Although I had played many roleplaying games before, such as Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and Cyberpunk, Space: 1889 is my first real attempt at GMing a roleplaying game (although I had done some free-form adventures before).
In Space: 1889, you take the place of a Engilsh Victorian gentleman (or an American scientist, or a Russian anarchist, etc.) in the year 1889 battling against all kinds of obstacles set by me, the games master.
So where does the space part come in? Well, before you continue, I must warn you that this isn't 1889 as per your history books. This is 1889 in the world of HG Wells and Jules Verne. Sure enough, Great Britain has a mighty Empire, and the Industrial Revolution is in full swing, but in the year 1870, Thosmas Edison invented the Ether Flyer, which was to fly through the nothingness which was space using a specially tuned 'ether propellor'. He set off for that red planet which has captured the human's imagination for many years, and on March 9th, he, and Jack Armstrong, a scottish adventurer, set foot on Mars. No word was heard from them until August 7th, when they, and a curious Martian who had accompanied them home, landed back on Earth. The Industrial Revolution met Martian liftwood, and neither world was to be the same again.
As well as adventures on Earth (and if you think that these could be boring, just read Around the World in 80 days, or Journey to the Centre of the earth) there are two main planets which man has flown to on his either flyers. Mars is inhabited by tall, yellow man like creatures, who have built great canals to carry the water from the polar icecaps to their city- states. Adventurers can sail along the canals, ride a Gashant (a two legged lizard type creature with huge thighs that runs very fast) a Ruumet Breehr (twice the size and strength of a elephant) or attempt to steal liftwood from the High Martians (a race of creatures who fly using wing like glands). There is also, hot, humid Venus, with its Prehistoric dinosaurs, German colonies and savage tribal Lizard men.
As you can see, there is an almost infinite number of adventures, both long and short, and with the great role playing oppertunities this offers, Space: 1889 really is great fun.
The game used to be published by a american company called GDW, but is now out of print, so unless you're lucky enough to own the book already or find a second hand copy, the rules may be hard to come by. However, there are a number of sites on the Internet that include outlines of the rules. Alternatively, using the background you can find around the net (and I will be placing loads of background in this site in the near future) you can convert the rules from your favourite RPG and set them to the Space: 1889 background.
