Following on the heels of the successful debut of a certain anime anthology series in the United States, in 1986 Bollywood producer A.M. Chatterjee sought to follow suit for the Hindi-speaking market.  Unable to make a deal for the well-known program, Chatterjee instead secured the rights to five disparate Japanese animated science fiction and fantasy programs which were generally considered second or even third rate, to wit:

Space Fighter Iron Tempest (1984, 32 episodes) - a science fiction action/drama involving a squadron of fighter pilots deployed in space, fighting a losing war against insectoid aliens.  Notable primarily for the retro designs of the space-fighters themselves, which resembled a cross between a WWI biplane and a pulp space-rocket from old serials, and the fact that several of the characters are (inexplicably) uplifted animals.

Battle Knights Forward (1980, 30 episodes) - a gritty sci-far war story about mercenaries who wear powered armor getting airdropped into interstellar hotspots for the right price, told from the  POV of a female embedded reporter who (of course) falls for the war-weary protagonist.

Unstoppable! Falcon Z (1981, 42 episodes) - an adventure series concerning a boy who receives the power to transform into the ass-kicking legendary warrior Falcon Z, who then attempts to lead an uprising against the evil noble houses of his desert planet.  Essentially 'Kamen Rider' mixed with Lawrence of Arabia and Zorro.  Oh, and he has a talking dog for a sidekick.

Ultra City Showdown (1983, 35 episodes) - action/mystery show about bionic private eye and his supercar in a future city the size of Texas.  Some noir, a little cyberpunk, and more than a hint of blaxploitation.

Black Sakura Cemetery (1984, 30 episodes) - a weird horror/fantasy setup involving living people trapped in the land of the dead, amysterious maybe-good-guy necromancer who commands ghosts, and ...yeah, I can't explain it any better than that.  But it had ghost pirates before they were cool.

So, Bollywood being Bollywood, Chatterjee decides that bigger is better and he's going to actually outdo that tripartite show he couldn't buy; rather than chain the shows in sequence, he's going to edit them all together into the greatest space opera ever written.  He hires a mess of writers who half-assedly plot out some metaplot-type story arcs, change some character names, create relationships out of nothing, and then the editors get to work, trying to stay a few episodes ahead of the manic writing team.  According to the new metaplot, the protagonist of one show is actually a secret clone of another show's hero, the reporter lady is the estranged lover of one of the space-pilots, the whole galaxy is at war, and the spaceships move faster than light by taking shortcuts through the realm of the dead (I thought that last bit particularly inspired, actually).  The whole shebang gets all-new dialogue in Hindi, a warmed-over early-80s rock soundtrack, and debuts on Indian TV in the summer of 1987 as 'Galaxy Atomic'.

The show is a pretty big hit by Indian TV standards and runs for 145 episodes through the cunning use of stock footage, copious unnecessary flashbacks, and occasional live-action intermissions featuring then-popular musical acts performing love songs which are ostensibly about the goings-on of the show.  'Galaxy Atomic' was redubbed in Tamil in 1990 and run again on a whole different channel.  During the late 80s, bazaars throughout India and Pakistan were flush with official and knock-off Galaxy Atomic toys and action figures.  Tragically, the show has never been properly translated into English outside a few fansubs.

A retired cricketer of my acquaintance, who maintained an inordinate love of the series as a young man, has recently purchased the tapes of the show and the 'Galaxy Atomic' IP in its entirety.  Next thing you know, bing-bang-boom, I have the rpg rights for a song.  So that's precisely what I'm working on - the 'Galaxy Atomic' rpg.  The over-the-top Bollywood pulp sci-fi ridiculous action space mecha anime mash-up roleplaying game.



Everything in the above post is total falsehood except the fact that I'm writing the game described.  Comments welcome.

Awesome. I can't wait to see, I'm a little frightened of the Bollywood angle and their need to mess with everything to make it more singy, but since you hold the rights outright the worse they can do is beat on you a bit with lawyers.

Good Luck

(Tongue in Cheek all the way!)

Quote from: VectorSigma;400657So, Bollywood being Bollywood, Chatterjee decides that bigger is better and he's going to actually outdo that tripartite show he couldn't buy; rather than chain the shows in sequence, he's going to edit them all together into the greatest space opera ever written. He hires a mess of writers who half-assedly plot out some metaplot-type story arcs, change some character names, create relationships out of nothing, and then the editors get to work, trying to stay a few episodes ahead of the manic writing team.

Quote from: VectorSigma;400657Everything in the above post is total falsehood except the fact that I'm writing the game described.  Comments welcome.

Awesome! Tell us more about your game. What's the system like?

Quote from: VectorSigma;400657Everything in the above post is total falsehood except the fact that I'm writing the game described.  Comments welcome.

You got me.  You lying, bastard.  You got me.   LOL

I would offer to assist you, but it seems you are much more in tune with what you want than I could ever be.

But, I will buy a copy.  

Quote from: The Butcher;400700Tell us more about your game. What's the system like?

The engine is a stripped-down 4C hack - or rather, a 20C hack.  I'm reworking the table to have an extra degree of success and use a d20; in theory you could make it all work with d20+stat vs target number, and I want to have a sidebar to that effect.

This thing needs to play FAST.  I'm going with templated character creation as the default (but transparent, so you could build from scratch if you so desire.

Weird idea: I'm considering breaking up the rules by subgenre and doing them separately like splats.  In other words, do a 'Space Fighter Iron Tempest' book that covers spacecraft, dogfighting, etc, and the attendant character types and genre conventions, then do 'Battle Knights Forward' which does the same thing for groundpounder mecha.  Each booklet would have the basic rules, then move on to subgenre stuff.  You'd only need the books with components you're including in your game.  And I'm talking cheap, like printing 'em as comic books - say 48 pages, color in and out, at in theory a five-dollar (american) price point.  I'm eager for feedback on this option.

Quote from: VectorSigma;400748And I'm talking cheap, like printing 'em as comic books - say 48 pages, color in and out, at in theory a five-dollar (american) price point.  I'm eager for feedback on this option.

I'd prefer it have more curve than a d20, as much as I love Faserip (not so much its poorer cousin.) I'm alright with that as a basis though. Are you doing the art? Reason I ask is color artists seem to want to get paid enough to eat, and that is somewhat bothersome to also get the game book for 5.00 dollars. It be awesome if you could. (I'm not sure how comics do it, but it may be the sheer volume they produce.)

As a niche, niche, niche game--as awesome as it sounds, I want to see you perform this feat, then tell me how you do it, or I'll be forced to ask for proof of divine heritage for your miracle.

Nevertheless, I really do want to see it happen. I like profit for my games, but I admit, I don't sell as high as I "should," because I want my games circulated and played, and even then its an expensive endeavor to swing: Writing, editing, layout, artwork, and so on.

Quote from: Silverlion;400774I'd prefer it have more curve than a d20, as much as I love Faserip (not so much its poorer cousin.)

Understandable; I tend to think of curves as being for more realistic games, though.

Quote from: Silverlion;400774I'm alright with that as a basis though. Are you doing the art? Reason I ask is color artists seem to want to get paid enough to eat, and that is somewhat bothersome to also get the game book for 5.00 dollars. It be awesome if you could. (I'm not sure how comics do it, but it may be the sheer volume they produce.)

As a niche, niche, niche game--as awesome as it sounds, I want to see you perform this feat, then tell me how you do it, or I'll be forced to ask for proof of divine heritage for your miracle.

Nevertheless, I really do want to see it happen. I like profit for my games, but I admit, I don't sell as high as I "should," because I want my games circulated and played, and even then its an expensive endeavor to swing: Writing, editing, layout, artwork, and so on.

I thought it was by volume as well - and it is, for the big boys - but then I did some poking around.  Ka-Blam (no link at hand, sorry) does custom comics that come out to less than $2 a copy as POD, no minimum order.  Once I saw that...I had to explore the option as a thought experiment if nothing else.

Anime/manga is so popular these days I think I can probably get my hands on some passable art without breaking the bank, using amateurs, frankly.  But that's a whole different can of worms, I'm just trying to get the stuff written first!

And the goal would be break-even, of course.

Good luck. Run a playtest online let me know..

Quote from: Silverlion;400864Good luck. Run a playtest online let me know..

Thanks and Absolutely!

Raiders of Galaxy is apparently in the public domain, so you could base it on a real anime if you wanted.

Quote from: Age of Fable;402391Raiders of Galaxy is apparently in the public domain, so you could base it on a real anime if you wanted.

Lai's stuff is universally horrible!

There's "fun to watch with friends because it's bad" bad, and then there's "I can't watch this through to the end" bad.  Lai's movies are the latter.  

Thanks for finding it posted, though - I have several people on whom I wish to inflict it.

This sounds very cool... I'm imagining a mix of Vedic Mythology, Bollywood and loopy anime SF... combat-dance sequences that serve as group/focused psionic attacks... impossibly huge golden temple spaceships manned by crews of uplifted monkeys... weapons-grade sitar music... mango lassis.

Or maybe I read it all wrong...

Quote from: VectorSigma;402564Thanks for finding it posted, though - I have several people on whom I wish to inflict it.

Maybe you could use it as a source of graphics too.

Quote from: VectorSigma;400657rather than chain the shows in sequence, he's going to edit them all together into the greatest space opera ever written.

One of my long-term ambitions is to do a similar thing, but with public domain (mostly silent) films. I was going to have original footage as well though.

Quote from: Simlasa;402573This sounds very cool... I'm imagining a mix of Vedic Mythology, Bollywood and loopy anime SF... combat-dance sequences that serve as group/focused psionic attacks... impossibly huge golden temple spaceships manned by crews of uplifted monkeys... weapons-grade sitar music... mango lassis.

Or maybe I read it all wrong...

That's pretty close, although what you're describing is more blatantly "Indian" than what I was going to do, which was "Japanese sci-fi anime through a Bollywood lens".  But certainly all that stuff is 'within genre' for the feel I want.

Well, except the mango lassis.  I love lassi, but I swore I'd never eat another mango after that summer in the Gambia.  Y'know how everyone has that one liquor they won't drink anymore due to a bad experience?  Mine is Southern Comfort, but if the same applied to fruit...mango all the way.  Gah, I can taste mango just thinking about it.

I'm thinking a lot of the Bollywoodisms might end up as sidebar options, frankly.