"Space: 1889 - GDW's vs. Clockwork's?" Topic

Has anyone bought any of the Space: 1889 books and supplements from Clockwork Publishing? How does it compare overall to the original books from Games Design Workshop and Heliograph?

Thank you.

Rules-wise Clockwork's are better IMO. However, there are (as yet) no rules for in-game inventions or ship/vehicle design like in the original. The background source material is better fleshed out in the new Clockwork Publishing stuff though.

Design-wise the layouts are nicer in the new editions and so is the artwork, although some are re-used from the GDW days. The Clockwork Publishing scenarios are good too and are not all British-centric, plus the background has been further developed – some people like that, some do not. For instance, France is different, based on the Paris Commune, and the USA is split with the CSA still in existence… However you can always alter bits you don't like back to the original GDW era background. Mars, Venus and Mercury all have a whole sourcebook each, with Luna to follow!

I have absolutely everything in the GDW Space 1889 line and most of the Clockwork Publishing Space 1889 stuff so far, and will likely buy everything they bring out. The only annoyances are little things that come from translation from German such as referring to the British army as the Royal Army etc.

Thanks, as well, zerostate!

Doug

I'm an early adopter of both (had Sky Galleons of Mars before the Space:1889 rulebook was even published, and was a Kickstarter patron with the new one) and likewise have almost everything published.

As far as use goes, everything from the old product line is totally usable in the new rules set, and vice versa.

The small changes in the timeline (French Communard victory and the ACW ending in a truce) are official changes from Frank Chadwick.

One more subtle change is that Germany is a bit more liberal and Bismark and Wilhelm may not be heading to the falling out that saw Bismark dismissed.

We've been playing a campaign with the Clockwork rules over the last year or two, although it's stalled due to poor health of some of the players. Game wise, it works really well. It's not terribly difficult to create the same character under both systems, especially if you use the non-random characteristic methods in the GDW edition.