Need a sci fi game that's non d20

[Piratecat]

I unequivocably recommend the new game Spaceship Zero. It's published by Green Ronin but it isn't d20; it has a very elegant percentile system.

The game isn't for you if you want hard sci-fi, though; it's more like Lost in Space meets Dr. Who meets Forbidden Planet. Great fun.

 

[DMScott]

Kind of a hard sci-fi guy myself... in that vein, I'd look for Traveller (classic, Mega-, GURPS, or Marc Miller's various republishings - all good), Traveller 2300, or GURPS' other sci-fi efforts. Space Hero is a nice compromise between hard sci-fi and classic space opera. For a more space fantasyish approach, there's a relatively recent Star Trek RPG - no idea if it's any good, I've just seen the books at a couple of FLGSes.

Depending on how important starships are, you could also just grab Cyberpunk/Shadowrun/etc. and use their rules in a space-based setting. That works well in settings where starships usually aren't under direct PC control.

 

[kipling]

Okay folks. I have a problem. My players want something other than d20 fantasy to play. So I'm left trying to come up with something new and different to do for a while. I'm looking at doing some sci-fi, but everything I'm looking at is d20.

So the question is are there any decent systems supporting scifi that aren't d20 and are readily available at the FLGS? Please list the pros and cons of the system when you mention it if you can.

I've already been looking at the star hero system. Can anyone give any advice on that system as well?

Thanks!

Star Hero is part of the Hero Games line; you'll need the big fifth edition rulebook as well. That said, I think the Star Hero book is a marvelous overview of the various genres of SF, and it actually manages to complement GURPS Space.

GURPS Space is one of the classics, and you can either cannibalize it for the game system you like (I did for years with Hero and with CORPS) or you can go GURPS, which will require the main rulebooks (GURPS Basic and GURPS Compendium 1 are now considered main rulebooks) and maybe other books as well, depending on how much you want to get. GURPS Traveller has the same problem, since it refers to GURPS Space and the GURPS basic rules.

The reprint of the original Traveller rules is also kind of cool, and you need only the first of the reprint rules--it did quite well for us in the early 80s.

I happen to like BTRC's CORPS but combat is deadly, and while it's elegant it's not necessarily simple--not for beginners without handholding. It's a generic system rather than an SF system, but it does things quite well.

The various Dream Pod 9 books, particularly Jovian Chronicles and Heavy Gear, do SF quite well, and you can ignore the giant robots.

Blue Planet is quite nice; the GURPS version requires all those GURPS books.

I have a copy of Aeon-which-became-Trinity sitting around but I've never played it, so I can't tell you if it's particularly good. It's a White Wolf game, though.

How crunchy do you want the rules? How hard do you want the SF?

 

[jyurkiw]

I personally have to throw my hat in here for Cyberpunk, Shadowrun, and Heavy Gear. All great games.

Jeff

 

[Desdichado]

Kind of a hard sci-fi guy myself... in that vein, I'd look for Traveller (classic, Mega-, GURPS, or Marc Miller's various republishings - all good), Traveller 2300, or GURPS' other sci-fi efforts.

For what it's worth, I wouldn't agree that the various Traveller incarnations are all good... I'd go with Classic, Mega- or GURPS myself and ignore the rest of them.

 

[Desdichado]

Kind of a hard sci-fi guy myself... in that vein, I'd look for Traveller (classic, Mega-, GURPS, or Marc Miller's various republishings - all good), Traveller 2300, or GURPS' other sci-fi efforts. Space Hero is a nice compromise between hard sci-fi and classic space opera. For a more space fantasyish approach, there's a relatively recent Star Trek RPG - no idea if it's any good, I've just seen the books at a couple of FLGSes.

I don't know that I'd agree that they're all good. I'd go with Classic, Mega- or GURPS myself. T20 isn't bad, too, but I just don't see the point. It's also dreadfully hard to read.

 

[shadowlight]

What about Star Frontiers?!! Hop on eBay and grab yourself a copy!

 

[Hodag]

If you really want to bring the pain, and the "realism", look for an old SPI game called Universe

Otherwise Traveller is extremely cool, I even like 2300AD and Mega-.
How whacked out do you want your science? Space Opera, Science Fantasy, Hard SF?

 

[Von Ether]

$15 for 300+ pages, you can’t beat the softcover Trinity book, which is also a good read. You can play normal humans, but the default game is that your group is part of a “psi corps” (yet even in the corps, the logistics of bureaucracy means that only 1 out of 8 people in an order are psinoic.) Depending on how you picked for PC and where you put the game, you could pretty much squeeze out what ever you wanted. For example:

Bughunt: Normal human GI vs Aberrant lifeforms on KLG
Cyberpunk: Electrokinetics in the lower levels of the moon colony
Star Wars: IRSA starship pilot with psi sword in Deep Space
Hard SF: Normal human explorers on Qin homeworld or Extra Solar colonies
Comic Book SF: Telekinetics vs Coalition
Shapeshifter Paranoia: Biokinetic in the Amazon
Kingdom Come: A Legionare patrolling the Blight in America

It was one of the few SF games I played that felt like a SF movie on the speed and ease of play.

And like Transhuman, Traveller and Blue Planet, the game doesn’t just give a GM one motif or set up. Just as Transhuman looks into how new tech will change the definition of humanity, Trinity delves into what effects bio-tech will have on people. In fact, Trinity doesn’t drop in its psionics in the setting “comic books” style, but examine how cultures would react. Some embrace it, some worship it and others ban it.

Unfortunately, that is also its flaw. You have to read the book, not skim it. IMHO, other than Traveller, most non-licensed SF games have an uphill battle because the good ones have depth that has to be read and ruminated on. With licensed properties, everyone comes in know what to expect and knows how their concept will fit in. Traveller is the “oddball” because it isn’t really a licensed property, but it was the first hard SF RPG, so it has the loyalty of a lot of old timers. It sort of fits in with that cult status like Feng Shui and Taslatia, games that struggle and go one despite sales and previous owners.

As another suggestion, if you pick Star Hero, use that for hard SF. Otherwise, BESM is probably better for Space Opera and soft SF.

 

[Dougal DeKree]

so many good leads...and nobody mentioned Spacemaster from ICE?

Dougal