Recommend me a futuristic science fiction RPG system

[Enevhar Aldarion]

If you want something that uses the 5E OGL, there is Esper Genesis. The basic rules and a starter adventure are both free and available on DriveThruRPG:

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/220027/Esper-Genesis-Basic-Rules

 

[pemerton]

Traveller
I still have a copy of Mongoose Traveller kicking around somewhere, but I didn't find it a great fit for me. I'm not keen on the character generation system, and the skills system tends to feel rather all-or-nothing - either you're specialised in something, or you'd be better off not even trying it.

It seems like you've already made a decision, but I can recommend Classic Traveller as a pretty playable game. Specialisation is important for technical skills (less so for combat and social interaction), but we found that two PCs per player (which is what an old White Dwarf article recommended) made for a pretty rounded party.

What I've liked about Classic Traveller is that (with a few exceptions - overland travel most notably) it has pretty tight resolution systems, which superficially are ultra-simulationist but also yield fairly tight resolution. (I don't know the Mongoose version, but to the extent that it is closer to MegaTraveller then it will have less of these tight systems and a more generic GURPS-like "universal resolution" mechanic, which will lose some of those strengths.)

Traveller won't give you Star Wars combat, though - it's more brutal than that, and also less Flash Gordon-y in the default weaponry.

I don't know Stars Without Number other than by reputation, but [MENTION=16586]Campbell[/MENTION] is a fan, I think, and might be able to say more about it.

 

[practicalm]

I played a few games of Stars Without Number and I'm just not fond of level systems in modern or sci-fi games.
I think the original West End Star Wars or if you are feeling especially brave you can grab the 4th edition GURPS Star Wars book. (Edit: The GURPS Star Wars book is totally fan created and not official by any means.) I've skimmed it but not sure how well it would play.

Probably better than Space Opera though.

 

[Thomas Bowman]

How about D20 Modern/D20 Future? That is what I have, the system is generic while the various Star Wars RPGs are not! Most science fiction role playing games are setting specific, but D20 Future does not have a specific setting, you can adapt it to whatever setting you want. I like it because its mechanic is similar and compatible with D&D 3.5 and thus by extension Pathfinder. Pathfinder has Starfinder, but they made the mistake of making it setting specific. I've tried Starfinder, but they watered down the science part of it too much and made it bend too much towards the fantasy component. GURPS is also another system, but I think it has too many books that you need to play the game. That is what I found. One time I had a whole shelf full of GURPS books and I attempted to play them game and I found that I kept on having to open up new book to get to the various rules I wanted. Overall I liked D20, it was simple enough and to the point and generic enough that it could be adapted to my purpose. My purpose was to turn Venus into a fantasy/science fiction world.

I added a mechanic, two more different kinds of Armor classes, one for bullets, the other for energy attacks, and plain old AC for muscle-powered weapon attacks, including natural attacks from monsters.

Venus above its South Polar region has a set of twin polar vortexes, in my game, I'm assuming they are not simple weather phenomenon but actually the sign of an extra-dimensional gate leading to a parallel universe, one where magic exists, and Venus is a habitable planet.

 

[pemerton]

Probably better than Space Opera though.

I'm not sure that's setting a very high bar!

 

[fuldry]

Star Wars Edge of the Empire
Seems like an obvious choice, and would have a lot of the detail I need, but I have issues with the dice system. I've watched some YouTube game sessions, and it just looks clunky, from having to customise each die roll based upon notional difficulty to adjudicating all the odd combinations of success, failure, advantage and threat, which seems to result in practically every other action having weird consequences to it. Maybe I need to play it myself, but so far I haven't been able to find anyone local who runs it.

It runs really well.

You need to remain aware to get the players to roll when it matters. When it does not, just decide whether they are skilled enough to succeed on the first try.

My main gripe : coming from a long running Shadowrun game, the wounds/strain system IS annoying me, as you go from perfectly healthy to suddenly unconscious as some other medieval games. You might also want to have a look at the recently released Genesys which is basically the same game, without the Star Wars licence.

 

[ATT_Turan]

Star Wars Edge of the Empire
Seems like an obvious choice, and would have a lot of the detail I need, but I have issues with the dice system. I've watched some YouTube game sessions, and it just looks clunky, from having to customise each die roll based upon notional difficulty to adjudicating all the odd combinations of success, failure, advantage and threat, which seems to result in practically every other action having weird consequences to it. Maybe I need to play it myself, but so far I haven't been able to find anyone local who runs it.

It runs really well.

You need to remain aware to get the players to roll when it matters. When it does not, just decide whether they are skilled enough to succeed on the first try.

This is the key to not having "weird consequences." If an action doesn't have the potential for dramatic twists, they shouldn't be rolling to resolve it. It also doesn't take much work to have a little list prepared of ways you can resolve Triumphs and Despairs for each skill (you can find plenty already made with a cursory Google). Someone rolls an unexpected Triumph while hacking an Imperial system? You have a brief description of an encrypted file he discovers which provides a future adventure hook. Hits a Despair? Have him trip an alarm in the base.

My main gripe : coming from a long running Shadowrun game, the wounds/strain system IS annoying me, as you go from perfectly healthy to suddenly unconscious

This is definitely an aspect to consider when choosing a system - the FFG Star Wars system has fast, deadly combat. If you want to have a hack-and-slash focus in your game, I don't think this is a good choice.

I'm sure you can still get the rulebook, I thought the Wizards of the Coast Star Wars Saga Edition was a very well done ruleset, and would recommend using that over D20 Future as it's easy to strip out Star Wars-specific material and it has numerous improvements.

Anti-recommendations...I've tried both Eclipse Phase, which I found uninspiring, and beta tested Star Trek, which I strongly disliked.

 

[Volund]

http://infinitegalaxies.net/aboutig.html

Infinite Galaxies uses the PbtA rules system. Free rules download if you want to check it out. Disclosure: I game with the developer and it's KS is live now.

 

[CubicsRube]

Second coriolis. Approachable system but with enough crunch to be interesting. Nice star ship design system. Great setting (arabian mights in space) and i love the party and icon feats