For many of us who started gaming in the tail end of the 1970s, The Handbook for Space Pioneers: Exoplanet Colonies (1978) by Wolfe and Wysack was basically the first space game supplement that wasn't intended for RPGs at all... and yet...
It provided fully realised worlds, maps, races, threats, economies, deckplans, personality tests, and recruitment ideas for characters.. er.. cough the readers.
Perfect for traveller or Star Trek and packed with colonial issues too.
@Taskerland and I were discussing Mythic Iceland being a great supplement because of how much it provides the GM, and while the Handbook for Space Pioneers is very dated now, I think it's one of the unsung heroes of "a book that was simply waiting for RPGs"
Why is this important now?
I just found it was on the internet archive
https://archive.org/details/handbookforspace0000wolf
Enjoy!
@Taskerland As a quick addendum the whole book is written with a straight face, and as the manual for new pioneers, so the material is all ready to be handed to players, with no "gm only" redactions to be made. You could actually just buy old copies of the paperback of the book for £10. The handsome hardback is a lot pricier. But I think you'd just print a chapter out for a game because the players are hopefully all going to the same place*
*knows this is never true in practice
@Printdevil I feel that SJG's Transhuman Space books are the spiritual descendants of those non-fiction science fiction books. Terrain Trade Authority and all that.
@Taskerland Certainly had a lot of influence on a lot of Sci-Fi peeps. This book was very very popular in the 70s, and then.. vanished. I've never heard it referred to in the RPG circles, which I just assumed was that I didn't really move in them, but with @strangequark and I discussing Space1999 a bit recently it popped up on my suggested reading lists and I got a bit nostalgic and was surprised just how good a supplement.. er.. book it still is. It smokes Barrier Peaks for example.
@Printdevil @Taskerland Indeed, my battered TTA Handbook precedes my introduction to RPGs. It is apposite that the first RPG I ever played was Traveller.
Wait, 2000-2100 AD... are we in the future already?
That's another "isn't this a game?" book that lurked around Carnegie Library making me confused.
