Sunday, July 5, 2015

July is Ubiquity Month

This July I want to spend some quality time with the Ubiquity system.  This is a "generic" system that goes after the same sort of games and crowd that Savage Worlds and Unisystem target.
I tend to like Ubiquity a bit more than Savage Worlds, but a little less than Unisystem.

The Ubiquity System was created by Exile Game Studios for their Hollow Earth Expedition game.  It has since been used in other games by other companies.

These are the games I am going to be looking at in detail:
Hollow Earth Expedition RPG (Exile Game Studios)
Hollow Earth Expedition: Secrets of the Surface World (Exile Game Studios)
Leagues of Adventure (Triple Ace Games)
Space: 1889 (Clockwork Publishing)
Revelations of Mars (Exile Game Studios)

I am also working on a couple of NPCs to help feature some of the game rules.  A few I really want to do are Dracula and Sherlock Holmes.



When I first was getting into Ubiquity I started with Leagues of Adventure, which is like an alternate universe "Ghosts of Albion".  While in GoA magic is supreme, in LoA it is weird science and steampunk.   I like to think that every character in GoA has an LoA counterpart and visa versa.
In fact I ran my Ghosts of Albion: Dinosauria adventure under Leagues of Adventure with no problems.  I had to fudge the magic a little, but now I think I could a much better job.

I will talk more about Leagues later in this week, but suffice to say I am rather fond of it.

Hollow Earth Expedition is a game I knew I was going to love, but one I did not buy till very recently.  I was working on a Hollow Earth book for Battlefield Press and I didn't want it to enfluence me.  I am happy to say that the HEX book I picked up was both similar and very different than what I did.  It was obvious we drew from the same sources but went in different ways.

Space 1889 and Revelations of Mars were both Kickstarters I gladly backed.  I am not getting the PDFs buy am missing the hardcover of Mars at the moment.

All of these games together have given me a lot of ideas on various games.  One is one I have mentioned before, "1901: An Æther Space Odyssey".  HEX is firmly Pulp Era but LoA and Space 1889 are Victorian science fantasy.  I am going to take the median here and go with the dawn of the Edwardian Age as one of Space Exploration.  Despite the implied settings in Space 1889 and Revelations of Mars, I am likely to go more Barsoom with my my Mars; though I am leaving War of the Worlds open.

Looking forward to it! Hope you are too.

4 comments:

Tim Knight said...

This makes me VERY happy. I've been smitten with the Ubiquity system since HEX came out and haven't really looked back. The 'recent' combination of the system and my all-time favourite setting (Space: 1889) was a winner for me and I keep returning to the system as an outlet for my random ideas, even if they never reach the table.

In all this time I've only actually played one game of HEX (Nick ran an Edwardian game for Clare and I years ago, which we never got to finish sadly... something about them getting married and then having two children got in the way of his gamesmastering!)

Really looking forward to reading what you conjure up for this system.

Rhonin84 said...

I do like the ubiquity system and the material is well written, as to how it compares to Savage Worlds...hmmm....I have to give the nod to SW for playability. Just my two cents though...I am looking forward to what you have to say.

The Convenient Skill said...

I'm looking forward to this too, although I'm disappointed that your not playing Regime Diabolique. I'm torn between that setting and Witch Hunter: Invisible World, but I'll be interested on your take on the Ubiquity system and the games.

Timothy S. Brannan said...

I am considering picking up Regime Diabolique. I will see how the week goes.