Year of the Phoenix
1986 … Martin Wixted … Fantasy Games Unlimited 4101
The game’s premise is a “red” herring… if you’ll pardon the pun. The players are American astronauts in a 1997 where the Cold War still gripped relations between the USA and Soviet Union.
Characters are generated, and the GM gives them a glossy “Space Command Training Manual” to familiarize them in their roles as American military astronauts.
Once play begins, however, so does the disorientation.
You are one of an elite few Astronauts. In the year 1997, and a vital link in our American strategic plan. As a member of PROJECT PHOENIX, you exist to defend our space station, our moon base… and beyond.
But tragedy strikes. During a rescue mission at the space station AMERICA, a freak accident tears you from your Shuttle and plunges you through a time warp. You awaken in an America that is not your own; it is the year 2197, and America fell to the Enemy almost 200 years ago.
Now the players are strangers in a strange land, finding their fellow “Amerikans” under the oppressive boot of the “Zoviets”.
Never played this one myself, but the premise is intriguing.
If I don’t have any available, usually there are a few on Amazon for a reasonable price.
See also: Aftermath RPG – rare Phoenix Games box cover + later edition photos
Space Opera: Science Fiction Role Playing Game (Blue Box: 1st Edition)