Mass Effect?

[MarkB]

Remember the scale of the galaxy. There are billions of stars. The relays skip over a few million stars to get to the next relay. Whole stellar empires could be nestled between the relays without anyone knowing the better... perhaps even the Reapers.

Another possibility: There could be several - even dozens - of different Relay networks, none connected to the others, all overseen by the Reapers, dozens of civilisations growing in parallel without ever touching each other.

 

[Agamon]

To take it to an even more extreme scale. Perhaps a new relay comes on line that goes to a whole new galaxy... There are in fact billions of galaxies and each has billions of stars.

Mass Effect: Atlantis?

Seriously, like any setting, there's lots to explore with current lore, and there's always a lot of other directions to go, too, because like you say, space is big. 60 million possible earth-like planets in our galaxy alone is more than any game's going to need.

 

[Wik]

60 million possible earth-like planets in our galaxy alone is more than any game's going to need.

...until your PCs get their grubby hands on that "Fully operational death star".

 

[Krensky]

...until your PCs get their grubby hands on that "Fully operational death star".

They'll regret it.

Have you seen the maintenance costs for those things? The payroll for the crew? The utilities bills?

No, thank you.

 

[Agamon]

They'll regret it.

Have you seen the maintenance costs for those things? The payroll for the crew? The utilities bills?

No, thank you.

Not to mention the design flaws....

 

[Lord Captian Tobacco]

Yea. Come on. Really.

$20 bucks worth of plywood and duct tape would have had those torps exploding on the surface and the Rebels would be looking for another rental

 

[Agamon]

Wow, now this is what I'm talking about. Looks to me like the next best thing to an actual Mass Effect game: Savage Mass Effect

 

[Bagpuss]

Wow, now this is what I'm talking about. Looks to me like the next best thing to an actual Mass Effect game: Savage Mass Effect

I did mention that one earlier. It's on the Savage Worlds Conversion site I linked to.

 

[Bagpuss]

found another excellent resource for Mass Effect.

Random Maps by DWebArt on deviantART

there are other version of the star map in his gallery

Random Maps by DWebArt on deviantART

 

[CotV]

Then further considering it I came to the realisation that pitching a Scifi rpg (even one with many fantasy elements in it) is a far riskier financial option for a publisher than another germanic fantasy esque rpg. A lot of gamers wont even look at a non fantasy rpg.

Unfortunately I have found this to be true more often than not. I can say that while it is not ME and is still in the beta stage of development, ME has been a huge influence in the creation of Chronicles of the Void. We have been putting a ton of work into creating a ranged combat system that "feels" like a live firefight and as you can tell by the art we are very serious about the presentation and quality of the universe.
Chronicles of the Void

BTW: I am SO hoping for Tali and Wrex in ME3!