History TabletopGame / RocketAge

* BodyguardCrush: This seems to happen a lot to those protecting Martian Princesses. {{Justified}} as Silthuri, the Martian Royal caste have specialized pheromones designed to cause others to adore them.

* IdentityAmnesia: As far as we can tell no roboman, be it Ancient Martian or otherwise, can remember their original job or time period. {{Justified}}, as robomen are usually millennia old.

* {{Stripperiffic}}: There are a number of incidents of this, but the best and most {{justified}} example is the Silthuri dueling vest, a set of armour designed to protect the groin, face, neck, inner things, wrists and upper chest in a duel to determine first blood, but not meant to kill the other. Traditionally no other clothing is worn while dueling, leaving a lot on display.

* EldritchAbomination: Hinted at. There is a psychic entity powerful enough to sense and be sensed by psychics in our solar system across the void of deep space. All we know is that it terrified the one Lizard Monkey who felt and knows that it is coming for him.

Currently, there are books covering Mars, Venus, Jupiter and its moons, a system-hopping full campaign, and books expanding on the peoples of the solar system and the asteroid belt. Future releases look to expand on the outer planets and bring the world of Rocket Age into the fifth edition of TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons's rules. An overview of the game setting [[https://writeups.letsyouandhimfight.com/hostile-v/rocket-age can be found here.]]

* AbnormalAmmo: Rocket Age features Radium laced flame thrower fuel, which apparently burns hotter, more efficiently and ''explodes'' into an even larger fireball. Did we mention it's also radioactive? The Jovians also make use of plastic spitting splinter guns and cannons, to make up for their lack of metal.

* AbsurdlyCoolCity: Most cities in Rocket Age could count, although most of the Martian cities are in various states of decline, but New York takes the cake. It's in many ways the same as our universe's New York in 1938, only with even more money thrown into it and enough sky traffic to make it feel like [[Franchise/StarWars Coruscant]].

* AntiMagic: Rocket Age has Blunts, people who are utterly immune to psychic powers. This is actually a NEGATIVE trait; people can't communicate with them telepathically, attempt to psychically heal them of trauma, or help them recall past events.

* ArtificialGravity: Gravity in Rocket Age is something of an odd beast since the setting attempts to emulate Buck Rogers, John Carter and Flash Gordon. In general artificial gravity works in one of two ways:

** Rocket Age's most advanced race, the Europans, seem to have true artificial gravity be virtue of the fact that their [[FlyingSaucer ships]] can actively ignore its effects, along with other things such as inertia.
* ArtificialLimbs: In Rocket Age one of the only ways to buy off the Missing Limb trait is to acquire or build a cybernetic replacement.
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Oooh boy. Humans walking on sky islands in Jupiter's atmosphere, radium powering EVERYTHING, freeze rays. Let's just say that Rocket Age only cares about physics when it wants to; the rest of the time it can sit in the corner.

* AstralProjection: Psychic characters in ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'' can learn to separate their minds from their body, leaving it in a coma while their shimmering astral form goes out into the world. If their body dies while they are separated, a person will either fade away, or be left as a disassociated spirit.

* AWorldHalfFull: Rocket Age is a surprisingly dark setting given the idealistic tone of the writing. Set in an alternate 1938, the great powers of Earth have conquered great swathes of the solar system while Earth itself is under constant threat of annihilation from the Europans, who have already done horrible, nearly genocidal things to two other species. Despite this, the moment you drop a group of player controlled heroes into the mix, the dark gets pushed back very quickly.

* BareFistedMonk: Along with the traditional Earthling martial arts like Kung Fu, Judo and Boxing, Rocket Age also features others like Celestial Fist and Maduri Wrestling from such worlds as Mars, Metis and Jupiter, allowing heroes to either be weapon or unarmed experts.

* BigApplesauce: So far Rocket Age's only adventure taking place on Earth happens slap bang in the middle of New York, involving a Rocket car chase that takes the heroes from the Empire State building to Art/LadyLiberty. Interestingly this also seems to occur in universe; the other races of our solar system tend to assume that New York is Earth's capital.

* BondVillainStupidity: Many a Rocket Age villain will happily allow heroes to escape unharmed, only for it to come back and bite them later in the adventure. However, this is nearly always [[JustifiedTrope justified]], as the villain may be playing some elaborate game with both the heroes and their own lives or using the heroes as a distraction to cover up their own escape.

* CantArgueWithElves: The Europans are the closest species Rocket Age has to elves, being immortal, psychic, technologically superior and potentially the oldest species in the solar system. They tend to go on about this a lot the few times they even deign to talk to the other species, although they do send out anthropologists to learn more about them. However, the real reason you can't say [[ScrewYouElves screw you Europans]] [[DisproportionateRetribution tends to be...]] [[ApocalypseHow unpleasant]].

* CarryABigStick: There are plenty of people walking around with staffs, clubs and maces in Rocket Age. They usually appear in the hands of more primitive peoples, or are a traditional weapon used in ceremonies and duels, like the Jovian beaked mace.

* ChandlersLaw: Like many other pulp settings, ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'' encourages its use to keep things lively.

* TheCityNarrows: There are plenty of cities in Rocket Age, each with their own narrows, but the most likely place for players to run afoul in is Emancipation's former factory and slave districts, which are full of crime as the city has yet to replace slavery with anything meaningful for the people that were freed. That's ignoring the cities that are literally just narrows, like Freelandia and Maven Haven.

* CodeOfHonour: There are many Codes of Conduct found in Rocket Age, from the oaths taken by Maduri warriors to the ethics practised by reporters and private detectives. All are covered by the Code of Conduct bad trait.

* ComplexityAddiction: There's a little bit of a complexity epidemic in Rocket Age, as many villains won't simply shoot the heroes, they'll tie them under a Rocket Engine, unleash mutant collared peccaries, or thrown into an arena. There's even one instance of a group of fanatical but otherwise perfectly sensible Soviet agents putting a hostage on a furnace's conveyor belt.

* CoolCar: Appropriately enough for the name, Rocket Age features [[FlyingCar Rocket Cars]], but the tropes also applies to many other vehicles in the setting, as it is the 1930s and sports cars are available. In fact, a conventional vehicle isn't even going to cost a player anything, even if it is a hot-rod.

* TheCoup: In many Martian principalities there is an almost constant danger of a coup, a side effect of the ruling sub-caste being large enough to have several claimants to the throne, with most claimants having sections of the army loyal to them. Many adventures hooks in Rocket Age feature the players either roped into a plot, caught in the middle or attempting to foil one.

* CriticalExistenceFailure: Heavily averted; damage in Rocket Age taken off the character's statistics, drastically reducing their effectiveness. If it wasn't for [[PlotArmour Story Points]] most characters would walk around permanently crippled.

* CultureClash: This is a constant theme in Rocket Age and the source of most of the setting's conflicts. Humanity makes huge assumptions about alien cultures, such as labelling the entire Martian courtesan sub-caste prostitutes, rather than the complicated geisha-like role they actually serve, or applying the moral norms of the 1930s to alien cultures with more open values. On the other side of the coin many Martians can't comprehend how human society works without castes or slavery.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Well, Rocket Age is set in 1938. Factor in alien cultures and things get real awkward real fast.

* DisneyDeath: Characters in Rocket Age are able to use their story points to dodge death or defeat, although at the cost of a new bad trait. Because of this any villain the heroes didn't see die by their own hand can be easily be brought back by the Game Master at a dramatic moment.

* DistressedDude: In something of a reaction to the kind of pulp science fiction Rocket Age tries to reconstruct, there are an almost disproportionate number of distressed dudes in the published adventures.

* {{Eagleland}}: The Rocket Age America is a mixed flavour version. The American Army on Mars is busy empire building and in a cold war with the State Department, who would really like them to ''stop conquering things''. However, there's also the Rocket Rangers, possibly the most inclusive and idealistic organisation in the solar system, that has frequently gone against government policy to do the right thing.

* ExperiencePoints: Rocket Age doesn't have a traditional experience point system. Instead it has Story Points, which can be awarded for completing missions, more for doing so well, and can be either used to buy special items or warp the plot. Every so often, a GM may give out character points to allow the players to upgrade their stats, abilities and traits, or give a player traits for acting in certain ways.

* FinalSolution: Although Rocket Age is a very idealistic setting the fact that the game takes place in an alternate 1938 means this crops up a lot. The various Earthling nations and companies are willing to help native peoples in enacting this on their long term enemies and the Nazis will do this personally. At least one example had a surrendering Martian city's entire ruling castes put up against a wall and shot, with the rest of the population sent to 'work camps'

* GenderIsNoObject: Rocket Age largely ignores gender as an issue, despite the game taking place in the late 1930s, since the kind of people willing to leave Earth tend to be progressive and more exposed to other cultures than those at home. Some of this change comes from exposure to Mars, where in most castes gender is utterly irrelevant.
* GentlemanAdventurer: In Rocket Age many of the characters you meet fall neatly into this category, being the ones with the disposable income to afford travelling across the solar system. Some even walk around totting sword canes, or become traditional [[GreatWhiteHunter big game hunters]].

* GratuitousForeignLanguage: Rocket Age is set in an alternate 1930s, where all of the major Earthling powers are spreading out across the solar system. The game designers acknowledge that their translations can be a [[{{Understatement}} little off]] and encourage Game Masters to give their players free story points for pointing out correct translations and grammar.
* GrapplingHookPistol: Rocket Age features the grappler, a lightweight rifle sized grapnel launcher with a magnetic head and vise-like claws. They're usually used by asteroid belt miners who'd rather not drift off into the deep black.

* HardboiledDetective: Although Rocket Age acknowledges that regular [[PrivateDetective PIs]] exist, the writers state outright that if you are playing as a member of the Wolfgang & Long Detective Agency you should essentially be playing as Humphrey Bogart.
* HardLight: In Rocket Age it is highly ambiguous whether Ancient Martian holigrams can occasionally be hard light, or whether there is some other sensory technology deployed in concert with the visuals. Whatever the reason, the effect is that one facility has what may be hard light simulations.

* HighVoltageDeath: Rocket Age has had an adventure end in a fight on top of a device that sparks lethal lightning bolts that are as dangerous to the heroes as the mooks they are fighting. Also one adventure features a fire in Tesla's secret lab and although fire might be the main danger electricity is still a grave risk.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Being an alternate history Rocket Age is awash with them, frankly too many to list here.
* HollywoodHealing: Rocket Age's story point system gives the players and the game master the ability to invoke this trope. It's called being ''Grazed'' and allows the character to collect themselves in a quiet moment and recover half their lost attribute points before continuing on with the adventure.

* {{Hologram}}: In Rocket Age they range from big flashy projectors to wrist mounted devices ala Film/TotalRecall1990.

* InMediasRes: Most Rocket Age adventures spend their time providing context and set up, but ''The Warlord of the Gravitic Portal'' starts in the middle of the heroes' first confrontation with the villain. There is a brief blurb on who he is and who sent you after him, but it's still quite a change after every other adventure opening with, well, the opening.

* IWantMyJetpack: Rocket Age revels in all the things we thought we might have in the future. You will never have to ask where your jet-pack is, or your flashy sky car, or your [[Film/BackToTheFuturePartII rocket board]].

* KilledOffForReal: Rocket Age uses the Vortex system, which generally allows both player characters and {{Non Player Character}}s to dodge death using their pool of story points, even if they are dropped into a volcano or last seen falling into space with a hole in their chest. However, if a character is all out of points or has the Slow Death trait, they are gone for good. Occasionally major [=NPCs=] die in story moments too.

* LostSuperweapon: There are enough of these floating around in Rocket Age that its a serious problem. Mostly left over from the war between Mars and Eris, they seem to crop up in most of the adventures.
* LostTechnology: More technology exists in Rocket Age's past than its present. Mars was once a technological paradise, the Erisians had some very developed medical and military technology and Io is also implied to have been very advanced before the Europans decided their neighbours' cities would look better as craters. In fact, most new Earthling technology is inferior reverse engineered Ancient Martian technology, with the possible exception of the rocket ship and some of Tesla's inventions.
* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: Shields are usually useless in Rocket Age, since most enemies have access to ballistic or [[RayGun advanced]] weaponry. The exception to this is the Venusian wooden shield. Made out a hard wood as strong as steel and coated with psychic crystals and resins, these ancient relics offer some protection against bullets and deflect ray beams.

* MacrossMissileMassacre: Missiles are becoming a more common weapon in Rocket Age. The Ancient Martians experimented with the technology before moving onto RAY weapons and many space ships carry large missile pods. The Russians have even manufactured a Missile Artillery Tank. ''In 1938''.

* TheManBehindTheMan: There are plenty of these in Rocket Age and more than a few women, too, such as Hantha, a former concubine pulling the strings of the Martian Warlord Tal-Matuth.

* MassiveRaceSelection: Rocket Age currently has 20 intelligent playable species, called sophonts. These are the Earthlings, Europans, Ganymedians, Iotes, Jovians, Venusians, Lizard Monkeys, Metisians, the Yeti of Callisto, the Thebans, the Anankians, and the 7 Major Martian Castes, one of which is made of two sub-castes. Rounding the list out are the Robo-men.

* MindControlDevice: At least one evil scientist in Rocket Age has surgically inserted mind control devices into aliens to create an army of monsters and given the [[WeirdScience setting]] he won't be the last.
* MindOverMatter: Psychic powers in Rocket Age include telekinesis, among the many other options.

* MultiMeleeMaster: Rocket Age's vortex system rules mean that any training is applicable to any area in that field, making all fighters equally comfortable with almost any weapon, although many still specialise.

* MysteryCult: There are a number in Rocket Age. Venus has several thugee-esque murder cults that operate completely underground and are exclusive enough that the induction can kill you. Martian faiths have several sects that fall into this as well.
* NamedAfterTheirPlanet: Nearly every race in Rocket Age, including the humans, are known by the name of their planet or moon. The only exceptions are the Robomen (because they are made as tools and servants) and the Lizard Monkeys of Venus (because no-one knows they're sapient and there's another sapient race on Venus).

* NaturalWeapon: In Rocket Age many creatures have natural weapons, including the Venusians. It is a trait in the character and monster creation system and can be taken to either give a creature something like AbsurdlySharpClaws or SuperSpit.

* NobleBigot: Rocket Age makes it explicitly clear that all player characters are meant to be heroes, however, there is the Bigot negative trait, which gives negatives when interacting with people the character would look down on. [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]], however, as the designers also make it clear that if a player has this trait the games master should require them to buy it off as soon as possible, to represent their character growing into a better person.

* OpeningMonologue: What with Rocket Age being written in the style of old pulp serials, every adventure has a monologue that can be read out if the Games Master so wishes, preferably in melodramatic style to match the text.

* OurWormholesAreDifferent: So far the only device capable of creating a wormhole in Rocket Age has the design flaw of allowing the gravity on one side of the portal effect the other, meaning that trying to use it would lead to worlds being destroyed.

* PerpetualStorm: As Rocket Age is set in an alternate version of our own solar system of course Jupiter's Red Spot makes an appearance. One adventure hook even involves trying to be the first to explore and document the interior.

* PointBuildSystem: Rocket Age uses a point buy system which the entire character creation process runs off. Want attributes and skills? One point for each advancement. Want good traits? However many points that trait costs. Want more point? Well then you'd better start looking at the bad traits...

* RayGun: A staple of Rocket Age. Nicola Tesla developed modern versions of these based off Ancient Martian designs and the Ancients even had Heat and Freeze Rays. They massively outclass most conventional weapons in the setting and include the ability to stun enemies.

* RetroRocket: Rocket Age loves its traditional, gleaming rocket ships and plays them to the hilt. They land on their fins, they burn radium for fuel and pack Ray cannons, most even have self destruct buttons. These rocket ships have it all and to top it off the inventors were Goddard, Einstein and ''Tesla''.

* SelfDestructMechanism: Rocket Age's titular [[RetroRocket rocket ships]] are often equipped with self destruct mechanisms to scuttle the ship and prevent it from falling into enemy hands, as well as potentially [[TakingYouWithMe take out the enemy with it]].

* ShamelessFanserviceGirl: Martian Julandri courtesans, both men and women, aren't so much shameless, as culturally trained with different social norms. They are aware of the reaction Earthlings have to their revealing or potentially non-existent attire, but they often don't see that as enough of a reason to change. Remember that Rocket Age is set in the 1930s...

* ShortRangeShotgun: Shotguns in Rocket Age have a ridiculously short range in comparison to rifles and using shot as opposed to slugs shortens the range even further.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Rocket Age sits somewhere in the middle. On one hand, there is genocide, death camps and Nazis. On the other there are plenty of people working to make the solar system a better place and the heroes are expected to win in the face of insurmountable odds.
* SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness: Rocket Age is somewhere in the middle, with tendencies towards the sillier, which works given it's based on pulp and retro sci-fi. You can walk around on islands in the skies of Jupiter for example, without being pulled deeper and crushed like a bug, though you'd better be wearing a space suit.

* SpaceFighter: Since the setting is called Rocket Age, it's practically mandatory for there to be Rocket Fighters, small two person rocket ships equipped for dog fighting.
* SpaceIsAnOcean: Space often seems very nautical in Rocket Age. There are pirates, fairly traditional navies and the great black beyond often seems more like an ocean to be crossed and explored.
* SpaceNavy: Justified in Rocket Age, since it is the 1930s and the only way the Earthling powers know to manage a fleet of ships is as a navy.

* SpaceStation: Not many that are mentioned. Most space ports are built into asteroids, moons or are ground based bases, as gravity (or lack of it) is less of an issue in Rocket Age due to RuleOfCool and space ships that rarely have trouble with re-entry.
* SpaceWestern: Rocket Age dabbles in this in places, with settlers on the outskirts of Earthling territories frequently dispensing their own justice, tousling with the natives and constantly having to battle off corporate interests looking to take out the little guy with hired guns. There are even Rocket Rangers who either act as TheCavalry. This is most common on Venus, Ganymede and in the Asteroid Belt, but can be found in other locales too.

* StandardSciFiFleet: Most fleets in Rocket Age pack everything from small fighters to large capital ships.

* TheStraightAndArrowPath: Although most people who use bows find themselves seriously outclassed in Rocket Age, Martian Chanari tribesmen who use the Bone Bow are generally far more dangerous, due to the sheer power of the weapon in the hands of a strong archer.

* TeleportersAndTransporters: Rocket Age has a number of transporters, but only one man portable: an Ancient Martian artefact that requires a beacon at the target location to work.

* ThoseWackyNazis: Pretty much every Nazi trope out there is played out here, possibly excluding {{Ghostapo}}. Though with psychic powers existing in Rocket Age there's no guarantee...

* TooCoolToLive: It is actually possible for players to [[InvokedTrope invoke]] this in Rocket Age with the Experienced trait. The trait gives more character creation points while cutting down the number of story points, which are mechanically PlotArmor. The trait can even be taken multiple times, meaning that the more experienced and ''cool'' a character is, the less influence they have on the story and the more likely they are to die prematurely.

* TrainingFromHell: There are a number of careers in Rocket Age that have the incredibly harsh training regimes. The Legion Martien (the French Foreign Legion on Mars) leaves a trail of ruined men in its wake and the Nazis have a number of brutal training regimes with high attrition rates, some of which require surgery. The Martian warrior caste also have universally harsh training regimes but they [[MadeOfIron can take it]].

* TwoFistedTales: Rocket Age is intended to have a pulpy, heroic play-style. It even has a story point system to let you manipulate the plot and pull off almost impossible stunts and bluffs.

* VillainousValor: Most Rocket Age villains tend to have some very admirable traits, even the ''Nazis''. One is an absolute gentleman for example, while another might be unspeakably brave despite his cruelty. However their deficiencies in... other areas tend to leave them somewhat less palatable.
* TheVirus: Although it hasn't yet been used in a printed adventure, Rocket Age does provide GM's with the Infection trait, allowing them to make their own space zombies and vampires.

* WolverineClaws: Rocket Age has Venusian warriors claws, traditionally made of knapped stone attached to a leather gauntlet, but trade with Earthlings has introduced metal to the mix as well. These are the descendants of Erisian battle claws, a far more advanced weapon capable of parrying Ray beams.

* Mohs/WorldOfPhlebotinum: The Rocket Age mostly runs on Radium, which apparently allows for ships fast enough to make trips between the inner planets only take weeks and trips to Jupiter only take months. Weaponry tends to be consistently explained and logical, although the setting does of course ignore the energy requirements. However, Rocket Age also includes psychic powers and immaterial beings and offers no real explanation.

* WeirdScience: Rocket Age has Weird Science coming out of its ears, from insane scientists inserting control chips into monsters, to killer robots and matter-energy converters.

* BoobyTrap: Along with traps set by sentient creatures heroes also have to contend with the trip line spider, a giant Venusian arachnid who puts both the [[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi ewoks]] and the [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietcong]] to shame.

* ItCanThink: Many creatures in Rocket Age are scarily intelligent, often to the surprise and despair of the Earthlings that first encountered them. The trip line spider of Venus sets up complicated booby traps, the Yetis of Callisto are intelligent, able to slip out of captivity and evade pursuit in the mountains of Germany and then there are creatures that may well be sentient.

* NamedAfterTheirPlanet: Nearly every race in Rocket Age, including the humans, are known by the name of their planet or moon. The only exceptions are the Robomen (because they are made as tools and servants) and the Lizard Monkeys of Venus (because no-one knows they're sentient and there's another sentient race on Venus).

* NGOSuperpower: The Red Scorpion is a powerful criminal syndicate engaged in smuggling, piracy, slavery and pretty much every other criminal activity throughout the solar system. WIth their headquarters on Saturn's moon Thethys, their sheer size is notable, but what makes them stand out is their access to world ending weapons, standing military, customised fleet of ships and advanced R&D department.

* NGOSuperpower: The Red Scorpion is a powerful criminal syndicate engaged in smuggling, piracy, slavery and pretty much every other criminal activity throughout the solar system. Their sheer size is notable, but what makes them stand out is their access to world ending weapons, standing military, customised fleet of ships and advanced R&D department.

* FishPeople: Titan is inhabited by two intelligent species, the Sivaan, race of literal StarfishAliens, and the H'ykar, described as a cross between a man, a frog and a fish. The H'ykar live in semi-submerged communities and have only just began to practice agriculture.

* FishPeople: Titan is inhabited by two intelligent species, one of which a race of literal StarfishAliens, while the other is the H'ykar. Described as a cross between a man, a frog and a fish, the H'ykar live in semi-submerged communities and have only just began to practice agriculture.

* KrakenAndLeviathan: Living in the atmosphere of the gas giant Saturn are massive floating creatures knonw as Kraken. Very little is known about them.

* DropTheHammer: Martian War Priests use Hamaxes, hybrid axe hammers, which can do tremendous damage to people wearing armour when the hammer side is used.

* CurbStompBattle: Any time a traditionally equipped Martian army gets into a scrap with a modern force. The Deutsche Marskorps and their war-walkers in particular are the masters of this.

* DataCrystal: The Erisians appear to have used crystals as computers.[[spoiler: In the modern era their Venusian descendants are able to store psychic energy in shards and make other powerful artefacts from Venusian crystals, such as the speaker's staff and the Venusian wood axe.]]

* TheBigRace: The First Solar Cup is a rocket race from Indianapolis Interplanetary Rocket Port, arounf Venus, then Mars, then back to Earth.