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Science Fiction Setting
- Thread starter crossmlk
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teitan
Legend
the only sci fi I've played is Star Wars and Shadowrun. I preferred Shadowrun. I wanted to run Star*drive but my players didn't want to play an OOP game and wanted to stick to d&d so I got d20 modern and just never got to it. I'd love to run an original space opera though, not a ready made setting.
Are cat people, centaurs, wolfman and elves better (Speaking of Traveller)? And of course there are also psionic abilities (= magic).
And don't get me started on Star Wars. So where does Science Fiction end and Fantasy begin?
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Not a Traveller-player. I may have read through the game once, many years ago? But, in general, I don't feel the form of the body is what differentiates fantasy from science fiction. Ultimately, the breaks between fantasy and science fiction aren't so my about what happens, by why it happens, and what the story is attempting to explore.
Like this - no, psionics are not equivalent to magic. Some of the results are the same, but the operating principles differ. The base issue is this: The fundamental principles behind the powers in science fiction are generally scientific - rational, if inaccurate. The fundamental principles behind magic are irrational. Or, to put it in the language of science: If the operating principles are falsifiable, at least in theory, it is science fiction. If they are non-falsifiable, then it is fantasy.
I agree - Star Wars has many sci-fi trappings, but really qualifies as Space Opera or Space Fantasy.
All in all, we might summarize with Rod Serling, "Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science Fiction is the improbable made possible."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_science_fiction
Lots of Sci-Fi and Sci-fant settings I like...most a lady mentioned in this thread.
Evenglare
Adventurer
To be honest I haven't come across many sci fi settings I absolutely LOVE, the exceptions would be Star wars and Mass effect as well as the phantasy star online world and feel. To this effect I am creating my OWN science fiction setting, rather I like to call it a Mythic Science Fiction game, using the archmage engine that powers 13th age. It incorporates all the classic fantasy and sci fi tropes into a galaxy of it's own. If you are interested more in it you can find it here> https://www.facebook.com/groups/545069165538276/ I have a pretty awesome illustrator I'm working with and I love the feel he gives to the game.
pming
Legend
Hiya.
I'm actually kinda partial to a couple...I'd have to say: Gamma World 3rd Edition, Living Steel, Battletech/Mechwarrior and Aliens.
Now, GW3rd is more of a "science-fantasy" setting, with all the mutations and whatnot, but I just love the "just enough info" presentation of the game to let me decide on the specifics.
With Living Steel, (which, I'd like to point out, I've never actually played), we have the initial promise of humanity reaching out into the stars...only to be thwarted by nuclear armageddon and some crazy "cryo-stasis saviours for the future of the human race". I get very stark, distinct visuals from this game. Me likey!
The Battletech/Mechwarrior setting...vast. It encompasses a HUGE range of potential stories. You could play thirty different campaigns using this setting and every one would be different. You could do everything from "abandoned planet struggle for survival", to palace intrigue to military power struggles, to epic space-battle 'divvying up the galaxy' campaigns. Go pure PC oriented, pure battlemech oriented, or somewhere in between. Clans or no clans. Whatever you want, you can do it.
Lastly, the Aliens setting is one of those "believable" sci-fi settings. The space travel and tech just seem so much more "believable" than the tech from BT or LS (and definitely more than GW). Governments are there to manage the day-to-day living stuff, but the corporations are the ones that make the actual 'big decisions' because they hold all the tech and money. The solar system and little corner of our Milky Way seems so vast...yet so small. I just like the "realistic" feeling of it the most I guess. Oddly enough, in our campaign (we've only had one, and we always use it when we play), I don't think we ever actually ever encountered an "Alien"; closest we has was one crazy PC xenobiologist who obtained an "egg" and was secretly transporting it back to his lab...hehe...yeah, that didn't end well...
^_^
Paul L. Ming
I'm actually kinda partial to a couple...I'd have to say: Gamma World 3rd Edition, Living Steel, Battletech/Mechwarrior and Aliens.
Now, GW3rd is more of a "science-fantasy" setting, with all the mutations and whatnot, but I just love the "just enough info" presentation of the game to let me decide on the specifics.
With Living Steel, (which, I'd like to point out, I've never actually played), we have the initial promise of humanity reaching out into the stars...only to be thwarted by nuclear armageddon and some crazy "cryo-stasis saviours for the future of the human race". I get very stark, distinct visuals from this game. Me likey!
The Battletech/Mechwarrior setting...vast. It encompasses a HUGE range of potential stories. You could play thirty different campaigns using this setting and every one would be different. You could do everything from "abandoned planet struggle for survival", to palace intrigue to military power struggles, to epic space-battle 'divvying up the galaxy' campaigns. Go pure PC oriented, pure battlemech oriented, or somewhere in between. Clans or no clans. Whatever you want, you can do it.
Lastly, the Aliens setting is one of those "believable" sci-fi settings. The space travel and tech just seem so much more "believable" than the tech from BT or LS (and definitely more than GW). Governments are there to manage the day-to-day living stuff, but the corporations are the ones that make the actual 'big decisions' because they hold all the tech and money. The solar system and little corner of our Milky Way seems so vast...yet so small. I just like the "realistic" feeling of it the most I guess. Oddly enough, in our campaign (we've only had one, and we always use it when we play), I don't think we ever actually ever encountered an "Alien"; closest we has was one crazy PC xenobiologist who obtained an "egg" and was secretly transporting it back to his lab...hehe...yeah, that didn't end well...
^_^
Paul L. Ming
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