Pyramid Pick: Hard VacuumPyramid Pick: Hard Vacuum: Science Gone Mad

Pyramid Pick

Hard Vacuum and Hard Vacuum: Science Gone Mad

Published by Fat Messiah Games

Designed by Darrel Hayhurst

$14.95 each

"As early as 1930s we processed the knowledge to build a simple space flyer."
--Willy Ley, July 20, 1969

Perhaps Herr Ley may have been exaggerating a little, but the notion of World War II-era space flight certainly tickles the fancy of Flash Gordon-style science fiction fans like myself. Just imagine where we would be now if space flight began 20 years earlier than when it actually started in the 1950s. We quite possible wouldn't still be mucking about in low earth orbit as we are now.

That's the concept behind Hard Vacuum, the board game of "pulp sci-fi space combat designed by Darrel Hayhurst and set in a wild alternative WWII." The Germans develop manned space flight by 1941 and pervert the new technology to their war effort. Soon, the Germans started throwing orbital bombers at the Allies who, with the help of Robert Goddard, started building their own primitive space fighters. The Germans discover a new super-fuel that vastly improves their spacecraft, while Nikola Tesla provides the fledgling Americans space force with a new atomic power generator for their ships.

Hard Vacuum operates on modified d6 mechanics; the dice are numbered 0-5 (FMG sells its own set of "Vacuum Dice") and a roll of five allows you to re-roll and add the result. The game is played on a standard hex-grid, although the game includes templates . . .

This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.



Article publication date: December 28, 2001

Copyright © 2001 by Steve Jackson Games. All rights reserved. Pyramid subscribers are permitted to read this article online, or download it and print out a single hardcopy for personal use. Copying this text to any other online system or BBS, or making more than one hardcopy, is strictly prohibited. So please don't. And if you encounter copies of this article elsewhere on the web, please report it to webmaster@sjgames.com.