D&D General Which Sci-Fi 5e Variant?

[Retreater]

So I'm looking for a sci-fi game with high adventure and flexibility. Starfinder is too complex. I don't want gritty survival and horror, so that takes out Alien, Mothership, Coriolis, Vast Grimm. Traveler is too mundane and not "high adventure" enough.
I'm thinking a 5e compatible one would have the feel and flexibility, but I don't know which one. I'm not especially interested in the Phantasy Star universe. Level Up is nearly Pathfinder 2 levels of complexity. I heard Esper Genesis is hard to find.
Or heck, is there another system I haven't thought of?

 

[Morrus]

Level Up is nearly Pathfinder 2 levels of complexity.

It is not. It splits D&D's race into heritage and culture, and adds an exploration pillar, but it is not more complex than 5E. It is 5E.

 

[Retreater]

It is not. It splits D&D's race into heritage and culture, and adds an exploration pillar, but it is not more complex than 5E. It is 5E.

It was for our group when we played a campaign for a few months. Players relied completely on using the Gateway website. There were many new abilities to remember. My cleric got new features every level and the character sheet was 4 pages. Which is great for some players, but my group just couldn't handle it.

 

[Reynard]

Ultramodern5

 

[Faxfire683]

While I think all of these are great options, and I think some of the beauty of the 5e chassis is you can actually mix and match modular bits from each one, if you’re looking for another option then I suggest checking out Dark Matter. From Mage Hand Press, it actually has an on-going Kickstarter for an updated edition you could jump on right now. It looks like the hardcover of the original book is sold out, probably due to hype from the Kickstarter, but the PDF is on their website.

The pitch with Dark Matter is science fantasy. It uses the base 5e system and classes, with a setting wrapper to explain the magic in space and addition of sci-fi equipment/options like the other products you referenced in the poll. The idea is you should be able to take any base 5e character option and just reflavor it a bit to work in a Dark Matter game. I have yet to try it out, but a good friend is a big fan.

Aside from 5e, I suppose others that I’ve been reading about and considering playing is the Forged in the Dark Scum and Villainy, or the generic version of the Star Wars RPG system from the current publisher, called Genesys (I just learned about it this week but it intrigued me).

I personally am looking at running some Voidrunners and Coriolis sometime in the near future.