What traits would your Ultimate Space Opera setting have?

[Stone Dog]

I do like Fading Suns a good deal, but I am thinking that a new Ultimate Space Opera setting is in the works.... right over here...

check it out. Very cool stuff is happening.

 

[Heathen72]

Jumppoints for FTL travel - a la the Alderson Points in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye"
I also enjoy the militaristic milieu of these novels.

 

[The Human Target]

None. It really sounds rather boring. The ideas I've liked most in this thread have been labaled "wrong".

 

[Stone Dog]

None. It really sounds rather boring. The ideas I've liked most in this thread have been labaled "wrong".

So... other than the idea that "gritty" and "Space Opera" don't really go well together what has come close to being labeled wrong? which ideas in particular are you talking about that got shut down?

 

[Joker]

I can't believe no-one has mentioned Stardrive yet. Almost all the things mentioned sofar are in it.

Big ugly ships, different FTL modes, history, politics, alien babes, hot donkey on chipmunk action, Galactic movie Stars, a wide array of equipment of various technologies, conflicts and the list goes on and on.

I, however, don't really like Space Opera cause it reminds me of Star Wars. I just plunder the setting for little bits of information and ideas.

 

[The Edge]

1 - split up safe space and not safe space, have patroled scaned areas between trade routes and federations and such. In this area the players would be safer, eg pirates etc, but also more cotroled by authority.

In the un patroled zones, out space or what ever you might call it, they would have more freedom to travel, fight, build etc, but theres no big tough millitary/police force to show up and help them if they get in trouble.

A bit like wilderness and civilisation. Also If they ever want to find something relly interesting, they have to travel out to get it.


2 - As others have said, History, History = Good. It could be cool to have an ancient now extinct (or better wiped out, by who?) race, with relics of their technolgy scatterd around to make excellent rewards for the characters to find. Just imagine them as they finaly open up the ancient hanger closed for centurys, to find a sleek in tact craft for them, maybe with only a few repairs needed.


3 - Let the characters customise their gear/ships etc with new gizomos atachment and such. From simply a expanded rifle clip, to some fancy tracking scope thing.

 

[rbingham2000]

Space battles with starfighters are definitely a must. They were my biggest draw into the Star Wars saga when I was a kid, even more so than Jedi and lightsabers, and the feeling of going one-on-one with an enemy ace in a thrilling dogfight just cannot be matched.

 

[Baron Opal]

Actual opera. FTL drives powered by music. "We don't have an engineer, but we've got a great tenor."


"How far is it from Earth to Alpha Centari?"

"About one Carmen."




Morrow (Just making trouble)

Wasn't there a book called 5/8ths of Heaven that had musically powered stardrives?

 

[delericho]

The ideas I've liked most in this thread have been labaled "wrong".

I don't think they were labelled as 'wrong' so much as not being right for the desired genre.

Consider this: you could run a cartoony slapstick game of Cyberpunk 2020, full of comedic hijinks. Are you playing the game wrong? Not if you're having fun. However, it's a bit of a stretch to then claim to be playing in the cyberpunk genre. (Whether a game of Cy2020 played per the core rules of that game counts as being in the cyberpunk genre is entirely another question. )

In the same way, the ideas that were labelled 'wrong' (or, at least, the ones I suggested) might make for a really entertaining setting, but it probably wouldn't qualify as 'space opera'.

Of course, I'm in the camp that, when faced with a choice between a setting that is more fun to game in, and one that is truer to genre, will take the more fun setting every time. Others may choose differently, as is their right. (Of course, there are also those that would choose one way most of the time, but sometimes be in the mood for something different. Which is also fair enough.)

 

[Psion]

Wasn't there a book called 5/8ths of Heaven that had musically powered stardrives?

There was a whole anothology called Space Opera. I almost picked it up thinking "cool... a collection of space opera stories."

Then I decided to actually read the blurb on the back to find that the whole book was a "theme story" anothology about SF stories that pertained one way or another to music.