Is hard sci-fi really appropriate as a rpg genre?

[WayneLigon]

I think the best SF stories are told 'on the fringes,' where highly-regulated highly technological society exists but there are also regions in which a more frontier feel is retained, due to technological or resource limitations. Nonexistence of convenient FTL would almost certainly lead to anachronistic and culturally distinct outer regions.

Just finished reading Gerrold's Star Wolf books and they have a pretty cool idea behind them, also tied in with your mention of the Frontier: quick and easy FTL travel means the worlds become more polarized, not less, because any group that feels it wants to be distinct hires a ship and founds a colony all it's own. Usually out as far as it can go, or on a world that no-one else will want.

 

[Virel]

If I was going to try to GM a hard sci-fi RPG, I would review some of Charles Sheifeld(sp) writings. He's one of the few current hard sci-fi writers. Most of his works cover space exploration in the solar system, specifically astroid belts, gas clouds etc. Colonies have been formed and are tired of being told what to do by earth. This develops into an inter system/outer system war and new order afterwards. Cold As Ice is one of the better books that address adventurer type sci-fi stories in the setting. Bio-tech etc are a very serious part of the stories. Also several of his short stories would make excellent adventures for a hard sci-fi rpg.

 

[Nuclear Platypus]

In case you're looking for critters with pics, might I recommend "After Man" by Dougal Dixon? The book is full of color drawings of possible critters that take the place of current (thus extinct) animals. For example, rabbits evolve longer legs and occupy the niche held by free range grazers like deer while rodents and baboons take the place of extinct carnivores. They're definitely quite bizarre looking.

 

[RFisher]

Is hard sci-fi really appropriate as a rpg genre?

Yes.

Now, in almost any entertainment set in something other than the real world, there's a limit to how different from the real world the fictional world can be. If you manage to find a group that is willing to dedicate the energy to understanding a world that is entirely different from our own, congratulations. For most of us, that isn't an option.

But, my experience is that the more things change, the more they stay the same. I expect any realistic future to have enough similarities to the real present to make it both accessible & a place where intesting adventures can be set. (Though, it doesn't bother me too much if a few consessions are made towards this end.)

To me, the hardest thing about a "hard sci-fi" roleplaying game is making up the charts & tables (or programs) to make calculating arbitrary transfer orbits & such quick & easy. I hope to find the time & energy to do that someday.

I will admit that I have trouble coming up with adventure ideas for such a setting which either (A) couldn't just as easily take place in a modern setting or (B) don't involve some sort of unknown to discover that ends up pushing the boundaries of the original "hard sci-fi" parameters of the setting.