Which Sci-Fi RPG has the richest setting?

[twofalls]

The first response to this post beat up Trans-Human Space a bit hard. I can understand as tastes differ, but the game is really a very good Hard Science RPG and I disagree that its going to look silly in 10 years. It's a good game that if you don't mind doing a lot of reading and thinking about how you will run it could entertain you for years. One of the challenges with thit however is all of handling all the interwoven technologies and the ways they are impacting society... it almost feels like you are running an alien society on earth as things are so different and it will take work to get that idea across to players.

Traveller isn't Hard Sci-Fi, by the definition of the genre. It allows the invention of new physics to allow FTL travel and assumes many things such as aliens and humans seeded on many other worlds developing seperately from Terran cultures... even founding empires! That being said, its a lot of fun to play and offers many different play styles without changing the basic way folks interact like Trans-Space does. If you want to run an interstellar type game with space opera themes, trading, or just Mercs landing on alien worlds and shooting up the scenery then I'd personally suggest Traveller.

There is an added bonus to either of these GURPS games I'm speaking of as well. All the books (except the Hardback versions of the two main books) are being sold off by SJGames for $10 a book! I picked up all the books for both settings.

 

[Lord Rasputin]

Well, Traveller. My FLGS even has reprints of the originals as well as the GURPS versions, and the store down the way has the wayward T20. For a game from the 1970s, it did an good job of projecting technology, though its computer systems are pretty darn laughable. Then again, GURPS 3e, from a decade later, didn't do a whole lot better with this.

I'll also throw my lot in with Transhuman Space as a good hard sci-fi setting, around 2100 AD. For SJG, which has always been great with rules and historical supplements and licenses but bad with its own worlds, it did a helluva job. It has a dozen supplements to it; I count 31 for GURPS Traveller. Going to Far Future Enterprise's web page, Classic Traveller has about 90 supplements, though all of these would be shorter than one GURPS book, even the widdle 32 page books. There's even more on http://www.travellerrpg.com/. It also looks like T20 is decently supported here.

 

[Wil]

I'd say none of the above - Jovian Chronicles has a complete setting in the 2nd edition player's handbook. It does of course require SilCore as well if using that rules set (which might be a turn-off) but has OGL content too (which I cannot vouch for the quality of). Of course, if you're looking for FTL, psionics or aliens it's not the place to look.

 

[jdrakeh]

I'd say none of the above - Jovian Chronicles has a complete setting in the 2nd edition player's handbook. It does of course require SilCore as well if using that rules set (which might be a turn-off) but has OGL content too (which I cannot vouch for the quality of). Of course, if you're looking for FTL, psionics or aliens it's not the place to look.

FTL I can overlook as a common staple of nearly all Sci-Fi. For me, the mention of FTL has become so commonplace that it doesn't detract too much from an otherwise hard science setting for me. Completely implausible giant robot combat armor, on the other hand, seriously monkeys with my suspension of disbelief (and when I want to jettison suspension of disbelief, I choose Rifts).

 

[The Shaman]

My holiday presents to myself were the Classic Traveller Books 0-8 and Supplements 1-13 reprints and the Judges Guild Ley and Glimmerdrift Reaches sector maps.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Richest? Traveller.

Hard-science-est? 2300AD.

Drat, beaten to it.

The original Traveller did see a hard cover, but only in the UK if I recall correctly. (Back when GW(?) was a distributer for other people's games.)

The Auld Grump - they also had the first hard cover Call of Cthulhu and Runequest 3red ed.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

FTL I can overlook as a common staple of nearly all Sci-Fi. For me, the mention of FTL has become so commonplace that it doesn't detract too much from an otherwise hard science setting for me. Completely implausible giant robot combat armor, on the other hand, seriously monkeys with my suspension of disbelief (and when I want to jettison suspension of disbelief, I choose Rifts).

Don't forget FTL communication. Mechwarrior/Battletech borrows heavily from Dune in that a "Guild" called Comstar hoards the knowledge needed to use devices called hyperpulse generators which allow communication to travel through jumpspace and even then it isn't instantaneous. If any of the great houses (once again borrowing from Dune) got Comstar angry at them Comstar could cease providing communications services to them effectively putting all of the worlds controlled by that house in the dark... an opportunity rarely missed by one of the other houses.

Battletech tries to stay somewhat plausable in that FTL is supported by jump ships which fold space (which according to Stephen Hawking is far more likely than ever going FTL by the brute force of engines). However, they can't jump into a system's gravity well so drop ships detatch from the jump ship and make the long journey (could be weeks or months depending on how massive the star is) into the system.

 

[jdrakeh]

The original Traveller did see a hard cover, but only in the UK if I recall correctly. (Back when GW(?) was a distributer for other people's games.)

Well, that would explain why I haven't seen it

The Auld Grump - they also had the first hard cover Call of Cthulhu and Runequest 3red ed.

I owned the CoC 3rd Ed hardcover from GW and it took me years to track down one in decent condition.

So... right now, it's looking like Classic Traveller (which is good, as all of the reprints are in stock at the local hobby shop).

 

[Wil]

FTL I can overlook as a common staple of nearly all Sci-Fi. For me, the mention of FTL has become so commonplace that it doesn't detract too much from an otherwise hard science setting for me. Completely implausible giant robot combat armor, on the other hand, seriously monkeys with my suspension of disbelief (and when I want to jettison suspension of disbelief, I choose Rifts).

The exo-armors aren't an integral element of the setting (they can be removed and you'd never miss them), but they actually have a plausible explanation. The primary application is in space-based combat, where they are mostly used as multi-mission vehicles that range towards space-superiority. It's actually one of those situations where one advance logically lead to a certain way of designing "space fighters" - the linear frame control system used in modern exo-armors made it not only easier to manuever small space vehicles but also design them with a semi-humanoid form. As such, the combat vehicles range from more traditional "space fighters", to hybrids like the Fury or Hector that have a "torso" but thrusters in place of "legs", to the fully humanoid designs you see on the cover. Ground-based exo-armors are still in their infancy, and they are definitely not the kings of the battlefield - you'll find very few ground-based designs for this reason. Heck, you could keep the linear frames (IIRC Babylon 5's Starfuries used a control system that was very similar) and ditch the exos.

Although I can't force you to think exo-armors in Jovian Chronicles are plausible (and it's certainly your right to think they aren't), I still think it's important to know that they aren't just randomly thrown in there "because it's cool".

EDIT: I just realized something that may or may not be important to you. When I think of JC, or suggest it to someone as a hard-science fiction setting, I don't even think twice about the mecha. I often forget they're there, and go "Doh!" when someone brings them up. They're that trivial to the setting and there are so many other things - from the politics, to the societies, to the other technologies - that are interesting to me.

 

[jdrakeh]

EDIT: I just realized something that may or may not be important to you. When I think of JC, or suggest it to someone as a hard-science fiction setting, I don't even think twice about the mecha. I often forget they're there, and go "Doh!" when someone brings them up. They're that trivial to the setting and there are so many other things - from the politics, to the societies, to the other technologies - that are interesting to me.

Well, the 2nd Ed core book (hardcover) is in the discount bin at the FLGS for $15, so I might pick it up just for a look, see (they don't have a SilCore book in stock at the moment, IIRC). How system independent is the material JC book?