"70s sci fi I'd like to do as an rpg" Topic

"The Fantastic Journey"
YouTube link

Not that I have any great, burning desire, and I have plenty of other projects, but, some day, it might be fun.

A lot of crap sf was produced during the 70s, but, sadly, I think more crap was produced in the 80s, 90s and today.

What about you? Anything from the halcyon days of bell bottoms and foster grants?

Late 70's, but in under the wire – Tomorrow People:

YouTube link

Probably as horrid as the clip makes it sound, but for some reason my childhood memories insist it had some sophisticated ideas in it. If nothing else the idea of an RPG where all the PCs have incredible powers but can't kill their enemies because of their very nature is a funny one. It would drive powergamer munchkins mad. :)

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Get the Damnation Decade RPG -- it's all you need for 70s goodness. I love it. I do 1970s Blacksploitation Superhero gaming. Reaper makes great figures for it.

I loved the Tomorrow People, got the DVD a while back and my kids (9&11) really like it.

Space 1999

Logan's Run

I'm not sure about it as an RPG, but how about Sapphire & Steel? Anyone remember that odd little program?

I second logan's run. One of my favorite movies when I was a kid. It is also quite possibly part of the inspiration for paranoia.

Ditto recon and max…

But what about ZARDOZ!?!?

Sapphire & Steel could work well as a CoC type variant. Superb series, seeing that it was available on VHS forced me to buy a video player (!). Story 2 is still one of my all time favourite TV programs.

Apparently the most recent DVD release is very good quality – earlier release was no better than the old VHS quality.

Logan's Run… but William F. Nolan's edgy, trippy source novels rather than the cleaned-up and watered-down movie (& tv spin-off!)

There's a ton of good material that never made it to the screen version – jet-cycle riding gypsy gangs, feral kidults living 'off the grid' in the mazecar tunnels, combat drugs which massively increase your speed and reflexes, (but may well give you a coronary at any moment) kill-or-be-killed game reserves filled with cloned predators, mass battle re-enactments with thousands of android troops, and the Sandman's uniquely lethal 'omnite' martial art.

Always thought the Sandman's totemic Gun was the coolest weapon in sci-fi.

In the books, it's a visual replica of a pearl-handled, silver-plated Old West six-shooter… meant to project an image of patriotic values and duty.
But the cylinder is a quick release clip with six specialised charges: Vapor, Needler, (chemical delivery rounds) Tangler, (monofilament mesh web – non-lethal if you don't try and struggle) Nitro (Hi-ex), Ripper (fragmentation) and Homer, which locked onto and tracked it's target, and burned out the nervous system with an energy pulse when it hit.
It was coded to the individual Sandman's handprint, and would self-detonate if handled by anyone else.

Without doubt the inspiration for Dredd's 'Lawgiver'.

Ooh, and "Planet of the Apes"!

Five movies, fourteen TV episodes and an animated series… there's got to be enough material there.

I was an impressionable teenager and in 'love' with Katie Saylor from Fantastic Journey.

Then there was Star Maidens

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Colonel Deering in Buck Rogers in the C25th:

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and UFO is a must isnt it:

ufoseries.com

Cheers
Mark

William F. Nolan's edgy..

Hey thanks for that run down! Those books are on my read list now. Thanks again N.D.L.

t.w.

Far Out Space Nuts…
YouTube link
But then again… I think it was already done as an RPG as Tales Of The Floating Vagabond…

Electro Woman and Dyno Girl!
YouTube link

Barbarella – The LARP version

U.F.O. – I've been toying with a UFO/X-Com RPG for some time. Only way I think I could get it to work the way I would want it to, is everyone has 2 characters. A "field agent" solder, pilot, tech, ect, and a "Upper Eccelon" character, one of the men in charge, who handles the administration of the organization. That would allow everyone in on the 'kicking alien booty' games, and also in the decide the fate of the organization and the world bits too.

Quark – The gallent crew of a Galactic Sanitation Space Vehicle.
(Best line of the whole show "Now we wait for the bee.")

Land of the lost – I actualy ran a couple of games of LOTL using the Mercenary, Spies, and Private Eyes game (it was time travel based)

Ark II for it's post apoc meets 70s spandex.
YouTube link

Jason of Star Command, 70's Buck Rogers style action, with Sid Haig!
YouTube link

And Blake's Seven for it's dark future feel.
YouTube link

Another vote for YouTube link but I would like the aliens to be more mysterious. In other words gradually reveal more about them. Also, there were so many security breaches in the show, an RPG should have the aliens winning by slight but progressively bigger margins.

We did Blakes Seven early in the 80's as a RPG campaign using Traveller rules. It was very successful but the ships pose a bit of a challenge in that the Liberator needs to be tough but not so tough as to be invulnerable to the Federation ships. Great fun though!

Hmmm I guess I am the first to say it…

Star Trek

The Star Trek universe, not so much on the Enterprise…perhaps a Traveller game approach within the Trek setting?

*****

Kolchak: The Night Stalker

The Planet of the Apes

Genesis II

Moonbase 3/Space 1999

City Beneath the Sea/Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

Outside of reruns, original Trek was 1960's, not 1970's. There was the animated series in '73-74, though. Be kind of entertaining running in that setting – need special rules for jerky animation and reused footage to get the proper feel. :)

"Outside of reruns, original Trek was 1960's, not 1970's. There was the animated series in '73-74, though"

Well I do agree, but, I was 1-4yrs old when the original run took place, so in the 1970's it was all new for me :)

So it counts…my pet rock and my fuzzy head neked butt troll agrees with me!

Space 1999 could be interesting.

A GM could put a lot of work into the Moonbase map and reuse it from week to week for various scenarios.

Also, the tech is little more constrained that Star Trek, so it prevents your creative players from beaming the head bad guy into deep space in the middle of his monologue.

Space 1999 is a great choice IMO.

Good stuff there :)

UFO definitely.

Star Trek, when the skirmishes between the Federation, and the Klingons and Romulans heat up.

Space 1999 would need to draw on the comic book run as well, as it hit a few themes that would have blown the TV effects budget in a few seconds. It is otherwise an easy fit to Traveller, as the real star of the show, the Eagle, is basically a Modular Cutter.