[Zozer Games] Attack Squadron: Roswell

[Mithras]

OK, a bit unusual this ... but fully compatible with the rest of the Traveller Mongooverse!

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/112287/Attack-Squadron%3A-Roswell

“There is a war going on and you are part of it. Alien invaders are entering our skies with sinister intent and it is the job of the United States Air Force to protect this nation and its people. In the skies over New Mexico, California, Texas and by God even Washington DC, you chase down and destroy the alien flying saucers. Yes, their technology is superior to ours and their craft utilize unknown engines of some type - yet our fighters, flown by the best of the best, can match their vectors and make an intercept should the situation fall in our favor.

This is a secret war. Sure, there are folks all over America calling into the news stations with reports of flying saucers and UFOs, but we have experts ready to explain away their sightings as weather balloons or atmospheric phenomenon. All those who need to know about the alien invasion already know, and we must keep it that way. Your knowledge of the invaders is precious, few have seen a saucer, fewer still have been head-to-head in a dog-fight with one and so from time to time the Air Force will call on you to investigate sightings, landings and encounters. The Joint Chiefs believe that the invaders have landed agents amongst the population, saboteurs and Fifth Columnists who are even now attacking the soft under-belly of our nation. You men, you pilots of the 93rd Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, are the perfect weapon against these saboteurs. In the air and on the ground, your president expects you to meet and defeat these alien invaders ... before they annihilate us and our American Way of Life. Good Luck.”

RICHARD M. NIXON
Vice President of the United States of America, Feb 6, 1953

A setting book for the Traveller roleplaying game, which requires the Traveller main book in order to play. Attack Squadron: Roswell lets players fly classic fighters such as the F-86 Sabre or the F-84 Thunderjet in combat with alien saucers, it also supports on-the-ground investigations of alien conspiracy. It is The Invaders meets X-COM meets Top Gun!

The game features:

• 14 aircraft designs from the 1950s
• Rules for air-to-air combat
• Rules for ground attack missions
• 1950s firearms
• A history of the alien invasion
• 4 flying saucer designs, with two deckplans
• Rules for creating fighter pilots
• Historically relevant event tables
• Background for New Mexico, Roswell and the USAF

*Written by the author of GURPS Atomic Horror

 

[middenface]

Coincidence.. I mentioned this on the Traveller FB page about 10 mins ago...

 

[Lemnoc]

Insanely cool.

 

[Golan2072]

BOUGHT!

 

[Mithras]

Thanks to Ian (middenface) for another evocative cover image.

 

[Golan2072]

Just read through it cover to cover - the first time in a long time I have read an RPG product cover to cover in details in one straight go. Simply excellent!

Oh, and in the Inspiration chapter in the back of the book you should have also mentioned Dark Skies, a short TV series from the 1990's dealing with a covert alien invasion in the 1960's... Using mind-controlling "ganglions" (which could be removed from the victim by a medical procedure) implanted into the victim's heads through the nose and mouth. These were implanted into abductees by Greys who were, themselves, controlled by "ganglions". The fun part in this series was having famous events of the 1960's woven into the plot and given an alien twist...

 

[Mithras]

I remember that, watched it from ep 1, wasn't it cancelled prematurely? I distinctly remember the episode in Las Vegas with Howard Hughes....

 

[Golan2072]

It was cancelled after one short season. Which was unfortunate, as it was cool.

 

[locarno24]

Personally I was always a fan of UFO as a series - it used the same modelling people as the rest of the Thunderbirds/Stingray/etc, but purely for special effects - it was live action and a very well-written show. Pretty much X-Com the TV series, in fact.

 

[Mithras]

Me, not so much with UFO, I always had that nagging feeling that "these actors should really be puppets" that I couldnt shake off. Never felt that with Space: 1999. Maybe it was that everyone in UFO seemed to be wearing wigs for some reason...

Personally I was always a fan of UFO as a series - it used the same modelling people as the rest of the Thunderbirds/Stingray/etc, but purely for special effects - it was live action and a very well-written show. Pretty much X-Com the TV series, in fact.

 

[kafka]

Bought Cannot wait to run this one...

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Electronically running over to buy it RIGHT NOW!

Air-to-Air combat rules are a MUST!

I assume the alien saucers are using standard Traveller M-Drives?

 

[mechascorpio]

OK, a bit unusual this ... but fully compatible with the rest of the Traveller Mongooverse!

If by "unusual" you mean "not Third Imperium", then Traveller could use a whole lot more unusual! I just bought Zozer's impressive "Orbital", so this is high on my list.

I'm really pleased to see publishers like them and Spica (with "The Outer Veil" series) stretching the game beyond what has been done before. I've been pondering something new as well, but have yet to be convinced that there is sizable Traveller audience that is interested in settings other than the 3I and 2300.

 

[Golan2072]

I'm really pleased to see publishers like them and Spica (with "The Outer Veil" series) stretching the game beyond what has been done before. I've been pondering something new as well, but have yet to be convinced that there is sizable Traveller audience that is interested in settings other than the 3I and 2300.

Thanks!

 

[Mithras]

I've been pondering something new as well, but have yet to be convinced that there is sizable Traveller audience that is interested in settings other than the 3I and 2300.

I think there is. My 'feeling' from reading forums here, and elsewhere is that only a percentage run full-on 3i games, a larger proportion seem to run games using 3i elements in their own settings. And I 'believe' that there are plenty of players who are willing to experiment with other settings... I have no data for this though!

Of course the scope of the setting may limit the 'buy in'. Settings like 2300AD and Outer Veil are layed out for gamers to use as they will and could support years of play. Attack Squadron: Roswell is much tighter in its focus, and will do better in a game running for a few weeks or a couple of months, IMHO. But I suppose referees make of these things what they will. I stitched all kinds of things together in my epic, wonderful cyperpunk RPG of 1989-1991.

 

[Rockymountainnavy]

I introduce to you Lt Paul Miller, USAF. Paul is a Pilot assigned to the 6th Bombardment Wing flying B-36 bombers out of Walker AFB, New Mexico. If you know your Air Force bases, then you know that Walker AFB used to be known as Roswell!

Lt Paul Miller, B-36 Pilot, USAF (Rank 1, Prior Terms - 2)

STR 7, DEX 10 (+1), END 9 (+1), INT 7, EDU 6, SOC 5 (-1)

Athletics 0, Diplomat 1, Drive 0, Flyer (Winged) 1, Gun Combat (Pistol) 0, Gunner (Air) 0, Leadership 1, Medic 0, Navigation 0, Sensors 0, Survival 0, Tactics 0

Paul Miller joined the US Army Air Corps in early 1945 before the end of World War II. He was already well into the training pipeline for the B-29 bomber when the war ended. Rather than being released from service, Paul continued on and was part of the newly established US Air Force in 1947. During his first flying tour, Paul was instrumental in refining the development of the AN/APQ-7 Eagle bombing and navigation radar for the B-29, and became close friends with the radar's chief developmental engineer (Term 1 Events - Post War 1945-1949; Life Event - New Contact).

Lt Miller transferred to the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron in 1949. When the Korean War started, Paul's unit was sent to the Far East and started flying missions along the Yalu River. These missions were some of the first pounced upon by the new Russian MiG-15 fighters and the squadron suffered losses. This lead to great angst in the unit, especially as the Commanding Officer and Executive Officer clashed over unit tactics (Term 2 Events - Korean War 1950-1953 - Leaders at loggerheads; gain Diplomat 1 to stay out of it).

By 1952 Paul no longer flew combat missions over Korea, but instead piloted "ferret" - electronic intelligence or ELINT - missions against the Soviet Union using the new RB-36. During one uncommonly exciting mission Paul saw his first UFO. The saucer approached Lt Miler's RB-36 while near the Russian coast and buzzed the aircraft several times, nearly causing Paul and his pilot to lose control. After the flight, members of the new National Security Agency debriefed the entire crew and swore them to secrecy.

In 1953, the Air Force transferred Lt Miller to the 6th Bombardment Wing at Walker AFB near Roswell, New Mexico. Fully expecting to fly regular B-36 bombers, Paul is surprised to find out he is assigned to fly a uniquely configured B-36 with special-mission equipment. Lt Miller was also selected for this assignment because he encountered UFOs before. The leaders of the 6th Bombardment Wing recognize that Lt Miller has a knack of getting along with others (Diplomat 1) and want to use him as an important liaison between the 6th Bomb Wing and Flight 2-D of the 4602nd Air Intelligence Service Squadron at Kirtland AFB as well as the Project Sign office at the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright Field, Ohio.

The special B-36 (unofficially designated as B-36X Spooky) was selected for conversion because it is the only aircraft in the USAF inventory that can carry this heavy and bulky equipment. Seen from the outside, Spooky is a specially modified B-36 that carries two pods aft of the nose. Publicly, the Air Force released a cover story which claims the pods are used to transport spare engines between bases for deploying B-36 bombers. In reality, the Air Force is worried that UFOs are often invisible to conventional radars of the day and the service is experimenting with a more powerful radar system. Lt Miller has been reunited with his old friend in radar development who is working on a beyond-state-of-art X-band radar using an electronically steered array. Though the actual antennas are relatively small (fitted into the pods), the equipment required to run the radar is bulky and takes up two of the four bomb-bays in the bomber. The new radar is also very power hungry, and draws from a large bank of batteries in the other two bomb bays. This has caused Paul's friend to comment, "What we really need is something like an atomic pile in there." Incidentally, Paul has heard about a new Convair test airplane, the X-6, which will have a reactor aboard. Hmm....

According to the squadron's Operations Officer, the plan is for three B-36s to hunt for UFOs together. Spooky detects the UFOs and then passes contact information to two FICON B-36s which use their trapeze-carried fighters to intercept - and destroy - the saucer. The Air Force brass hopes this Hunter-Killer team will enhance the defense of the US against the alien invaders. There are even some who say that someday such radars will be in space....

 

[laserburn]

very nice.

 

[Mithras]

I introduce to you Lt Paul Miller, USAF. Paul is a Pilot assigned to the 6th Bombardment Wing flying B-36 bombers out of Walker AFB, New Mexico. If you know your Air Force bases, then you know that Walker AFB used to be known as Roswell!

Hello Paul, did you just step out of my setting?

Great campaign set-up there, you just reminded me of the NB-36 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_X-6); damn I meant to include something on that, an actual nuclear reactor flying test-bed! I think I was saving it till the end, and forgot about it.

I like the way you tweaked the event tables for a bomber pilot, rather than a fighter pilot...

 

[Rockymountainnavy]

Not that much needed to be tweaked since the Attack Squadron: Roswell rules are pretty straightforward. I like how the characters start mid-career with a random number of previous terms.

In my case, I wanted a B-36 pilot. Worked through the chargen to get the basics. Then started googling. Found a link to the 91st Strategic Recon Sqdn with B-29s and later RB-36s that seemed to make a good link. Later found a wild picture with the engine pod carriers for the B-36 and figured it just had to be disinformation!

I failed to mention that Lt Paul Miller is friends with a new young pilot assigned to the 93rd...a guy with blond hair and a slight British accent named Ed Straker. Paul has also noticed a non-description civilian seems to always be smoking in the background of every UFO debriefing....

Thanks Paul for another great setting book!

 

[Ewan]

Bought it at the weekend and it is really impressive and exceptional value at £4.

I was wondering if there will be any supplements to support it, for example the RAF equivalent or Soviet aircraft.