Ok, so here are my thoughts.
"In mars, it feels like a pulpy cheap sci fi game."
Well in that youd be right,... it is a pulpy cheap sci-fi game
Which is why the original game was called Space 1889.
The premise is that the universe is filled with ether, so Humans are able to fly from one planet to the next using etheric flyers.
In Africa, it can be a solid, thoughtful look at the issues of the time, as well as being fun. The dark continent has a exotic and dangerous charm of its own, which the mars in that setting cannot hope to match. Do not be mistaken into believing that a lack of green people makes it less interesting - it makes it more interesting. Research material is in your nearest library - national geographic are likely to have stacks of information on the issue, an aspect I can help with using the CD archives I have.
While I appreciate your offer to help Entropy I'm also getting a little bit of a condescending vibe from your post (forgive me if I respond a bit defensively).
I was a history major in college and am an amatuer historian, I have over 150 titles about the victorian era in my personal library. I own thousands of national geographics and have loads and loads of notes and other practical information about the era....
That being said I dont want to set the game in Africa. I want to set the game on Mars, with flying Martians or maybe on Venus with its swamps and Lizard men. I will play a bit on earth, but not much mainly because I dont want people looking up how events will turn out on Earth. If Im going to GM I want to GM cheesy late victorian pulp Sci-Fi the kind written by HG Wells and Conan Doyle(who realistically were early Edwardian I think, have to look that one up).
You know the pulps that always involved exploring some sort of dangerous "other world" Be it The Underworld of London or the far flung deserts of Afganistan....
"Second, make it D20 - not out of any preference, but since that is what most people on the site are most familiar with. And that way you can use the gun lists in the D20 version of CoC."
No
I hate D20 with a passion.
I think its a flavorless, souless system.
Plus 1889 doesn't really have a gun list....
I mean they do, but the only real differences between guns are when you change from pistol to rifle, to gatling gun. That and ammo.
When you think about it is there really that much of a diference between a shotgun and an M16.
Besides range---
and when was the last time your players sniped at people from over a half mile away.
"Thirdly, that synopsis makes it sound very combat orientated. That is a no-no for a board game, and it does not do justice to the setting. Try to come up with a campaign synopsis of your own that moves it into more roleplaying orientated territory."
I do agree with you about this, but since I am writing some fiction about a consulting detective on Mars right nowIm not worried.