My recent purchase of
In Her Majesty's Name (IHMN) rules from
Foyles Bookstore, London triggered a sudden desire to start a new wargames genre: Victorian Science Fiction (VSF). This is in addition to several genres that I had planned to start, which included the Seven Years War (Maurice), the French Indian War (Muskets and Tomahawks) and Vietnam (Charlie Company). As if I don't have enough new genres to start.
Now, my interest in VSF before the purchase of IHMN was zero, or close to it. My last brush with VSF gaming was Space:1889, a rulebook I bought ages ago (>20 years) when it first came out. I don't know what hit me. Maybe it was my visit to London, which had been my home many years ago. Maybe it was the hot English summer. Maybe it was the Mohan Singh character I came across when I was browsing IHMN in Foyles. So many maybes, but whatever it was, I am now hooked on VSF. In recent weeks, I have scoured various bookstores for VSF-related books and comics, sometimes blatantly reading these books in the premises for hours, and sometimes actually buying these books. As for the mother of all resources, the internet, I have repeatedly searched for terms like 'Steampunk', 'Victorian Science Fiction Games' and even 'Victorian houses'. I have also repeatedly ogled at pictures of VSF games and articles on the internet, eventually ordering some Victorian-era miniatures from
Wargames Foundry and
Eureka Miniatures. I had even gone so far as ordering some of the official IHMN miniatures from
North Star Figures.
While waiting for my figures to arrive, I managed to dig out my old unpainted-for-more-than-20-years
Call of Cthulhu miniatures by Grenadier and Games Workshop in view of painting them (at last!). OK, agreed that these are not strictly VSF or Steampunk, but they are definitely Pulp.