Forgotten Futures is a table-top role playing game distributed as shareware. It's based on scientific romances, the predecessors of science fiction that were published in the late 19th and early 20th century. Some are intelligent predictions of possible futures, others are at best wild dreams, at worst nightmares.
Each collection contains at least two period stories, a worldbook for the stories, adventures, and illustrations.
The Forgotten Futures game rules (HTML) - Game rules (.pdf file)
Summary version of the game rules (HTML) - Summary rules (.pdf file)
The rules plus a shorter summary, tables etc.
NEW! REVISED AND UPDATED RULES - Single file version
NEW! REVISED AND UPDATED RULES - Multiple file version
NEW! REVISED AND UPDATED RULES - Summary version
NEW! REVISED AND UPDATED RULES - Zip file of all versions
This is an expanded and "cleaned up" version of the Forgotten Futures rules which will accompany the next release of the game.
NEW! REVISED AND UPDATED RULES - PDF Version (2.3 MB)
Forgotten Futures 1: The A.B.C. Files
A role playing game set in Kipling's 21st century airship utopia. Contains the text of "With The Night Mail" and "As Easy As A.B.C.", a worldbook, an adventure, a spreadsheet of airship data, and numerous illustrations.
Forgotten Futures 2: The Log of the Astronef
A comprehensive guide to the exploration of the Solar System in 1900
AD. Based on George Griffith's Stories Of Other Worlds, it contains
six stories, the illustrations from their original publication, a
worldbook taking the story forward to 1920, a spaceship design
spreadsheet, five adventures, and more.
This revised collection also includes material previously released as The Astronef Collection, which added larger versions of the graphics for the stories, and the full text of their novelisation A Honeymoon In Space.
Forgotten Futures 3: George E. Challenger's Mysterious World
Adventures with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's scientific hero, including
the full text of The Lost World, The Poison Belt, When The World
Screamed, The Land Of Mist, The Horror Of The Heights, and The
Disintegration Machine, a worldbook, four adventures, and a wargames
scenario.
Forgotten Futures 4: The Carnacki Cylinders
Horror and the supernatural in Edwardian England, including the
original text and illustrations for William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki
The Ghost Finder, a worldbook with rules for magic and the Ab-natural,
three adventures and two long outlines, a story-telling card game, and
much more.
Forgotten Futures 5: Goodbye Piccadilly...
The destruction of London, as seen by a variety of
authors around the turn of the century. See London succumb to
volcanoes, snow, fire, Yankee commercialism, and other disasters. Contents include two long adventures, at least 15 adventure outlines (I've lost count since they are at various points in two large files!), ten stories and
articles, etc. etc.
Forgotten Futures 6: Victorian Villainy
A source collection for melodramatic adventures, including three
plays, a novel, the first Raffles stories, and more. It includes printable paper figures representing most of the characters in the adventures.
Forgotten Futures 7: Tsar Wars
Based on the late 19th century novels of George Griffith, Tsar Wars is a setting for the struggle between the Terror and the forces of oppression in the early 20th Century, and the return of Tsar (and war) to the utopia of 2030 AD.
Forgotten Futures 8: Fables and Frolics
Based on the fantasies of E. Nesbit, FF8 is a complete change of pace, a role-playing game set in a world of childhood magical adventures. Includes three novels, 23 short stories and some autobiography, also rules for magic, life as a Victorian/Edwardian child, and much more.
As a bonus, here's Nesbit's novel Wet Magic, which unfortunately came into my hands too late to be used in writing the game.
Forgotten Futures 9: It's My Own Invention
Adventures in the worlds of weird science and engineering. Includes two novels by George Griffith, articles and stories by several authors, and game worlds based on flight (and a war on the supernatural), automata and calculating engines, space travel, and time travel.
Spreadsheet Templates
The FF rules, and several of the worldbooks, incorporate spreadsheets for
character and vehicle design, currency conversion, etc. For convenience they
are now accessible directly if you have appropriate software, and have been converted for
use with most popular spreadsheets.