Genres/Settings I enjoy watching but not playing in. You?

[dragoner]

Like dragoner says, for most tables, it is best to abstract the science. But that can remove the flavor of a hard-science setting. It can be tough to strike a balance.

Using D&D's three pillars, the social, and exploration work fine in hard sf, it's the combat that runs against expectations, because getting shot or stabbed even once can be life threatening. However, if one manages those expectations, we can "bring our own light", to paraphrase Kubrick.

“The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent, but if we can come to terms with this indifference, then our existence as a species can have genuine meaning. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.”
- Stanley Kubrick

 

[aramis erak]

Hard science fiction. Not that I don't like it. I love it, both as a fiction genre and for play...

But in order to run it, you need to know a lot of science. To play it, you usually also need to be a highly science-literate person. And getting a whole table of that together is really difficult.

Players only need to be semi-literate to play many hard SF settings... if they trust the GM to be fair.

Sci Fi- I love Star Wars, but "hard" Sci Fi- Traveller, Alternity, Star Trek..it's always short lived.

Not a one of those even approaches hard sci-fi. Traveller's the closest, and it's intended to be space opera in the mode of 50's and 60's pulps. (Source: Marc Miller himself on COTI threads in the Moot.) TTNE tried to go hard SF, but really failed badly.

There are some almost-hard-SF games out there: GURPS: Transhuman Space, Albedo, Justifiers, Shock, Diaspora...and none of those is without it's soft-spots.

I have enjoyed my runs of Albedo and Justifiers. Albedo is about as hard as one can get without losing hyperdrives. (My own Broken Starship: Missing Manifest is harder, but only just a bit. No FTL. No nonhumans.)

For me, the genres I don't like playing but enjoy watching? Medical Dramas.
I've never played/run modern cop-shows, either, but I don't mind near future ones, nor fantasy or historical fantasy law enforcement campaigns, so...that's just a lack of players for it.

 

[Beleriphon]

For me, the genres I don't like playing but enjoy watching? Medical Dramas.
I've never played/run modern cop-shows, either, but I don't mind near future ones, nor fantasy or historical fantasy law enforcement campaigns, so...that's just a lack of players for it.

Police: The Procedural would probably be a pretty boring game. Even the most technically accurate cop shows are only interesting in the investigation, interrogation, and interpersonal processes of the characters.

 

[Tyler Do'Urden]

I've never found non-fantasy Science Fiction to be very satisfying to run as it always seems a little lacking in the power-accumulation side of things, which is part of what makes D&D so compelling - leveling and acquiring powers and magic items is fun! While you can add elements of this to a sci-fi game, it's much more difficult and limited, and usually ends up just spilling over into fantasy anyway. Star Wars and Starfinder are much easier to run than Star Trek or Traveller, at least from this perspective.

Though I might give a sci-fi game another shot some time. We'll see.

 

[dragoner]

Though I might give a sci-fi game another shot some time. We'll see.

This is the best way of thinking (imo), never saying never, if the mood hits, I might try any game. Also, such as at the bar the other day, there was a big pathfinder game going down with battle mats, minis, all that, PF isn't my jam, except I'd fight to the utmost for people's right to like it, “We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike”. To quote Maya Angelou's Human Family.

 

[Umbran]

Players only need to be semi-literate to play many hard SF settings... if they trust the GM to be fair.

Well, then we have to talk about "fair" in this context.

The problem with hard sci-fi is exemplified by the phrase, "Gravity is a harsh mistress." Hard sci-fi is supposed to hew very close to the laws of science as known at the time of the writing. If the players are only semi-literate, they will have issues making good choices within the restrictions that the universe imposes. A seemingly simple thing like deciding to chase a bad guy in space, when you have limited delta-V, can be disastrous three steps down the line.

 

[pogre]

Supers

Star Wars

Star Trek

Lord of the Rings

Pirates/Swashbuckling

Mostly love the media around these - just not interested in running or playing games in those universes.

 

[aramis erak]

Well, then we have to talk about "fair" in this context.

The problem with hard sci-fi is exemplified by the phrase, "Gravity is a harsh mistress." Hard sci-fi is supposed to hew very close to the laws of science as known at the time of the writing. If the players are only semi-literate, they will have issues making good choices within the restrictions that the universe imposes. A seemingly simple thing like deciding to chase a bad guy in space, when you have limited delta-V, can be disastrous three steps down the line.

Serious hard SciFi, anything set past 2100, players probably will never be in charge of a ship... if the ship isn't an AI, it's still likely to be able to inform of the range and fuel status for overtake fast, and won't let them do suicidal courses (including no-return) so that really is pretty irrelevant, with a knowledgeable and fair GM.

It's really not much harder than running a realistic Modern game. And easier than a realistic historical. I've done all three. Won't do realistic moderns again, and will only do realistic fantasy when I have suitable players.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well, then we have to talk about "fair" in this context.

The problem with hard sci-fi is exemplified by the phrase, "Gravity is a harsh mistress." Hard sci-fi is supposed to hew very close to the laws of science as known at the time of the writing. If the players are only semi-literate, they will have issues making good choices within the restrictions that the universe imposes. A seemingly simple thing like deciding to chase a bad guy in space, when you have limited delta-V, can be disastrous three steps down the line.

Which is why, IMHO, a good hard Sci-Fi game should do the ahem heavy lifting on things like that, using only die rolls to decide actions taken by sci literate PCs played by non/semi-literate players.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

There aren’t any GENRES I don’t want to play, but games or campaigns that are too interwoven with the inspiring fact or fiction are often frustrating.

For example, I was once asked to play Morley Dotes in a D&D campaign. Not a Dotes-like character, but Dotes himself. It was...challenging.

Similarly, playing a BSG/Star Wars/Star Trek campaign set in the major scenario covered in the franchises feels more like historical war gaming than RP to me.