Victorian & Pulp Science Fiction

Gaming in a more civilized time

Victorian Science Fiction (VSF) is an amalgam of improbable genres built around Steam, Rivets, Infernal Devices and the Discovery of New Realms – Venus and Mars, The Journeys to the Centre of the Earth, Flying Machines and Submarines, Lost Worlds, Mines in Darkest Africa and intrigue in the Back of Beyond. Pulp Science Fiction is set more in the 1920’s and 30’s, a time of Art Deco, cool cars, and inter-war war tensions. My favourite genres are:

· Colonisation of the Inner Planets

· Darkest, Dinosaur ridden Africa

· The Ruritanian world of New Byzantium

The Colonisation of the Inner Planets

Space 1889 – a world in which mankind colonises the Moon, Venus, and Mars. Its Colonialisation, but not as we know it. The Moon is inhabited by termite-like yet man sized Selenites, steamy Venus is full of Dinosaurs, and Mars…ah Mars. The canals are active, Her Majesty Queen Victoria holds sway in large tracts, and a mysterious substance called Liftwood allows lighter than air Sky Galleons to sail the air….until the Royal navy builds some infernal steam flyers of course. This is all lovingly described in the Space 1889 set of books and the Transactions of the Royal Martian Geographical Society (go here). At South London Warlords we did a full 25mm scale game at Salute, “Cloudships of Mars”, I built one of the ships – Endtime – and here she is in glorious Webocolour.

Poop Deck of Endtime, privateer Cap’n Red Jack Daniels wears the pink trousers of a Mars Circumnavigation as the Martian crew load the Lob Gun mortar	Foredeck of Endtime with crew reloading the Ordonnance – Martians cannot easily get hold of modern weaponry ( thank goodness )
Endtime taking off at Meepsoor….Martian irrigation ditches can be seen in the background	Endtime flighs high at Salute 2004…..although quite a small Cloudship, she packs a big punch with her huge mortar – ideal for a rascally Red Captain privateer like Cap’n Jack
The game at Salute – Endtime in the top left hand corner	Steam powered Flyers of the Royal Navy and French Navy on Mars

Darkest Dinosaur Ridden Africa

Threads of Rider Haggard, Conan Doyle, Burroughs and Verne combine to create this genre…….intrepid adventurers, hostile tribes, gorgeous 1,000 year old women and large plastic dinosaurs – what more could you want?

See you at the club, old boy

New Byzantium – a Pulp Science Fiction Spectacular

Constantinople rules again. My own creation, this imagines European Turkey being set up independently after Word War 1 as the New Byzantium, in a Balkans seething with…well what the Balkans normally seethes with really, with Byzantine machinations thrown in – and of course the shadows of Communism, Fascism and Iconoclism are lengthening.

Pics and story to follow as I make it up……..