01-AboutTSRWorld

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But the 25th century is not without itsdark side. Planet Earth, the once majestichome of mankind, has gone downhill withdizzying speed. Earth is an economicallyand ecologicaUy ruined planet, strugglingto recover but knowing that the battle wilbe incredibly laugh to win. The onlybright spots are the pockets of affluenceknown as arcologtes=titaruc, self-contained cities inside which the residentsenjoy fairly comfortable lives,The arcologies might be able 10 use theirwealth and influence to help the rest ofthe planet's popuJation gel a foothold onrecovery-except that the cities, J ik e 111erest of the planet. are under the control ofRAM. The most powerful political, eco-nomic, and military force in the solarsystem, RAM is headquartered on MaTS,but its tentacles extend across millions ofmiles. They are wrapped especially tightlyaround Earth, which RAM intends toplunder and exploit until the planet isdevastated to the point af no return.

A journey into the universe of the XXVc gameby Kim Mohan.Just what is the world of the 25th oen-tury?Fortunately, you don't have to wail 500

years to find OUl.The XXVo'" RolePlayingGame has all the answers-andtbe boxedset wiU be coming in for it landtng at yourneighborhood game store very soon.Chock full of booklets, maps, and othercomponents, the box is pack d tighterthan the cargo hold of a Krait Fighter. (Asyou'Ll find Qui in the spaceship descrip-tions, Lhe cargo hold of a Krait Fighter isalways packed tight.) And those compo-nents hold enough information to test thecapacity of the zsth century's most sophis-ticated Digital Personality. (As you'll findout, Digital Personalities have. , . well, yougel the idea.)The 25th century is a time of great opportunity. Mankind has moved out into thesolar system, The moon, the inner planets,

and the asteroid belt are no longer dea-dworlds; instead, they are the homes ofnew civilizations-same of them remark-10 MAY 1990 BUCK ROGERS and XXVc are trademarks used under license from The Dille Family Trust. 01990 The Ollie Family Trust. All Righ1s Reserved.

ably sophisticated, considering the lengthof time they've been in existence.The 25th century is a time of fantasticadvances in science and technology, Thescience of genetics is no longer concernedwith creating a new hybrid of corn or ahardier strain of wheal-scientists havediscovered how to manipulate the geneticcode of human and other animals. Theresult is a new gl"Dup of creatures knowna s S 'F l nn i es (genetically altered hurnansl,each species tailored to maximize itschances for survival on and around 111eun-Earlhlike worlds of the solar system.The ham ssing of nuclear fusion hasopened new vistas in transportation be-tween planets; shtps can now travel fl'omEarth to Mars In less time than it takes inthe 20Ul century to drive from New Yorkto Los Angeles. Computer technology hasadvanced to the point where errtrr p r-scnalities can be encoded and implanted inmemory banks-a form of immortality, forthose who can afford it,


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Even though its ability to resist is woe-ly weak, Earth is not about to go downthout a fight. The fledgling New Earthganization, known as NED, has dedi-ed itself to undermining RAM's powerd authority in any way it can. With atched-together space fleet and a dis-nted collection of small groups of corn-t soldiers, the victor-les NEO can winht now are small ones-but small onesbetter than none at all.And now, in the year 2456, a new ele-nt has been introduced into the mix. Inajor tactical and psychological coup,O has managed to recover and revivebody of one Anthony "Buck" Rogers, aendary Earth bero from the last days of20th century. Long revered by human-for his heroic efforts in averting abal catastrophe, Buck was also thought

be Longd ead. But he did survive, spend.centuries In suspended animation.

I D s "rebirth" is spreadingoughout the inner worlds; now moren just a legend, Buck is a living exampleFreedom fighters everywhere of what ale man, full of courage and the will toe, can accomplish against the forces ofand oppression.hat's a summary of the stage uponich role-playing adventures in the XXVcme will be played out. Now, here aree of the props we're giving you toke this stage come alive:Gba1'8ctel'8 &:Combat: This book isheart of the game systeJl1-96 pages ofes, statistica, and descriptions contain-everything a referee and a group ofyers Deed to create characters, space-ps, and the other essential ingredientsthe XXVc game universe.Players can choose from several racestheir characters, including true hu-ns (Thrrans); mildly gene- altered Mereu-ns and Lunarians: and semihumansh as Delphs, who populate the oceanpths, and Tinkers, specially designed foruations calling for small size and ex-ordinary dexterity.Every character has a career: rocket-k, rogue, warrior, scout, medic, orgineer. Just as in other role-playingmes, a party of adventuring characterss a better chance of succeeding if ariety of careers are represented in theup. And for even further variety, eacharacter has a wide range of skills tooose from. The process of creating aented and powerful parly of playeraracters can almost be a game in ftself-t that's really only a minor prelude toaction that awaits the party.he rule book also tells you everythingu need to know about spaceships, rang-from the smallest fighters to the big-st battlers: bow they work, what theyst, what each type can and can't do,erating a Ship is one of the most impor-t things a group of player charactersll do, whether they're just trying to getm one place 1 ,0 another or whethery're bearing down on an enemy vessel

in the blackness o r space.And that's where the "Combat" part ofthe book comes in. The rules includeoompLete information for handling ship vs.ship battles as well as combat on an indi-vidual level. Ship armament ranges fromblistering laser beams to immensely pow-erful kinetic cannons that can obliterate asmall vessel in aile shot. Inthe category ofpersonal weapons, the old standbys-knives, clubs, swords-are stil l around andstill able to do damage. Sometimes, in theurban wasteland of an Earth city or theairlass, Iightless void of an asteroid miningoutpost, these will be the best (and only)weapons available At other times, whenthe items and their power supplies 31'eavailable, characters will want to armthemselves with the high. tech weapons ofthe 25lh century such as laser pistols,sonic stunners, and rifles that fire tinyrockets with their own internal guidancesystems.Players and referees who are familiarwith the ADVANCED DUNGEONS &.DRAGDNS game system wil l immediatelyrecognize a lot of similarity between thatgame and the XXVcgame rules. Obviously,this is no accident. We u ed this approachin the design of the XXVc game 1'01' "VAgood reasons. First we know from yearsof experience (yours and ours) that theAD&'D game 1V0rks, and we could do alot worse than building upon the quality ofan established winner. Second, the manythousands of people who have played andenjoyed the AD&D game will finel it veryeasy to make the transition to the XXVcgame system; the concepts are very muchthe same, even though the particulars arevery different.Tbe World Book: This iswhat the25th century is all abnut=at Ieast, as muchof that information as we could stuff intoa 64.page book. Here you'll lind full statis-tics and descriptions of every pJace-fromMercury out to the moons of Saturn-thathas been investigated, exploited, andtransformed during mankind's exodusfrom Earth.Wbat is life like on Venus, where onlythe highest mountaintops can supportanything resembling "normal" life and theacidic morass of the lowlands is home to abizarre race of reptilian humanoids? Whatabout Mars, the planet that has been mostdrastically changed, with. Its massive ur-ban complexes and its majestic spaceelevator? And what about the asteroidbelt, where the true individualists of thesolar system have managed to keep theirindependence antiform a strong commu-nity at the same time?All of these places, and dozens of others,are brought to life in the World Book. "Byputting together Iacts from each descrip-

tion, you'll get a picture of how the vari-ous alliances and conflict situations all fittogether, and you'll see a multitude ofways in which player characters call affectthe balance of pnwer, The adventuringpossibilities are practically unlimited.

And to help the referee take advantageof those possibilities, the World Book alsoincludes a section on how to constructyour own adventures for lhe XXVo game-general guidelines, combined with somespecific advice, that will have a group ofplayers immer-sed in the vibr-ant gameuniverse faster than you can say "Preparefor- Iiftoffi"Beller yet: 'Ib really get you playingqulnkly, the World Book contains a com-plete short adventure, "Ghost in the Ma-ohine , " designed to enable a group La beplaying the game literally within minutesafter the box is opened. When you get thisbrief taste of what adventuring in the XXVcgame universe is like, you'll be even moreeager to cook up ideas of your own.The Thchuology Book: A close com-

panion to the World Book, this piece of thepackage is 1 1 2 pages of statistics and de-scriptions thai detail the science and tech-nology of the zsih century, Here's whereyou'll find out about terra forming, thespecial ways in which mankind has tackledlhe task of making other worlds habitable;orbital colonies, the "cities in space" thatdate back to the earliest days of interplan-etary exploration; and the advances inmedicine and biotechnology that havemade the term "minor injury" practicallyobsolete.Most of the ThchnoJogy Book is devotedto the gadgetry and gear that's available Laspacefartng adventurers in the 25th cen-tury. For instance, there are: "smartclothes" with integrated wiring that pro-vides heating and cooling, electronicshielding, and other features; securitydevices and ship sensors; and spacesuitsand other types of armor and protection.And, of course, weapons-specifically,the devices that have been developed sincethe 20lh century and which have made so-called "conventional" guns and amrrnrni-tion a thing of the pa-st. What are theadvantages of a heat gun over a laserpistol, and vice versa? When is a rocketpistol a good thing to have, and whenwould a sonic stunner be a lifesaver in-stead? By reading about the weaponry ofthe 25th century, with each item describedin game terms, players will he able toanswer these questions before they equiptheir characters for an expedition into theunknown.'I'he maps: The XXVC game box con-tains four poster-alse maps in full color,each one designed for use in certain ad-venturing situations.For exploring in a modern eity unlikeany place on Earth, there's an overheadview of the Tycho Spaceport, one of theshowpieces of present-day civilization onthe moon.When characters are aboard a shfp,their Locations and activities can betracked on a map sheet that includescross-section views of the various com-partments of two typical ship types, All ofthe cross-sectiun maps on this sheet arescaled for use with 25mm miniatures.

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cards for larger planets).4. Control Markers should be placed forall forces. A pencil and paper are alsonecessary for koeping track of turns.

Solitaire play for theBUCK ROGERS:Battle for the 25th Century game

by Ed Greenwood1nto every gamer's life falls a little "alonetime," those frustrating periods when one

Itches to playa game-and has no one toplay against, Every gamer has favoritesolitaire games, and there are a rew excel-lent solitaire Will' games available, but it'ssometimes fun to lake a new game (partic-ularly one that doesn't seem readily adapt-able to solitaire play) and while away aIew hours "going ilalone:'So here on t116 games shelves at thecottage, staring me in the face> is a blg,

colorful game ina huge box: TSR's BUCKROGERS"': Battle for the 25th Centurygame. Why not give it a try?SetupFir-st, set up the board and put the mark-ers on the Solar System Display in theusual manner. Deal out six Thrritorial ZoneCards for all six Leaders. You play Buck,and you set up your starting army (itscomposition is given on page 9 of the BasicGame Rules booklet) in the strongest setupyou can devise, subject to tile standardplacement restrictions (also on page 9).You can't change your lnillal setup afteryou begin setting up the forces for theother Leaders!18 M A Y 1 99 0

After set ling oul Buck's forces, distributethe other Leaders' starting armies in thesame way, with the following guidelines:1. The Leader must be guarded by fivefriendly units in the same zone, and mustbe located in a Zone on the Largest pLanet[OJ' which the Leader has a card in hishand.2. In all cases, the "largest" planetarybody is the one with the greatest numberof 'lerr-itorial Zones (for counting pur-poses, include the Space Elevator as onezone, but don't count Moon Zones orColonies)' Earth is considered larger thanVenus.3. Each Leader unit will be located on

the largest Moon if there are no planetaryTerritorial Zone Cards in that Leader'shand, on a Colony if 110 Moon Zone Card isheld, or (failing that) on an Asteroid. Lunais consider-ad to be a Moon, not a plane--tary body.This quite often leads to all the Leadersbeing crammed onto Earth, so anotherrule should be added: If two Leaders (in-eluding Buck) are already placed on ilplanet, additional Leaders should be lo-cated on other planets if they have rete-vant Zone Cards (even if they also hold

RulesThis solitaire game uses the Basic GameRules (Le., no special Leader powers), with

the following additions from the AdvancedRules: Pass-Through fire and SpaoeshipMovement (both on page 4 of theAdvanced/Optional Game Rules booklet),and Contral Markers In Combat, with itsAdvanced CRT (page .5 of that rulebook).Except for their First turn of movement,and except for newly produced units(discussed latarI, no "enemy" Leaders ortheir ground forces move from zone tozone in the game. Any enemy foroes willauack Buck's (your) forces whenever anyof Buck's units end up in the same zone,their respective tur-ns. [f necessary, usethe Tur'n Cards to determine the order inwhich units ofthe various enemy Leadersattack.Al l possible attacks including Pass-Through Fire will be made, by all enemyunits, on Buck's forces throughout lhegame: enemy units never break off at-


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01-AboutTSRWorld