One guy in my high school gaming group really, really preferred science fiction to fantasy. He was a fantastic player in my AD&D game but he didn't play often.
He bought the original Traveller game, read it "twice," and brought us together to make characters.
One player rolled up a baron (?) with his own spaceship. Hurrah! We had a great mix of character types. Everyone was very excited to play.
The baron's player had to make one more life path (or whatever it was called) roll: death.
We never played Traveller.