TV-DERIVED CHARACTER ADAPTATIONS

CAPTAIN ANTHONY WILLIAM "BUCK" ROGERS

Val	CHA	Cost	Roll	Notes
13	STR	3	12-	Lift 150 kg; 2 1/2d6 HTH Damage [1]
16	DEX	18	12-	OCV:  5/DCV:  5
16	CON	12	12-
12	BODY	4	11-
14	INT	4	12-	PER Roll 12-
14	EGO	8	12-	ECV:  5
18	PRE	8	13-	PRE Attack:  3 1/2d6
18	COM	4	13-

3	PD	0		Total:  9 PD (6 rPD)
3	ED	0		Total:  9 ED (6 rED)
4	SPD	14		Phases:  3, 6, 9, 12
6	REC	0
32	END	0
27	STUN	0		Total Characteristics Cost:  75

Movement:	Running:	7"/14"
		Swimming:	2"/4"

Cost	Powers & Skills
	Martial Arts:  Commando Training
	Maneuver	OCV	DCV	Damage
3	Aikido Throw	+0	+1	3 1/2s6 +v/5, Target Falls
4	Boxing Cross	+0	+2	5 1/2d6 Strike
4	Escape	+0	+0	28 STR vs. Grabs
3	Hold	-1	-1	Grab Two Limbs, 23 STR for holding on
4	Judo Disarm	-1	+1	Disarm; 23 STR to Disarm roll
4	Karate Chop	-2	+0	HKA 1/2d6 (1d6+1 with STR)
4	Kung Fu Block	+2	+2	Block, Abort

13	Awe-Inspiring:  +20 PRE; Only to Make Presence Attacks (-1/2)
10	Kick:  Hand-To-Hand Attack +4d6; Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/2), Extra Time (Full Phase; -1/2), END 2
23	Cinematic Flirting:  Mind Control 8d6, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2); Extra Time (5 Minutes; -2),
	Limited Normal Range (3"; -1/2), Does Not Provide Mental Awareness (-1/4), Cannot Pay END to Prevent 
	Deterioration of Breakout Roll (-1/4), Cannot Achieve EGO +30 Results (-1/4) plus 
	Mind Control 6d6, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2); Extra Time (5 Minutes; -2), Only to Achieve 
	+20 "Target Cannot Detect Mind Control" (-1/2), Limited Normal Range (3"; -1/2), Does Not Provide 
	Mental Awareness (-1/4), Cannot Pay END to Prevent Deterioration of Breakout Roll (-1/4), 
	Cannot Achieve EGO+30 Results (-1/4) 
2	Fast On His Feet:  Running +1" (7" total), END 1
30	Lucky Buck:  Luck 6d6

	Perks
5	Access (Earth Defense Directorate headquarters)
10	Computer Link (Earth Defense Directorate Database)
12	Contact (Dr. Huer) (Contact has access to major institutions, Contact has:  extremely useful Skills 
	or resources, Contact is slavishly loyal to character) 14-
7	Contact (Hieronymus Fox) (Contact has:  extremely useful Skills or resources, Contact is slavishly 
	loyal to character) 8-
15	Contact (Buck's women) (Contact has:  useful Skills or resources, Contact is slavishly loyal to 
	character), Organization Contact (+2) 8-
6	Fringe Benefit:  Membership:  Captain
1	Fringe Benefit:  Starship License
2	Fringe Benefit:  Concealed Weapon Permit (where appropriate)
8	Fringe Benefit:  Interstellar Police Powers
8	Fringe Benefit:  Security Clearance (Earth Defense Directorate)
15	Follower (Twiki the drone) (75 Base, 75 Disad)
4	Reputation (heroic agent of Earth) (A small to medium sized group; 14-) +4/+4d6

	Talents
12	Combat Luck (6 PD/6 ED)
3	Lightning Reflexes:  +2 DEX to act first with All Actions
3	Lightsleep
1	Resistance (1 point)

	Skills
20	+2 Overall
24	+3 with All Combat

0	AK:  Chicago 8-
1	AK:  New Chicago 8-
3	Bureaucratics 13-
3	Breakfall 12-
3	Concealment 12-
5	Concentrated Sprayfire
3	Combat Driving 12-
9	Combat Piloting 15-
3	Cryptography 12-
5	Deduction 13-
3	Disguise 12-
3	Electronics 12-
2	KS:  American Football 11-
2	KS:  Military/Mercenary/Terrorist World 11-
2	KS:  U.S. Air Force History and Customs 11-
4	KS:  20th-Century Earth History 13-
0	Language:  English (completely fluent; literate, native)
3	Mechanics 12-
5	Navigation (Air, Land, Marine, Space) 12-
3	Persuasion 13-
0	PS:  Pilot 11-
2	PS:  Earth Secret Agent 11-
5	Rapid Attack (HTH) 
5	Rapid Attack (Ranged) 
5	Rapid Autofire
2	SS:  Astronomy 11-
2	SS:  Botany 11-
5	Seduction 14-
3	Shadowing 12-
5	Stealth 13-
3	Systems Operation 12-
5	Tactics 13-
3	Tracking 12-
4	TF:  Common Motorized Ground Vehicles, Combat Aircraft, Science Fiction and Space Vehicles
4	WF:  Blades, Human Small Arms, Vehicle Weapons

375	Total Powers & Skills Cost
450	Total Character Cost

200+	Disadvantages
5	Distinctive Features:  Earth Defense Directorate Uniform (Easily Concealed; Noticed and 
	Recognizable; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses)
25	Hunted:  Draconian Empire 11- (Mo Pow; Harshly Punish; Extensive Non-Combat Influence)
10	Hunted:  Earth Defense Directorate 14- (Less Pow; Watching; Extensive Non-Combat Influence)
15	Hunted:  Rogues gallery 8- (Mo Pow; Harshly Punish)
20	Normal Characteristic Maxima
15	Psychological Limitation:  Likes women... A LOT (Common; Strong)
15	Psychological Limitation:  Misses the 20th Century (Common; Strong)
20	Psychological Limitation:  Smartass (Common; Total)
10	Reputation:  20th Century man displaced into 25th Century 11-
15	Rivalry:  Professional and Romantic (Princess Ardala), Rival is More Powerful, Seek to 
	Outdo, Embarrass, or Humiliate Rival, Rival Aware of Rivalry
150	Experience

450	Total Disadvantage Points

Background/History: Buck Rogers represents a most unusual milestone in not only science fiction, but American fiction in general. Debuting in Phil Nowlan's 1928 story Armageddon A.D. 2491, he is not only one of the first heroes to headline a far-future setting (helping to establish the sci-fi subgenre of space opera), but he's actually also one of the earliest examples of a secret agent as the public thinks of them in modern fiction. So much is his character associated with high-technology and gadgetry that his very name conjures images of such things. Since his debut, there have been a number of incarnations of the character, but likely the version portrayed by Gil Gerard from 1979-81 is the best remembered. While on the television show, his first and middle name were reversed (William Anthony Rogers), most incarnations give his name as Anthony William Rogers. In just about all incarnations of the character, he is an Air Force pilot who accidentally falls into a cryogenic sleep and is thawed out 500 years later to help protect a war-torn Earth from evil.

The television version, presented here, is an astronaut who in an alternate 1987, is launched onto what is supposed to be a 5-month tour of the Solar System in a one-man starship, the Ranger III. There are conflicting stories as to what actually caused his accident; a second season episode portrays the accident as an engine malfunction which spreads into the ship's life support systems, but the show's opening montage clearly shows an explosion of some kind suddenly appearing directly in the path of Ranger III. Either way, the ship's life support system fails, and coupled with a release of numerous gases into the ship's cockpit, Captain Rogers is cryogenically frozen, preserving him for what becomes a 500-year orbit around the Solar System, exaggerated from the ship's original 5-month trip by whatever accident places Rogers in the deep freeze. In 2491, he is awakened by the crew of the starship Draconia, the flagship of the warmongering Draconian Empire. There he encounters the alluring but fiendish Princess Ardala, and her aide, the pragmatic and wary Kane, a brilliant tactician and strategist. Rogers' arrival signals what we be the foiling of the Draconians' plan to trick to the Terran Federation into a treaty; Draconian warships have been posing as pirates to cut off Earth's food supply, so that they can trick Earth in granting them landing privileges for their ships. The Draconians reprogram Ranger III to return to Earth and allows Rogers to depart, but places a homing device aboard the now-ancient ship to try and discover a weakness in the planet's defense systems.

When Rogers reaches Earth, he and Ranger III are nearly destroyed by the Terran defense shield, but are intercepted by Colonel Wilma Deering, leader of an Earth Defense Directorate starfighter squadron, and escorted to New Chicago, the new capital city of the Earth, and one of the few survivors of a massive nuclear holocaust that took place shortly after Rogers mission. On Earth, he meets Dr. Elias Huer, leader of the Defense Directorate, and his aide, a Quad (a sentient A.I. in a box) named Dr. Theopolis, who is a member of the New Chicago Computer Council. They break the bad news to the astronaut, and in the process, compound Rogers' shock by informing him that he is suspected of being a Draconian spy. To help in his defense, he is given a humanoid drone named Twiki to serve as his aide, and left in the care of Colonel Deering who, while she is sure of Rogers' guilt, is also secretly attracted to him.

Rogers subsequently sneaks off with Twiki and Dr. Theopolis to explore the wastelands of Old Chicago, but when he is attacked by the mutant population, Deering appears to rescue him. She then returns them to New Chicago for Buck's trial, where he is found guilty, but is given a second chance to prove that he is not working for the Draconians. They travel to the approaching starship Draconia, which is supposedly unarmed, but which Rogers knows is carrying a fleet of attack ships with which to attack Earth. But as Rogers and Deering reach the ship, a fleet of the Draconian pirate ships attack under the pretense of an attack on the Draconia. Rogers and Deering climb aboard their Earth Starfighters and defend the ship against the "pirates," but most of the Earth squadron which escorted them up are destroyed; they are over-reliant on their fighters' combat computers and as a result are no match for the pirates. That is, all except for veteran Air Force pilot Rogers, who quickly takes the reigns of his fighter himself, and single-handedly vaporizes the pirate squadron, saving Colonel Deering's life in the process.

The Draconians decide to honor Rogers by making him the guest of honor at the state dinner where the Draconians plan to begin negotiations. The astronaut, knowing their true intentions but unable to prove them, decides to seduce Princess Ardala (who has already become quite smitten with him) into taking him back to the Draconia. She does so, but Rogers manages to escape her attentions while aboard the ship (subduing her towering tattooed bodyguard Tigerman), and decides to try and foil the attack himself by sabotaging their ships. But Twiki and Dr. Theopolis have managed to follow Rogers to the Draconia, and after spotting him in a Draconian uniform (which he is using as a disguise while he sabotages their fleet), they decide that the astronaut is indeed a spy, and attempt to capture him... until they realize that he is sabotaging the enemy's ships. Their original beliefs in Rogers' innocence confirmed, the two A.I.s, at Rogers' instruction, then reach a communications station and summon Colonel Deering and the Earth fleet to attack the Draconia.

Meanwhile, Kane (at Ardala's instructions, contrary to those of her father, King Draco) orders the Draconian fleet to attack, but Rogers' sabotage destroys their ships as they leave the Draconia. As Rogers continues his work, a recuperated Tigerman attempts to stop him, but a low blow from Rogers halts the warrior's attack, allowing the pilot to resume his sabotage. Colonel Deering's squadron arrives and attacks the Draconia, dealing massive damage with their weaponry. But Deering realizes that Rogers, Twiki, and Theopolis are still aboard, and so boards Draconia to their rescue, leaving the ship just as the Earth fighter squadron finishes off Draconia. Ardala and Kane escape the dying ship via an escape pod, to trouble Rogers and Earth later.

For his efforts, Rogers is cleared of the espionage charges on Earth, and offered a job with the Earth Defense Directorate. While he chooses not to officially join them, he does remain on as an unofficial troubleshooter of sorts, performing various feats of daring-do and cunning to protect Earth, and the innocents of the galaxy. While he encounters enemies of all shapes and sizes, his most frequent and troubling enemies are Princess Ardala, Kane and the Draconians. While Kane does his best carry out the orders of King Draco, Ardala is headstrong and ambitious, and while both desire to conquer the Earth, Ardala is consumed with possessing Rogers as a concubine and/or husband. She, like most women he encounters, is bedeviled by him, and most of her plots concern not only destroying or conquering Earth, but taking Rogers for herself.

While some records exist of the 20th century, most are gone, and so Rogers finds himself alone in time and space... that is, except for Hieronymus Fox, president of the planet Genesia, an African-American boy from the 20th century who is biologically 11 Earth years old, but even by the standards of the 25th century is a genius of revolutionary intellect. The little boy had invented a cryogenic sleep capsule around the time of the holocaust, and to prevent additional loss of life, tested it personally by freezing himself in the capsule, and centuries later, due to looters and other bizarre circumstances, found himself thawed out on Genesia, whose population soon named him their president. The brilliant and charismatic little boy was rescued by Rogers and Deering after being kidnapped by interstellar terrorists. Fox recognizes Rogers to be of kindred spirit, and does his best to visit Rogers when he can to cheer him up and assist the Earth Defense Directorate, though most of his time goes to working on the issues of Genesia.

But Rogers closest friends are still Twiki, Dr. Theopolis, Dr. Huer, and of course, Colonel Deering, all of whom, while finding Rogers "ancient" practices beguiling, still respect and like the temporally displaced astronaut, and do their best to help him acclimate himself to the 25th Century.

(Buck Rodgers created by Phil Nowlan)


Return to TV-Derived Character Adaptations.