Space RPGs?

[Plane Sailing]

Classic Traveller is still in print. And, going against the grain here... the original 3 books (called the "3 LBBs" or 3 Little Black Books) are nice because they predate all of this stuff about the Imperium and the enormous body of canonical setting material that has come about.

In the original 3 books of Traveller (also published as The Traveller Book in a single volume, or Starter Traveller as a boxed set) posit a sci-fi setting where laser weapons require backpack power sources, where the largest possible ship is 5000 displacement tons and the setting is whatever you want it to be.

That is the traveller that I started with - I was quite surprised when they brought out all that 'Imperium' stuff, because I'd already got my little cluster of planets and campaign world statted out by the time things like the uninspiring 'spinward marches' appeared.

I was always a little frustrated with traveller in the early days, because I wanted to play 'star wars' as a sci-fi game, and traveller just didn't match that... but it was the only sci-fi game around at the time!

 

[Plane Sailing]

3D Space charts might be realistic, but I am afraid conveying them in text form is very difficult, and ultimately leads to no real visualization of the world.

My personal preference is to consider that the planets exist in 3d space, but the maps are a convenient 2D representation. This is in the same way that many (most?) underground system maps are representational rather than accurate reflections of the routes and stations relationships to one another (see the iconic London Underground map for example).

After all, it has always been natural to make useful representations of real geography in order to facilitate navigation - my own username reflects the importance of shipping navigation charts which could be used flat rather than trying to calculate distances based on the portion of a sphere which your ship was going to sail over. Globes are useful, but most of the time we use flat maps. Why wouldn't people in the future do something similar.

 

[RFisher]

I was always a little frustrated with traveller in the early days, because I wanted to play 'star wars' as a sci-fi game, and traveller just didn't match that... but it was the only sci-fi game around at the time!

I seem to recall the story that the GDW guys went to see Star Wars just about the time classic Traveller was about to go to print. Who knows how things might have gone if Star Wars had been a little earlier or Traveller a little later?

 

[The Green Adam]

I was always a little frustrated with traveller in the early days, because I wanted to play 'star wars' as a sci-fi game, and traveller just didn't match that... but it was the only sci-fi game around at the time!

I remember the first time I ever played Traveller I hated it. I grew up on Sci-Fi, from Star Trek reruns and Legion of Superheroes comics to second hand novels by E.E. "Doc" Smith, Niven and a host of others. When a friend brought "a space version of D&D" to camp I was beside myself with excitement.

"I want to be an alien!" Sorry, there are no aliens. "How much for a laser gun?" They're very expensive. Most guns have bullets. "Do we at least go faster-then-light??" Yes. The next planet is two weeks away. "I see...so let's go back to D&D shall we?"

It wasn't until much, much later when I read the rules and ran it myself that I really grew to love it.

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[Ao the Overkitty]

I am very happy with my two sci-fi purchases at Gencon this year.

Hellas: Worlds of Sun and Stonehttp://www.hellasrpg.com - GREEKS....IN...SPACE!!!!!!! Okay, they totally suckered the Classics major in me with that purchase, but it is just plain sweet. Haven't run it yet (not my group's thing), but I am enamoured.

I also managed to get a copy of Spaceship Zero for $3 on Sunday. I had a blast the one time I've gotten to play it. Well, okay, it was run by Piratecat. I know, that man could make Paint: The Drying a fun game, but this game holds up even if he isn't running it.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Hmmm....verrrrry interesting! I'm studying Thucydides in college now, and I'm setting one of my space campaigns up for a Peloponnesian War-style scenario...that looks like fun!

 

[mmadsen]

I remember the first time I ever played Traveller I hated it. I grew up on Sci-Fi, from Star Trek reruns and Legion of Superheroes comics to second hand novels by E.E. "Doc" Smith, Niven and a host of others. When a friend brought "a space version of D&D" to camp I was beside myself with excitement.

"I want to be an alien!" Sorry, there are no aliens. "How much for a laser gun?" They're very expensive. Most guns have bullets. "Do we at least go faster-then-light??" Yes. The next planet is two weeks away. "I see...so let's go back to D&D shall we?"

As a kid, I only heard about Traveller -- no one I knew played it -- but your story strikes me as exactly how I would have reacted to a sci-fi game with no phasers, no blasters, no light sabers, no aliens, no jedi, etc. I suspect we would have just grafted them on and played our own version of Star Wars.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I don't know...I always liked the "retro-future" of Traveller- it reminded me of some of the early sci-fi movies and stories I devoured as a child.

Then again, my dad was a sci-fi enthusiast, so I had access to the classic sci-fi of the 40's and 50's for many years before Star Wars ever graced the screen.

Heck, I've been reading Ben Bova's "Planetary" and "Asteroid Wars" series- both set in the near future as humanity is first exploring the solar system in person- and wouldn't mind playing a game set shortly thereafter using those same old "retro-future" rules of Traveller.

After all, if you watch "Future Weapons," some of the things imagined in those old stories are just now coming to light, like man-portable laser weapons with big battery packs, for instance.

 

[The Green Adam]

I can totally see that as a viable and interesting setting but Traveller came out at a time when Star Wars was very much on the mind of most gaming aged customers. Plus, it said right on the cover, "Science Adventure in the Far Future". In 1977 the 'Far Future' didn't have bullets and slow FTL drives. I grew up on Ringworld, The Forever War, The Stars My Destination, Lensman, Retief and many other SF books just as much as TV shows, comics and movies and at first glance Traveller seemed dull and flat by comparison.

The real kicker is that over the years, and notably on this very board/forum, it has been mentioned that SF games have always had more difficulty then Fantasy in being accepted because we share a past, medieval period while everyone's view of the future is different. That is, we can all imagine and get behind a historical period but we differ on what the future holds.

Thing is, D&D now has little or nothing to do with the realities of a Western European medieval world and every time SF is brought up we all seem to be looking for roughly the same thing. There is a desire for a generic SF game with real art and production valves that does the basics of space opera like ray guns, starships, robots, cybernetics and aliens and has modular add ons for stuff like cyberpunk or near future. If I had the funds and could create any game, that is the one I would market.

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[Nikosandros]

My personal preference is to consider that the planets exist in 3d space, but the maps are a convenient 2D representation. This is in the same way that many (most?) underground system maps are representational rather than accurate reflections of the routes and stations relationships to one another (see the iconic London Underground map for example).

Actually, normally the planets will all be basically on the same plane, so that a 2d representation is fine... the real problem is that the planets move around in their orbits, so that a static map isn't really useful.

Another issue is that spaceships certainly won't confine themselves on plane, especially when they are fighting with each other.