Bundle of Holding - Leagues of Adventure

Years ago, when I looked more closely at non-OSR Indi titles, I came across the Ubiquity System. To my eyes, it seemed like an even easier Savage Worlds-type system. But then my eyes wandered to other games, and I lost track of Ubiquity.

Well, Leagues of Adventure is powered by Ubiquity.

Adventurer! This new Leagues of Adventure Bundle presents Leagues of Adventure, the Ubiquity-based Victorian steampunk tabletop roleplaying game from Triple Ace Games. In the Age of Exploration, a semi-fictitious 1890s right out of Sherlock Holmes and Jules Verne, globetrotting scientists, crazed inventors, and daring explorers equipped with airships, mole machines, and Weird Science gadgets venture across the world and to other planets to uncover forgotten cities and civilizations, map the wilderness, and defeat nefarious villains in bare-knuckled Victorian action. The flexible and cinematic Ubiquity rules (Hollow Earth Expedition, Space: 1889) use an easy dice-pool system that puts your player characters in the spotlight, lets them invent their own gadgets, and keeps the story moving fast. Create your own League of Extraordinary Ladies and Gentlemen!

For just US$12.95 you get all four titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $55) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete Leagues of Adventure Core Rules; Dramatis Personae, an array of more than 100 pre-generated characters; the Weird Science Compendium; and the Globetrotters' Guide to London.

And if you pay more than the threshold price of $25.20, you'll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with fifteen more titles worth an additional $87, including The Great Campaign and the lunar adventure Tides of War (the "Black Editions" free of AI-generated art); Letters From the Leagues Vol. 1, V2, V3, and V4; and nine Globetrotters' Guides: Expeditions, Unusual Places, The Ancient World, The Old World, The New World, Cads & Cultists, the Cads Appendix, Dramatic Developments, and Miscellanea.

 

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Kickstarter - Quantum Black (Ubiquity System Modern Horror)

If there is one of those new fangled RPG systems I'd like to play with, it's Ubiquity. To my aging eyes and sensibilities, it seems like a much streamlined and simplified Savage Worlds. Not that I have anything agains Savage Worlds, as it does have some excellent setting books. It just seems to me that the rules are ore complicated than they need to be. Maybe it's more accurate to say they are more complicated than I need them to be.

I've been intrigued by the Ubiquity rules ever since I stumbled across Hollow Earth Expedition. Which of course makes Quantum Black even more intriguing to me.

So, what is Quantum Black?

The Quantum Black setting is a modern day action-horror roleplaying game in a world much like ours. However, hidden supernatural threats are growing. Evil cults, horrors from beyond space and time, and other monsters all rise to terrorize the world. Someone needs to stop them. 

Are you up to the Task?  

In the Quantum Black setting, you play an employee of Quantum Integrated Technologies. You are on a secret black ops team that is out to save the world from a rising tide of unimaginable horrors. Equipped with the best weapons, cutting edge electronics, and various drones you will board the company jet to track monsters down to save the day. You are prepared for anything–or at least you think you are.  

You can have hours of fun stopping monsters and still keep your sanity intact. 

Quantum Black is a story and action driven setting that is powered by the award winning rules of Exile Game Studio’s Ubiquity Roleplaying System. The contents are compatible with other Hollow Earth, Ubiquity-powered games.

Looks damn cool.

Then I look at the support levels, and I'm left scratching my head.

So, if the Quick Play doesn't unlock (and Quick Plays are usually free in PDF but not here) you spend $10 for no reason. I see why the option has no backers.

 $20 for a PDF with no stretch goals. That's steep in my opinion.

$35 for a PDF WITH stretch goals, which may or may not be met. Yeah, er - no.

$40 for the Soft Cover, PDF and stretch goals in PDF. So, print is only 5 bucks more? Oh, and Hard Cover is just 5 bucks more than that? Oops, make that 10 bucks more now, as $45 has sold out.

Then you notice there are 51 backers and just over $6,300 in backing - that's over $120 per backer

My math only accounts for $3,330 in backing - leaving $3,000 in unaccounted for funding. Not a good sign.

Damn me and my vetting!

 

Kickstarter - Space 1889 Returns via the Ubiquity Engine

Space 1889. I recently blogged about the first edition (from 1988) of this game when I found the hardcover in the back of a closet. Interesting setting. It's always intrigued me but I've never played it.

Then there was the Savage Worlds powered Space 1889 subtitled Red Sands.

Now we have an Ubiquity powered Space 1889. I'm damn tempted to get in on this, and I've cut back hugely on my Kickstarter supporting. Too much cash tied up in products long overdue. So if this is tempting me, you know it looks good.

I've liked the Ubiquity system since I stumbled across it in the Hollow Earth RPG. It seems like a lighter version of Savage Worlds in many ways. I'll be watching this Kickstarter and won't be surprised if I take the plunge.

From the blurb:

Men have conquered the inner planets of the Solar System and are now travelling through the Ether. They discovered the ancient culture of the Martians and the misty wilderness of Venus. Mercury is a world of extremes but rich in valuable raw materials. The Asteroid Belt and the Earth’s moon, Luna, are waiting for further exploration. And there is still a lot to discover on Earth itself.

Under the burning sun of the Martian steppes, the steamy mists of the Venusian jungle, the deadly cold of the Dry Ice Zone on Mercury, or at the banks of the Amazon River on good old Earth – the world of Space: 1889 is full of adventures.

Everything Jules Verne could have written.
Everything H.G. Wells should have written.
Everything A. Conan Doyle thought of but never published because it was too fantastic.
Everything you need for the adventures of the century.
Almost 25 years ago, well known game designer and author Frank Chadwick came up with the idea of a roleplaying game set in a world inspired by the fantastic novels of early Science Fiction authors like Jules Verne or H. G. Wells.

Space: 1889 was first published in 1988 by Game Designers Workshop, followed by several additional products, amongst them supplements like “Ironclads and Ether flyers,” adventures like “Canalpriests of Mars,” or board games like “Temple of the Beastmen.”

GDW is long gone but, nevertheless, the fan-base has hung on to this “roleplaying game in a more civilized time” and with the growing popularity of 'steampunk culture' the time has never been better to reintroduce a new edition of the game for old and new fans alike.

The Space: 1889 Crowdfunding project is a cooperation between Uhrwerk Verlag/Clockwork Publishing, Chronicle City, and the master himself, Frank Chadwick.

A Hollow Earth Expedition Kickstarter Hits on July 1st - Revelations of Mars

I think I've mentioned before that I've really had a difficult time wrapping my head around the Savage Worlds ruleset. No idea why. I've heard it's simple enough and I own multiple versions of it (and would love to run or play in some Solomon Kane at some point) but it has never "clicked" for me.

The Ubiquity system as first seen (as far as I know) in the Hollow Earth Expedition RPG is about to get some more visibility - on July 1st the Hollow Earth Expeditions: Revelations of Mars lands on Kickstarter.

If you haven't noticed yet, I'm on a bit of a Kickstarter diet - lots of cash tied up in extremely overdue projects. Still, this is one I'll be keeping an eye on, as I am a lot closer to grocking Ubiquity than I am Savage Worlds and I do like the setting of HEX.

Mini Review - Leagues of Adventure (Ubiquity System)

I really do like the Ubiquity RPG system. I think it accomplishes much of what Savage Worlds can accomplish without a lot of the system weight that get's attached. Lets call Ubiquity my favorite system that I've yet to play.

Leagues of Adventure is the latest game to use the Ubiquity RPG Engine. Notice I said "game", not sourcebook. Unlike Savage Worlds, which has a core rules set and source books that feed off that, games that use the Ubiquity system are just that - stand alone games.


That can be both good and bad. It's great if you want to pick up a single set of rules and run with it all in one package. Not so great if you are getting the same core rules restated for each genre that you pick up. It is, admittedly, a small quibble, as the Ubiquity core rules are much lighter than those that constitute Savage Worlds.

Leagues of Adventures covers the late Victorian Age. It is not an era I have much experience with, either in fiction or gaming - Sherlock Holmes is about as close as I usually come. Thankfully, LoA comes with extensive write ups of time lines, important historical personalities and world leaders that enable even a Victorian Novice like myself enough pieces to drop in front of the players to make it sound legit. Very well done and extremely well researched. I enjoyed this section as both a gamer and a former history major ;)

Of course, as fun as the historical Victorian is, Leagues of Adventure takes things just a little bit further:

In Leagues of Adventure the boundaries of science are being pushed far beyond their historical limits. While hardly commonplace, mole machines, airships, and even time-traveling machines do exist. Some are already in the hands of governments and Leagues, while others remain the personal property of their slightly mad inventors.

Therein lies the hook of LoA - it's Jules Verne and than some. Our history and just a tad more. Victorian with pulp. I like it.

Would I run this before Hollow Earth Expedition? I don't know? I'm definitely more grounded personally in the Pulp Era of the 30's, but League of Adventures certainly gives the tools to allow one to bridge the gap.

Did I mention the extensive bookmarking of the PDF?  Very well done.

From the blurb:



Welcome to Leagues of Adventure a rip-roaring setting of exploration and derring-do in the late Victorian Age!


Leagues of Adventure is a roleplaying game set in the late Victorian Age, a gritty steampunk game where the hostile natives are a serious threat, a pulp action game where the characters eat savage warriors for breakfast, a highly cinematic one which allows the characters to swing single-handedly from the underside of an early airship while bare-knuckle boxing pterodactyls over a lost plateau.
Truth be told, it’s whatever you want it to be!


Whatever drives your character, there’s a world packed with danger, excitement, and mystery out there waiting to be explored!


So take an action packed trip into the world of Leagues of Adventure!

Deadlands - Night Train - Dime Novel #3

Back in the day (1997) you could get a Deadlands novella, a Deadlands adventure and a scenario for use with the Great Rail Wars for $4.95.  That is what Night Train is, a Deadlands three-fer.

It's funny, as I'm reading over the Deadlands Reloaded core books for Savage Worlds, I realize I never really played enough of Deadlands (I think I ran one session) to really learn the system, but I have fond memories of the setting.

Looking at the stat blocks in Night Train, I have absolutely no idea what they mean, but I think I could convert this easy enough to DL Reloaded.  It wouldn't be a straight conversion by any means, but a working one none the less.

Yep, still cleaning, still packing stuff up ;)

Crap, all this reminds me that I need to get a review of the Deadlands Reloaded: Players Guide completed.  Well, that and I think I need to get a basic charting of the story arcs I want to run with Savage Worlds and the Ubiquity system.  Planning in advance will keep the arcs running like a well oiled machine.  I hope...

My Ubiquity System "Trifecta"

I now have my 3 core books in hand for the Ubiquity RPG System.

Hollow Earth Expedition is Pulp, Desolation is a Post-Apocylytic Fantasy RPG and All For One is Swashbuckling with a nice sized Dash of Horror.

Somehow I want to to extract a fairly standard Fantasy Setting and a Space Opera Setting from the above.  The first should be easy, the second is going to take some work ;)