GASLIGHT Rules

Victorian Sci-Fi

review by Tom Desmond

GASLIGHT (Glorious Adventures In Science Loosely Involving Historical Times) is a new set of skirmish rules from the team of Christopher Palmer and John “Buck” Surdu. By the author’s own admission, these rules were written with H.G. Wells, Jules Verne and H. Rider Haggard in mind; however, they can easily be used for colonial actions.

The rules consist of 36 pages including a number of charts for generating characters, weapons, animals and conveyances. Players can also generate random attributes and character skills such as “lucky” or “clumsy” that affect character actions during a game. Units are organized into groups of 10 and there are differentiation between “extras” which are your common soldiers or natives and “Main Characters” who act as leaders or special personalities. Main characters have three attributes, shoot (firing), scuffle (melee) and save (a saving throw if hit). Extras can shoot or scuffle; if an extra is hit, he’s killed, much like in your Saturday afternoon matinee. Weapons can be generated using a chart and have four attributes, range, save roll modifier, number of shots and reload. For those of you who crave Jules Verne fantastic conveyances there are charts that allow you to generate everything from a penny farthing bicycle to steam driven motorcycles. Conveyances have five attributes including speed, start and spin. Animals both real and imagined can be generated using a chart. Animal attributes include speed, scuffle and save roll modifier.

The game is played using a game deck which contains cards for each unattached leader and units lead by leaders, adventurers and veterans. Unattached heroes get two cards. When a card is drawn, the unit or figure can perform actions such as shoot, move or reload. Formations are very informal and movement is specified such as 6” for infantry and 12” for cavalry. Firing is unit to unit and to hit, a figure must roll less than its shoot number. Extras can only fire at whole units, while main characters can single out other figures. As mentioned earlier, if an extra is hit, he dies. Main characters that are hit roll against their save number to try and survive. Close combat is figure to figure and figures must roll less than their scuffle number to score a hit. Once again, main characters can roll to save themselves if hit. There are rules for morale but they are fairly simple. There are a few modifiers and results range from No Effect to freeze (no action next turn) to run away.

These rules are simple yet would seem to produce an interesting and fun game. Small colonial actions, Darkest Africa safaris and even Indian Mutiny come to mind. Using the random generation charts could produce all manner of strange and fantastic weapons, conveyances and animals. Probably not for the faint at heart. At $15.00, worth the investment just for the charts. Available from LMW Works, P.O. Box 844, Amherst, NY 14226. E-mail inquiries to pviverito@earthlink.net.

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