Space RPGs?

[S'mon]

Starblazer Adventures should be out soon and by all accounts should be packed full of sci-fi inspiration, even if the FATE system it uses is too postmodernist for my tastes. It's kinda odd - Starblazer is based on straightforward 1970s sci-fi adventure comics from my childhood, but has established itself pre-release as an rpgnet darling, which has to be at least partly due to using the same ruleset as Spirit of the Century.

Troll Lord's StarSiege: Event Horizon should also be on general release soon and looks like being a clean, simple sf system, d20-based system for easy adaptability.

These are the two I'm waiting for, anyway - though I think I may get Mongoose Traveller too, I've heard a lot of good things about it. Starblazer is aimed at high octane rock & roll space opera, Traveller has a much more 'low sci fi' feel; higher on realism, lower on the blasters and giant space monsters/robots. StarSiege seems to be aimed also primarily at the lower-sf end - more Aliens than Buck Rogers, though the designer says it's intended to be adaptable for various levels, which Traveller really isn't.

 

[S'mon]

The only space rpg I've played was a few sessions of Spaceship Zero. I'm not a huge space sci-fi fan but I enjoyed it a fair bit. It's not terribly generic though kind of pulpy 50's sci-fi, with classes like slave girl, space pirate and what I played, robot.

Hmm, the blurb text for Spaceship Zero turned me off, but that sounds awesome.

 

[S'mon]

Now, if you're looking for something that is actually like Twilight 2000 in terms of plausible far future sci-fi adventure with an emphasis on verisimilitude, you may want to look at 2300 AD (which, despite initially being branded as Traveller, is actually the official future of the Twilight 2000 setting).

Traveller: The New Era is Twilight: 2000 in space.

BTW I like the d20 rules but have always hated, hated d20 Modern/Future's base classes - "Strong Hero" "Fast Hero" etc - which both sound silly and, being generic, completely miss the point of a using a class-based system. They've completely ruined for me the games I've bought that use them (eg Grim Tales, Mars). I think a good source for 'real' d20 sf classes like Marine and Academic is Traveller20, if you can get hold of it. I thought it was a pretty good combo of Traveller and d20 rules; if you replace its Stamina/Lifeblood rules with regular Hit Points you go from Traveller-esque gritty to D&D style high-powered heroes. It's still towards the low-sf side though but would be ideal for something like Space: Above & Beyond or the new Galactica (leaving aside spacehip combat rules. I cannot make sense of spaceship combat in any iteration of Traveller I've seen.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Hey everyone. I've been reading some sci-fi space operas as of late, and it's really whet my appetite to run a space RPG. Only problem is, I don't know of any great space RPGs. I own the Star Wars books, but that's definitely not what I'm looking for. The Battlestar Galactica and Firefly RPGs aren't very interesting to me, either. I even own the Star Trek RPG books, but to be honest, I haven't checked them out too much - the theme seems to be heavily integrated with the system, and I'm not going for a Star Trek theme. I just got GURPS Space and HERO Space, and I'm checking those out.

Thus, I pose the question to the powerful minds on these forums: what Space RPG do you recommend?

If you would like to playtest Starguild OGL for me, let me know and I'll send you a copy

Cheers

 

[jdrakeh]

Traveller: The New Era is Twilight: 2000 in space.

Well, it uses the same standardized rules, yes, but it still takes place in the official Traveller setting (albeit long after the fall of the Third Imperium). 2300 takes place in the Twilight 2000 game universe, which is a different setting entirely unrelated to the Third Imperium and Traveller.

 

[Treebore]

Traveller. It stands the test of time, and the new Mongoose Traveller has the best presentation yet, but still get the GURPS material.

 

[S'mon]

Well, it uses the same standardized rules, yes, but it still takes place in the official Traveller setting (albeit long after the fall of the Third Imperium). 2300 takes place in the Twilight 2000 game universe, which is a different setting entirely unrelated to the Third Imperium and Traveller.

Yes, but T: TNE has the same author, all the post-apocalyptic tropes, and basically the same rules as T:2000 2nd edition. Traveller: 2300 AD is (implausibly) set in the same universe as Twilight: 2000, but is basically optimistic, exploratory, and lacks any of that. 'Set in the same universe' doesn't really mean much if the genre is different.

 

[Angellis_ater]

Systemwise I would suggest True20, but it seems that you are more interested in settings than systems per se (have I understood this correctly?). I would recommend Reign of Discordia, Alternity/Star*Drive and the OOP sci-fi game Trinity.

 

[jdrakeh]

Traveller: 2300 AD is (implausibly) set in the same universe as Twilight: 2000, but is basically optimistic, exploratory, and lacks any of that. 'Set in the same universe' doesn't really mean much if the genre is different.

All I'm saying is that 2300 is still the official future of the Twilight 2000 universe, whereas TNE is not. I realize that TNE seems like a better fit for Twlight 2000, but canon is firm about 2300 being linked to the Twilight 2000 setting and TNE being linked to the Traveller setting, rather than vice-versa.

I think it's fair to say that TNE is a lot like T2K in space, but saying that it is T2K in space breaks with the reality and potentially confuses Traveller newcomers by distorting facts. I know that people misrepresenting TNE as a continuation of (or link to) Twilight 2000 confused the heck out of me at one time

 

[Tetsubo]

OK,

Some folks have mentioned the new Traveller from Mongoose, Fading Suns, and Transhuman Space which I think are all excellent but I'll add two more:

Battlelords of the 23rd Century - This game is a blast. If your players like traveling to exotic, alien worlds and blowing stuff up, this is THE game. Twilight: 2000 in space.

Worlds Beyond - It's almost impossible to find and it's a vanity press book (you must be able to cope with some editing challenges) but it captured everything I looked for in a Traveller/Firefly type game with nice easy to use mechanics.

JoS.

I didn't think anyone else owned a copy of Worlds Beyond. I've never played it though, just part of my collection.