This month I am running our big Gaslight game at Little Wars in Melbourne.
http://www.littlewarsmelbourne.com/I have written a historical background to the game. It generally follows the "accepted" history of Venus with some elements of the film "Avatar" thrown in so the novices to the VSF genre will have some frame of reference.
Enjoy!
Avatar by Gaslight- Victorian Science Fiction on Venus.
As the first Ether ships took to the Cosmos brave explorers stretched out mankind's reach first to our neighbouring moon then the red planet Mars. Our other neighbour the planet Venus also drew ether ships to explore it with its mysterious surface hidden by a dense cloud cover.
It was the French Ether ship Providence commanded by Manuel Le Febrevere of the French Cartographic guild that first penetrated the cloud barrier to discover Venus' secrets. Le Febrevere discovered a hot, steamy planet covered in dense jungles, ravaged by massive tropical storms and populated by savage beasts of enormous size. Indeed so dangerous was the jungle terrain that Le Febrevere himself was killed in an unfortunate encounter with a giant Lizard creature.
Those first reports on Venus brought back to Earth by the Providence showed that in addition to the terrifying beasts that roamed the jungle there appeared to be two races of intelligent creatures that inhabited the planet. The first was a race of humanoid lizard like creatures, utterly barbaric, violent and merciless. All attempts to communicate with these creatures failed totally.
The second race of creatures was a race of humanoid parrotlike creatures that lived on the amazing floating mesas above the dense jungle. These Parrotmen called themselves the Na'vee. The Na'vee were not imediately hostile to Le Febrevere and his crew and they were able to open a basic dialogue and exchange gifts.
It was not long before other countries joined in the exploration of Venus. Very soon the planet was visited by the British, Americans and Prussians with several countries establishing small outposts for trading and exploration,however the harsh climate took a heavy toll on these settlements as the hot temperature bred disease and the number of deaths was very high.
The extremes of the Venusian terrain and the tyranny of distance would have limited the Venus expansion to a few small outposts for some limited trading and scientific exploration, however two significant discoveries would forever change the level of interest mankind had with this steamy hostile planet.
The first was the discovery of the giant Orcas Levitatus, a species of giant whale like creatures that flew through the skies of Venus. These creatures dubbed "Gales"(gas whales) like their earth cousins provided an array of commodities not least the Levitatus oil, which had many beneficial properties including a cure for gout.
Galing stations were established on the creatures migration routes and a small industry began to flourish.
The second and by far the most significant discovery that would forever alter the lives of humans and Parrotmen alike was the discovery of the rare mineral Unobtainium. This powerful mineral provided an immense power source far surpassing anything on earth. Unobtainium opened up the expansion of the new technologies and enabled great strides to be made in the aerial conveyances and ether ships that had previously only been available to government military of the extremely wealthy. It also unfotunately could be used as a terrible weapon and the great powers looked to secure their own reserves on the planet.
This unfortunately brought the humans into conflict with the Parrotmen as the Unobtainium was most concentrated in the ore veins that coursed through the floating mesas that the Parrotmen inhabited.
Great atrocities were committed by the great powers as they strove to secure Unobtainium. The Parrotmen were driven from their homes and in some cases massacred. The Parrotmen are now (with a few notable exceptions) hostile to humans and most human outposts have a significant military presence.
The great powers conspire against each other to secure the riches of Venus. This conflict takes the form of espionage and intrigue, a kind of "cold war" exists between the nations, but in the vast expanses of Venus far from home, battles are fought and men die, and these events never make it to the front page of The Times or The Washington Post.
Avatar by Gaslight is a Victorian science fiction/ steampunk public participation game with 28mm figures and the ruleset "Gaslight".
17 June 2010, 01:13:55 PM