What tropes do you want to see more of in sci-fi RPGs?

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

Like the thread on fantasy I started earlier, only for science-fiction.

I want to see more settings based around bypassing outer space, even though world-hopping is a possibility. Stargates are one example, with interdimensional travel being another. Reason: I don't care for outer space all that much.

 

[gorice]

I second the stargates.

Going to the other extreme, space travel that takes a long time.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

Going to the other extreme, space travel that takes a long time.

Like, how long? "Sailing to a new continent on Earth" long? "You might as well keep all the action on one planet because there's no way to get to a different solar system within a reasonable human lifetime" long?

 

[zarionofarabel]

Based on real physics!

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Travel via Stargates or other planet-bound devices is definitely something I'd like to see explored.

Another thing I wouldn't mind seeing is a Sci-Fi setting where it's not (at least not much) about some ancient dead civilizations and finding artifacts, and more like trying to get stuff from more advanced existing civilizations or entities, and otherwise trying to get recognized or accepted by them. Not hostile aliens, but aliens that just don't feel like sharing (maybe for good reason, maybe because they are petty, maybe because they are indifferent). If hostile aliens, they'd might be merely accidentally hostile and maybe not even capable of reasoning, something like a bunch of Von Neumann probes on search for more paperclip wire base materials.

 

[dragoner]

What I wanted, I made ...
Solis People of the Sun, Cepheus Engine/Traveller with 3D real star maps. Near future, with solarpunk, transhuman, and hard SF elements; influenced by writers such as Asimov, Banks, Drake, Hamilton, Norton, and Reynolds. First published this last September, though from over ten years in the making, and playing. I am the writer.
Solis People of the Sun - Wild Bee Publishing | DriveThruRPG.com

(This is a reddit reply)

 

[Ixal]

• SciFi games which take into account the gigantic scale of societies on developed planets (billions of people) and the huge industrial capacity that means.
• Less "one planet one climate" tropes.

 

[J.Quondam]

Like, how long? "Sailing to a new continent on Earth" long? "You might as well keep all the action on one planet because there's no way to get to a different solar system within a reasonable human lifetime" long?

You could go the "ark-ship" route, so all the action takes place on an interstellar habitat of some sort en route to a new solar system. Campaigns could focus on whatever happens during the long transit time in isolation; and/or examine the arrival of the arkship at its destination.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

You could go the "ark-ship" route, so all the action takes place on an interstellar habitat of some sort en route to a new solar system. Campaigns could focus on whatever happens during the long transit time; and/or examine the arrival of the arkship at its destination.

Okay, I admit: that's my bias against outer space showing.

 

[J.Quondam]

Okay, I admit: that's my bias against outer space showing.

Heh! Admittedly, it can be tougher sell, i suppose.
Some time ago, I tried to work out a campaign on the ark-ship model. The setting I came up with ended up being better suited to short-story fiction than an rpg.