Sci-fi likes/dislikes

[NewLifeForm]

Infinite Possiblities

I like SciFi in general far more then fantasy, but rarely find any RPGs that do it well. Classic Traveller is the closest, a huge universe that resembles space opera with a more hard science edge. I love aliens, not as humans in funny suits, but as examples of science and biology that differs from ours affecting the culture of species mindset. I'm also a big fan of Star Wars D6 which I play using a bit more science mixed in with my mysticism. I'm not a big fan of technbabble, but as stated, I really hate it when the answer to everything is "it's magic".

Later Days,
NewLifeFrom

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Think about it. Take something like Aliens for example. Great movie, sucky SF. The marines were supposed to be bad arsed right? Then why in heck are they not sporting cybernetic enhancements and all the nifty doo dads that we are developing today?

Take something simple.

Right now, DARPA is developing a widget that looks a lot like an oversized dragonfly. It has a camera on it. They can be released, fly autonomously to the target and take up an observation position. This isn't SF, this is being tested right now. So, why in heck are the Colonial Marines heading into the buildings without checking things out first? Release a swarm of these things, hooked up to a heuristic AI capable of detecting hostiles and sit back while the machines do the work. Short time later, the computer tells you that the colonists are all bundled up at the reactor core and there's a bunch of big, bad, black aliens waiting down there. Oh, and there's a little girl hiding over there too. If you would like sir, the autonomous UAV's can kill all those aliens with their electrically fired miniguns and would you like cream in your coffee?

Again, Transhuman Space has all that and more. So get it already!

 

[Hussar]

Heh, okay, okay, just as soon as I pay off the installments on the World's Largest Dungeon, I'll get right on it. ) But, I took a peek, it does look pretty good. Not sure about using Gurps mechanics, but, I'm open minded.

 

[Goblyn]

I like Stargate; both the movie and the series. How to do it in an RPG tho ... I might say d20 modern, but I don't know d20 modern.

As far as what in SciFi ... I guess it doesn't matter to me, as long as it's thought through; or if not thought through, there is room in the game system fo that 'thinking through' to occur.

Maybe: just a single new tech exists, be it those surveillance dragonflies, nanobots, or cloning/grafting. I guess I like hard Sci-Fi but then, I'm a fan of the idea of magial integration taken to its logical conclusion(s).

... ramble ramble ... rant rant ...

 

[James Heard]

Internal consistency is the key. I can do Star Wars or Star Trek (though the single FASA Star Trek game I played in ended in a very non-Trek mutiny against the imbecility of the captain) but I still do better in my much beloved Traveller, which actually predates my D&D playing by a few months because it was easier buying those little black books than coming up with the cash to buy all the rules I "needed" to play in that newfangled AD&D game that obsoleted my brand new boxed sets. I even showed up for a Farscape game once, only to decide that not only did I not like the show still, but I couldn't get into the game either.

I might be the only person here that's actually played Ringworld. I ran a several years long Cyberpunk game with dozens of active players (show up or not, the important thing was that people would shoot at you). Star Frontiers was fun, but I think I spent more time playing the wargame (whose name I can't remember) based upon it. I didn't like Gamma World, because I thought it was goofier than TMNT. I'd ran enough Interlock-based Fringeworthy-as-science-fiction games that I was a bit funked when Stargate the movie came out, but if I could get anyone to play in a game of Stargate around here now I'd probably run it.

Anyways, I guess my point is: As long as it's not Rifts, based on a show with muppets in it, or in any way relies on Trekkies on ego trips I'm game for science fiction rpgs. Seriously, it's the setting that's important in science fiction - not the ruleset. Just like any other rpg (though I'm going to kill someone if they get me addicted to another expensive-yet-seductively-comfortable ruleset anytime soon).

 

[S'mon]

For gaming sf I like swashbuckling space opera, Star Wars is ideal. My fantasy is a game based on Buck Rogers in the 25th century and similar '70s tv shows like the old Galactica! Now, for tv/movie viewing I like soft 'issues' sf like the new Galactica & the better Trek episodes, and literary hard sf can be enjoyable to read. But for gaming I want something more like Flash Gordon.

 

[Infernal Teddy]

This would be the rules for changing the world, or just a city block of the world. Those rules rock, and should be in every RPG. Maybe I should write a PDF called "Changing the World", recreating those rules in the d20 mold.

If you do, let us know- and make them a free download?

 

[Infernal Teddy]

My problem is that when it comes to SF, my likes are:

1.) HArdest SF possible. Example: Transhuman Space (Hey, Jürgen, bei welchem Buch hast du eigendlich mitgeschrieben?)
2.) Dark and gritty, politically driven SF. Examples: Dune, Fading Suns
3.) Space Opera. Examples: Trek, Wars, 50's SF

Dislike: Time Travel of any kind.

Now, if I could just get my Setting blender to make me one nice big mix of all this stuff...

 

[DragonLancer]

I like Stargate; both the movie and the series. How to do it in an RPG tho ... I might say d20 modern, but I don't know d20 modern.

There already is one. I forget who makes it but a friend of mine has it and says that its quite good. Its not a D20 game IIRC.

 

[Samuel Leming]

I might be the only person here that's actually played Ringworld.

I played Ringworld for a few months. This was over twenty years ago, so I don't really remember many details. Our characters were members of a mercenary crew hired to put a stop to some nastiness a bunch of renegade kzinti were cooking up. It turned out the kzinti had captured a pak cold-sleep colony ship and would loot it for tech if not for a lone protector holed up in the ship's central defenses. We also learned that the puppeteers were behind the whole thing(no surprise there) and intended to take possesion of the colony ship & crew and then mindwipe us after it was over. We teamed up with the protector to clear the ship of kzin, convinced said protector to divert the ship away from Known Space and our characters then packed up their stuff and ran like hell(ruining and ending the gamemaster's idea for the campaign since he intended to crash the whole mess on the ringworld).

One thing I sort of remember about the Ringworld skill system was the skill tree. You needed to meet skill prerequisites to take more advanced skills. Then there were specialties you would take as those skills advanced. A good idea, but a little complex.

Sam