Sci-Fi for RPGers

[Azgulor]

Yep, I have that sci-fi itch that I'm looking to scratch yet again. I've asked before, to limited success, but it's another year, so here goes...

Ever notice how there’s ton of visual media for the sci-fi genre that scratches your average RPGer’s itch?

Ever notice how few novels/series do so? Most are one-trick-ponies (1 exaggerated tech/theme) or still stuck in the Sci-fi-as-morality-play mode.

So what are good sources of “RPGer Sci-Fi”?

Examples of the types of sci-fi I’m seeking in novel/series form include:

Firefly/Serenity
Mass Effect 1 & 2
Dead Space 1 & 2
HALO
Star Trek (recent movie - ala more focus on characters & action rather than morality-lesson-of-the-week TV style)
Battlestar Galactica (yeah, it could be preachy, too, but it was well done and presented a fairly consistent universe with lots of action)
Battle: Los Angeles
Alien / Aliens
Babylon 5

Honorable Mention Sci-Fi films (fall into trap of 1-trick-pony more than others):
Predator
Terminator films
I, Robot (film)
Minority Report

Also, what novels make for good gamer sci-fi but are classified as adventure, mystery, or some other genre?

Film examples of one-foot-in-the-sci-fi-genre:
Adventure = Indiana Jones – Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Adventure/Thriller = EagleEye, Source Code
Espionage Thriller = Mission Impossible films (tech), Bond series
Superhero = Batman (recent films), Captain America, Iron Man


Here's the simpler criteria:

What sci-fi novels/series that, while reading or upon finishing the book, you could envision the setting & themes of the book sustaining a sci-fi RPG campaign? And yes, this means action, tension, combat, intrigue b/c I've yet to see the successful "Hard Sci-Fi - the cerebral role-playing game of moral allegory" appeal to a group of RPGers that typically plays FRPGs.

 

[Ahnehnois]

I'm not sure I see "morality play" as being a negative. A lot of good scifi is about asking what people are capable of.

That in mind, I think ST DS9 would make a wonderful long-running campaign.

Farscape is definitely rpg material.

 

[Azgulor]

I'm not sure I see "morality play" as being a negative. A lot of good scifi is about asking what people are capable of.

That in mind, I think ST DS9 would make a wonderful long-running campaign.

Farscape is definitely rpg material.

Agreed on all fronts.

However, they aren't novels. Well, ok, there's Star Trek fiction but I haven't found much that I liked, though I haven't read stuff from recent years.

I'm looking for sci-fi written fiction. I'm just referencing a ton of film/TV/video game intelletual properties that scratch my Sci-Fi-Gamer itch because I can find so very little of it in novel/fiction form.

 

[Azgulor]

Semi-tangent on the morality play:

I'm cool with sci-fi that presents moral conundrums/morality plays in the context of making one think. However, unlike the classic sci-fi authors of the 30s, 40s, & 50s, most attempts at such fiction from modern authors falls into the "preachy" camp. As in, "I've constructed a completely unbelievable universe/setting that hits you over the head with one exaggerated aspect solely to illustrate why this political viewpoint is superior." (Whatever that viewpoint may be....)

I don't want that.

 

[Silverblade The Ench]

Odd suggestions:
1)
World War 2.1 by John Birmingham
one of the best series I have ever read! Three books deal with a time travel accident dumping a near future U.N. naval taskforce right in the middle of 1942 US naval fleet heading to the Battle of Midway
The U.N. fleet has some Japanese ships...
Time Travel with really rough, well thought out, scary consequences and all kinds of things, including lots of espionage

Think of giving players the chance to play in WW2, one where the Axis may WIN if the PCs screw up...with more advanced tech than we've got, knocking heads with the backward nasty attitudes of the past (writer thankfully confronts such ugliness), and the horrors of total war (great part of the novels is the Japanese high command orders an invasion of Australia that's deliberately as vicious, evil and butcherous as possible)
"Morality" is not a cheap gimmick when faced with concentration camps, atrocities, or the NKVD torturing "future" people for information.

2) The "Destroyermen series", forget author's name
again WW2 setting, US destroyers get slung, not into the past or future, but into an alternate Earth, one where the dinosaurs didn't go extinct, one where vaguely raptor like race enjoy eating sentient creatures...
One part of what's great about these novels, is like the World War2.1 stories, about building tech' without the normal resources.
Instead of PCs fighting for loot...fighting to clear areas for oil drilling (of T-Rexs!), using skills to re-create an oil well, or weld damaged parts on the ship, etc...

 

[Mark CMG]

A Canticle for Leibowitz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Dioltach]

Based on your list, I think you might enjoy Space: Above and Beyond. I also recommend Harry Harrison's Deathworld cycle and his Stainless Steel Rat novels.

I don't know whether it should be classified as fantasy or sci-fi, but whenever I read Hiero's Journey by Sterling E. Lanier I always want to run a campaign set in that world.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Classic gamer Sci-Fi novels?

I'd have to start off with Larry Niven's & Steven Barnes' Dream Park novels. They feature murder/industrial espionage mysteries set against a backdrop of globally televised competitive LARPing in a Westworldesque park specially built for the purpose.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

If you want to explore a fantastic universe which is rather plausible from today's point of view read Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space series of novels. One wouldn't play a universe-spanning campaign in this setting, but many locations (e.g. Chasm City) are perfect RPG backgrounds in their own right.

Another series with its focus on cyberspace its Tad Williams' Otherland. It explores intrigues and secret machinations in a virtual reality environment and how it relates to real characters.

 

[Welverin]

How about [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Blackcollar-Timothy-Zahn/dp/1416509259/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313657689&sr=1-1"]Blackcollar[/ame] by Timothy Zahn. It doesn't have any morality play preachiness that I recall and it definitely has some actiony bits and the enhanced humans that would make good protagonist for an rpg.

Bonus: The link above is for a collection of the first two books that you can get stupid cheap and the [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Blackcollar-Judas-Solution-Timothy-Zahn/dp/1416555439/ref=pd_sim_b_1"]third novel[/ame] isn't pricy either.

You could also give his [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Cobra-Trilogy-Timothy-Zahn/dp/1439133182/ref=pd_sim_b_4"]Cobra[/ame] series a try, I have yet to finish this one so I can't say for sure if it will fit your criteria.

While I enjoyed the Conqueror's Trilogy, it may fall in the category of things you dislike, but I think it still has some of the aspects you're looking for.