Setting: Retropolis

[robject]

I've been geeking out with the Pulp-O-Mizer (https://thrilling-tales.webomator.com/derange-o-lab/pulp-o-mizer/pulp-o-mizer.html), and I've decided that this guy needs a Traveller-powered RPG setting for his Retropolis vision.

Anyone agree?

Summary: a retro-future setting with 1930s industrial design.

Present: clean energy, death rays, space pirates, dirigibles, mad science/scientists, dangerous giant robots, monster lizards, disembodied brains, robots with brains, ziggurats and pyramids, galactic puzzles, slaves, monoliths, priestesses and prophets, and mines.

Absent: computers.

Conclusions

* It's neither dystopian nor utopian.
* It is 1930s industrial design.
* It is pulp science fiction (think Buck Rogers).
* It's not Steampunk, so it's not Space:1889 for example.


Here's the story of his inspiration in his own words: https://shop.webomator.com/retropolis/about_retropolis.shtml

There was a time when we excelled at dreaming about the future. It was a time when I think we simply needed the future very badly. But there's more to it than that, of course...

[...] what always enchants me about the futurism of those days is its quality of universality. It was seldom about 'what would be better for me'. It was more likely to be about 'what would lead us to a better world'.

Being human, we seldom agreed about what that 'what' was, of course.

[...]a futuristic vision that was propelled by need, and heightened by style. It had such a distinct character that it's instantly recognizable, even now - and it was accelerated by a feedback loop in which industrial design, the arts, and the sciences all led us to the image of one amazing World of Tomorrow that seemed so real that it just had to be inevitable.

[...] If I have an agenda, it's this: I hope that by remembering and enjoying these vintage visions of the Future we'll consider the possibility that our own future might also be full of hope.

Why not? It's up to us. It always is.

And

the ingredients for my Retropolis go something like this:

The futurism of the 1920s and 1930s
Industrial design from those same decades
Buck Rogers comic strips, and pulp science fiction magazines, from the period

[...] So Retropolis, as I write this, is still a vision of that retro future in which our lives would be better and richer. But it's more interesting, now, because it's also a world in which mad scientists have nieces who worry about them; in which Giant Robots may, from time to time, stomp on the buidings in the Experimental Research District; in which Space Pirates are a thorn in the side of the Space Patrol, and it's possible that the Space Patrol deserves that, just a little bit.

 

[mike wightman]

I agree completely - sign me up for the brainstorming session.

Let us begin.

Inspiration, am I in the right ballpark with these - Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, John Carter of Mars, War of the Worlds, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, Metropolis, Skylark, Lensmen, Last and First Men, Starmaker.

 

[robject]

LIBRARY DATA

Brains

All around the curving walls were pedestals with big glass tubes, which is where the brains were. Each tube was equipped with an impressive number of contraptions that must have fed and coddled the brains.

Organic, semi-organic, and positronic brains can be bottled and interfaced, and even installed in robots. Refer to Traveller5 for details. Brain transplant technology is relegated to Mad Scientists.

Encantation is that advanced process which removes the patient's living brain and places it into a support tube. These support tubes supply nutrition and sensory input from the outside world. A voice synthesizer connects to the language centers of the lucky brain, so that it can communicate with the world outside its tube.

Using this process the brain can continue to live and contribute to society for a very long period. How long is not yet known.

Death Ray
A common weapon of evil geniuses, but not useful for law enforcement, nor as a deterrent, nor even as a threat for pirates. Obviously, the death ray plans must be public domain.

Disintegrator Pistol
The Dissolvo Mark II Disintegrator Pistol is the preferred ray gun of dedicated pistoleers throughout Retropolis, and beyond!
Bulky, but of high quality.
For a similar item of lower quality, try the Mark I.

Dirigibles
Zeppelin-like airships, dirigibles are used for planetary transportation. Not as fast as rockets, their primary use is as a passenger or cargo carrier. Gigantic, possibly robotic, zeppelins are more or less like flying supertankers or supercargos. I assume they can fly at an average speed of 100 km/h, and carry dozens, if not hundreds, of people, depending on size, and require a sizeable engineering crew.

Pirates
Space pirates typically have their hideouts in the asteroid belt.

Robots
Automaton with a positronic brain. The body has a wide variety of customizations possible (e.g. per Traveller5).

Rockets
A planetary interface and transportation vehicle for individuals or couriers, rockets are inexplicably clean-burning. They are also tunable, the way an automobile used to be tunable for performance, and they can be quite fast. Retropolis hosts the Retropolis Rocket Works Invitational (presumably each year).

Dirigibles are preferable for moving a large number of passengers or a lot of cargo on the planet, for some reason.

Space
Five known facts about space:
1. Interplanetary travel is commonplace and quite fast.
2. There is no known interstellar travel.
3. There are plenty of large colonies to support space merchants.
4. There are plenty of space merchants to support space pirates.
5. There are plenty of space pirates to support the Space Patrol.

Spaceship
An interplanetary vessel. Of course, spaceships are either (1) perfectly capable of atmospheric reentry, or (2) distributed affairs and completely incapable of reentry.

Ships have:
(a) a bridge
(b) a navigation room
(c) a cargo hangar
(d) attached lifeboats
(e) passenger staterooms
(f) rec, theatre, lounge, and dining rooms
(g) fuel tankage (appx 10% vol?)
(h) "detonator caps" and an explosion chamber (sounds like an Orion-type drive)
(i) engine rooms
(j) "steering rockets"
(k) life support equipment
(l) "magnetic gravity rotors" = mechanical artificial gravity
(m) atmospheric fins

 

[robject]

Inspiration, am I in the right ballpark with these - Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, John Carter of Mars, War of the Worlds, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, Metropolis, Skylark, Lensmen, Last and First Men, Starmaker.

Eke out the characteristics of each of these that can contribute to the setting.

* John Carter's Mars and its inhabitants.
* War of the Worlds' own Heat Ray and Tripod walkers (also John Cristopher's Tripods trilogy??)
* The electric-powered Nautilus, exemplar of undersea travel and exploration, updated to Art Deco probably.
* Metropolis ... everything probably.
* Lensman - perhaps the intertialess drive?


Don't forget Tesla.

 

[robject]

CHARACTERS

Based on his stories, I see these sorts of characters:

* [interplanetary] space merchant
* planetary delivery (anywhere on the planet)
* space patrolman
* patent investigator (human or robot)
* professor
* space pirate
* researcher
* mad scientist

 

[mike wightman]

Space:
the planets of our solar system, and even some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, are hospitable to life.
Venus - resembles a primordial Earth - dinosaurs, warrior women, pleasure palaces
Mars - Space 1889/Barsoom advanced to the rocket age (no steampunk)

There is a twin of the Earth 180 degrees away on Earth's orbit on the opposite side of the Sun.

Asteroids can come in dense shoals

Somewhere out there there is a planet X that is home to the evil empire...

 

[mike wightman]

City transportation:
monorails
moving sidewalks
pneumatic tubes big enough for people

 

[robject]

Space:
the planets of our solar system, and even some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, are hospitable to life.

Life of some kind. Titan is atmosphere "A" at least, if not B or C...

Venus - resembles a primordial Earth - dinosaurs, warrior women, pleasure palaces
Mars - Space 1889/Barsoom advanced to the rocket age (no steampunk)

I'm okay with merging 1889's Mars with Barsoom. A swampy Venus does fit the pulp Sci-Fi angle (although that's 1889 as well, isn't it?)

There is a twin of the Earth 180 degrees away on Earth's orbit on the opposite side of the Sun.

Love it.

Asteroids can come in dense shoals

Sure.

Somewhere out there there is a planet X that is home to the evil empire...

Interesting, and pulpy, so you're right.

 

[Grav_Moped]

City transportation:
monorails
moving sidewalks
pneumatic tubes big enough for people

Autogyros and skyscrapers with rooftop (and intermediate-level) landing pads!
Highways in the air between Art Deco towers

 

[coliver988]

CHARACTERS

Based on his stories, I see these sorts of characters:

* [interplanetary] space merchant
* planetary delivery (anywhere on the planet)
* space patrolman
* patent investigator (human or robot)
* professor
* space pirate
* researcher
* mad scientist

You have the professor but what about Mary Anne?

 

[whartung]

I'd love there to be a solid movie in this genre.

Just like indy Jones or The Mummy as "Pulp 1930's" genre, something like this, done today, would be great.

 

[agorski]

I'd love there to be a solid movie in this genre.

Just like indy Jones or The Mummy as "Pulp 1930's" genre, something like this, done today, would be great.

I'm partial to this one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Captain_and_the_World_of_Tomorrow

 

[Condottiere]

Fan theory holds that Mary Ann represents envy.

 

[robject]

Also, perhaps, a moonmoon.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...st-moonmoon-if-moonmoons-are-thing-180970520/

 

[epicenter00]

LIBRARY DATA
Disintegrator Pistol
The Dissolvo Mark II Disintegrator Pistol is the preferred ray gun of dedicated pistoleers throughout Retropolis, and beyond!
Bulky, but of high quality.
For a similar item of lower quality, try the Mark I.

Hmm. How about these as well?

Rocket Pistol A gyrojet weapon, except of course, somehow it works, doesn't suffer any of the drawbacks of real gyrojet weapons. Shoots rockets, has no appreciable recoil. When fired it has a characteristic "pop" noise, producing a puff of smoke, and some pyrotechnic sparks from the barrel and sometimes some residual flames as some of the propellant will still be burning in the barrel; this is completely normal and safe and does not hamper the function of the weapon in the least. The men of Great Britain are said to use a variant of a Rocket Pistol which fire tiny turbine-engined rounds; the performance is similar but the weapon makes a very distinct warbling "chuuuu" noise. Some rocket pistols have longer barrels, where they may fire a number of utility rounds, such as grapnels or harpoons, which when combined with a winch on a space-man's utility belt allow him to scale up walls or board starships. Despite this secondary use, Rocket Pistols are usually regarded as weapons first.

Beam Pistol Fires "heat beams." Sometimes known as a firegun. The beam can be focused or dispersed, much like a magnifying glass typically using knobs or dials on the weapon. The weapon is usually chrome and looks like a large egg with a pistol grip on it with a barrel extending from the narrowed end of the egg. It has very characteristic disc-shaped radiators along the barrel. On a high focus, it can be used as a cutting torch or a welding tool similar to an arc welder (no we don't worry about flux in this world). When used as a weapon, it causes painful heat which used as non-lethal method to drive off enemies. With a more focused beam, it will burn holes in targets at a distance. It can also be used to start campfires. While short-ranged it is popular with rocket-men because it doubles as a utility tool. When fired in a wide beam it produces a characteristic reddish beam that looks like someone overlaid a red acetate cone over starting at the barrel and extending some distance. On a focused beam, it causes small charred spots on a target, typically with a weak flame like someone set fire to a cotton ball over the wound. Due to the power required when used as a ranged weapon, it fires in pulses, making a characteristic "pew pew pew" sound.

Reaction Pistol Fires a jet of flame. Always used in pairs. Similar to the Beam Pistol, it is not the most efficient of weapons, but finds extensive favor as it also serves as a tool and not just a weapon. The Reaction Pistol is intended to be used, holstered in a special belt at the hips, where pulling the triggers produces a jet of flame that is used to allow space-men to move around in space (it is a reaction thruster); by adjusting the angle and burn of the pistols, experienced space-men may maneuver very expertly. Due to the skill required to use Reaction Pistols well, they are considered the realm of well-trained marines and dashing bravos. In some worlds, Reaction Pistols are used along with cutlasses for boarding actions. On the cramped close-quarters fights on rocket ships the short range of Reaction Pistols is not a drawback. In worlds with significant gravity, the Reaction Pistol is insufficient for sustained flight; however it can be used for rocket-assisted jumps as well as a replacement for parachutes or jet packs for braking to make safe landfall after jumping out of a flitter or rocket ship for instance. When used as a weapon, the thruster somehow does not cause massive recoil, but allows the weapon to shoot an invisible "heat-beam" that causes incendiary effects similar to that of a Beam Pistol.

 

[robject]

Beautiful, thank you.