TSR's Buck Rogers in the XXV Century

[Blaquesmith]

The setting of XXVC is a possible future of the real universe that we live in. In the year 1999, the Soviet Union and the United States are involved on the "Last Gasp War." This is the world's first nuclear war.
This war causes many governments of Earth to abandon conventional warfare and embrace large alliances. Three of these alliances that grow to be superpowers are the Russo-American Mercantile ("RAM"), the Indo-Asian Consortium ("IAC"), and the Euro-Bloc Faction ("EBF"). In the latter half of the 21st century, these three alliances jointly form the System States Alliance for the purposes of exploring and colonizing the solar system. Slowly, the SSA begins to terraform the inner planets. Mars is colonized by RAM, Luna is colonized by EBF, and Venus is controlled by IAC.
The main method of interplanetary travel from this time onward is the rocket ship. These vessels use fusion reactions to power the ship throughout its entire voyage. Rocket ships usually can range from 5 to 500 tons.
In the year 2275, RAM revolts against Earth and gains independence. Furthermore, because of Earth's dependence on the other planets for resources, RAM begins to dominate Earth. In 2310, refugees from Earth begin to colonize Mercury. In the next century, the asteroid belt and Jupiter begin to be settled.
In the first half of the 25th century, certain Terrans (inhabitants of Earth) form the New Earth Organization ("NEO"). This society plans to rebel against the rule of RAM and restore Earth to its former glory. After the revival of Buck Rogers, NEO is strengthened by alliances with other governments and space pirates. NEO is able to repel the occupation by RAM and fend off the ensuing large-scale attack by RAM.
Most of the XXVC material takes place in the time from 2430 until 2460.

Title: The Bird Of Prey (a XXVc game)
Blurb: 25th Century classic Sci-Fi action!
Genre: Pulp, Sci-Fi, PG13 kind of adventure
System: TSR's Buck Rogers (XXVc Role-Playing)
Materials Needed: creativity, familiarity with either pulp or classic sci-fi.
Description: The players will begin as a team on good old Earth, which is de facto ruled by the infamous RAM. Their hometown has been obliterated with no apparent reason, and in the process of getting information, they will be contacted by NEO (New Earth Organisation) to join the fight against the RAM oppressors, but they will find more than they hoped for.

Number of players: 4-6 (reliable)
Frequency of updating: 1-2 weekly posts minimum (If a player has to be AFK for a long period of time, has to warn the others in the OOC thread, or he will be expelled from the game)

Making the characters is very similar to the classic D&D 2nd edition characters, but they have percentile skills. I'll guide all of you through the process.

[Jojojopo]

The background sounds good, though I don't know anything about the system you're using. Can I play without having the rulebook or is it really necessary?

[Silverthorne]

Man I remember a lot of my characters from when I played.. None of them will probably work, but they were memorable.. What is the level and all that..  I have the books if anyone needs a hand with generation.

[Blaquesmith]

It's quite easy to play, and the basic box (Complete with the Players book, the World Book and the Technology Book) can be found in Internet (I found some scans around, which is something I'd rather have because my books are quite falling apart... damn pulp paper...)

The playing is easy if you know about D&D second edition (the Stats are the same, plus they add Tech for this one). The skills are checked against a %, so that doesn't requires to be a nuclear physicist, either... 

If we had 4+ players, I'll ask the admins to create a sub-forum and we'll start there.

[Silverthorne]

http://dynamiteentertainment.com/htmlfiles/viewProduct.html?CAT=DF-Buck_Rogers

guess what I found.  A new Buck Rogers comic.

[Krimson]

I am sad, because I used to have the boxed set for this game plus almost all the supplements and the novels.  I've actually read all the novels TSR put out for this.  I would definitely love to play in this setting.  Fortunately, I have come across some PDFs so I can still put together a character once I figure out how this site works, and if of course the game is still a go.  In any case, yeah XXVc was a trip.

[Blaquesmith]

I'd like to give it a shot, but there's no way i could only run it with two players...

[Krimson]

That's understandable.  Two players works nice in a Pen and Paper game, but PbP seems to be its own monster.

[Blaquesmith]

In fact, I don't like to play P'n'P with less than 4 players. In some occasions, if the players are skilled (and inspired) enough, I can accept 3, but never less than that.

I'd like to be able to give you an idea about the kind of game that I'd be running, but I try to adapt my games to the players, and not the contrary. This way, the players are more able to choose the kind of character they'd like to play.

For example, if all the players were pilots, I could do a game about a piloting squadron (either mercenaries, NEO rebels or RAM military), if all the players were from the asteroids, they could be part of the Black Brotherhood (pulp Sci-Fi pirates are also cool), or, if the players are from various backgrounds but all are earthlings, they could be introduced to the background gradually, beginning with the earth situation and continuing with the inner planets.

The game can be either social and political, action-driven, or anything in between. There are lots of possibilities (for a class-driven RPG), and the players can explore many of them. 

[APN]

Been playing the Countdown to Doomsday game (only yesterday, via Amiga Emulator) and have the XXVC rules sat on the table next to me (I was considering making a stripped down 'rules lite' version without the XXVC setting, based on the stripped down rules used for the computer game). If there's still a game being considered, I'd like to play (though I note the original post was from months ago, so not sure if interest still remains).

Anyway, if the game is still being considered, I'll put my hand up to play

edit: My first post on here, so I'd better say "hello" too

[APN]

Oh, and a trick I've seen done successfully in PbP is for each player to run a couple of characters each? It's a challenge roleplaying each seperately of course, but could be quite fun, say, if your own characters don't get on too well with one another...

[Blaquesmith]

I don't like "multiplexing" the RPG. If RL kicks one player's arse it's painful enough for the game to lose one character, so even more if you lose a whole bunch of them.

I would still like to do something with this game... classic pulp action is just what the doctors recommend to cure boredom... 

[Krimson]

Well I'm still keeping an eye on this thread.

[APN]

I think I have all the books/modules for this, so I'll continue to watch the thread as I'm eager to get some use out of 'em! Finding players who'll touch rare-ish long out of print games is hard though.
With regards how many players you'll run in a PbP we're all different of course. I've run loads of games from one upwards (I run a supers game with each player in their own personal 'comic' and 'team up' every couple of months in the group comic. Lots of work but they're good players, so it makes it worthwhile) but as you say, 4 is about right for keeping up the pace/variety. Any more, the pace slows, any less, the game dies if someone leaves, so I see your point.

[Blaquesmith]

I'd like to have at least 3-4 interested people to run a campaign...

I propose this: I'll try to go to my parents' home this weekend, and pick all my old Buck Rogers stuff (Many of my RPG books are still there), and, if there are interested players, we can ask Celedor to open a subforum and begin defining the setting, give some pointers, etc.

Does anyone know if the copyright on the books is still a go, or can they be considered "Abandonware" ?

[APN]

Off the top of my head, without really knowing, I'd say they weren't abandonware Reason being is the Buck Rogers licensed setting. Even though no one is doing anything with it, and it's pretty much dormant or 'dead' as far as anyone knows, we really don't know if lawyers are watching Even though no one is making any money from it, and it'd be keeping an old out of print game 'alive' so to speak, you never know how eager the lawyers are for the Dille Family trust... That said, it was a TSR game, and they never did anything about say... http://www.classicmarvelforever.com/ which has all the Marvel stuff available in various states of pdf (from crap scan to ocr quality) to download, so who knows what the score is...?

Why don't you just cook some characters up for players to pick from and we'll go from there?

[Krimson]

Why don't you just cook some characters up for players to pick from and we'll go from there?

I have the game handy so I'm willing to help out in that regard.

[Blaquesmith]

Why don't you just cook some characters up for players to pick from and we'll go from there?

I would rather explain the classes and some background, let the people choose what they want to play, make the players roll the dice for stats, and then (if necessary), finish the characters myself. That way, the characters aren't all the same.

Since I see not everyone is familiar with the background, we can begin in the post-apocalyptic setting of Earth after the "Gasp" war, with NEO being just a rumor, and the RAM being the de facto rulers of the planet, save for the Orgs.

[APN]

Did anything come of this, or the idea get shelved?

[Blaquesmith]

Don't know, are the people still interested?

I'm available to start doing some damage to the pulp sci-fi genre... Just say a word and I'll ask for the subforum.