Space RPGs?

[exile]

I also liked WOTCs Alternity quite a lot, especially the Star Drive Setting. The Dark Matter book is excellent, though it's a far cry from space opera.

Chad

 

[El Mahdi]

My favorite was the Star*Drive campaign setting. It was originally made for the Alternity system and then the D20 Future system. I didn't like the Alternity system, or the D20 Future classes, but if you use Star Wars SAGA rules and classes (Star*Drive classes can match up pretty well) it works really well. The best campaign setting book for Star*Drive is still the one written for the Alternity system (not the material in the D20 Future book), and it's still available as a pdf download (on ENWorld store/publishing or RPGNow). The book is mostly fluff, with very little crunch, so it's really good for describing the setting without a lot of system mechanics you won't use. The setting is really awesome.

Mankind has spread out into space, colonizing an area 1,000 light years across. We have found numerous aliens, most non-sentient or borderline sentient, but a few are sentient and have become allies and members of this spacefaring society. Mankind is divided up into Stellar Nations, some politically and socially centered, others based on corporate run nations, but all encompassing hundreds of worlds. These nations have just come to peace after a hundred years of war. The setting is mostly centerd in an area called The Verge, a partially explored and colonized area of space about 100 light years from civilized space. A part of space cut off from civilized space for the majority of the last war. Mankinds explorations in the Verge are beginning to bring them into conflict with an unknown alien threat.

It's a very well fleshed out setting with good (and relatively realistic) treatments of future technology, and in depth descriptions of each Stellar Nation, their histories, and how they interact with eachother. It didn't seem to get much traction when it was first released, but I think that was mostly due to the Alternity system itself not garnering a large following (although there are people who still use the Alternity system and it's settings Star*Drive and Dark*Matter, with a few fan sites on the internet with supplemental material and support). For some extra flavor, there were a few novels written for the setting which were pretty good.

P.S.: Dark*Matter was a modern day setting with a premise made up of X-Files meets Call of Cthulu.




Gaahhh! Exile posted first while I was writing the above novel.

 

[jdrakeh]

P.S.: Dark*Matter was a modern day setting with a premise made up of X-Files meets Call of Cthulu.

I honestly think that DM has more in common with the new JJ Abrams series Fringe than with either X-Files or CoC. But, I digress. . . DM is a topic for another thread

 

[drothgery]

I own the Star Wars books, but that's definitely not what I'm looking for.

Err... WEG d6, d20 Original, d20 Revised, or Saga (released last year)? If what you own is not Saga, I'd suggest taking another look. Saga -> Generic Sci-Fi (or generic fantasy, for that matter) works surprisingly well.

 

[El Mahdi]

I honestly think that DM has more in common with the new JJ Abrams series Fringe than with either X-Files or CoC. But, I digress. . . DM is a topic for another thread

Yeah it does, doesn't it. I really dig Fringe too. It's got potential. I guess Dark*Matter was ahead of it's time.

 

[Metus]

Err... WEG d6, d20 Original, d20 Revised, or Saga (released last year)?

Sorry, d20 Revised.

Star HERO and GURPS Space were too devoid of flavor due to their generic nature — or too crunchy — depending upon my players.

And I have to say, that's what I'm really finding to be the case for me. I'm glad to see I wasn't alone on this.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions thus far; there are some great systems here I've never heard of. I'm checking Traveller's Wikipedia entry right now.

 

[El Mahdi]

Saga -> Generic Sci-Fi (or generic fantasy, for that matter) works surprisingly well.

I agree 100%! Drop the Jedi and the classes work well for any modern or Sci-Fi type setting. Keep the Jedi and they even work for a Concord Administrator in Star*Drive (an uber-administrator - and lightsabers even cross to Alternity Star Swords). IMO SAGA even works better than D20 Modern/Future.

 

[Studio69]

Amazing Engine had Magitech. While not entirely a space exploration game, Venus and Mars are partially colonized and allows for exploration on three (this includes Earth) different planets (and more if you or the GM allows it).

 

[Jack of Shadows]

OK,

Some folks have mentioned the new Traveller from Mongoose, Fading Suns, and Transhuman Space which I think are all excellent but I'll add two more:

Battlelords of the 23rd Century - This game is a blast. If your players like traveling to exotic, alien worlds and blowing stuff up, this is THE game. Twilight: 2000 in space.

Worlds Beyond - It's almost impossible to find and it's a vanity press book (you must be able to cope with some editing challenges) but it captured everything I looked for in a Traveller/Firefly type game with nice easy to use mechanics.

JoS.

 

[jdrakeh]

Battlelords of the 23rd Century - This game is a blast. If your players like traveling to exotic, alien worlds and blowing stuff up, this is THE game. Twilight: 2000 in space.

I haven't played Battlelords since it was with ODC, though I would second it, as well. That said, I wouldn't compare it to Twilight 2000, as that game is known for its brutal realism where Battlelords is simply known for being brutal

The ODC Battlelords system was actually very similar to AD&D mechanically, although it did have some advanced options bolted on (such as armor per hit location). So, if you have experience with AD&D, Battlelords might be an easy transition for you.

Also, thematically, Battlelords has a lot in common with the AD&D 2e "more is better" design mindset — there are dozens of possible PC races and classes in Battlelords, as well as rules for psionics, hundreds of different weapons, armor, ships, and so forth.

Now, if you're looking for something that is actually like Twilight 2000 in terms of plausible far future sci-fi adventure with an emphasis on verisimilitude, you may want to look at 2300 AD (which, despite initially being branded as Traveller, is actually the official future of the Twilight 2000 setting).