Sf-rpg?

[root.tar]

We plan to make a little Science Fiction Campaign.
So I'am looking for a good Science Fiction Game.

I know Fadings Suns and Star Wars, D20 Future sketchily Transhuman Space, Traveller, Stargate, Spacemaster.

Does anyone play one of this games or is a SF-Fan? Which one works best?

Are there new Editions planned for one of these?

Do you have additional ideas? I would prefer a game with slight fantasy influences like the
old D&D Buck Rogers.

 

[Crothian]

I'd go with Dawning Star, it is really well done.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

The New GURPS Space has excellent advice on SF settings and campaigns, including lengthy chapters on building or rolling up star systems and alien creatures/races. It doesn't have any equipment, though - but the new GURPS Ultra-Tech has lots of that.

Spaceship construction rules for GURPS 4E are still in playtest, as far as I am aware - but you could use those from GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars instead, which is set in an earlier period of the Traveller Universe where the Terrans first set out to explore the stars - and in the process take on the Vilani Empire with its thousands of worlds and vastly older civilization.

Beyond GURPS, there is Blue Planet - a campaign setting taking place on a newly settled water world that can be reached from the solar system via a wormhole. It's fairly hard SF and set in the not too distant future, but its description of the alien environment and the politics of the colony are top-notch. Since the game is out of print, I suggest you try to get any books from the line you can find - they are all worth it.

You already know Transhuman Space. But you should really get all the sourcebooks as well, especially "Toxic Memes" which I wrote for.
A PDF supplement named "Changing Times" for this game is available which both updates it to GURPS 4th Edition and serves as a GMing guide.

Then there are Heavy Gear and Jovian Chronicles. The latter is set in a throughly settled solar system and a bit similar to Mobile Suit Gundam, complete with giant robots. It is very well developed and a lot of fun. The former is set a few thousand years in the future. It starts on a remote former colony of Earth which is close to a war between its major nations, but its storyline soon evolves into an interstellar drama. I wish they'd produce more material for it, but the amount of stuff they've published is already rather large. Both of these settings use the "Silhouette" rules system, which is quick and simple, though the latest editions of the settings books also have d20 stats.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

I personally like Traveller T20. While it has some of the features of D20 it still has the feel of the older versions of Traveller. There are two primary reasons I like Traveller T20:

1) Combat - Unlike D20 Modern (and Future) they get modern weapons right. If you have an automatic weapon the more shots fired the better chance you have of hitting. Also, with the Stamina and Lifeblood rules character level doesn't really matter anymore so you can play the young hotshot or the grizzled veteran and have roughly the same chance of surviving combat.
2) Starship Combat - Each of the crew members have actions they can take during starship combat. Unlike starship combat in D20 Future the rest of the players aren't sitting around while one player makes all the rolls for a ship in combat.

Oh yeah... if you can get your hands on a copy I always liked Mechwarrior (the older out-of-print one) for the Classic Battletech universe. It is an extremely rich setting very reminiscent of Dune. The only real differences are that the "Guild" is Comstar and instead of controlling Spice they control all FTL interstellar communications. Oh yeah... and there are mechs.

 

[Blackrat]

Can't say much for the other games but both SW:Saga edition and D20 Future are good choices. Haven't had a chance to really try out SW yet but it seems to have corrected most of the problems I found in D20 Future.

The Babylon 5 RPG by Mongoose isn't worth the money. As a B5-fan I found it lacking the attitude of the series. But just my opinion. You could check it out to see if it offers anything for you.

 

[Blackrat]

The New GURPS Space has excellent advice on SF settings and campaigns, including lengthy chapters on building or rolling up star systems and alien creatures/races. SNIP

Gotta check this out as I'm currently homebreving an universe. thanks.

 

[Flynn]

I love SF gaming, and have a number of recommendations:

1. Traveller T20: The D20 adaptation of the Traveller system does a good job of bringing the flavor of Classic Traveller to D20. There are some rules inconsistencies, but I've run two campaigns over the last four and a half years, and the system rocks.

2. Star Wars Saga Edition: For a nice, streamlined gaming system, I'd highly recommend the Saga Edition. While it is geared towards the Star Wars universe, you might be able to do some monkeying around with the Force rules if you'd rather not play SW, and still have a great SF game.

3. Grim Tales/D20 Future: GT is a toolkit that allows you to build all kinds of campaigns. Combined with D20 Future, you can run an excellent SF campaign. I've run a sword and planet game for the last year and a half, and it has been fantastic as a rules system in support of that genre. The heavy SF elements I bring in show me that it will work wonderfully for SF, too.

Hope This Helps,
Flynn

 

[rgard]

Traveller T20 is my game of choice.

Edit: Full disclosure. My oldest two and I playtested parts of Traveller T20.

Also, I recently bought the Mars game by Adamant. This may be a good choice for you as it is a mix of ERB's Mars and pulp sf...they describe it thus,

"It is the Mars of pulp fiction and Saturday morning serials."

I think one of the guys who wrote the Iron Lords of Jupiter for Polyhedron was involved with this. Here is the link to the rpgnow product page:

http://enworld.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=21578&SRC=Adamant

I haven't completely read through it yet, but I like what I've seen so far. It will get played by my group sometime this fall.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Steven Wilson]

Spacemaster / Fading Suns etc

Fading Suns is now being developed by Redbrick and they intend to release a third edition I love this game but I appreciate that many many people do not like it. I actually thought the D20 version of fading Suns worked quite well but again many people disagree with me on this.

Spacemaster is still a live product and is quite good but ICE have done nothing with it for years. The campaign background for the latest edition is not ver inspiring. Also ICE now have a SF version of HARP in beta so the support for Spacemaster is not likely to improve. The HARP SF beta can be purchased and could be of interset as the HARP system is quite a good game.

I think the T20 traveler system captures the feeling of traveller quite well but I am not sure of its availability.

GURPS is agood system but if you are not familiar with it I would warn you it smayor problem is that you cannot just tip your toe in as to play anything you need a number of books. WHat is good is htat once you have the books you can easily play another genre with it but the initial purchase can be heavily.

 

[DM_Jeff]

Alternity, Alternity, Alternity!

And here's an interesting coincedence: I ran my first Alternity campaign using the background information from the old TSR Buck Rogers XXVc RPG. It worked great.

-DM Jeff