TIPS Sought for Sustainable Sci-Fi (not Star Wars) Gaming

[Hjorimir]

I want to but haven't yet. Partially because I have too many games I want to get blush and partly because I haven't heard much about it.

Care to review it or at least give us a quick rundown?

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Barking Alien

Diaspora is a FATE based "hard sci-fi" setting, which incorporates mini-games to handle things like social or squad based combat. It is very good stuff. You can check out the SRD here.

 

[Herobizkit]

Why has no one mentioned Robotech yet?!

Earth makes mecha (some of them transformable!) with technology from a massive space cruiser that crash-lands on Earth. The alleged owners of said ship, who happen to be 40' tall aliens with their own array of warships, show up and try to reclaim it. It's Sci-Fi meets Top Gun!

Or, same style, different story - humanity is on the run from another band of alienss who infest Earth. Human use motorcycles that can transform into armored battlesuits and fight a guerilla war against the insurgents.

Come ON! This stuff is gold!

Even if you have "the war" as the backdrop, it's very easy to have the PC's involved in a non-mecha fashion (dealing with refugees, trying to live a normal life, mercs who sign themslves out as exterminators, ex-pats who are tired of seeing the world they fough for get crapped on, reporters, musicians, etc etc).

 

[Pbartender]

Don't knock 'space merchants' either.

I agree- don't knock it!

Reference Andre Norton's Solar Queen series for excellent adventure plot ideas for space merchants.

One solution is to give each PC their own starship. That way, they all get to choose how to move, how to fire, etc. on their own. Coordination returns to the fast and loose, and mistakes by one PC only kill one PC.

However, even then, there might be resistance, if each star fighter is similar to each other star fighter. One PC might want the Big Gun, another might want to be Dodgy Stealth, etc. If this is the case, give every player the chance to customize their fighters. That way, the star fighters become their own PCs in space, with their own specialties.

But let's say you like the single-ship dynamic. You could run something similar to Voltron, say, and allow the PC fighters to work separately, but also join into some larger dreadnought that has more firepower and protection--but everyone must coordinate closely. Then, the players are incented to work together, because then they get to play with the bigger guns. But they don't have to.

Cowboy Bebop might be a better model for this... A tramp freighter turned into a medium-sized pocket carrier, carrying a handful of cobbled-together fighters launching from a converted cargo bay. One or two characters handle the "carrier", while everyone else zips around in the fighters.

It'd be a great basis for a privateering Q-Ship campaign.

 

[The Green Adam]

It'd be a great basis for a privateering Q-Ship campaign.

Here's a neat campaign concept (if I do say so myself ) that I've used before.

The players are the crew of a Q-Ship in the employ of the Imperium/Federation/Space Government. While they appear to be spacers on a bulk frieghter or similar vessel, they are in truth highly skilled spies/military officers and the ship is equipped with hidden weapons, better defenses and maybe a small craft or two (starfighters or combat shuttles) in the cargo bay.

Their missions mostly deal with spying on enemy governments, stopping or infiltrating pirate groups and investigating abandoned spacewrecks/derelicts, etc. but any similar activity is within the realm of this type of operation.

Do a little research on the actual Q-Ships of World Wars I and II for some addition ideas.

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[Votan]

Here's a neat campaign concept (if I do say so myself ) that I've used before.

The players are the crew of a Q-Ship in the employ of the Imperium/Federation/Space Government. While they appear to be spacers on a bulk frieghter or similar vessel, they are in truth highly skilled spies/military officers and the ship is equipped with hidden weapons, better defenses and maybe a small craft or two (starfighters or combat shuttles) in the cargo bay.

Their missions mostly deal with spying on enemy governments, stopping or infiltrating pirate groups and investigating abandoned spacewrecks/derelicts, etc. but any similar activity is within the realm of this type of operation.

Do a little research on the actual Q-Ships of World Wars I and II for some addition ideas.

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Barking Alien

It is a very nice concept. One advantage that it has is that the players have direction (the DM can give missions) but a lot of independence in how they execute it. You can reward creative thinking about catching pirates or infiltrating bases. There is a reasonable way to introduce new players to the party and a nice mechanism to allow character retirement (reassignment).

I like it a lot.

 

[Garmorn]

For a possible example of a great setting check out David Webers Honorvers. There Humanity spread out by sublight ships and other slow means to thousands of worlds. Most of these colonies never did well with a large precentage actually failing some way or other.

The actual tech and situation is not the best for playing but it is a good example of how to create lots of single system worlds that need mercenaries for one thing or another.

 

[Smeelbo]

Here's my experience:

Shadow Run is very sustainable. Our campaign lasted several years, and only ended because our DM went to medical school. The basic mechanics are quite robust, and it has perhaps the best group structure of any RPG (in terms of available player roles and group styles). You have the entire Earth as your playground, appetite for goods and gear is insatiable, you will never be the biggest on the block, and the horrible, horrible future is an endless fountain of plot.

Frankly, there is no better game for killing people and taking their stuff.

Of all the incarnations of Traveller, T20 is probably the best published. Even so, it, like D20 Modern Future, suffers from gear explosion, in that powerful gear dominates character abilities, and easily cycles out of control.

Burning Empires is a brilliant application of the Burning Wheel engine to a futuristic setting: think Warhammer 40K meets Battle Star Galactica. Very campaignable, but is an odd RPG, both because of its emphasis on character (as opposed to capability) and collaborative play. In a similar vein is Burning Jihad, a Dune clone using the Burning Wheel engine.

My current favorite is the Starblazer Adventure Game, an outgrowth of the FUDGE/FATE RPG Spirit of the Century. While both SotC and Starblazer excel at fast paced action on-the-fly, Starblazer is also designed with campaign play in mind, with rules for playing organizations, fleets, and empires. Starblazer is a very new game, so I'll have to see how things go in the longer term, but it looks sustainable.

I've found the main thing that crashes my previous science fiction campaigns is that once the players have attained a sufficient level of firepower, the game cycles out of control, as good gear is used to obtain better gear, and so on. The campaigns that have worked either keep gear under control (while still offering material rewards), or emphasize character (not power) development, or both.

Smeelbo

 

[The Green Adam]

Here's my experience:

Shadow Run is very sustainable.

Frankly, there is no better game for killing people and taking their stuff.

Of all the incarnations of Traveller, T20 is probably the best published. Even so, it, like D20 Modern Future, suffers from gear explosion, in that powerful gear dominates character abilities, and easily cycles out of control.

I've found the main thing that crashes my previous science fiction campaigns is that once the players have attained a sufficient level of firepower, the game cycles out of control, as good gear is used to obtain better gear, and so on. The campaigns that have worked either keep gear under control (while still offering material rewards), or emphasize character (not power) development, or both.

Smeelbo

See this may be why my SF games have lasted so long. They aren't about stuff. As GM I've moved the focus away from material gains (though they are still a factor). In truth, this has been true of all my campaigns since I first started playing D&D in '77.

Star Trek is perhaps the best example of a campaign setting where new and better stuff doesn't matter much (Voyager aside...). Everyone on the team has essentially the same gear - A Phaser, A Communicator and a Tricorder. Certain characters may have additional specialized gear such as tools for the Engineer and a med kit for the Doctor but largely new personal items or weapons are rare. Its not about that though. Its about learning, exploring and developing your character.

Even in my Traveller campaigns (classic Traveller, the others are just not my style), better gear gets the job done and its fun to get better gear but its just a means to an end. Getting better gear isn't the focus of the story. The game isn't about equipment.

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[The Green Adam]

Another idea...

Can you tell I've run a lot of Sci-Fi games?

Here is a campaign idea based on Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek: Voyager and a Japanese RPG called Paradise Fleet.

The players are soldiers, pilots and other military types aboard a small fleet of starships that has just finished a huge battle and helped to end an interstellar war (the enemy could be other humans, robots built by humans or even an alien enemy). Declared heroes and expecting an appropriate welcome when they return to Earth, the fleet is hit by a sabotage/booby trap explosion left behind by the defeated enemy. The explosion goes off the moment the FTL drive is activated and throws the main battleship (or the whole fleet if the drive is a 'Warp Gate') into a far flung part of the galaxy/universe.

Now the PCs have to fight or befriend unfamiliar aliens and stellar powers, explore unknown worlds, etc. in search of either the parts to repair their drive or find some way to return home. Non-combat characters are possible in the form of the ship's Cook, a War Correspondant/Reporter, a Diplomat/Ambassador type, USO style entertainers (Lynn Minmay anyone?) or any one of a thousand other options.

One of the coolest elements of this type of campaign is the main thing ST: Voyager forgot about. As the ship(s) go forth and get into battles, they have no real place to stop, repair, refeul and restock. Also, the ship(s) start the campaign having just finished a huge and brutal battle. Very likely the fleet is down on ammo, equipment and maybe even personnel. As the PCs find enemies, kill them and take their stuff, they are largely just replenishing the regular gear they and their comrades may be missing.
Plus the players will see real change in their campaign environment as their actions either improve the state of their vessel(s) or find that they are soon living in decaying and barely serviceable hulks.

Just some ideas that popped into my head as I prep for my next SF campaign, a rather twisted SF action-adventure-comedy I'll be starting next year.

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[Mustrum_Ridcully]

It's possible that part of the difference is the dynamic between standard RPG combat and starship combat.

In standard RPG combat, all PCs are individuals, running around their individual way, with individual strengths and weaknesses, different styles, and different roles. Coordination is fast, loose, and occasionally nonexistent.

If everyone is piloting one starship into battle, then coordination is key. Everyone must act for the benefit of everyone, and not for themselves. A player that wants to be recognized for individual contributions might not enjoy this very much. However, it makes for an interesting and exciting new way of play.

One solution is to give each PC their own starship. That way, they all get to choose how to move, how to fire, etc. on their own. Coordination returns to the fast and loose, and mistakes by one PC only kill one PC.

However, even then, there might be resistance, if each star fighter is similar to each other star fighter. One PC might want the Big Gun, another might want to be Dodgy Stealth, etc. If this is the case, give every player the chance to customize their fighters. That way, the star fighters become their own PCs in space, with their own specialties.

But let's say you like the single-ship dynamic. You could run something similar to Voltron, say, and allow the PC fighters to work separately, but also join into some larger dreadnought that has more firepower and protection--but everyone must coordinate closely. Then, the players are incented to work together, because then they get to play with the bigger guns. But they don't have to.

Of course, one player will then ask, "What if I XYZ? Can I then use the Big Dreadnought Gun myself?" The answer, of course, is no.

I have thought about that before.
Here is one approach (unfinished) SpaceRoles:Overview - Cloneworks' MediaWiki

I think the main problem occurs when you have to split player character resources between space combat abilities and regular combat abilities (and possibly other abilities not related to combat). You have the Top Ace Pilot that flies the ship and fires the guns and all that, and the melee guy that ... hates space combat because he can't swing his plasma sword at anyone.