H.G. Wells’ story War of the Worlds from 1897 is a classic and, perhaps more importantly, in the public domain meaning the copyright has expired. This enables others to use the story in (hopefully) interesting ways. Paul Elliott of Zozer Games, author of numerous Cepheus Engine roleplaying game products, has taken War of the Worlds into the Cepheus Engine community with War of the Worlds: Game Resources for Cepheus Universal (Zozer Games, 2024).
Source material…mostly
In keeping with the public domain nature of War of the Worlds, and to avoid other legal entanglements, War of the Worlds: Game Resources for Cepheus Universal (hereafter “WotWCU“) draws from H.G. Wells’ original story:
This short booklet provides Cepheus Universal resources with which a GM could easily set up a War of the Worlds scenario or even a sequel. There have been many novels, computer games and even roleplaying games released over the decades which have explored the possibilities of a second invasion in the years that followed the events of the novel, but none of those are referenced here.
WotWCU, Introduction
What WotWCU delivers to players or GMs is a setting; London in the late 1880’s. Technically, and to be fair, WotWCU delivers only part of that setting. The short details of the setting provided give the social, economic, and some cultural details but gives only the most general information on the British armed forces aside from the famous HMS Thunderchild. The lack of armed forces details—like any sort of order of battle or unit organization—seems like a significant oversight given this setting is about a war but perhaps adding that information would add too much material to the booklet and make it less profitable (the booklet is sold on DriveThruRPG at the Pay What You Want level).
What WotWCU does provide are details of the Martians as depicted in the original Wells story. Here one finds the Martians themselves, Tripods, Cylinders, and other Martian machines and weapons. It also provides a history of the early battles, or at last the first six days. As the booklet states:
DAY 7 – THURSDAY, AND ONWARDS
With the Narrator of the book trapped in a cellar for fifteen day, we have no knowledge of the fierce battles, brave deeds, sacrifices and catastrophes that occurred in and around London during that time. When he emerges in the 22nd of June, the Martians have been wiped out by the Earth-based bacterium. In this roleplaying situation, the player characters will not be so lucky!
WotWCU, p. 15
While WotWCU stated up front that it would hold true to the original Wells storyline, it does manage to bring in other sources. Specifically, the 2013 BBC (mock) documentary The Great Martian War is drawn upon.
While Zozer Games tries to draw only from Wells—aside from The Great Martian War referenced above—that doesn’t mean you have to. I personally greatly enjoy the Osprey Publishing “sourcebook” for their interpretation of the War of the Worlds titled War of the Worlds: The Anglo-Martian War of 1895 which hews close to the original source material and is available through DriveThruRPG.
Speaking of other RPG sourcebooks, I do NOT, NOT recommend Action! Classics: The War of the Worlds (d20, Action!) which, though including the full text of War of the Worlds (public domain!) has forces expressed in OGL d20 terms that, well, just don’t really work well.
Another Wells little wars
War of the Worlds: Game Resources for Cepheus Universal has just enough detail for a one-shot game or small campaign. There is just enough detail provided to get the GM going but the GM must shoulder some of the world-building (or scenario-setting) burden. Although the booklet draws primarily upon the original Wells story, the 2013 BBC mockumentary is additional inspiration that will invariably support development of a robust adventure. For a little investment, WotWCU can deliver a whole world war of adventuring.
Feature image courtesy Zozer Games
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