I am adapting Rocket Age to a new system, and I would like you along for the ride. This column will be a designer's diary, but also an invitation to join the entire Why Not Games team and me as we embark on this journey. So strap into those crash couches, lock down your bubble helmet, and hold on.

Nearly a year ago I purchased the intellectual property I had created, Rocket Age , from Cubicle 7 and founded my own game company, Why Not Games. I wanted greater control over what creative work I did as well as control over Rocket Age. One of the first things our team and I looked in to was the feasibility of adapting the Rocket Age setting to a different system. I had already worked on the adaptation of Cubicle 7's The One Ring into Adventures in Middle-Earth. In truth, the Vortex system that Rocket Age uses was not even the system the setting was written for, and was in fact the third system attached to the setting. Originally, I envisioned Rocket Age as a Traveller product, but that deal fell through and Sarah Newton at Cubicle 7 wanted it for the Starblazer Adventures rules. In the end, Starblazer Adventures was dropped and the Vortex system, at the time intended to be Cubicle 7's in-house system, was used. That's right, the setting came first, the system came later, and Vortex is a good match for Rocket Age. It's just not the only system that matches well, as we are about to see.

Always Start with a Plan

The first thing we did was ask a simple question, why? Rocket Age already has a fan base, has been in publication for several years, and won an ENnie. Why go through the trouble and take the risks to adapt the setting to a new system? Why fix something that wasn't broken? We aren't fixing anything. From the start we decided that whatever we did we would continue publishing and creating new content for Rocket Age using the Vortex system. If nothing is broken, there is nothing to fix.

Which leaves the question of why? The Vortex system that powers Rocket Age has a strong narrative component, is meant for seat-of-your-pants play, and, let us be honest, is not terribly well known. We want everyone to enjoy Rocket Age, even if they want a more traditional play style. We know there are many gamers who do not want to try a new system; we learned that early on in trying to sell Rocket Age. It is very disheartening to see a potential customer walk away because they like the setting, but they either do not want to learn a new system or a system that has a different style of play.

Thus we made a decision, we were going to adapt Rocket Age to a different system, but which one?

The Auditions

Once the decision was made a hundred other choices opened up. Which system to use? We kicked around the idea of creating our own system, but quickly dismissed it. The amount of development and testing that would require was prohibitive; we are a small company and thus have to carefully husband our resources. We also had to ask what an in-house system would offer that either the Vortex system a licensed system doesn't already.

We looked at licensed systems, a lot of systems. Some we dismissed right off the bat, as they did not offer a significant difference in play style or mechanics. Others had too small of a following to make the effort and risk worth it. We set forth the following criteria:

• The new system needs to have a markedly different play style than the Vortex system.
• Yet, the new system needs to be a match for the setting in style and tone.
• The new system needs to be fun to play and write, no sense making a game no one wants to play, even if it sells well.
• The new system needs to offer a greater fan base than what we have and be more accessible than the Vortex system.

What followed were several months of testing. We narrowed the list down to three systems. Of these, we made some rough adaptations of the basics and ran them through a few playtest sessions. We really liked how all three played, how easy they were to work with from a writing perspective, and how they treated the setting. None required more than a few tweaks to make it fit, although it became apparent that the Rocket Age of the adaptation would be slightly different from the original. Not radically different, but slightly.

We settled on using the 5e system, we'll just say the 5th edition of the world's most popular fantasy role-playing system. It met all our requirements, being fun to work with, fun to play in our preliminary tests, and possessing a large fan base. Best of all, the license if free and fairly open, something not all licensed system can boast of.

It didn't hurt that I absolutely love the system and had experience working with it.

Adaptation vs. Conversion

We are not converting Rocket Age to 5e we are adapting it. Yes, there is a difference. Conversion is a numbers game, this stat becomes that stat, and this trait becomes that feat or feature. Yes, we are reusing some of the snappier names for things, but there is no straight formulaic conversion. Changes are being made, both to the system and the setting, to create a unified whole.

We stll sell Rocket Age, and to our fans who have been with us for years we already sold you Rocket Age. There is no reason to sell you the same thing with a flashier box. That is not who Why Not Games is.

Thus we are adapting, not converting. Much like going from one medium to another, going from one system to another requires some changes. You can try to hammer everything in so that the round pegs are in the square holes, but that doesn't produce anything worth playing. Besides, we have to look at it from the customer's viewpoint. If you want all the bells and whistles of the Vortex system then you want to buy Rocket Age Vortex (or maybe classic, still working on the name of the existing product line). We don't want to sell you the Vortex system with a d20, we want to sell you Rocket Age with a d20, same setting, different system.

Next up, we will start looking at the nuts and bolts of the adaptation process. Want to join us on this journey? Keep reading here, follow us on Facebook, and keep an eye on our website Why Not Games. You can also sign up to playtest Rocket Age 5e or any of our other ongoing projects by emailing Ken at ken@whynotgames.com.

Until next month, Rocket Rangers, Away!