Chapter ONE: Introduction had a massive budget and the acting ranged from good to abysmal, often within the same Blast Off series. Continuity was commonly spotty as well and nobody was going to confuse the writing for high art. Science fiction (n.): fiction dealing principally with the impact of actual But that was fine and dandy, because these or imagined science on society or in- television shows were fun and that’s what dividuals or having a scientific factor made us tune in every week. We longed for as an essential orienting component. adventure and they delivered that in spades! So what if we could tell that the robot was made of cheap plastic? Who cared if the cam- Now, add disco! This is RETROSTAR! era was just being tilted back and forth to give the illusion of the spaceship being hit? You say These days, science fiction can be found on vir- the laser blasts looked hokey? Big deal. We tually every television channel. It’s everywhere. wanted a fun science fiction story and that’s One only has to turn on the television in order exactly what we got. to find starship battles, post-apocalyptic survi- vors, malevolent aliens and robots of all kind. If you understand where we’re coming from, then Retrostar may very well be the game for you! But that wasn’t always the case. Sample Ourfile goal was to create a game that captured the essence of these shows from beginning to end. There was a time, back in the 1970s, when We wanted to bring all the fun, excitement and, science fiction was pretty hard to come by yes, cheesiness of the 1970s-era science fiction on television. Not only was it fairly rare, but television shows to life for you and the rest of much of it wasn’t overtly “science fiction” per your game group. This required us to study and se. For every full-on science fiction series – analyze the various TV shows of the time, taking Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers in the 25th them apart, figuring out how to best reflect the Century, Space: 1999, etc. – there was a series tropes with the rules and putting it all back to- that minimized the science fiction elements to gether into a faithful, cohesive game. one degree or another; shows such as The Six Million Dollar Man, Man From Atlantis and The Retrostar is not a “universal” sci-fi roleplaying Bionic Woman, for instance. game. While it’s certainly wide open for the creation of your own series, every nuance of Regardless of how many sci-fi trappings were the game system was fashioned to recreate present in these programs, they all had one the style of action and adventure cultivated common denominator: charm! That’s right; by the science fiction television shows of the charm. No, they didn’t boast computer-gen- 1970s. Trying to use it for anything drastically erated special effects, nor did they typically different is like attempting to fit a square peg display terribly deep storytelling. They seldom into a round hole. 6 However, if it’s a rollicking good time while though some of the information is recorded playing space adventurers, starship pilots, ro- on various sheets (more on that later). Unlike bots and the like, you’re in the right place. So, with actual television shows, however, you strap in and get ready for the ride of your don’t have to follow a rigid, pre-set script. It’s life. Just don’t expect that ride to have amazingSample mostly file improvised, which means that there’s special effects. practically no limit to what can happen. Pretty exciting, no? This all sounds pretty vague at this point, so ABOUT ROLEPLAYING GAMES let’s reel it in a bit and get specific. The roleplaying game is, at its core, an ex- ercise in interactive storytelling for you and One participant acts as the Showrunner. The your friends to engage in. You gather around Showrunner is like the creator, director and a table (or other convenient space), consume producer of an actual television series, all snack foods, roll some dice and enjoy each rolled into one. Their job is to create the basics other’s company while working together to of the story, set the scene, govern the flow of tell a story, using the game rules found in this the action and control the supporting charac- book as a guide. ters (called, appropriately enough, Showrun- ner Characters or SCs). To put it in a way that ties more closely to the source material, when you play Retrostar, you The rest of the participants are called players. and your group effectively collaborate on the Each player steps into the role of one of the creation of a television series, one episode at story’s central heroes (called Player Characters a time. This is done verbally for the most part, or PCs). It is their tale that will be told as the game unfolds. The most direct comparison is 7 to the actors portraying the main protagonists will happen. It’s set in stone. This is not the of a television show. They get to experience case in a roleplaying game. The Showrunner the story vicariously through their characters. may know what’s going on in a general sense, The players aren’t just going along for the but the decisions made by the players and ride, though. The choices they make regard- the way the dice roll may send the story off ing their characters’ actions can shape and into directions he or she had never even con- alter the very course of the story. That’s what sidered. That’s what makes the game fun for makes roleplaying games so different than Showrunners! They have to go with the flow other types of games. and keep the story rolling forward, adapting to those decisions and rolls along the way. So far, it sounds like there’s no real need for the game rules at all, but while the story can You now know the basics of how roleplaying Chapter 1 Introduction progress quite far without using the rules, there games function. However, it will become much will come a time when the success of the char- clearer with an example of play, which is ex- acters will be in doubt. That’s when it’s time actly what you’ll find below. For purposes of to pick up the dice and bring the rules into this brief example, all references to the game the picture. And this is where RPGs differ from rules have been generalized, since you don’t television shows. In television shows, there’s yet know what they mean. When you see text no wiggle room for what’s going to happen; in quotation marks, it represents the partici- whatever the writer says is going to happen pant speaking as their character. Example of Play Dean is playing Duke Carter, the cynical captain of a small spaceship that has been cus- tomized for deep space exploration. Valerie is playing Astra Collins, his wise co-pilot and right-hand woman. Shelly is playing Alena Brennan, the mechanic and “muscle” of the group. James is the Showrunner. Sample file Earlier in the game, their spaceship was caught in an asteroid field, causing some dam- age to its engines. The result? A risky crash-landing on a remote forest planet, where they managed to land in a large clearing surrounded by thick woods. As we join them, they are attempting to figure out a way to get the ship back off the ground. Shelly: Alena immediately heads to the engine room to see how bad the damage is. James: After checking out the damage, she surmises that it’s pretty serious. It can be fixed, but it’s going to take time. Shelly: How much time? James: We’re talking twelve hours or so. It would be about half of that if you had large sheets of metal to patch the holes with. Unfortunately, you’ll have to make due with what- ever to can assimilate from the ship’s interior. That’s why it’s going to take so long. Shelly: She’s going to go back to the front with the others and tell them the bad news: “There’s no way we’re getting off this rock in less than twelve hours unless we can get a hold of some metal.” 8 Dean: [sarcastically] “Lovely. I doubt this place has any intelligent species living here, so getting metal is going to be impossible.” Valerie: “Never judge a book by its cover, Duke. The planet’s initial impression may be deceiving.” James: You all hear the sound of movement in the woods. Dean: Duke looks out the nearest viewport to see what’s going on. [the others quickly echo his sentiment] James: About a dozen lizard-like humanoids wearing loincloths and wielding spears and clubs emerge from the tree-line. They are cautiously approaching the ship. You get the distinct impression that they’ve never seen a spaceship before. Dean: “What’s that you were saying about initial impressions and such, Astra?” Shelly: “There’s no need to be a smart-aleck, Duke. She may still be right. These aliens might look primitive, but they may yet surprise us.” Dean: [sarcastically] “Oh, sure. I’ll bet they’re real cuddly and those crude weapons prob- ably shoot laser beams too.” James: While you banter with each other, the lizard men are closing in on the spaceship.