F o r g o t t e n F u t u r e s ---------------------------------- Collection II - The Log Of The Astronef A Role Playing Game & Sourcebook for George Griffith's Scientific Romances By Marcus L. Rowland Copyright 1993, 1994 Please see the end of this file for full copyright and distribution terms. This is the second in a series of resource collections, aimed primarily at users of table-top role playing games, but also relevant to anyone with an interest in early science fiction. Each collection looks at neglected works in the genre. For copyright reasons these date from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The contents include the full text of stories, plus illustrations and a guidebook to the world depicted. For role-players there is a game system and at least one adventure. The Log Of The Astronef is based on a series of six stories published in 1900 and later expanded as the novel "Honeymoon In Space". Join Lord Rollo Lenox, his American wife Zaidie, and faithful retainer Murgatroyd aboard the spaceship Astronef as they venture to the Moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn, meet strange aliens and horrendous monsters, and prove the superiority of British steel and fire power. It contains all six stories, all the illustrations from their 1900 magazine appearance, new illustrations prepared for this collection, several spreadsheet templates, game rules (including a new abridged summary for players), and a role-playing adventure campaign. I hope that you'll like it. This collection is bigger than most role playing games and many novels. It represents a year of work. If you like it you are encouraged to register - see REGISTER.TXT for details. Why Register? ------------- Maybe you don't like this collection. If so, why are you reading this file? Maybe you don't like the game rules, or would prefer another background. Maybe you like the whole thing, but just feel mean. After all, this is complete in itself. It isn't a piece of software, and I haven't disabled a vital function or imposed an artificial limit that will be put right if you get a registered program. I'm certainly not going to track you down and sue you if you are using my work without registering; life's too short and I want to see this game played, not ignored. Your conscience should be one answer, but there are practical considerations too. Registering is the best way to tell me what I'm doing wrong (or right), and what you would like to see in future collections. If you are a registered user and have a problem I'll do my best to help; for example, graphics in the first collection were originally saved as two colour monochrome, but were converted to 16-shade grey scale because several play-testers told me about problems with two-shade files and one particular .GIF viewer. The spreadsheet templates in this collection are mainly there because people had problems with Windows Draw files in the first collection. If you haven't registered it's doubtful that I'll pay much attention to any queries or complaints you might have. On a personal note, I earn a little money from each registered user. The more profitable this project becomes, the quicker FF III will appear. Forgotten Futures will be pushed to the back of my list of priorities if it doesn't help to pay the bills. This project will continue, regardless of profit, because I'm enjoying it, but I'll be able to give it more attention if you help to make it worth my while. Documents --------- All text documents are ASCII files with line breaks. Tabs are not used; they are replaced by spaces. To get a neat printout set printers to a non-proportional typeface, at least seventy characters per line, otherwise some editing will be needed. Files are not edited to conform to any particular page layout; it's advisable to check pagination, and possibly insert some page breaks, before printing. You may also wish to choose a small typeface, since they total several hundred pages. The only text files you NEED to print out are TABLES.TXT, which may be needed in the course of play, and possibly the rules synopsis SUMMARY.TXT and adventure ADVENT2.TXT; everything else can just be read from the screen as you need it. To ensure that the text files can be read by any computer or word processor, some IBM extended ASCII characters (such as accents in names and the British pound currency symbol) have been omitted or changed. The pound sign has been replaced by the symbol "#", which isn't normal British usage; if you would prefer the real thing, it's IBM character 156. If you don't have a UK keyboard driver loaded, hold down ALT while typing 156 on the numeric keypad. I don't know how to obtain this character on other systems. These, and the omission of italics etc., are the only intentional changes. Reproduction of the six Astronef stories for scholastic purposes etc. is encouraged. However, it should be made clear that these files are NOT 100% ACCURATE - there are probably uncorrected errors, and the changes described above have been made. I CAN ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR PROBLEMS ARISING FROM ERRORS IN THESE FILES: IF YOU ARE USING THEM FOR A THESIS, OR ANYTHING ELSE THAT REQUIRES COMPLETE ACCURACY, YOU ARE STRONGLY ADVISED TO REFER TO ORIGINAL SOURCES! All files marked * are Copyright Marcus L. Rowland 1993, 1994 and may not be published or distributed without written permission except as part of this collection. Brief quotations may be used for scholastic or review purposes with acknowledgement of the source. README 1ST Brief description * README TOO This one! * MOON TXT The first Astronef story, A VISIT TO THE MOON MARS TXT The second story, THE WORLD OF THE WAR GOD VENUS TXT The third story, A GLIMPSE OF THE SINLESS STAR JUPITER TXT The fourth story, THE WORLD OF THE CRYSTAL CITIES SATURN TXT The fifth story, IN SATURN'S REALM HOMEWARD TXT The sixth story, HOMEWARD BOUND WORLDBK2 TXT A guide to the world of the Astronef stories * RULES TXT The Forgotten Futures rules * SUMMARY TXT A brief summary of the rules * TABLES TXT All the tables from the rules * ADVENT2 TXT Role playing adventures * REGISTER TXT Registration form * ERRATA TXT Changes from, and mistakes in, Forgotten Futures I, and any last-minute changes to Forgotten Futures II * Graphics files -------------- Graphics files are 16 grey scale 640 x 480 .GIF images, or two-colour images saved as 16 grey scale. GIF is a trademark of Compuserve Inc. Some of these files have been assembled from images that were scanned in from copyright-free sources, and may be reproduced freely. See REGISTER.TXT if you wish to obtain larger versions of the source graphics. Illustrations may be used for scholastic or review purposes with acknowledgement of the source. 00_TITLE GIF The title logo and an illustration from story 1 01_MOON GIF More illustrations from story 1 02_MARS GIF Illustrations from story 2 03_VENUS GIF Illustrations from story 3 04_JUPE GIF Illustrations from story 4 05_SATRN GIF Illustrations from story 5 06_HOME GIF Illustration from story 6 (with additional material) 07_ASTNF GIF The Astronef near Saturn * 08_ASPLN GIF Plan of the Astronef * 09_SUITS GIF Lord Redgrave's "breathing dresses" (space suits) * 10_SMETN GIF The area around Smeaton in Yorkshire * 11_NAVY GIF A navy recruiting poster circa 1910 * 12_SIZES GIF Comparative sizes of humans and aliens 13_ATOM GIF Structure of the atom * 14_ENGIN GIF An R. force engine * 15_MERC GIF Zones of Mercury * 16_AIRSP GIF A Martian airship * 17_ASTDS GIF The asteroids in 1900 * 18_FLYER GIF Ganymedan flyer * 19_SERP GIF Saturnian Sea Serpent * 20_NOVA GIF Orbit of the nova Lilla-Zaidie * 21_ADV2 GIF All files with _ADV2 in their names are illustrations to 35 for the adventures in ADVENT2.TXT * Additional Files ---------------- SPACESHP WK1 Lotus 123 spreadsheet template for ship design * CURRENCY WK1 Template for currency conversion * CHARACTR WK1 Template for character records * BLANKREC WK1 Template for blank character record * TRAVTIME WK1 Template for journey times * TABLES WK1 Template for game tables * *.FMT Lotus 123 WYSIWYG format data for templates * Note: Templates may need modification if you don't have the Lotus WYSIWYG add-in. COPYRIGHT --------- With the exceptions shown above all material is Copyright Marcus L. Rowland 1993, 1994 This collection is distributed as a user supported publication. You are welcome to make copies and distribute them, provided that the files are not modified in any way. You may NOT sell printouts etc., but MAY copy them for personal use and the use of players, provided that no charge is made. Shareware Distributors, BBS, etc.: I have no objection to these files being distributed provided that they are not modified or separated, and provided that catalogue descriptions etc. make it clear that this is NOT a computer game. You may NOT sell "pre-registered" copies; users should send registration fees directly to the address above. Conversion to other formats (such as hypertext etc.) is permissible, but please DO NOT modify the text in any way, or charge for the conversion. Please send me a copy! CD-ROM: You are welcome to add this collection to CD-ROM based archives, provided that it is complete, and that a copy of the CD-Rom is sent to me. Yes, I know that CD-Roms are expensive - I also know how little they cost to manufacture. Any disks I don't use myself will be donated to a school. Publication in other forms: reputable publishers are invited to contact me if they are interested in this game, in using the game system for other genres, or in using information from the source pack for their own game systems. Film and computer game rights (and anything else you care to imagine) are also available. Publishing your own adventures: I have no objection to the publication of BRIEF Forgotten Futures-related adventures and articles in games magazines etc., provided that the source of the game is made clear. Be warned, I'll be trying to sell to this market too! I have STRONG objections to any unauthorised shareware or commercial publication of adventures, software, world books, etc. based on these rules, and will take all necessary action to stop it. If you REALLY want to try this, get my permission or write your own game first! Rules Conversions: Recent legal cases have made it clear that some publishers object to their games being mentioned in "unauthorised" game supplements, such as "generic" adventures with statistics for a variety of game systems. For the record, I welcome BRIEF use of Forgotten Futures statistics and data in such publications, provided that: 1: Source data from Forgotten Futures worldbooks isn't used. 2: You contact me in advance to let me know what you are doing. 3: You explain how to obtain this collection. 4: You send me a copy on publication. Translations: If anyone wants to ACCURATELY translate this collection into another language they are welcome to do so, but registration fees etc. must still be paid to me, and you may NOT charge extra for the translation. Please note that I am unable to check the accuracy of foreign versions; the English language version is definitive. Please write to me at the above address (in English!) before beginning a translation, in case someone else is already working on a version for your language. Marcus L. Rowland