Traveller?

[AbdulAlhazred]

We'll have to agree to disagree on this. I've never seen an SF RPG that attempts to be realistic really work in play. I've heard plenty of GMs talk about their endless SF worldbuilding and how much more true-to-life this or that element is and how they've worked out the details and ramifications and everything else that other SF games handwave. But somehow those ironclad, fully buttoned-up settings don't get a lot of play. If I was a player and I had to sit through GM setting exposition after exposition I'd run screaming.

Well, I want to be clear, I don't think anyone can really claim to know what is or is not 'realistic', that was my point. I mean, we can say some fiction is 'harder science' (IE more plausible scientifically or technically) perhaps, but in the cultural sphere I'm of the opinion that any claims are pretty much just nonsense. So, I point out elements of technology that Marc ignored, or ramifications that he appears to have ignored in his world building. Yet he is perfectly free to hold that his idea is more realistic, and nobody can really gainsay that. (and you can see above where @RealAIHazred has done EXACTLY THAT!

So, I don't think your positing that some 'more true to life' games are less successful has a basis. Nobody can say, or agree on, what is more or less true to life. Obviously we could say that Metamorphosis Alpha is not very hard sci-fi and Traveller is pretty hard, but clearly 'hardness' is not the issue here... Some games capture a genre and milieu, tone, and color better than others, and tend to be more successful, though other factors (like being the earliest really mechanically well-designed playable SF RPG in Traveller's case) probably also matter.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

I have a copy of GURPS Traveller, but have never played it. You have that option if you like GURPS.

Even if you don't like GURPS (cough Imperial measurements cough), their Traveller books are loaded with juicy worldbuilding.

 

[aramis erak]

If you're willing to count Cepheus Deluxe.

Marc Miller does. (Hence why CotI has an area for CE, and CE items are allowed in the news space.

 

[aramis erak]

Even if you don't like GURPS (cough Imperial measurements cough), their Traveller books are loaded with juicy worldbuilding.

A large part of which was inconsistent with what the fanbase of Traveller to that point had extrapolated. GT was divisive from the get-go.
For some, it put way too much detail in the wrong places.
For others, it clearly violated some extant bits of canon..
For other still, it was taking their favorite versions (MT and TNE) and "dustbining them"... It wasn't clear at the time the deal was announced whether or not there was going to be a T4...

That rent in the fanbase still persists. The GTU's assumptions are Loren Wiseman's, and not quite in line with Marc's, especially not as presented in T5 and his novel.

 

[Sanguinarious]

Even if you don't like GURPS (cough Imperial measurements cough), their Traveller books are loaded with juicy worldbuilding.

Oh come one! We Americans have ONE system that uses our measurements! Don't act like you're being infringed upon!

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

Oh come one! We Americans have ONE system that uses our measurements! Don't act like you're being infringed upon!

Nice Mars probe you had there. Shame about what happened to it.

 

[DragonBelow]

Reporting for duty!

Mongoose is my current favorite and am anticipating the new release.

I thought they just released the 2022 update already. What do you mean?

 

[Thomas Shey]

Marc Miller does. (Hence why CotI has an area for CE, and CE items are allowed in the news space.

I would have thought so, but Deluxe especially does some things I've seen some traditional Trav people get really soggy about (like getting rid of random character gen as a default).

 

[aramis erak]

I would have thought so, but Deluxe especially does some things I've seen some traditional Trav people get really soggy about (like getting rid of random character gen as a default).

Marc signed off on GT and Traveller for Hero... both of which are fully deterministic. And on MGT 1E including a fully deterministic mode option.
I'm pretty certain that playing at his table would involve random gen, but he'd not at all be upset by someone else doing full deterministic point builds.

 

[darjr]

I thought they just released the 2022 update already. What do you mean?

That. I haven’t gotten it yet