Edison invented an "ether propeller" that could propel ships through the "luminiferous aether", and he traveled to Mars in 1870, accompanied by Scottish soldier of fortune Jack Armstrong, where they discovered that the planet was inhabited. By the time of the game's setting in 1889, the great powers have used Edison's invention to extend their colonies and interests to the inner planets of the Solar System. Venus and Mars have been colonized by the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Russia. Belgium has only colonized Mars and Italy has only colonized Venus whilst Japan and the United States maintain economic and scientific enclaves on Mars. There are no colonies or bases on the Moon. Only the United Kingdom maintains a base on Mercury.
The inner planets reflect an evolutionary progression, the planets nearest to the Sun being younger than those farther out. All planets have extraterrestrial life and most bear native sentient species. Mercury is primeval and tide locked and possesses apparently only rudimentary lifeforms. Venus is a vast swamp world dominated by hulking reptiles and lizard men. The Moon is an airless dead world, but with mysteries hidden deep beneath the surface. Mars is an ancient desert planet in decline that is divided into warring decadent city-states clinging to a failing system of canals. Vulcan has exploded and become the asteroid belt. Limitations in technology cause the outer worlds to remain unreachable and unexplored. There are also hints that some worlds may have terrain hidden beneath their surface.
One of the treasures that spurred the Europeans to Mars was "liftwood": a rare cultivated plant with anti-gravity properties that allowed for the construction of giant floating ships. The Earthers used Martian sky galleons at first but later constructed their own armored steam-powered flyers.
Since wireless was not invented yet in 1889, communication between Earth and Mars is handled by orbital heliograph stations. The game contains much more detail on the flora, fauna and species of the planets. Most published material is centred on Mars.
The Space: 1889 edition by Uhrwerk Verlag/Clockwork Publishing partially modified the alternate history of Earth, at Frank Chadwick's request. In this timeline, the revolutionary Paris Commune was successful in establishing itself as the form of government in France. More controversially, the American Civil War ended with the victory of the Confederate States because of the death of Abraham Lincoln from typhus in the spring of 1862. Maximilian I of Mexico is still emperor in 1889, and Siam is an emerging regional power under the government of Rama V.
The Space: 1889 After iteration takes place ten years after the original 1889 setting, and war and disaster have for a time separated the worlds.

Publications

GDW (1989–1990)

  • Space: 1889 by Frank Chadwick. The core rulebook, hardback, 216 pages.
  • Space: 1889 Referee's Screen by Julia Martin.
  • Tales From The Ether by Frank Chadwick, Marc Miller, Loren Wiseman, Ryan and Smith, 64 pages. Five adventures.
  • More Tales from the Ether by Brown, Smith, Ryan, and Blaine Pardoe, edited by Loren Wiseman, 64 pages. Four Martian adventures.
  • Beastmen of Mars by Lester Smith, 64 pages. An adventure set on Mars.
  • Canal Priests of Mars by Marcus Rowland, 1990, 64 pages. Adventure.
  • Steppelords of Mars by John A. Theisen, 64 pages. Campaign setting on the steppes of Mars.
  • Caravans of Mars by Ed Andrews, 64 pages. A caravan adventure set on Mars.
  • Cloud Captains of Mars by Frank Chadwick, 64 pages. Supplement on the aerial cloud ship captains and sky pirates.
  • Conklin's Atlas of the Worlds and Handy Manual of Useful Information by Frank Chadwick, 80 pages. The basic reference for Space: 1889, mapping Earth, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Luna, and Atlantis. Includes history and transport maps.
  • Soldier's Companion by Frank Chadwick, 196 pages. Miniatures rules for land and sky combat, with army lists.
  • Ironclads and Ether Flyers by Frank Chadwick, boardgame. Rules for surface naval combat, including detailed information about Earth's navies and flyers. The rules are a simplification of Sky Galleons of Mars
  • Sky Galleons of Mars, boardgame. Boxed game of aerial combat on Mars. It included large scale maps, ship miniatures, and rules.
  • Cloudships & Gunboats, Sky Galleons of Mars expansion. Role playing game supplement with mini-scale deckplans, cardstock miniatures, rules, and ship diagrams.
  • Temple of the Beastmen, boardgame. Boxed modular board game that never plays the same way twice.
  • GDW's house magazine also contained material for the game.

    3W (1990)

  • The Liftwood Conspiracy by Gary E. Smith, published under license by 3W, 64 pages. Adventure on Mars.

    Heliograph (1999–2002)

  • Heliograph's magazine Transactions of the Royal Martian Geographical Society containing additional game material.
  • The Complete Canal Priests of Mars by Marcus Rowland. The GDW edition cut about a third of the author's manuscript. The Complete Canal Priests of Mars restored all of the original text and had new illustrations throughout.
  • Heliograph reprinted the rules portions of Sky Galleons of Mars and Cloudships & Gunboats, but did not reprint the boxed games themselves.

    Pinnacle Entertainment Group (2010)

  • Space 1889: Red Sands A Savage Worlds Plot Point Campaign published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group as a full-color hardback. The campaign "pits a desperate band of heroes against the Inner Circle of the Brotherhood of Luxor. The Brotherhood, led by the mysterious Kronos, King of the Titans, plots to bring about the end of all worlds." The campaign was released in November 2010, with a Gen Con debut in August.

    Uhrwerk Verlag/Clockwork Publishing (2012–2018)

  • Space: 1889 published first in German by Uhrwerk Verlag in July 2012 as 264 pages full-color hardback, based on the Ubiquity rules. The sourcebooks of Venus and Mercury were published in 2015, Mars in 2016, and Luna in 2017. An English translation, by Uhrwerk Verlag and Chronicle City was funded on Kickstarter in late 2013, met with continued delays but was finally completed. The English edition was released in 2014 and 2015.
  • Marvels of Mars, focussed on martian fauna and flora as well as on martian technology and artifacts is also available since 2016.Venus Sourcebook is available since August 2017.
  • Mercury Sourcebook was released in May 2017 and May 2018.
  • Mars Sourcebook, devoted to Mars history, geography, politics including colonial powers, and mysteries is available since November 2018 after a successful Kickstarter campaign. It includes most of the Information presented in Marvels of Mars and has harmonized most of the supplemental Information regarding Mars published by GDW and Heliograph.
  • The City at the Center of the Earth, The Ether Calculator, On the Trails of Gods, London Bridge has Fallen Down, Thunders of Venus, The Fate of Angahiaa, Nocturne in the City of Lights, The Strange Land and Murder on the Ether Express, are all adventures available as PDF and print published by Clockwork Publishing for both Ubiquity and Savage Worlds rules.
  • Phaetons Vermächtnis, Kolonie im Nebel, Unter Hochdruck, Der marsianische Patient are all expansions and adventures by Uhrwerk-Verlag currently available only in German, as well as the sourcebooks Paris 1889 - Im Angesicht der Welten and the above named Luna. Das Erbe der Kanalwächter is a translation into German and the Ubiquity rules of the Canals Priests of Mars adventure. Äther, Dampf und Stahlgiganten contains adventures printed in GDW's Magazine Challenge, adapted to Ubiquity rules, while Planet der Legenden includes adventures from both Challenge Magazine, Tales from the Ether and More Tales from the Ether, also adapted to Ubiquity rules.