Space Quest...At Last!

[DungeonDevil]

Finally scored a copy of the gonzo, legendary, ultra-rare RPG Space Quest.

Guess what I paid for it.

[Finarvyn]

I hate to contemplate the cost for the thing. I know that most of the old stuff I have with any real value turns out to be stuff that I have owned for decades, so cost isn't a big deal. The few collectible items that I have bought later on were a couple hundred dollars each. (Backup WB OD&D, that kind of thing.)

I don't know much about Space Quest, but I'll guess a couple hundred dollars. Am I at all close?

[Malcadon]

Left testicle?

[DungeonDevil]

Noone is close yet. Keep guessing.

[coffee]

Five bucks.

[DungeonDevil]

Jan 24, 2018 22:24:06 GMT -6 Malcadon said:

Left testicle?

and ouch!

Jan 25, 2018 8:16:11 GMT -6 coffee said:

Five bucks.

Still too much.

I paid a mere forty cents ($0.40). That's right, folks. The seller on Ebay didn't know what they had.

After a quick look-over it's in pretty good shape, though there are some signs of foxing. Being the same dimensions as the D&D LBBs, one thing that immediately struck me is how tiny the font is (around 5 pt., I should estimate). It's a very dense, dense work with a level of crunchy detail that, in some regards, eclipses Classic Traveller.

I'm working on a detailed review and hope to have it done in the next few weeks.

[Falconer]

Congrats! Though I’d guess it’s rare because it’s rare, not because it is particularly prized.

There is a PDF floating around.

It covers a LOT of ground, and always strikes me as a very comprehensive and competent RPG, even in many ways hitting some sweet spots that no other Treklike RPG hits. I love the spell-style skill mechanic. Space Quest is a credible attempt at doing OD&D-in-space. The things that prevent me from wanting to actually play it are the daunting density of the layout, the unexciting dryness of the text, and the idiosyncratic genre which just doesn’t strike the right chords, somehow. Really you have to respect the way OD&D screams “play me!” on every page, and not underestimate the importance of the fantastic feel that it somehow nailed.

[DungeonDevil]

Here's the TOC for those curious:

0100 Scope and Scale of the Game, p. 2
0110 Equipment needed for the Campaign, p. 2
0120 Random Number Generation, p. 2

0200 Glossary of Physical Measures and Standards Used in Text, p. 3
0220 Important Gaming Terms used in Text, p. 5

0300 History of the Galactic Empire, p. 6
0310 Rise of the 20 Suns Combine, p. 6

0400 Players and Characters, p. 7
0410 Building a Character, p. 7
0420 Character Record Sheet, p. 8
0430 Species of the 20 Suns Combine, p. 8
------ Space Quest Character Record Sheet, p. 9
0431 Ability Dice By Species, p. 10
0432 The Racial Maximum, p. 10
0440 Character Abilities, p. 10
0441 Physical Power, p. 10
0442 Co-ordination, p. 10
0443 Speed, p. 10
0444 IQ, p. 11
0445 PSI, p. 12
0446 Empathy, p. 12
0447 Vitality, p. 12
0448 Native Gravity, p. 13
0449 Ability Trade-Offs, p. 13
0450 Saving Throws, p. 14
0460 Caste, Rank, and Credit, p. 16
0461 Estates and Inheritance, p. 16
0470 Miscellaneous Traits, p. 16

0500 Skills and Training, p. 17
0510 Application of Skills in the Campaign, p. 17
0520 Descriptions of Available Skills, p. 17
0530 Advanced Training and Further Study, p. 19
0531 Skills Training, p. 19
0532 Ability Improvement by Training, p. 20
0533 Other Training Programs, p. 20
0540 Cerebrotapes, p. 20

0600 Professional Classes, p. 22
0610 Spacer, p. 22
0611 Spacers and Weapons, p. 22
0620 Warrior, p. 22
0621 Warriors and Weapons, p. 22
0630 Mutate, p. 23
0631 Mutates and Weapons, p. 23
0632 Psionic Power Points, p. 23
0633 Overexpending Power Points, p. 23
0634 Recovering Expended Power Points, p. 23
0640 Technic, p. 24
0641 Technics and Weapons, p. 24
0642 Technical Power Points, p. 24
0650 Biotech, p. 24
0651 Biotechs and Weapons, p. 24
0652 Biopower Points, p. 24
0660 Class Powers of Mutates, Technics, and Biotechs, p. 25
0661 Acquisition of Class Powers, p. 25
0662 Bonus Powers and Their Acquisition, p. 25
0663 Mutate Bonus Powers, p. 26
0664 Technic Bonus Powers, p. 31
0665 Biotech Bonus Powers, p. 34
0666 Final Consideration Regarding the Use of Powers, p. 37

0700 Personal Equipment Available in the Campaign, p. 37
0710 Personal Weapons, p. 37
0711 Energy, p. 38
0712 Energy Handweapons, p. 38
0713 Projectile Weapons, p. 39
0714 Non-Energy Handweapons, p. 39
0715 Mechanical Weapons, p. 39
0720 Armor and Screen Units, p. 40
0730 Medical and Pharmaceutical Supplies, p. 41
0740 Medical Services, p. 42
0750 Miscellaneous Equipment, p. 44
0760 Price List, p. 44
0761 Weapon Costs, p. 44
0762 Armor and Screen Costs, p. 45
0763 Medical and Pharmaceutical Equipment, p. 45
0764 Medical Services, p. 45
0765 Miscellaneous Equipment, p. 46

0800 Space Travel and Navigation, p. 46
0810 N-space Travel, p. 46
0811 Realspace Travel, p. 46
0812 Energy Costs of Space Travel, p. 48
0820 Encounters in Space, p. 49
0821 Encounter Type Determination, p. 49
0822 Descriptions of Ship Encounters, p. 51
0823 Crew Details of Non-Player Ships, p. 53
0830 Monsters, p. 53
0831 Ship Scale Monsters, p. 53
0840 Derelicts, p. 61
0850 Navigation Hazards, p. 62
0851 Description of N-Space Hazards, p. 63
0852 Realspace Hazards, p. 64

0900 Building A Ship, p. 66
0910 Ship Hulls, p. 66
0911 Ship Record Sheet, p. 67
0920 Ship Units, p. 67
0921 The Command Unit, p. 67
0922 The Gunnery Unit, p. 67
0923 The Drive Unit, p. 67
0924 The Technical Unit, p. 68
0925 The Environmental Unit, p. 68
0925a The Life Craft, p. 68
0926 The Operations Unit, p. 68
0927 The Boat Unit, p. 68
0928 Hold Units, p. 68
0929 Summary, p. 69
0930 Ship Systems, p. 69
0931 Computers, p. 69
0932 Sensors, p. 71
0933 Major Medical Equipment, p. 71
0934 Servomechanisms, p. 73
0935 Ship Weapon Systems, p. 73
0936 Miscellaneous Systems, p. 75
0937 Laboratory Installations, p. 77
0940 Ship Component Price List, p. 77
0950 Crew, p. 78
0951 The Go-Rigger, p. 78
0952 The Power-Rigger, p. 78
0953 The Fire-Rigger, p. 79
0954 Other Action Stations, p. 79
0955 Non-Player Hirelings, p. 79
0956 Non-Player Team Salaries and Costs, p. 80
0957 Hireling Loyalty and Mutiny, p. 80

01000 Combat, p. 82
01010 Ship Combat, p. 82
01011 Weapon Energy, p. 82
01012 Screen Energy, p. 82
01013 Hit Determination, p. 82
01014 Screen Penetration, p. 83
01015 Types of Damage, p. 83
01016 Damage Location, p. 83
01011 [sic] Critical Damage, p. 84
01012 [sic] Combat Maneuvers [sic], p. 84
01013 [sic] Breakoff, p. 84
01014 [sic] Close/Run/Pursuit, p. 84
01015 [sic] Boarding Actions, p. 85
01016 [sic] Boarding Combat, p. 85
01017 [sic] Example of a Boarding Combat, p. 86
01018 Morale and Movement in Boarding Combat, p. 87
01019 [non-existent, missing?]
01020 Personal Combat, p. 87
01021 Hit Determination, p. 87
01022 Weapon Effects, p. 88
01023 Patterns of Fire, p. 91
01024 Damage, p. 91
01025 Archaic Weaponry, p. 91
01030 Grand Tactical Combat, p. 92
01031 Ship Tactical Combat, p. 92
01032 Ground Tactical Combat, p. 92

01100 Building the Universe, p. 93
01101 True Distance Determination, p. 93
01102 The Star Map, p. 94
01110 Star System Generation, p. 94
01111 System Record Sheet, p. 95
01120 Stellar Types, p. 95
01130 Planetary Systems, p. 96
01131 Orbital Range, p. 96
01132 Planetary Type, p. 97
01140 Terrestroid Planets, p. 97
01141 The Thermal Ecology Index and Planetary Chemistry, p. 97
01150 Jovian Worlds, p. 98
01160 Planetary Temperature Ranges, p. 98
01160 [sic] Life, p. 99
01170 Planetary Cultures, p. 101
01180 Hive Mind Cultures, p. 103
01190 Alien Xenophobia Factor, p. 103
01191 [non-existent or missing?]
01192 Quirks, p. 103

01200 Miscellaneous Rules, p. 104
01201 Levels and Experience Points, p. 104
01210 Credit, Resources, and Loans, p. 105
01220 Disease and Dangers, Shock and its Symptoms, p. 106
01230 Technological Repairs and Research, p. 107
01240 Alien Devices, p. 107
01250 Movement, p. 109
01260 Interstellar Communication, p. 110
01270 Ship to Planet Combat, p. 110
01280 Unarmed Combat, p. 111
01281 Effects of Powered Armors, p. 111
01282 Unequal Armor, p. 112
01283 Krang: Space Karate, p. 112
------- Bonus for Our Buyers of Our Second Printing, p. 112

[DungeonDevil]

Here is the overview of the campaign setting and its history:

HISTORY OF THE GALACTIC EMPIRE

The discovery of the N-space Drive in the year 1023 of the Atomic Era (Terran reckoning), finally opened the stars to Man. No longer did voyagers face the trauma of relativistic travel in Slower-Than-Light vessels, returning from a trip to find their homes lost in the passing of years, or even centuries. Travel in N-space took ships from star to star in days or weeks, and a ship would emergy [sic] from a month of hyperspace travel to find that a month had elapsed in real-space as well.

Man learned, as he had often suspected, that he was not alone in the universe. Under strange skies, the Terrans met beings of flesh like their own, and life-forms made of stone; they found, or were found by, intelligent plants, or creatures of pure energy. Sometimes, the races could not understand the needs and drives of their new-found neighbors, and war haunted the skies. But more often, the initial revulsion for the "stranger" was overcome, and each race found the other the [sic] be less monstrous than it had seemed at first.

It was, in the main, a time of thoughtfulness and peace, as life seemed to draw closer to life when faced with the immensity of Space.

The centuries passed, one into the other. Interstellar communication and transport became ever swifter and surer. Worlds were colonized, centers of learning established, industry and trade increased under a hundred stars.

In the 895th year of the Interstellar Era (Terran reckoning), the governments of the sentient cultures of known space met in a great council. After two years of debate and planning, they announced the coalition of their spheres of influence into the Empire.

Picture if you can, the possibilities open to the co-operating thinkers and builders of many score [sic] of cultures. Imagine if you can, the advances in culture and technology possible to such an alliance. This was the Empire in its days of greatness.

Two centuries pass, measured from the foundation of the Empire. The Empire rules a sphere 1000 light-years across. The final steps were being taken to complete the linkage of all the members of the Empire into a single community, via a great net of teleporation stations. A being could walk from star system to star system as easily as we walk around the block. In this achievement, the Empire reached a stage of development that might have made it eternal, and yet was to prove its downfall.

No one ever knew where the ships originally came from. One day, they were simply there, dropping out of N-space to ravage the worlds of the Empire. First one, then a dozen, then scores of systems were laid to waste by the invaders. They would not parley, they would not stop. They would only destroy until they were destroyed in turn. The Empire fought back, culling what information they could from the rare, intercepted communications between the killer fleets. They leanrned [sic] little of the invader except their name: Sniz.

The fleets of the Imperial Legions rose to battle, and the voids of N-space and realspace scintillated with the ravening energies of thousands of warships. Losses were hideously high on both sides, but still the foes clashed and clashed again.

In the year 317 of the Empire, as supplies were being marshalled on the shipyard worlds of the Legion for an all-out offensive, disaster, final and almost utter, struck the worlds of the Empire. Every teleport nexus in the transport system suddenly blew up, flaring violently with the energies of an exploring star. Concussion and radiation seared the faces of hundreds of planets. Electromagnetic hell blasted the memory cores of the great computer centers clean, and wiped out the machinery that fed and ran the Empire. Communication disappeared, and transport, such as survived, was chaos.

The Sniz had developed a means of introducing a quantity of core material from a quasar into the teleportation system, and now the stations were erupting with the energies of an exploding galaxy in their guts. Only a few frontier worlds, not yet hooked into the system, survived the disaster.

But without the Empire to defend them, these survivors were helpless before the renewed attacks of the Sniz. All but a score of worlds were battered back into pre-technological barbarism by the ruthless aliens, if their people survived at all.

The remains of the Legions whittled at the enemy, fighting now for revenge. For every Empire ship to die, a hundred of the foe were destroyed. Finally, the two fleets vanished into N-space, to fight their final battle. No one saw a ship from either of them again. The final survivor worlds, cut off from interstellar trade, wrecked by the fall of the Empire, sank into primitive darkness, no longer able to maintain their technologies. And the cold stars glittered on the corpse of a dream.

THE RISE OF THE 20 SUNS COMBINE

Of the planets which retained partial command of the Empire's technology, there was one, Newson III, which had emerged from the Sniz Wars almost unscathed. The inhabitants of this world had managed to preserve knowledge in ship-building, and related fields, though much of their other knowledge died in a space raid that destroyed the planetary computer center. But the Newson system lacked sufficient resources to exploit this good fortune effectively. They had no ships, no shipyards, and only a handful of citizens had the exotic skills necessary to travel in space.

It took 80 years to build the first starship, laboriously travelling to nearby systems in Slower-Than-Light ships for resources. It took that long to develop academies to train the crew personnel needed, to retool industries not meant for ship-building. It was over a century before the three systems now under the Newson banner could build a vessel the equal of an Empire starship. ZBy the time another century passed, though, the flag of Newson III flew under twenty stars, and two more colony worlds were part of the culture, though it took several bloody wars to make it so.

In the year 342 of the Combine, a bloodless coup was successfully pulled off by the families who had, by various means, come to control about 90% of the industrial-mercantile complex of the Newson Confederation. These new feudal lords formed themselves into the Great Cartels, and under their iron control, the Unity, the senate of the Confederation, reformed the culture into the 20 Suns Combine. It took two civil wars and 72 years for the infant culture to adjust to its new state as an Industrial Feudalism.

As the campaign begins, it is year 500 of the Combine, dated from the end of the Sniz Wars. The Combine is strong, and entering another period of expansion. The influence of the Cartels is modified by that of the Unity, and for the first time in its history, the Combine is allowing private ownership of starships. the adventurous youth of the Combine is flocking to the new Academy of Space, training to go forth to the stars in search of glory and wealth.

13 years before the campaign time begins, explorer elements of the Combine met the ships of the kingdom, another survivor culture from the Empire with starflight capability, and the two nations are in a never-ending race to claim new star systems for their governments. Combat is the deciding factor in the final ownership of a system as often as is diplomacy.

It is the year 817 of the Empire, the year 500 of the Combine, and your ship is ready to lift for the stars.

[DungeonDevil]

UPDATE: I think I'll drop my eventual review here, unless the Mods ordain otherwise. When done, I'll have around thirty typewritten pages of notes, and I'll convert that into a brief (?) review in the next few weeks (RL permitting).

[DungeonDevil]

Update: I've been super busy with tons of other stuff (*grrr* real life *argh*), but am close to transcribing all 50+ pages of notes. I will soon start converting that to a review, though it may take more time to apply polish. Patience, space fans!

[Stormcrow]

I thought you were talking about Space Quest, and I was wondering what the fuss was all about.

[tdenmark]

Jan 24, 2018 9:42:01 GMT -6 DungeonDevil said:

Finally scored a copy of the gonzo, legendary, ultra-rare RPG Space Quest.

Guess what I paid for it.

Pictures or it didn't happen.

[DungeonDevil]

Aug 25, 2023 3:19:38 GMT -6 tdenmark said:

Jan 24, 2018 9:42:01 GMT -6 DungeonDevil said:

Finally scored a copy of the gonzo, legendary, ultra-rare RPG Space Quest.

Guess what I paid for it.

Pictures or it didn't happen.

Thread necro much? If I get around to it I'll post some snaps. How does one upload a pic here, by the by?

[tdenmark]

Aug 25, 2023 20:43:34 GMT -6 DungeonDevil said:

Aug 25, 2023 3:19:38 GMT -6 tdenmark said:

Pictures or it didn't happen.

Thread necro much? If I get around to it I'll post some snaps. How does one upload a pic here, by the by?

I don't even know how I found my way down here. I think I was looking for Dune-related threads or something.

RPGG has a couple of images.