Recommend me a futuristic science fiction RPG system

[MarkB]

I'm looking to run a space-based campaign soon - something along the lines of Star Wars with maybe some Firefly elements thrown in. However, I'm having trouble finding a system I'm comfortable with to run it in.

Systems I'm currently aware of include:

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.

Stars Without Number
This one looks promising. I've seen some Let's Plays of it which went fairly well, and have browsed the free PDF version which seems to be pretty solid. The default rules are a little on the deadly side, but I've seen some houserules which look to do a good job of mitigating that. I'm not sure whether it's worth going for the full hardcover version, particularly as I can't find a UK reseller for it.

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.

I know there are a few others around at the moment, but I don't have enough knowledge of them to even guess whether they'd be what I'm after. I could use a more generic system, but ideally I'm looking for something that will cover the races and technology of a science fictional setting, hopefully including some decent vehicle-combat rules. Any recommendations?

 

[Blue]

Have you looked into N.E.W.? The softcover digest is $10 on Amazon right now and I'm really impressed by the character creation. And the production values.

It's SF covering multiple sub-genres - it has specific rules and/or careers for emulating different like troupe play with bridge crew & away teams, jedi analogs, star navies or smugglers, marines and ex-cons. Star Wars and Firefly would be an easy fit, both of those seem like they were specifically designed to be emulated with N.E.W.

 

[CapnZapp]

Try Coriolis

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

 

[MarkB]

Have you looked into N.E.W.? The softcover digest is $10 on Amazon right now and I'm really impressed by the character creation. And the production values.

It's SF covering multiple sub-genres - it has specific rules and/or careers for emulating different like troupe play with bridge crew & away teams, jedi analogs, star navies or smugglers, marines and ex-cons. Star Wars and Firefly would be an easy fit, both of those seem like they were specifically designed to be emulated with N.E.W.

I ran a playtest version of N.E.W. and we had some issues with the dice system - much like Traveller, it felt like it over-rewarded specialisation, especially with the sixes-explode mechanic. I'm not sure how much of that made it into the final version. I'll give it another look.

 

[Blue]

I ran a playtest version of N.E.W. and we had some issues with the dice system - much like Traveller, it felt like it over-rewarded specialisation, especially with the sixes-explode mechanic. I'm not sure how much of that made it into the final version. I'll give it another look.

I didn't see the playtest to say what changed. Dice explode rarely - there are a few exploits that allow it once per day. Dice pools grow slower the better you are at anything, leading to it being easy to be well rounded and expensive to specialize, plus there is a dice pool size cap based on your grade so even if you over-specialize it doesn't do too much good.

 

[MarkB]

I didn't see the playtest to say what changed. Dice explode rarely - there are a few exploits that allow it once per day. Dice pools grow slower the better you are at anything, leading to it being easy to be well rounded and expensive to specialize, plus there is a dice pool size cap based on your grade so even if you over-specialize it doesn't do too much good.

Oh, that sounds a lot more manageable. I'll definitely give it another try.

 

[Water Bob]

D6 Star Wars. No question.

 

[Morrus]

I ran a playtest version of N.E.W. and we had some issues with the dice system - much like Traveller, it felt like it over-rewarded specialisation, especially with the sixes-explode mechanic. I'm not sure how much of that made it into the final version. I'll give it another look.

The final version is different to the playtest version (the playtest process did its job).

 

[5ekyu]

i would want to get some specifics on what kind of dice mechanics, levels of specialization, etc etc and such you prefer to run, given you nix several based on not liking them with no real specifics on why?

Do you prefer classed based or point buy? Do you prefer buffer-ablative system (like HP) or damage save/condition based systems? Do you want a lot of crunch and decisions in combat for longer detail driven combat scenes or quick on the fly in and out and done combats?

Do you prefer detail driven "specialization" focused chargen where "build" is a consideration or do you prefer more flexible broader strokes chargen?


Also, what flavor of campaign are you looking for - star wars is a good start but are we looking at jedi-super-power levels like in the phantom menace full jedi 1-2-3 movies, the grittier levels of emerging jedi in new hope and empire 4-5, even grittier levels of 7 or back to high end power levels of 6 and 8 or the more down to earth Rogue One non-super-powers scale?

What scale of advancement do you see in your PCs? Are we talking Luke farmboy to jedi master from 4-8 or more static levels like we saw in 1-3 and even in rogue one?

Matching "Star Wars" to system is a lot more than than just the movies to the dice, its the campaign you intend to run and what it entails to the overall campaign style and play - especially when there seems to be pretty key decisions about dice mechanics and degree of specialization already determined but not stated.

Thanks

of course, the good news is those other products can be used for resource material even if you do not use their mechanics.

Depending on these kinds of answers (which BTW would be made by me AND my players, not just me), I might try myself anything from T20, old traveller, D6 Space, Esper Genesis, Fudge or any number of True-20 or MnM style systems. heck an argument could be made for using some core WoD type basis or Cyberpunk 2020 or even a variant on Shadowrun (with force replacing the magic and races reskinned.)

 

[MarkB]

i would want to get some specifics on what kind of dice mechanics, levels of specialization, etc etc and such you prefer to run, given you nix several based on not liking them with no real specifics on why?

Yeah, sorry I wasn't able to be more specific - honestly, I didn't have a specific scenario in mind when I originally posted, so much as a hankering to do something within this genre. Having looked at the final product in a little more detail, I think N.E.W. may well serve my needs, and have ordered it from Amazon.

I do now have a scenario coming together, though I'll have to see if I can sell it to my players. I'm thinking of running a game in the setting of Cowboy Bebop, maybe combining that with some of the flavour of The Expanse - the two settings are different in tone, but they have a lot in common in world-building terms, and a bit of cross-pollenation may produce some interesting results.

Thanks very much to everyone who replied.