[09-Nov-21 07:31 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
I am Christian Conkle, author of Overlords of Dimension-25 and its intro adventure City at the Edge of the Universe. Overlords of Dimension-25 is a retro-clone of the old Buck Rogers XXVc game from 1989. It uses the D&D rules with a percentage skill system within a science fiction milieu.
[09-Nov-21 07:32 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
My version introduces changes to the setting to make it my own, but the two settings are close enough that one can run old XXVc adventures in Dimension-25 or vice versa.
[09-Nov-21 07:32 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Done.
[09-Nov-21 07:33 PM] Dan Davenport#6715
Thanks, @Geek Rampage! The floor is open to questions!
[09-Nov-21 07:33 PM] Dan Davenport#6715
Can you describe the setting?
[09-Nov-21 07:33 PM] Silverlion#5614
Neat. Did you keep the skill requirement system? Where you needed X skill level to have Y Skill.
[09-Nov-21 07:36 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
The setting is much the same as the original XXVc. Earth has been devastated by an apocalyptic war. The planets of the solar system have been terraformed and are home to post-human civilizations, each vying for control of the solar system. Spacers live like vagabonds among the space stations and asteroids of the solar system. There are several genetically engineered species who were once created to fill various servile roles but have since gained independence.
[09-Nov-21 07:37 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
I made changes to the original setting so that it wasn’t in the 25th century, instead it’s in a different parallel universe where the ancient Atlanteans achieved space travel and colonized the solar system. This gave me ten thousand years of alternate history for the solar system instead of just 500 years.
[09-Nov-21 07:39 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
I also added a new technology to the setting – teleportation gates that once connected the planets but my mysteriously sabotaged 500 years ago. The other big change is that instead of one man being transported to the 25th century, an entire rural Pennsylvania town was transported to Dimension-25. Allowing dozens or hundreds of player characters to be cross over from our real world to this science-fantasy world. Not just one man.
[09-Nov-21 07:40 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Oh, and the people that crossed over from our world to Dimension-25 hold the key to unlocking the teleportation gates, making them in hot demand by the powers of the solar system.
[09-Nov-21 07:41 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
And yes, I maintained the skill requirement system. The rules are 100% compatible with the original rules. All new rules are presented as side-bar options the same way Swords and Wizardry did it.
[09-Nov-21 07:41 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
done
[09-Nov-21 07:42 PM] Dan Davenport#6715
Are the PCs all the dimensional castaways?
[09-Nov-21 07:43 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
That’s the preferred method, yes. They don’t have to be. PCs can also be space smugglers and super scientists and shark-men and lion-men from Dimension-25.
[09-Nov-21 07:44 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
My original goal of this game was just to provide a modern retro-clone for the XXVc system – a void I found mysterious. There were all these retroclones of older systems but no one had touched XXVc yet. So I wanted to provide a game that could be used to run XXVc modules someone might find on eBay or at a used book store.
[09-Nov-21 07:45 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
I wrote City at the Edge of the Universe as a 112 page “prologue” to serve as the player character’s origin story. They are all Buck Rogers/Michael Crichtons.
[09-Nov-21 07:45 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
(done)
[09-Nov-21 07:46 PM] Silverlion#5614
Well that’s cool. I wanted to use a similar setting but different rule set..
[09-Nov-21 07:46 PM] Dan Davenport#6715
How would you describe the tech level of the setting?
[09-Nov-21 07:47 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
To Silverlion’s question – one could easily use City at the Edge of the Universe with Stars Without Number or White Star. A hit point is a hit point and damage is damage and an Armor Class is an Armor Class. I am thinking about making a Stars Without Number version of the adventure also.
[09-Nov-21 07:48 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
To Dan’s question – the tech level is oddly futuristic 1930s. There are robots and rocketships and computers and lasers and power armors, but I have tried to maintain an aesthetic of 1930’s pulp.
[09-Nov-21 07:50 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
One place I diverge from the original source material is computer technology. Mike Pondsmith wrote the original in 1989 and it was filled with futurisms – arcologies, AIs, genetic engineering, space elevators, microwave power transmission. His XXVc feels closer to the Expanse, and I love it for that, but I wanted mine to feel closer to Buck Rogers serials.
[09-Nov-21 07:50 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
(done)
[09-Nov-21 07:51 PM] Silverlion#5614
It’s fascinating that in many ways XXIV feels transhuman,with its stored intelligences and its genetic engineering in some ways.
[09-Nov-21 07:51 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
(not done) so my computers are very much vaccuum tube affairs. They are not modern computers. They’re more like the computers in Star Trek. They don’t have video screen interfaces, they are databanks of information. You feed info in and you get an answer to your question. They’re not like modern computers. (done)
[09-Nov-21 07:51 PM] Silverlion#5614
I can see why you went a different way though? So other than lionmen and sharkmen do you have any of the others?
[09-Nov-21 07:52 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
I have them all. Just a second so I can pull them all up.
[09-Nov-21 07:53 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
On the human side, I’ve got Lunarians, Martians, Mercurians, Terrans, Venusians.
[09-Nov-21 07:53 PM] Silverlion#5614
Cool. I was just curious. 😄
[09-Nov-21 07:54 PM] Dan Davenport#6715
I take it that there are no “real” aliens in this setting?
[09-Nov-21 07:55 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
On what I call “Genomorphs” (I couldn’t use any terms from the original game for obvious reasons) I have Cloud Walkers, Gremlins, Makoi (shark men), Quati (underwater), Saurhi (lizard folk), Tigrhi (tiger-men of Mars), Voidborn, and Zuggs (which is an Easter Egg reference to the 30’s Buck Rogers serial with Buster Crabbe).
[09-Nov-21 07:55 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
So there are no “real” aliens in this setting. However, there is something /close/ in the next module I’m working on. In case anyone wants some spoilers.
[09-Nov-21 07:55 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
(done)
[09-Nov-21 07:57 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
The next adventure, BTW- is Hypergates of the Lost Empire.
{Attachments}
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/780948065367490590/907811064983474226/Hypergates.jpg
[09-Nov-21 07:57 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
I need to playtest it and make some adjustments, but it should be ready for sale soon.
[09-Nov-21 07:58 PM] Dan Davenport#6715
Are there psionics or “space magic” or the like in this setting?
[09-Nov-21 07:59 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
No space magic or psionics.
[09-Nov-21 08:01 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Spoiler answer for the alien question: I introduce beings from Dimension-8: The Crimson Protoids and Onyx Protoids. Guess what that’s a reference to.
[09-Nov-21 08:01 PM] Dan Davenport#6715
Buckaroo Banzai?
[09-Nov-21 08:01 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Guardian Thermpod from Dimension-8
{Attachments}
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/780948065367490590/907812235299155978/Thermopod_.png
[09-Nov-21 08:01 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Ding ding!
[09-Nov-21 08:02 PM] Dan Davenport#6715
Go me!
[09-Nov-21 08:02 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
I mean, I have dimensions 1-25. How could I not use Dimension-8?
[09-Nov-21 08:02 PM] Dan Davenport#6715
I know the tech is akin to a fictional 1930s, but what year is it actually?
[09-Nov-21 08:04 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
So, because it’s in a parallel universe, the year for them is 2419, but that’s not 2419 AD, it’s from the founding of the Terran Empire. Dimension-25 is technically parallel with Dimension-Prime.
[09-Nov-21 08:05 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
The Terran Empire was founded in our 402 BCE.
[09-Nov-21 08:06 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
I did this so I could have the various planetary cultures be thousands of years old, not 100-400 years old. That way I could have ancient ruins and alternate evolution.
[09-Nov-21 08:07 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
As a result I couldn’t name any of the Earth cities after their real names. I did my best to avoid colonial names in North America. I couldn’t even call it “North America” Deciding to create an alternate history introduced an entirely unexpected set of complications I had not anticipated.
[09-Nov-21 08:07 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
(done)
[09-Nov-21 08:08 PM] Dan Davenport#6715
Let me see if I can put this question correctly…
[09-Nov-21 08:08 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
But somehow, “Terran” sounds mysteriously the same as “English”
[09-Nov-21 08:09 PM] Dan Davenport#6715
Is the technology “real” technology that looks pulpy, or is it truly fantastical technology (a ray gun as opposed to a laser).
[09-Nov-21 08:10 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
I get it.
[09-Nov-21 08:11 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
I tried to maintain a pulp sensibility, but I always tried to create a pulp item as if it were invented by real people using real physics. -ish.
[09-Nov-21 08:13 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
There aren’t, for example, “shrink rays” or stuff like that. There’s no “artificial gravity” but there is “anti-gravity”.
[09-Nov-21 08:14 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
I also envision the ancient Terran Empire that fell 500 years ago to be more akin to Star Trek’s Federation in technology. They had teleporters and gravity plating and artificially intelligent robots and disintegrator beams. The modern world is the result of a solar system wide collapse when the Empire fell.
[09-Nov-21 08:16 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Or, let me back up, not just the Federation – the Terran Empire is very much inspired by pre-collapse original Gamma World. VERY high tech. Whereas I want “current” Dimension-25 to have a more atom-punk feel.
[09-Nov-21 08:16 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Where the technology of the Terran Empire feels like magic items.
[09-Nov-21 08:16 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Am I answering the question?
[09-Nov-21 08:16 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
(done)
[09-Nov-21 08:17 PM] Dan Davenport#6715
I think so!
[09-Nov-21 08:18 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
I’m not super familiar with the Fallout games but I kind of got the sense that Dimension-25 technology is very akin to Fallout technology, if that helps.
[09-Nov-21 08:18 PM] Dan Davenport#6715
I don’t have much familiarity with Fallout but get your reference there.
[09-Nov-21 08:21 PM] Dan Davenport#6715
Are all of the planets terraformed? Even the gas giants?
[09-Nov-21 08:21 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
As I said, I tried to stay true to the original game. So laser pistols do 1d8 damage and laser rifles do 1d12. Because player characters cross over from our world, they might take their police handgun or military rifle or hunting shotgun with them. I adapted these weapons from old Dragon Magazine articles. As it happened, many of the modern weapons were more combat effective than the futuristic weapons. However, their source of ammo was now gone. It became a priority for the players to start scavenging the transplanted town for ammo.
[09-Nov-21 08:23 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Yes, all the planets and many of the moons are terraformed. Another reason I set the world in an alternate universe. I wanted Neptune to be an ocean-world. I wanted Jupiter to be endless skies and clouds. I wanted Uranus to be a swamp planet.
[09-Nov-21 08:23 PM] Dan Davenport#6715
A swamp planet, eh?
[09-Nov-21 08:23 PM] Dan Davenport#6715
Sounds like Uranus stinks.
[09-Nov-21 08:23 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Zero realism where the planets are concerned. Which was a departure from the original XXVc, which was much more Expanse.
[09-Nov-21 08:23 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Heh, yes. Dismal swamp planet inhabited by giant spiders.
[09-Nov-21 08:24 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Uranus
The planet Uranus is covered in bogs, forests, and mountains
shrouded in cool white mist and fog. The native Uranians are a
race of large intelligent arachnids.
[09-Nov-21 08:24 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Neptune
Neptune is a twilit world covered in an ocean of viscous slime.
The native Neptunians are intelligent amorphous blobs.
[09-Nov-21 08:24 PM] Dan Davenport#6715
Speaking of giant spiders, does the game include a bestiary, and if so, how large?
[09-Nov-21 08:26 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Only two pages, so not a lot. I include more monsters in City at the Edge of the Universe. The great thing is that monsters can be used from the AD&D monster manual with little modification (only to speed, where you have to convert tabletop inches per minute to feet per round).
[09-Nov-21 08:26 PM] Silverlion#5614
Cool stuff!
[09-Nov-21 08:28 PM] Dan Davenport#6715
What year is/was it for the castaways?
[09-Nov-21 08:28 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
The main book includes Giant Wasteland Rats, Giant Lizard, Martian Manticore, Martian Scythe-Claw, Giant slug, Uranian Giant Spider, Venusian Sky-Lizard, Giant Snake, Neptunian Ooze, Plutonian Necro-Drone. Your pulp staples.
[09-Nov-21 08:28 PM] Silverlion#5614
Ape in space helmets?
[09-Nov-21 08:29 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
I made the date of the “incident” January 10, 2029, as an Easter Egg, exactly 100 years after the first appearance of the Buck Rogers comic strip.
[09-Nov-21 08:29 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
That’s one of the very deep cut Easter Eggs I was talking about.
[09-Nov-21 08:31 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Another is the “Buck Rogers” insert, Duke Mason. Duke is a Dodgers fan. Its a very oblique reference to Duck Dodgers in the 24th1/2 century.
{Attachments}
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/780948065367490590/907819652950929448/Duke_Mason.png
[09-Nov-21 08:31 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Ape in Space Helmet would be the Zuggs – which were the large ape-men slaves used by the Titanians in the 1930’s serial.
[09-Nov-21 08:32 PM] Silverlion#5614
Heh, have you read the original Tony Rogers (Armageddon 2419 books?)
[09-Nov-21 08:32 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Only partly. Not all the way through.
[09-Nov-21 08:33 PM] Silverlion#5614
Ah. I was curious. Since I wanted to get up on my PA research.
[09-Nov-21 08:34 PM] Dan Davenport#6715
Do you have a character sheet that we can see?
[09-Nov-21 08:34 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
But I chose Northern PA as the setting for City because that’s where geologist Buck Rogers was frozen in a mine collapse. I based Williamsburg, PA on a real town – Kane PA, after Killer Kane, Buck’s nemesis. Plus, Kane, PA is in a perfect location.
[09-Nov-21 08:36 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Yes, just a moment. Too big to upload.
[09-Nov-21 08:37 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
I include it with the Overlords purchase on drivethru, it’s a fillable PDF that even calculates your base skills.
[09-Nov-21 08:37 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Unfortunately I’m going to have log off here very soon. My wife needs me to make dinner.
[09-Nov-21 08:38 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Any final questions?
[09-Nov-21 08:39 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Here’s a character sheet from one of the PCs in my playtest.
[09-Nov-21 08:41 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Just hit “clear form” in Acrobat. 🙂
[09-Nov-21 08:43 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Thanks everyone. I unfortunately have to head out. Feel free to send me any other questions. If anyone is interested in Overlords, you can purchase it at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/332244/Overlords-of-Dimension25
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Overlords of Dimension-25 – Geek Rampage | DriveThruRPG.com
Overlords of Dimension-25 is a role-playing game and setting inspired by the pulp science fiction roleplaying games of t
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[09-Nov-21 08:43 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
City at the Edge of the Universe is available at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/362647/The-City-at-the-Edge-of-the-Universe?src=also_purchased
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https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/362647/The-City-at-the-Edge-of-the-Universe?src=also_purchased
The City at the Edge of the Universe – Geek Rampage | DriveThruRPG.com
On January 7, 2029, the Pennsylvania National Laboratory conducted the first of a series of groundbreaking high energy e
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[09-Nov-21 08:44 PM] Geek Rampage#9606
Have a great night all!
[09-Nov-21 08:45 PM] Dan Davenport#6715
Sorry! Technical difficulties.
[09-Nov-21 08:45 PM] Dan Davenport#6715
I’ll get the log posted and link you!
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