Actually, running with 2 DBs is _very_ easy.
You just need to link tables from one DB into the other, and then use the DB with local tables and linked tables as the equivalent to the current stevefire.mdb.
eg. have stevefire.mdb that has all the config/application info (the stuff you'd change in an update such as tech definitions, system generation tables, name lists, etc) and a second MDB "gamedata.mdb".
In the stevefire.mdb, you add a link to all tables in gamedata.mdb, and then your code just connects to stevefire.mdb.
You will also need to provide for relinking the tables after the install since access stores complete path instead of relative path in the link information (this is also very easy to do