Satellite Earth

Primary would be the dominant presence in the sky

After having written on the Jovian system in Space 1889, I began to wonder what a habitable satellite of a Jovian might be like.

The jovian – from now on called Primary, would have to be in its star’s habitable zone ie about 1 AU from a Sun-like star. This is quite possible, it is now known that jovians can be quite close in to their sun, so one at 1AU in a circular orbit is not implausible.

The Emberverse – an RPG Background

The Emberverse has become the name for S.M. Stirling’s series of novels set in a post catastrophe world. The catastrophe, referred to as “The Change”, is that all modern technology simply stops working. It occurs to me that the post-Change world would make a good setting for a fantasy RPG.

The Jovian System in Space 1889

The official Space 1889 universe consists of Mercury, Venus, Earth, the Moon and Mars. It is stated in the official rules that the solar boilers that power the ether ships do not work due to being too far from the Sun when the ships get much beyond Mars. However,it occurred to me that an exploratory vessel with a secondary power system with its own fuel supply might make through the Asteroid Belt to the Jovian System, particularly with the invention of the steam turbine in the 1890s. In our world Sir Charles Parsons built the SS Turbinia and disrupted the Spithead Review in 1894. In the Space 1889 Universe he could have followed that up with a trip to Jupiter.

World of the White Dwarf

No, not the account of the life of a pale-skinned person of restricted growth but thoughts on the possibilities raised by the concept of life on the planet of a white dwarf star as discussed in Ken Croswell’s article in the 2 July 2011 issue of New Scientist.

The Cat Who Could Walk Through Time

This is one of a possible series of short articles about weird events I see reported in the press that likely have a simple, rational explanation but could be due to something more exotic that will fit into a gaming world. This one involves a possible time-travelling cat.

Fantasists and Monotheists

Thirty years ago the science fiction and fantasy writer L. Sprague de Camp expressed the view that religious believers were in general not as good at creating believable fantasy societies as are non-believers.

Using Real-World Religions in RPGs

This is an article I wrote some years ago for The Sharp End.

Since religions have played such a fundamental rôle in all human societies, any RPG universe that contains humans will almost certainly contain religions. While there are numerous types, they essentially boil down to two: fictional and factual, each with their advantages and disadvantages.

The Saga of Felimid the Bard

These are a series of fantasy novelettes by the Australian writer Dennis Morethat might be of use to a GM setting a campaign during the period of Anglo-Saxon settlement in southern Britain.