Jupiter, largest planet in the Solar System, has finally been detailed for the Rocket Age RPG. As a setting book, Imperial Jupiter offers the detail, iconic NPCs, and story hooks you would expect from a Rocket Age product.
Wow! Less than $500 to go! Thanks to everyone for backing and keep spreading the word.
Years ago Ken attended GenCon's writer symposium and received excellent mentorship from Jennifer Brozek. Today she hosts Ken's musings on music, writing, and Imperial Jupiter.
Rocket Age began when Ken lifted his son up and shouted, "Rocket Rangers, Away!" The child would then be tossed into the air and caught. From there the idea of creating a retro-pulp sci-fi setting was born. A map of the Solar System was drawn up and an era was chosen, at first it was thought that the 1950s could be a good match, but as things changed the 1930s were decided on.
Having an idea and bringing it to publication are two separate things and require separate skills. At the time Ken was a fairly new freelance writer with only a few credits on his CV. In a turn around from how most tabletop RPGs are designed, Ken set out to find a publisher who could make Rocket Age a reality. With a small portfolio showing what the finished project would contain, he went to GenCon in 2010 to shop his idea around and hopefully build a list of publishers he could interest.
Freelance writing means being able to tolerate a lot of refusals, rejections, and sometimes out right rudeness. Undaunted, Ken managed to get two publishers to show interest in Rocket Age. Matthew Sprange from Mongoose Publishing wanted to make Rocket Age a Traveller setting, but the deal could not go forward as Mongoose was experiencing some difficulties at the time. Sarah Newton from Cubicle 7 wanted to publish Rocket Age as a setting for their Starblazer Adventures game, and a contract was signed so that work could begin. It was Sarah who suggested a move to the 1930s and cowboys on Mars. This led to Rocket Age being set in 1938, as well as the US Cavalry being an active force in the American occupied portions of Mars. Sorry Sarah, I just couldn't do space cowboys, at least not in Rocket Age.
Sarah left Cubicle 7 and the project landed on Dom Mcdowall's desk. As Cubicle 7 was not going to continue Starblazer Adventures, the system for Rocket Age was changed to the Vortex system in use by Cubicle 7's Primeval and Doctor Who's Adventures in Time and Space RPGs. With some modifications the Vortex system, created for Cubicle 7 by Dave Chapman, was applied to the setting. In 2013 the Rocket Age Corebook was launched at GenCon, with Blood Red Mars and several small pdf only adventures following. 2014 saw Ken win a Judge's Spotlight ENnie Award for the Rocket Age Corebook. More pdf only episodes were published and Ken was made the line developer for Rocket Age. Heroes of the Solar System was put together as a player's resource and expansion of the setting. Trail of the Scorpion, an anthology of six linked adventures that form a long campaign was a project of a different sort. Three authors, James Spahn, Matthew Haines, and Anne Toole worked under Ken's direction to write the adventures. Sharing the sandbox with other writers was and is one of Ken's favorite parts about Rocket Age. With a slight gap while Ken worked on Northlands Saga Complete for Frog God Games and other projects for Cubicle 7, Lure of Venus was finally published.
The original plan for Rocket Age was to have seven books plus pdf only supplements. With Imperial Jupiter the series was going to end at six books, but Ken did not want to let Rocket Age go, at least not without a fight. He left Cubicle 7 and purchased all rights, art, products, materials, and stock. Determined that Imperial Jupiter would not be a farewell but a blazing rocket to the setting's future, Ken and his wife Krystal founded Why Not Games. In the year since the company has written and produced two Rocket Age books. The first, Slaves of the Earthlings is an adventure that has our heroes fighting slavery on Mars and rescuing Martians taken by Earthlings for sale back on the Third Planet. Tales From the Rocket Age is an anthology of short stories set in the Rocket Age universe and the first time the setting has branched out of the tabletop RPG medium into fiction.