Sword & Planet

The Evil DM · February 27, 2007, 11:46:59 AM

Does anyone have any suggestions for a good "sword & planet" Retro sci-fi game.

in the vein of Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, etc.

I know about the buck rogers game from TSR and the Iron lords of jupiter supplement in dungeon. any others??
Thanks.
Jeff

Dr Rotwang! · February 27, 2007, 12:33:05 PM

You talkin' settings or you talkin' systems? 'Cause I don't hafta tell you what systems work for that. You know what you're doin'.

Say, not a lot of settings in that vein, huh?

The Evil DM · February 27, 2007, 12:40:15 PM

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!You talkin' settings or you talkin' systems? 'Cause I don't hafta tell you what systems work for that. You know what you're doin'.

Say, not a lot of settings in that vein, huh?

yeah I guess settings to be specific. and yeah i'm finding there aint alot out there either.
the guy who did Iron lords, is doing something called Mars. for Adamant ent.
but not finding much else.
space 1889 of course and GURPS Lensman.

Silverlion · February 27, 2007, 02:17:45 PM

I know of "Space & Steel" but I'm not sure I'd recommend it unless its been improved--it was short, needed more setting substance, and had some hiccups due to poorly explained rules. (Combat most notably was hazy.)

I'm not familiar with it, but what about Etherscope? It says its "Punk victoriana" whatever that means, so maybe not.

The Good Assyrian · February 27, 2007, 02:23:25 PM

Quote from: The Evil DMyeah I guess settings to be specific. and yeah i'm finding there aint alot out there either.
the guy who did Iron lords, is doing something called Mars. for Adamant ent.
but not finding much else.
space 1889 of course and GURPS Lensman.

For a good Sword & Planet setting I would recommend Jack Vance's Tschai. There is even an excellent GURPS treatment of the setting called Planet of Adventure.

TGA

Stumpydave · February 28, 2007, 03:59:14 AM

I don't know if this is any help. Its not an rpg book (so no stats) but lots of info any way on Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom.

http://www.erblist.com/abg/index.html

droog · February 28, 2007, 04:30:23 AM

I haven't looked at it myself, but you could try The Dictionary of Mu.

The Evil DM · February 28, 2007, 09:55:41 AM

Thanks guys, off to research!

Casey777 · March 01, 2007, 12:53:12 AM

GURPS Mars has a section on more retro depictions of the planet.
There are some free outtakes for GURPS Lensman.
GURPS New Sun for a much cheaper, easier to read, and illustrated adaption to GURPS of the author's concordance to the Gene Wolfe series.

GURPS Planet Krishna for some L. Sprague de Camp.
Jorune with some of the best artwork in RPGs ever and some great ideas. Very much in this genre.
Tekumel for Aztec Buck Rogers on jungle resort world 1000s of years after the stars went out. Alien Dinosaur Plexiglass Sword & Jungle Planet. I've been tempted to fold in BESM2e/BESM Space Fantasy with Tekumel: Empire of the Petal Throne for a generic Planetary Romance ruleset.

Volkazz · March 01, 2007, 10:35:09 AM

Fading Suns?

V.

Paka · March 01, 2007, 02:35:02 PM

Quote from: droogI haven't looked at it myself, but you could try The Dictionary of Mu.

Dictionary of Mu was certainly inspired by the Barsoom books on one hand and the Kull and Conan stories in the other but I don't think it is in the rayguns and helmets with fins on it and blue princesses from other worlds that The Evil DM is looking for.

A buddy of mine played an Adam Strange analogue in our Spirit of the Century game named Hadrian Helm and it worked pretty damned well.

Here's a thread with a pic.

Fun stuff.

Good luck in your search.