I’ve just run my first one-shot of Wings over the World, the one-page campaign setting for Cepheus Engine games by Michael Brown. It’s an interesting alternate history setting, based entirely on the 1936 H.G. Wells-penned movie Things to Come.
The world is in ruins after the Second World War dragged on for over twenty years. Humanity’s only hope is Wings over the World, an global organization of scientists and engineers who use their advanced technology to rebuild the world. The players travel around in airplanes, aiding the weak and battling injustice like some kind of dieselpunk knight-errants.
It’s a fascinating little setting, and it’s only a buck over on DriveThru. Highly recommended. I posted a custom character sheet for it last month.
Setting Notes & Rules
I ran the game using the latest Cepheus Deluxe rules. Here’s some of the notes and rules I used:
Background skills
Ideally, I’d create custom careers for this setting, but time was short. I did decide to create a set of background skills all players would have. WoTW wouldn’t let personnel out into the field without basic training of some kind so I established that any WotW players would start out with the following zero-level skills:
Aircraft-0, Survival-0, Gun Combat-0, Medicine-0, Melee-Combat-0
Technology
The world (except for WotW) is in ruins, so there’s been little technological progress. I’ve decided that computers barely exist in this setting. WotW might have a few room-sized UNIVAC style machines, but nothing portable or vehicle mounted. Thus, players wouldn’t have or need the Computer skill.
The Engineering skill in the basic Cepheus Deluxe setting is specifically for starships. In this setting it’s exclusively for aircraft. All other technological devices will be covered under the Repair skill.
Zero-G and Grav Vehicles skills won’t exist. As much of the world has grown more primitive, I’m considering adding the Archery and Scavenging skills.
Gas of Peace: The tranquilizer gas that WotW often use to stop their opponents without violence. Usually dropped from airplanes. Targets exposed to the gas must make a 12+ END roll to avoid 1d6 hours of unconsciousness.
Other Optional Rules
Neither came up during my one-shot, but I also included the optional rules Hero Points and Trauma Surgery.
If I ever explore the setting further, I may steal some of the scavenging, dangers, and settlement rules from Michael Brown’s other Cepheus post-apocalypse setting book: Afterday.
Aircraft Sheet
Since the heart of a Wings over the World game will generally involve aircraft, I’ve created an A4-sized aircraft sheet to keep track of aircraft stats. It’s in the same style as the character sheet I posted previously. It was designed to be used with the Vehicle Design Guide by Moon Toad Publishing, though it should work with most Cepheus systems.
It’s fillable, and you can import an image.
Polyhedral Nonsense 