I suppose this isn't directly about RPGs, so my apologies if this needs to be in a different forum.
I'm toying with starting up a pulp SF game using the TSR Star Frontiers setting and the SBA rules. There weren't very many adventures published for SF back in the day and they have kind of a wandering-band-of-mercenary-adventurers feel to them I'm not looking for.
What I am looking for is a kind of Golden Age pulp SF Space Ranger premise - not the itinerant criminals of Firefly or the Free Trader Beowulf Traveller crew, but sort of Texas Rangers in space. Independent operators beholden to a cause and some kind of sponsoring organization, but with a large amount of freedom and the expectation that they will handle things themselves.
My library of pulp SF tends towards planetary romance and exploding starships, not this kind of thing. So I ask the crowdsourced wisdom of the Web 3.0 social media Wikipedia generation (did I miss any buzzwords there?): can you recommend sources of inspiration for this kind of premise?
As far as old stuff goes, Flash and Buck are what I remember. Asimov had David Starr: Space Ranger under a pseudonym. There was an old TV show Rocky Jones(?). New stuff you can look at is Mars McCoy:Space Ranger and Lance Star:Space Ranger. There's a webcomic Captain Spectre and the Lightning Legion, but that's more superheroish.
Heh, I see you found Rocky Jones.
Good stuff, CRKrueger, thanks.
About the only thing covering that would be Starblazer Adventures.
The following aren't Golden Age, but might be helpful.
The roleplaying setting for D6 Space "Fires of armatsumara" is basically Firefly from the point of view of the lawmen. By default characters are assumed to be part of the Rangers trying to keep the law on frontier worlds.
There was also a short lived 90s tv series called Space Rangers. The Wikipedia entry for the series is pretty comprehensive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Rangers_(TV_series) ).
For inspiration, you need go no further than Edward E. "Doc" Smith's seminal Lensmen series: Triplanetary, First Lensman, Galactic Patrol, Gray Lensman, Second Stage Lensman, Children of the Lens.
Quote from: Bradford C. Walker;572963For inspiration, you need go no further than Edward E. "Doc" Smith's seminal Lensmen series: Triplanetary, First Lensman, Galactic Patrol, Gray Lensman, Second Stage Lensman, Children of the Lens.
This.
Doc Smith was the same to pulp sci fi as William Gibson was to cyberpunk. You can find earlier and more esoteric references, but he really created what everyone recognizes as the setting.
Jack Williamsons' "Legion of Space" books?
Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (Carey Rockwell) ? -(50s) this is on project gutenberg e.g.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19526/19526-h/19526-h.htm
Van Vogt's "The Silkie" ??? ( but maybe not quite what you're looking for - about guys who turn into living spaceships and fight aliens with psychology).
On the comic book front, I'm familiar with DC's spacefaringh supers thing - Green Lantern, Adam Strange, Legion of Super-Heroes and maybe even L.E.G.I.O.N. The characters of these comic books might be bog-standard four-color supers, but you might crib some ideas from the plots and storylines. Except for Adam Strange, all of these fit the "space cop" archetype to some degree.
There's lots of artwork that might be useful here
http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2011/07/retro-future-space-futurism-update.html
A little later, but still very Space Ranger are the Flandry stories by Poul Anderson. You may want to give them a read.
If you want your Space Rangers a little more hard science, then read Space Cadet by Robert A. Heinlein.
I start packing and a thread I can post to, somewhat knowledgeably appears. Of course people covered the Lensmen stuff, David Starr, etc.
Modern versions: Galaxy Rangers Cartoon.
the Rangers in Babylon 5 (sort of Monk-Rangers)
Lets not forget
Robert Heinlein
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein)
Alfred Bester
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Bester_author)#The_Stars_My_Destination_.281956.29
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Bester_author)#The_Stars_My_Destination_.281956.29)
Frederic Brown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredric_Brown (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredric_Brown)
and Lester del Ray
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_Del_Rey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_Del_Rey)
...to name just a few. You would probably find the Golden Age of Sci-Fi Wikipedia page quite useful...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_Science_Fiction
No one has mentioned Edmond Hamilton yet so I reckon I will.
Always wanted to run or play in this kind of game, I'd love to hear how it turns out!
Radar Men from the Moon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_Men_from_the_Moon)
Quote from: Ronin;573203Radar Men from the Moon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_Men_from_the_Moon)
I actually remember as a kid going to the movies, plunking down two bits (25c) to get in, and spending another (25c), and getting a coke, a big bag of popcorn, and a small bag of loose candies (like tootsie rolls, salt water taffy, and butterscotchies) and watching
Commando Cody before the feature film, and often they would play another episode during the intermission.
Quote from: Bradford C. Walker;572963For inspiration, you need go no further than Edward E. "Doc" Smith's seminal Lensmen series: Triplanetary, First Lensman, Galactic Patrol, Gray Lensman, Second Stage Lensman, Children of the Lens.
I was going to suggest this. It's a great series and the Lensmen are very much like space police.
Steve Perry wrote two novels in a "Stellar Ranger" series ("Stellar Ranger" and "Lone Star" are the titles) and they are pretty much westerns in space with the lead character being a marshall.
As far as RPG systems go, you might look at THOUSAND SUNS. It's a cool system inspired somewhat by H. Beam Piper style scifi.
I recommend a new set of books that is written like an old fashioned pulp space opera. The first book is Leviathan Wakes, and the second is Caliban's War, by James Corey.
While there are other characters and plot lines, the primary plot line is about Captain Jim Holden and his crew (Pilot, Engineer, and XO), his "salvaged" ship the Rocinante, on a set of missions sponsored by the head of one of the three main factions in the solar system (the Outer Planets Association). They're given a broad goal, like "Go find out what the heck just happened to space station whatever, and deal with it" and then the team deals with it mostly as they see fit. Good, solid space opera series, that would fit right in with a game.
I recommend anything between Frank R. Paul (http://www.amazon.com/Frank-Paul-Father-Science-Fiction/dp/0785826092/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345354574&sr=1-3&keywords=frank+r+paul) and the '60s TV Thunderbirds.