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ExileInParadise
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KOSMOS68, the UPP, and You

Fri 24 Jun 2022, 23:28

One of the contributing writers to the ALIEN RPG, Paul Elliott (aka Zozer Games) published an alternate setting for the Traveller/Cepheus Engine rule set called Kosmos 68, wondering what the future might be like if the Soviet Union won the 1960's space race and kept going.

Andrew Boswell has taken the Kosmos68 setting and began writing a fantastic set of posts about and within it:
https://kosmos68com.wordpress.com/

These resources are an excellent way for a GM to get their heads into the UPP mindset, especially for younger GMs that may not have grown up during the Cold War era.
We live, as we dream -- alone. ~ Joseph Conrad
 
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ExileInParadise
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Re: KOSMOS68, the UPP, and You

Fri 24 Jun 2022, 23:43

And, as a little bit of a bonus, I will post a bit about my favorite Soviet-era science-fiction story.

Many in the West are familiar with the works of Stanislaw Lem, and while Solaris is a particular favorite in book and movie form, that's not where I'm going today.

My cherished example of Soviet science-fiction is "The Astronaut" by Valentina Zhuravlyova.

It is a story of exploration told from a curious perspective and with themes and tones that are very different from both the Western science-fiction like US, UK, EU and the Eastern science fiction like Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.

I read it in a collection in the very late 1970s or very early 1980s and it was so different from the sci-fi I was growing up on (Star Wars, Alien, Heinlein, Clark, Asimov, etc) that it was seared into my brain and I never forgot it.

The collection was long lost, but the story never left me and I've had a copy of it in some form or another most of my life.

Find it and give it a read and see if it doesn't give you a much more deep and complex motivation for your UPP ...
We live, as we dream -- alone. ~ Joseph Conrad
 
FantomPencil
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Re: KOSMOS68, the UPP, and You

Tue 28 Jun 2022, 01:35

I've just read this story on https://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/3r.pdf.
Thank you.
 
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SamuelBrett
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Re: KOSMOS68, the UPP, and You

Sun 10 Jul 2022, 05:21

Great post. Zozer has a ton of excellent material for their game Hostile that one can easily adapt to Alien.

(I'm partial to their Orbital game myself, but that's a whole other thing.)
 
Bottlesorter
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Re: KOSMOS68, the UPP, and You

Wed 10 Aug 2022, 03:09

Thanks to everyone who has visited the Kosmos68 fan site. I appreciate your interest and useful comments. Quick update: I've now upgraded the art to be in a consistent Soviet Realist style, so now it is more firmly rooted in the 60's retro-future.

https://kosmos68com.wordpress.com

Good gaming.
Andrew
 
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_ArthurDallas_
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Re: KOSMOS68, the UPP, and You

Thu 11 Aug 2022, 15:40

thanks very interesting.

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