Thirded.
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The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
In search of a Sci-Fi system
- Thread starter TheIdeaOfGood
- Start date
Bacon Bits
Hero
I would suggest Savage Worlds + Sci/Fi Companion + The Last Parsec. I'm not sure if everything has been updated to the most recent version of SW, but if you want a fast playing, pulpy experience then SW is very hard to beat.
Stars Without Number is another game that's widely praised for being well put together. It's supposedly from the OSR style of games, and it has several D&Disms from my brief readings of the book. The PDF is available for free from DriveThruRPG.
MNblockhead
A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site
I second EXPANSE. The AGE system it uses for the engine creates a fun, crunch-lite, cinematic game. Even space combat is easy to run. Travel, however, can be crazy crunchy if you let it. I generally handwave it. While I like to read about the physics of space travel, I don't like figuring out flight paths when trying to run a game.
One potential downside for some players is that it is based on a hard-sci-fi setting. So, not a lot of alien races. It is NOT D&D in space or any flavor of high-fantasy in space.
One potential downside for some players is that it is based on a hard-sci-fi setting. So, not a lot of alien races. It is NOT D&D in space or any flavor of high-fantasy in space.
aramis erak
Legend
Alien and Coriolis are very similar - same company, same core engine. Alien can be played quite easily without using the eponymous Aliens; at its heart, it's JUST a sci-fi game with a strong system for stress causing PTSD.
Coriolis is very much a Chronicles of Riddick feel in the corebook look and setting.
Aliens has smoothed out the mechanics a good bit.
Star Trek Adventures has a couple of flaws due to 2d20 that the designers ignore, but otherwise is a pretty solid Gamist-narrativist hybrid. Character gen has 3 basic modes - Random Lifepath, Chosen Lifepath, and Pick as you Play mode. The two lifepath modes can be mixed easily, as it's roll or pick at each step. It is, however, strongly tied to Star Trek.
Firefly is years out of print now, and the PDFs came down last month. Otherwise, I'd recommend it.
Genesys is the Star Wars engine as a generic game. There are two sci-fi settings and more to come, supposedly, for it. THe dice are marked with different symbols, but the same names for the symbols, and the same distributions and colors, so Star Wars dice can be used with Genesys.
Mongoose Traveller (either edition) or Cepheus Engine are excellent choices as long as you don't want fidelity to the OTU as Marc Miller sees it. T5 is not, however, easy for many to wrap their brains around, but is the official framework going forward for Marc's view of the OTU. (But you have to extrapolate a lot from the tables until the M1900 book.)
Mongoose also has done some OTU stuff, canonistas like me cringe at them.
Mongoose has done far, far better by 2300 as a setting. Their hired author is excellent, and a deep fan of 2300.
DUNE is due out in 2020-Q4 or 2021-Q1. Also 2d20. Can't say much more than that - NDA. I will say: I am enjoying the playtest.
Coriolis is very much a Chronicles of Riddick feel in the corebook look and setting.
Aliens has smoothed out the mechanics a good bit.
Star Trek Adventures has a couple of flaws due to 2d20 that the designers ignore, but otherwise is a pretty solid Gamist-narrativist hybrid. Character gen has 3 basic modes - Random Lifepath, Chosen Lifepath, and Pick as you Play mode. The two lifepath modes can be mixed easily, as it's roll or pick at each step. It is, however, strongly tied to Star Trek.
Firefly is years out of print now, and the PDFs came down last month. Otherwise, I'd recommend it.
Genesys is the Star Wars engine as a generic game. There are two sci-fi settings and more to come, supposedly, for it. THe dice are marked with different symbols, but the same names for the symbols, and the same distributions and colors, so Star Wars dice can be used with Genesys.
Mongoose Traveller (either edition) or Cepheus Engine are excellent choices as long as you don't want fidelity to the OTU as Marc Miller sees it. T5 is not, however, easy for many to wrap their brains around, but is the official framework going forward for Marc's view of the OTU. (But you have to extrapolate a lot from the tables until the M1900 book.)
Mongoose also has done some OTU stuff, canonistas like me cringe at them.
Mongoose has done far, far better by 2300 as a setting. Their hired author is excellent, and a deep fan of 2300.
DUNE is due out in 2020-Q4 or 2021-Q1. Also 2d20. Can't say much more than that - NDA. I will say: I am enjoying the playtest.
Rangerwicket mentioned it, but EN Publishing's N.E.W. is great for a range of sci-fi genres.
enpublishingrpg.com
Powered by the WOIN system, which also powers Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD. It's very toolkit-oriented, with the intention that you create your own setting.
About as crunchy as D&D 5E, but different in approach (dice pools, flatter advancement, life-path character creation system).
Plus the PDF is only £9.99.
N.E.W. The Science Fiction Roleplaying Game v1.3
This book was updated to v1.3 on Sep 4th, 2023. If you purchased it before then and didn't get an updated downloaded link, contact us and we'll get you the most recent version.Bounty hunters track down outlaws hiding in trader towns on worlds at the fringe of the galaxy. Starships explore...
enpublishingrpg.com
Powered by the WOIN system, which also powers Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD. It's very toolkit-oriented, with the intention that you create your own setting.
About as crunchy as D&D 5E, but different in approach (dice pools, flatter advancement, life-path character creation system).
Plus the PDF is only £9.99.
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