d20 Battlefield Press Rocket Rangers - King of the Rocket Men.pdf - Battlefield Press - R5700

the Rocket Men is published by Battleﬁeld Press, Inc., 3201 Knight St #907, Shreveport, LA 71105 First print-

ing. ISBN 0-9721419-8-7

Open Content: Subject to the product identity designation below, the following portions of the Rocket Rang-

ers: King of the Rocket Men rulebook are designated as Open Content: all character statistics and creation rules,

all rules systems and mechanics, all feats, powers and skills, all rules explaining rules mechanics or special

qualities. The use of Product Identity in these circumstances is limited solely to the mechanical effects and sys-

tems, not to the items previously stipulated as falling under the PI.

Designation of Product Identity: The following items are designated Product Identity (PI) in accordance with

Chapter 1(e) of the Open Gaming License, version 1.0; Any and all logos, identifying marks and trade dress,

including all the Pulp Fantasy products and product names any elements of Rocket Rangers: King of the Rocket

Men, including, but not limited to Rocket Rangers: King of the Rocket Men, Invisible College, geographic loca-

tions, capitalized names, historical events, any and all stories, storylines, thematic elements, documents within

the game world, quotes from characters or documents, and dialogue; all artwork, symbols, designs, depictions,

illustrations, maps and cartography, likenesses poses, Clan or factional mons, logos, symbols, or graphic de-

signs, except such elements that already appear in the System Reference Document and are already OGC by

appearing there. The above product identity is not open gaming content.

Authors: John Snead

Editor: William James

Cover Art: Donald Treglia

Interior Art: Kurt Taylor

Layout Design: Lisa Hartjes

Playtesters: Jonathan M. Thompson, Adam R. Thompson, Wanda Thompson, Anna Dobritt, B.L. Sisemore,

Edward McBrayer, Christopher Helton, Ramsey Lundock, Mark Vorwerk, José Porfírio, Lisa Hartjes, Richard

A. Spake

Contents

Mystery of the Rocket Men .............................................................................................1

Radio Mysteries ...............................................................................................................1

Floating Island 5 (FI-5) ...............................................................................................2

The Voyage of the Argo ..............................................................................................4

On Phobos Base ......................................................................................................6

Tharlan Activities on Earth .........................................................................................7

Lien Mi Mingmay ’ s Bases ......................................................................................8

Gaining Access To The Sumatran Base ................................................................12

The Tharlan Moon Base ............................................................................................13

Gaining Access to the Lunar Base ........................................................................15

Into the Asteroid Belt ................................................................................................15

Other Asteroid Missions .......................................................................................17

International Politics, Alien Invasion, and the Invisible College ..............................17

The Vega System .......................................................................................................18

Shalis .....................................................................................................................18

Thassala .................................................................................................................20

Tharlan ......................................................................................................................23

History ...................................................................................................................23

Life on Tharlan ......................................................................................................24

Landing on Tharlan ...............................................................................................26

Missions to Tharlan ...............................................................................................26

Onsa ...........................................................................................................................26

Tharlan Plans For the Invasion of Earth ....................................................................28

The Need For Conquest ........................................................................................28

The Cover Up ............................................................................................................30

A Possible Future History .........................................................................................31

The Aftermath of the Invasion ..................................................................................31

An Alternative Future History ...................................................................................32

Character Involvement ..............................................................................................32

Final Notes On Using This Setting ................................................................................32

Rocket Rangers

Mystery of

the Rocket

Men

thing far more amazing. After several months of

work, a team of engineers and cryptographers

lead by mathematical savant Dexter Nunley dis-

covered that these seemingly natural signals were

actually being broadcast from a point inside the

solar system and that they were actually a coded

request for anyone who could decode the signal to

respond. Fearful of the mass panic that this mo-

mentous news might cause, the members of the

Invisible College unanimously agreed to keep all

knowledge of this discovery secret.

After much discussion, the members of the In-

visible College decided to beam a radio message

back to this location. Using a radio tower located

on one of their ﬂoating island airstrips, they sent

the signal and received a response in November

1931, a few days after FDR was elected President.

This signal came from the Martian moon of Phobos

Radio

Mysteries

The ﬁrst evidence that humanity was not alone

in the cosmos came in 1931, when American engi-

neer Karl Jansky detected anomalous signals while

conducting experiments on radio wavelength in-

terference. He localized this signal in the sky and

determined that it was a natural radio source com-

ing from the center of the galaxy. However, when

members of the Invisible College read published

accounts of his work in technical journals, they

decided that Jansky might have discovered some-

Dexter Nunley

Dexter Nunley is a brilliant polymath whose ex-

ceptional intelligence has allowed him to become

both an expert linguist who speaks and reads a

dozen languages and one of earth’s greatest living

mathematicians. He has always been fascinated

both by astronomy and by the possibility of alien

life and intelligence. Although he is a tireless and

dedicated researcher, Dexter maintains an almost

childlike sense of wonder and openly expresses

his joy when he correctly solves a problem. He

also has a taste for speculative ﬁction and is regu-

larly seen reading everything from old Jules Verne

novels (in the original French) to the latest pulp

magazines. Dexter is 29 years old, although he

looks slightly younger, with reddish blonde hair

and bright, cheerful blue eyes.

class); BAB +3, Grap +4, Atk: +4 melee (1d3+1

nonlethal, unarmed strike); FS 5ft; Reach 5ft; AL

Good, Invisible College; SV Fort +3, Ref +4, Will

+6; AP 47; Rep +3; Str 12, Dex 15, Con 12, Int

18, Wis 14, Cha 14

Occupation: Academic (class skills: Decipher

Script, Read Write Language, Speak Language)

Skills: Concentration +10, Decipher Script

+24, Diplomacy +10, Disable Device +14, Inves-

tigate +14, Knowledge (physical sciences) +17,

Knowledge (technology) +17, Listen +4, Navigate

+14, Pilot +7, Read/Write Language 11, Repair

+8, Research +21, Sense Motive +12, Search

+10, Speak Language 11, Spot +5

Feats: Attentive, Educated (Knowledge, physi-

cal science and technology), Focused, Lightning

Calculator, Photographic Memory, Simple Weapon

Proﬁciency, Studious, Vehicle Expert

Talents (Smart Hero): Savant, Spark of Ge-

nius, Linguist

Dexter Nunley, Smart hero 7; medium human;

HD 7d6; hp 29; Mas 12; Spd 30ft; Initiative +6;

Defense 14, touch 14, ﬂatfooted 12 (+2 Dex, +2

Rocket Rangers

and was broadcast in the same complex code as

the original message. When Dexter Nunley de-

crypted this message it warned the broadcaster

that the Earth was in dire peril. According to this

lengthy message, that soon came to be known as

the Phobos Broadcast , the earth was being watched

and occasionally visited by aliens from the Vega

system. This large star system contained several

inhabited planets. Tharlan, the most populous and

advanced of these planets had recently discovered

a means of interstellar travel and Earth was the

ﬁrst habitable world it had discovered outside of

the Vega system. The message also stated that

agents of the Tharlan Empire are now stationed

both on Earth and on a base on the dark side of the

Moon, and that they were preparing to invade and

conquer the Earth.

The beings who sent the message identiﬁed

themselves as, freedom-ﬁghters from the op-

pressed Vegan world of Shalis who had managed

to obtain plans for the Tharlan interstellar drive

and journey to the solar system to both warn hu-

manity of the coming Tharlan attack. They went

on to state they wished to make an alliance with

humanity so that they could work together to over-

come the threat of Tharlan aggression. The Phobos

Broadcast was sent from a secret Shalin base on

Phobos and included detailed plans for construct-

ing a rocket identical to a standard Tharlan courier

rocket (see p. 10) that the members of the Invis-

ible College could use to take the battle against the

Tharlan into space.

Rocket

Technology

Contained in the Phobos Broadcast were in-

structions for creating the various super-strong

alloys and miniature vacuum tubes needed for

constructing a functional rocket. In addition, the

members of the Invisible College were also pro-

vided with extensive information on how to use

algae and electric lights to create a life support

system that could recycle both air and water.

However, the most impressive technology the

Shalin gave to humanity was the knowledge of

how to reﬁne an exceptionally rare transuranic

element from seawater. With an atomic num-

ber of 122, this element was far heavier than

any previously known to Earthly science. Chris-

tened vulcanium, only microscopic amounts can

be found dissolved in seawater. However, using

the complex extraction procedures detailed in

the Phobos Broadcast , scientists and engineers

of the Invisible College can concentrate this vul-

canium, so that the resulting liquid contains far

more vulcanium than could ever naturally occur.

Although the concentration of vulcanium in this

seawater was only one part per 10,000, it was

high enough to transform this liquid into the most

potent rocket fuel ever discovered. Vulcanium is

normally highly stable and non-radioactive. How-

ever, when it is exposed to the precise combina-

tion of electric current and powerful magnetic

ﬁelds, it undergoes rapidly and violent radioac-

tive decay into lead, krypton, and two atoms of

helium. This decay releases vast quantities of

energy and when combined with sea water in

a correctly designed rocket motor, the resulting

engine shoots forth jets of superheated plasma

at speeds in excess of 150 miles per second. A

Tharlan courier rocket ﬁtted with vulcanium en-

gines can attain speeds of up to 160 miles per

second and can accelerate at 1 g for up to seven

and a half hours. These swift vessels can make

a round trip ﬂight to Mars and back in less than

14 weeks and a round trip to the distant asteroid

Ceres in seven months.

Floating Island

5 (FI-5)

Starting in the early 1920s, the Invisible Col-

lege began constructing a series of artiﬁcial ﬂoat-

ing islands in both the Atlantic and the Paciﬁc. All

of these islands contained airstrips and refueling

facilities to allow trans-Atlantic, and even trans-

Paciﬁc ﬂights. In addition to airstrips, these islands

also all contain airship mooring masts, extensive

repair and maintenance facilities for both airplanes

and airships, as well as large fuel tanks that were

regularly reﬁlled by tanker ships owned by the In-

visible College. Also, several of the largest of these

ﬂoating islands contained large laboratories and

other research facilities.

The existence of these islands was kept secret

from the general public to allow the Invisible Col-

lege to use them for their own secret missions

and as places to test new and potentially danger-

ous technologies. To help keep them hidden from

passing ships and the occasional airplane or air-

ship, all of these islands were built low to the sea

and were planted with trees and camouﬂaged with

rocks and soil to make them appear to be natural

islands. See Baron Ace and his Legendary Fly-

ing Calvary for further information on the Invisible

College’s ﬂoating islands.

FI-5 is located in the middle of the Atlantic

Ocean, approximately halfway between New Or-

leans and Morocco, and slightly more than 1,000

miles east of the Canary Islands, on the 28th par-

allel. FI-5 was one of the Invisible College’s larg-

est ﬂoating islands. It is an oval 1,200 feet long

and 500 feet wide and can serve as a runway for

the largest of the Invisible College’s airplanes. In

addition to the airstrip and the large, retractable

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