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Buck Rogers Webcomic

S

ShapeShifter

SOC-13
I've just recently heard about a Buck Rogers reboot effort, and thought I'd pass along the trailer to those retro-SciFi afficionadoes out there like myself.
I like the Art Deco-style spaceship in this clip, hearkening back to the early days of the BR comic, and a touch of the same esthetic seen in the old Alex Raymond Flash Gordon series. I just hope it is better than the SciFi channel's aborted effort a few years ago.

http://www.ishtalkers.com/buck-rogers-teaser-trailer
 
You're joking right S4? That 30 second clip did nothing for me. Uninspiring would be a kind compliment. It showed nothing. Zip. Nada. Bupkis. On this you find hope for something worthy of praise?
 
far-trader said:
You're joking right S4? That 30 second clip did nothing for me. Uninspiring would be a kind compliment. It showed nothing. Zip. Nada. Bupkis. On this you find hope for something worthy of praise?
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Yep. I loved the look of the ship and that old 30's "feel", but "modernized" a bit.

I'm very interested in this.
 
Even if they hew closely the original strip, I highly doubt they will preserve its heavy Yellow Menace theme (in the form of the "Han"), which manifests much more aggressively than it ever was in Flash Gordon, in the guise of Ming the Merciless.
 
that ship looked a lot like the subs from Marine Boy from way, way back. Just add a 3rd fin to make it a spaceship. Not overly impressed either: I've gotten real jaded on everyone remaking everything.
marineboy44.JPG
 
Especially since they always load them with modern social mores & political commentary.

:nonono:

No, any modern "retro-remake" cannot be "true to the original", because having the hero be racist & sexist (as was the norm in the 1930s) and be considered normal is not allowed in today's movie-land (unless he either suffers because of his attitudes or "sees the incorrectness of his views" before the end of the film).

:rolleyes:

While it would be possible to make a version without overt (or even obvious) racism/sexism, and still seem like "1930s Buck Rodgers" (opposite genders attract, no overt sexuality, etc), nobody today will put forth the effort.

It'll either be a "morality tale" (2010-style) or be people (& aliens) with modern social mores* in 1930s Sci-Fi clothes.

*at least one gay/les, a bedroom scene, etc
 
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If you bother to read Armegeddon 2449, the seminal Buck Rogers novel, you find equality of the sexes (everyone serves in the military) and the fact that the Han Overlords were inbred with aliens who happened to land in China long ago, so that the Overlords are a hybrid race.

I found way more overt racism in H. P. Lovecraft's work, but no none seems to care about that these days.
 
beowulf2044 said:
If you bother to read Armegeddon 2449, the seminal Buck Rogers novel, you find equality of the sexes (everyone serves in the military) and the fact that the Han Overlords were inbred with aliens who happened to land in China long ago, so that the Overlords are a hybrid race.

I found way more overt racism in H. P. Lovecraft's work, but no none seems to care about that these days.
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Excellent points. However it has been close to 30 years since I had read Armageddon 2449, and the grey matter can't remember much of it.:o
 
Saw James Cawley at DragonCon last year. He's producing this series (If you don't recognize the name, he's the guy playing Kirk in the web series of Star Trek: New Voyages).
Also present at the con was Gil Gerard, who will appear as the father of Buck.
 
I'd love to run a game set in the Flash Gordon/Buck Rodgers genre, but without the camp. I'd have the marching-band, turn-of-the-century bold uniforms, the art deco space ships, and the wild adventure/politics/monsters.

But, like Star Wars, I'd take it seriously. The lite-tech would make a little hard core sense. I'd throw a little grit in there to show the players aren't playing a comic book. They'd be playing real, live, flesh and blood heroes among the high adventure.

I think it'd be fun.

Death to Ming! (And...whomever Buck fights...)





EDIT: Hey...isn't that ship featured in the teaser constructed by the same manufacturer as the Rampart? :oo:
 
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That would be Killer Kane, amoung others. I was working on a timeline from 1939 to 1945 or so that reworked the Flash Gordon serials into the Traveller universe. Mongo was a movable 'rogue planet' loaded with old Ancient tech, only some of which still operated, while Mars was the remnant of Ancient seeding dependant on 'atmosphere regenerators', which will eventually fail and leave Mars the way we have it today.

Ming's got some dried up old Droyne mummies down in the basement. The other denizens of Mongo are the result of Ancient meddleing, such as the proto-Aslan Lion men.

Zarkov's original rocket was built with current Earth tech and one Ancient artifact that negates a lot of the mass. Everything else is Nazi rocket science.

As to why you have ray guns alongside swords? Obviously, Ming is a great believer in gun control for the masses.

Hmm, looks like S-4's comment is sending me back to the drawing board.
 
If I wasn't so wrapped up in my Conan game right now, I'd go this route. I freakin' love pulp.

I'd love to have the PCs shoot it out with Ming's men on some low gravity moon, with the hawk men flying cover overhead, dogfighting with the Ming aeromen piloting their air-flitters, while the octopus-creature breaks the surface from the ammonia lake, attacking the allied lionmen with its tentacles.

Yeah, baby. I could get into that.
 
beowulf2044 said:
Hmm, looks like S-4's comment is sending me back to the drawing board.
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I think it'd be a hell of a fun and creatively rewarding experience to use Traveller as it was originally intended and develope a Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers sandbox for players.

Make everything from scratch, using just LBBs 1-3 and whatever may be needed. Create the fighters using LBB 2. Develop the weapons as LKW suggests in JTAS 2. Create the worlds with Book 6. Make vehicles with Striker. Book 8 would be helpful, but so would Special Supplement 3. I made a really cool drone once using Book 8--kinda like a futuristic Predator drone, controlled by a pilot far away.

Dogfights you could run easily, painlessly, using the rules under the Ship's Boat skill. Book 4 would be helpful for those mass battles between the lionmen and Ming's soldiers.

Just the act of doing it would be rewarding.
 
Just remember, S4: that means nought but 10T and 100Ton fighters, since LBB2 has no small craft design...
 
Over the past 2-3 years I've been compiling a comprehensive list of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers concepts from the old serials, complete with CT conversion notes. I read the complete Alex Raymond run of the original comics when I was in college, but sadly I don't have access to them anymore. Perhaps if there is enough interest I'll release the notes in my upcoming fanzine. ;)
 
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I'd already chosen LBB #2 Small Craft for the Rocket Ship and Martian Flying Wing designs. Judging by the original three serials they'd be perfect using the Small Craft 'mix and match' design possibilities, especially for a solar system wide playground.
 
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