Wanna hunt dinosaurs on Venus tomorrow?

Sounds like an April Fools gag, but no--we're serious! I mean, uh, kinda. I nearly forgot to get the word out about our first themed month for Saturday Night Space Opera. Throughout April we're winding the wayback machine to 19th century with some STEAMPUNK adventure!

Here's the first game, set for tomorrow night:

Note: Please be aware this is a BYO blunderbuss event.

Here's the mission brief from GM John Till:

ALL ABOARD: your ether flyer is now departing! Anyone can survive the Red Planet with its languid ancient cities and canals, but only the bravest and most adventurous (or foolhardy) head to the humid, prehistoric jungle hellworld of VENUS!

6:00 pm / Saturday, April 2

Source Comics + Games

 CREW WANTED:

• No previous experience with Ubiquity necessary
• Dice and character templates provided
• As always, this event is FREE

RSVP now and let us know you're coming!

You also can RSVP on the SNSO Google+ Community page. Click the image below:

All our steampunk adventures for April take place amidst the etherways of space. Check out the full schedule on the Saturday Night Space Opera site. So will you be joining us for some otherworldly, Victorian-era escapades?

A: INDUBITABLY.

MAP: Our Moon as a Wilderness - your next campaign?

The geniuses at University College London have made available--for free--a glorious map of the moon, as illustrated by astronomer Walter Goodacre in 1920. Words cannot describe how incredible this map is, so I'll just show you (click to embiggen):

That's a resized version (by me, so I could fit it here, but also messed up the clarity) of one page of his original publication. Go now to the UCL site and feast your eyes on full-size scans of the pages! You can also peek at these on Flickr in a slightly more approachable format.

And that's not all! They've digitally stiched the entire map back together into a clean, line drawn version that you can download--in either 130mb and 300mb versions.

The thought of printing this out and spreading it onto a table to use as a wilderness adventure or a lunar wargaming map is almost geographically obscene. My GM-brain is salivating at the mere notion of a Victorian-age steampunk/dieselpunk campaign, tromping through the wilds of the moon!

A few sci-fi links for inspiration (or diversion)

Here's a few fun little items I've stumbled upon in the past week.

This morning I learned that Triceratops doesn't exist--or better put--never did. While doing "research" I discovered this impressive shrine to Dino Riders! Seriously, what's not to love here? We should all be so lucky to have a therapod with thermo-beam eye sockets. But like all things in life, it just takes a little moola to make things happen.

Secondly, I've been enjoying this blog Beam Me Up which has some great posts about space news, science fiction, and more. They have a podcast channel now, but I've not had opportunity to listen.

Finally, a quick note about a book that I began paging through up on a whim last winter at a book store in Minneapolis called "Boilerplate History's Mechanical Marvel".

The book is written as a historical nonfiction account of our first robot citizen--who you of course all remember--that fought in the Spanish American War along side Teddy Roosevelt (and had many other adventures). It's a WONDERFUL idea, deftly executed and imbued with incredible"photos" and paintings. It's a true labor of love and a real gem for lovers of both robots and those Time-Life style of books that sadly seem to have gone the way of the triceratops.

My wife was so amused by the idea, and my drooling over the pages, that she bought it for me. Well, J.J. Abrams must have had a similar experience because he's now making a movie about the lovable automaton.

Though technically this wasn't Boilerplate's first affair with the silver screen. If I get the chance, I'll upload some images of my copy this weekend.

Until then, Expiscor Eternus!

Random Space Finds #21 (Time Tunnel Edition, 1d10)

Lost curiosities from a bygone age, cavorting clumsily in the aether:

1. Pedal and propeller-driven, flying bicycle built for two, handlebar-mounting bells for each rider
2. A half-dozen (1d4) 1) tins of barrel-chest inducing boiled sausage and potato mash for +1 vigorous constitution; 2) jars of delectable anise marmalade for infravision in pitch-dark predicaments; 3) packages of ginger biscuits for pleasing disagreeable alien-types +1d6 success; 4) flasks of Haskell's Heartening Moonwater (space gin) for +1d6 HP replenished
3. A hand-crank, radiologic oscilloscope with telescoping triangulation node and leather-bound grip
4. Two samples of Dr. Velmondt Von Veight's Vigorous Vials of De-frightenment, An Ammonium Carbonate Cure and Remedy for Those Overcome by Sudden Astonishment of Otherworldly Bewilderments", one whiff is an instant saving-throw victory against stun, fear, or fault by insanity! 
5. Indestructible pith helmet, former proprietor still occupying (note: only wearer's cranial case is rendered unsmirchable when donned)
6. Personal diary containing maps, diagrams, notes, and incredulous claims about a "hidden world" beneath the geologic outer crust--also includes a smattering of guttural phrases in a tongue known as "Accala"
7. Cavoritic aethysphere, gravity deflecting panels still operational, bar fully stocked
8. One asbestos petticoat, +2 protection vs. all attacks by heat and flame
9. 2.5 ounce tin of Commodore Pennington's Mustachioed Gentleman's Wax
10. Handkerchief, hand-stitched initials: HGW, laden with a map made of lip-smacked kisses that can only be seen by moonlight (any olde moon will do)