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Clash Bowley has just released Lowell Was Right! This RPG is based on science from before 1880, but takes place now. This is sort of Pulp Sci-Fi, but different. Very interesting. I encourage you to try it. Here's a little Q&A with Clash...
1. So the basic premise of the game is that scientific theories that were announced between 1880 and 1920 are factual in 2013, even if disproven in the real world. So it's pulp science of a bygone age?
Well, actually it's the accepted state of science as of 1880 which was basically correct. The time between 1880 and 1920 overturned all of that older science, though much of it was not passed on to popular thought until much later. The pulps were based on the science the pulp writers learned as children, which was mostly proven wrong by the time they wrote it, though they may not have known that. That is the science behind Lowell Was Right!.
2. What inspired you to create this game?
The pulps. I was curious as to why the early SF and pulp stories seemed to have this fairly uniform world view that was at odds with our ideas on how the world works now. Mars was old and dry, but a once mighty people lived there. Venus was young, with dinosaurs and jungles. I began researching it, and found some fascinating ideas, which all worked differently to what we understand. Ether was not just a codeword for "magic". It had well understood properties. Atoms were knots in the ether, and therefore you could not break them into smaller particles, so there was no atomic radiation. Electro-mechanical radiation was waves in the ether. Electrical current ran both positively and negatively, so anything which depended on uni-directional current - like vacuum tubes and transistors - would not work.
3. Characters appear to be meaty between traits, edges, and group associations. Does this use the same system from Starcluster or is it something new?
The game uses a variation of the StarCluster 3 system, with stacking templates instead of the year by year Chargen of SC3, and a new skill sub-system using a few root skills which branch into specialties at higher values. Swapping out chunks of system like this is trivial because of the lego-like nature of the SC3 system.
4. What sort of adventures can players expect in the setting? Are there set goals, or is that something decided by the associations or the GM?
The goals of the game are entirely determined by the group, by making the Association. Since all the player characters are part of this Association, by designing the Association, the group defines what it wants to do.
5. I see that there are rules for creating Martians, Mercurians, Venutians, and Galileani. Can these aliens be played alongside human characters? Which worlds are populated by humans?
Yes, although gravity can be a consideration. For example, a Martian or Mercurian will have problems on Earth or Venus because they are so much heavier. There are rules for changing gravities - what it does to one's strength or agility. Martians came to Earth many times in our pre-history and up until early medieval times to take human slaves. Humans, being raised in high gravity, are much stronger than Martians, and therefore very useful! They took humans to Mercury, Mars, and Venus, where they proliferated and eventually won their freedom, though they adapted to the lighter gravities on Mars and Mercury.
6. What are your two most-favorite forms of technology from the game?
Ghosts and Ether Vortex Reactors. Ghosts are psychic impressions left attached to objects, created either voluntarily or involuntarily through some great crisis, such as violent death. They can be used as artificial intelligences, consulted by others through mediums, or as weapons to haunt the living. Ether Vortex Reactors are used to put twists into the ether to give matter new properties, or to untie and reknot etheric atoms to create new or rare elements.
7. What is your favorite aspect of the game?
Hard to say - either the use of generators to create societies and cultures, or the use of the old science to create novel new technologies which are impossible with our current science. | | 2 Comments | Add Comment | Permanent Link | | Return to Overview | | Sigmund Commented: | Jun 01, 2014 | 12:39 pm | |
| Brett Commented: | Jun 01, 2014 | 1:10 pm | |
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