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Rocket Age
Rocket Age Blast off from here into the radium punk retro future sci-fi pulpy goodness that is Rocket Age! The core book contains everything you need to get started, setting, rules, adventure hooks, and more. Grab some friends, strap on some Mark III rocket packs, and leap into adventure!
- GenresRole Playing GamesGaming
256 pages, Hardcover
First published December 12, 2012
7 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 8, 2014
Fans of old science fiction serials like 'Flash Gordon,' or golden age films like 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' and 'The War of the Worlds,' will love "Rocket Age." This role playing guide allows you to step into the boots of a retro space-age explorer, jet-setting to planets like Mars, Venus, and Jupiter.
Far from just being whimsical space adventure, "Rocket Age" describes an alternative history of the earth. Nikolai Tesla, and other prominent scientists of the 1930's, succeeded in building an advanced rocket to explore the planets of the solar system. Their achievement changed the course of human history forever, setting in motion a cold-war power play in space. New organizations and companies, each with their own agenda, set off for the stars.
Players can choose to be human, Martian, Venusian, Ioite, Europan, or Jovian. Each race has detailed histories, traits, general motivations, and stats. The game play system is fast-paced, and leaves plenty of room for creativity.
Don't hesitate: if you into role-playing games, the dynamic, well-written "Rocket Age" is sure to please!
Far from just being whimsical space adventure, "Rocket Age" describes an alternative history of the earth. Nikolai Tesla, and other prominent scientists of the 1930's, succeeded in building an advanced rocket to explore the planets of the solar system. Their achievement changed the course of human history forever, setting in motion a cold-war power play in space. New organizations and companies, each with their own agenda, set off for the stars.
Players can choose to be human, Martian, Venusian, Ioite, Europan, or Jovian. Each race has detailed histories, traits, general motivations, and stats. The game play system is fast-paced, and leaves plenty of room for creativity.
Don't hesitate: if you into role-playing games, the dynamic, well-written "Rocket Age" is sure to please!
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December 11, 2017Another bundle from the Bundle of Holding sales. (I am totally a sucker for bundling books together.) And another rpg skim-read as part of my attempt to read everything I've already acquired.
Rocket Age is a Buck Rogers-esque romp through an alternate history where Tesla, Einstein, and Robert Goddard built a spaceship, and now the 30s is all ray guns and fighting off Martian princes. Except it's not just that, though it's that too: Mars is wracked by environmental upheaval, stratified castes, and fighting city-states, but it's also got Nazis in war-walkers and the Interplanetary Comintern fomenting people's rebellions. Venus is all giant lizards and ape-like natives with a love of conversation (specifically likened to online message boards, trolls included). And the moons of Jupiter have advanced aliens that keep humans out, and irradiated dog-people who used to have culture. So it's like all the tropes, mixed together.
Which is not a bad thing, because who doesn't want to play archeologists fighting Nazis in space?
This bundle also included setting guides for Mars and Venus; a handbook for expanded hero rules (including, finally, rules on playing robots); and a lot of adventures.
Which is good because in a setting where there's so much stuff, it can be hard to actually pin down what you might want to do. Because, sure, you might want to fight Nazis. But you might also want to try to investigate the mysterious Europans. Or foil interplanetary gangsters. Or discover where the Venusians are getting their ray guns from. The adventures do give some examples of what the players can do.
And yet, the adventures themselves point at the problem in this sandbox and explicitly serialized game. I mean, the adventures are broken down into reels, as if you were watching an old space opera show. Which lends itself to some episodic adventures. And also leads to the books giving very quick overviews of all the setting.
Though I really do like the little box that the authors give for every area, listing the theme, complication, and one personality of that area. It's a nice nutshell way to describe an area, and emphasizes something that they say explicitly in the intro to the Venus book: there's war, mystery, discovery, resistance, etc., etc. in these books, but the main focus is the people.
So here's the thing: this game does everything it sets out to do, which means there's a lot of work you might have to put in as a group of players.
Rocket Age is a Buck Rogers-esque romp through an alternate history where Tesla, Einstein, and Robert Goddard built a spaceship, and now the 30s is all ray guns and fighting off Martian princes. Except it's not just that, though it's that too: Mars is wracked by environmental upheaval, stratified castes, and fighting city-states, but it's also got Nazis in war-walkers and the Interplanetary Comintern fomenting people's rebellions. Venus is all giant lizards and ape-like natives with a love of conversation (specifically likened to online message boards, trolls included). And the moons of Jupiter have advanced aliens that keep humans out, and irradiated dog-people who used to have culture. So it's like all the tropes, mixed together.
Which is not a bad thing, because who doesn't want to play archeologists fighting Nazis in space?
This bundle also included setting guides for Mars and Venus; a handbook for expanded hero rules (including, finally, rules on playing robots); and a lot of adventures.
Which is good because in a setting where there's so much stuff, it can be hard to actually pin down what you might want to do. Because, sure, you might want to fight Nazis. But you might also want to try to investigate the mysterious Europans. Or foil interplanetary gangsters. Or discover where the Venusians are getting their ray guns from. The adventures do give some examples of what the players can do.
And yet, the adventures themselves point at the problem in this sandbox and explicitly serialized game. I mean, the adventures are broken down into reels, as if you were watching an old space opera show. Which lends itself to some episodic adventures. And also leads to the books giving very quick overviews of all the setting.
Though I really do like the little box that the authors give for every area, listing the theme, complication, and one personality of that area. It's a nice nutshell way to describe an area, and emphasizes something that they say explicitly in the intro to the Venus book: there's war, mystery, discovery, resistance, etc., etc. in these books, but the main focus is the people.
So here's the thing: this game does everything it sets out to do, which means there's a lot of work you might have to put in as a group of players.
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