Sci-Fi System Recommendations

[havard]

I'm currently running a sci fi game with the old (recently reprinted) Shatterzone system. I am surprised at how happy I am with this game. I'd describe it as dark cinematic. Definitely action packed, yet more in the style of Aliens than Star Wars.

-Havard

 

[S'mon]

I think you should go with Traveller. I used Traveller The New Era rules for a PBEM back in the '90s and found it worked well, but Classic rules should work even better. It has no silliness, it has well developed skills system, creating PCs is fairly quick and fun, and combat is easy to play online, though I could never understand the starship combat system so we just freeformed that I'm afraid.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

S'mon, you might want to check the Internet for some OoP games like SSI's RPG Universe, or boardgames like Task Force Games' Starfire or even Star Fleet Battles to cover the STS combat.

 

[S'mon]

S'mon, you might want to check the Internet for some OoP games like SSI's RPG Universe, or boardgames like Task Force Games' Starfire or even Star Fleet Battles to cover the STS combat.

Hi Danny - I actually just found a d20-based starship combat system I could understand - the one in "X-Plorers" by David Bezio, a Labyrinth Lord type D&D-OSR game, only sci-fi.

Board game rules are a good idea though, I was thinking of maybe using the rules from the GDW board game "Imperium" set in the Traveller universe. It's actually a strategic level game but the ship combat rules look good for quick, bloody combat.

 

[Alarian]

You have me curious, so I feel compelled to ask how the research is coming along?

Sorry for the slow reply. I've been on vacation for the past two weeks so my research was put on hold.

I did pick up a beta copy of High Space off rpg now and plan on taking a look at that, from what I can see it's based off of the savage worlds system. One I'm familiar with and had originally written off, but the flavor text for High Space interested me enough to drop 5 bucks on it.

At this point I think I need to stop researching new systems and whats all out there and pick a few that interest me the most and dig in. I had never imagined just how many different sci-fi systems were out there. It's really impressive and I am really glad to see it's a lot more popular genre that I had imagined it was.

I'll try and post an update in a few days with my "list of final contenders".

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

One of the reasons I suggested the 2 Task Force games is that Starfire is designed to have customizable ships and SFB's system is customizable enough once you get a grasp on the rules- making it easy for you tailor ship types to races.

I'm sure there are others that do so as well.

Universe was cool because its Delta Vee system was more realistic than most, and included an actual star map of our local neighborhood.

 

[Mark Chance]

Thanks for all the suggestions. There is more out there to choose from than I realized. One question for TreChriron. I couldn't find anything on Dust. Anyone have a link to that?

If that's Other Dust, check out Sine Nomine Publishing.

 

[Spinachcat]

The Mechanoid Invasion by Palladium Books. It's on PDF on DriveThru and its old school awesome. The Mechanoid Trilogy is also on PDF and its a good purchase because its the full story arc.

It would be great for PBEM because the rules are light, but descriptions and tactics matter more than system issues.

 

[CarlZog]

... s and SFB's system is customizable enough once you get a grasp on the rules- making it easy for you tailor ship types to races.

I love SFB,, but I do not think it's easily customizable,, and I would be hard pressed to use it in an rpg.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Actually, my buddies & I made our own races & ship designs. We used the ship modification rules- as I recall, they're part of the rules that let you modify scenario difficulty- as guidelines. In a way, they were kind of like the Player's Option Rules for 2Ed D&D. The results were fairly well balanced with each other AND with official material.

But Starfighter is MUCH more flexible and is an easier system overall.