By request:


I picked up a copy of Buck Rogers XXVc last weekend. I have vague memories of seeing this game when it was released, but I wasn't sure why I never picked up a copy at the time. I have always been mad for this kind of thing. As it turns out, the game was released in 1990, arguably the craziest year of my entire life (although the years that bracket it are also fair contenders for this title). Furthermore, I think I may have been put off of TSR product by this point for some bullshit early 20's reason or another.

Anyway, the rules are AD&D (2e) based- an obvious bonus to some; others may feel differently.  I like it. Additionally, I'm a huge fan of Solar System SF and that is what this game is all about. I'm pretty sure I could tweak the rules for this game to emulate the settings from books like EE Smith's Space hounds of the IPCC, Bester's The Stars My Destination, Larry Niven's early Known Space stuff, and dozens of other things that I'm too lazy to type the titles of- or my own custom Solar System setting.

Anyway, onto the unboxing pics!




All these photos are crap. I can't cipher how to adjust the white balance on my camera, and my secret undersea base seems to be a less than ideal environment for taking pictures. Furthermore, autofocus sucks. I will be happy to rephotograph anything that anyone would like a better look at.


Anyway...

First up the box. It is big and thick.



And it has a lot of stuff in it:
There are three books:



Two big ass reversible poster maps:




Counters and a (flimsy) three panel referee screen.


Several 8 x 11 planet map/stat (map on one side, stats on the other) cards.



A bunch of ship cards of the same size.




And this thing, which appears to be some sort of game aid designed to help with figuring out interplanetary travel time, fuel requirements and other junk.



Well, I have to say that all of this creates quiet an out of the box experience. It is a really nice assortment of stuff. I am not certain, however, how much table time some of the ship cards and what not would actually get. I'd have to give the game a spin in order to know that.
I've read the Characters and combat book and most of the World book, my impressions are overwhelmingly favorable; I'll go into a little more detail on those later when I've made my way through all three books.

In theory this should have been atrocious, but I got this when it came out and I still think it's pretty cool. I like the various weird human planetary cultures, the mutants/bioengineered guys are a good element, RAM are great villains, etc. I could see this doing Stars My Destination too, yeah. If I were to give this a go I would be more likely to use Stars W/O number seasoned to taste with elements out of this box, but there are things worth taking here.

I'd go with my own setting, but i would definitely use many, many of the concepts and systems presented in the game. The rocketship stuff is just too good to dump, imo.

Quote from: Aos;458007I'd go with my own setting, but i would definitely use many, many of the concepts and systems presented in the game. The rocketship stuff is just to good to dump, imo.

Well, basically the main thing I would discard is the basic character classes. The ships, gadgets, that kind of thing, lots of cool stuff there. If nothing else it'd be a shame not to wow your players with your Official Buck Rogers Rocket Ruler.

I used to have absolutely everything for this, dunno what I did with it.

sigh

It was a really solid implementation of the D&D rules.  Vehicle combat was not so good.  Ship to ship was okay but the ship cards would have been handier at a quarter the size or if they'd had the deck plan on the card or something.  The NPC cards were a bit of a waste and IRRC didn't even list skills.

The setting was a really nicely done setting.  I always had trouble getting people to play because it was Buck Rogers.  I think it'd do pretty well now, retro raygun is a bit more popular these days.

I get the feeling that the Buck Rogers elements were more or less grafted on to the game. Very little mention is made of the characters in the text as a whole and it would likely be easier to ignore Buck and Co than to actually use them.

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RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;458029You are using images from Imageshack, which are not viewable to a significant part of the world's population, including the site's administrator (me).  Please change them to something else or delete them.

RPGPundit

Really? Sorry. I'll change them later on today, I'm on my way out to a wedding right now. Delete the thread if you feel the need.

'Forgotten'? It's right on my shelf. Along with the entire supplement run. I always loved this setting. Though I don't think that 2E was a great fit. Not sure what I would use to run a Buck Rogers game... Maybe OVA?

Quote from: Tetsubo;458071'Forgotten'? It's right on my shelf. Along with the entire supplement run. I always loved this setting. Though I don't think that 2E was a great fit. Not sure what I would use to run a Buck Rogers game... Maybe OVA?

I'd probably use CAH, but OVA is a damn fine idea too. I've got the boxed set on my shelf. I adore it. Harder SF than a lot of other games.

Quote from: David Johansen;458026I always had trouble getting people to play because it was Buck Rogers.  I think it'd do pretty well now, retro raygun is a bit more popular these days.

Yes, probably. But I think it may also have been that the property was devalued by its appearance in film and TV. First of all, as far as the film goes, I doubt most people could distinguish Buck Rogers from Flash Gordon; not that Flash Gordon had any more baggage, but both were dragged down by the fact that through the 70's, the most we saw of them was cheesy black & white clips and stills from the old serials. And then BR had the silly Happy Days-era TV show with Gil Gerard.

Compare Conan or Edgar Rice Burroughs' stuff, which though it dated from the same period (and in the case of Tarzan, had been adapted in a pretty cheesy form early on) managed to be presented in fairly good "contemporary" style through the 70's & 80's, in comics, book reprints, and movies.

The images are fixed.
I hope you are all fucking happy.

Quote from: Tetsubo;458071'Forgotten'? It's right on my shelf. Along with the entire supplement run. I always loved this setting. Though I don't think that 2E was a great fit. Not sure what I would use to run a Buck Rogers game... Maybe OVA?

By forgotten I mean rarely spoken of. I did a search and found like three forum threads for it over the last 10 years or so.

I am certain that you have a shit ton of stuff that people would love to know more about.  

Share.

Quote from: Aos;458088I hope you are all fucking happy.

Actually, that is just an Official Buck Rogers Rocket Ruler in my pocket.

Given how well Stars Without Number has been recieved I think it's entirely possible the second edition D&D rules would be a big hit in the current retro clone age.