Which Sci-Fi RPG has the richest setting?

[Achan hiArusa]

Rich Sci Fi Setting

My first vote would be for Transhuman Space. 2300 AD just assumes things will be the same as they are now, doesn't that seem like its being dated? Now for sheer volumes of information I would say Traveller, given that I have quite a bit of it from Original Traveller, Marc Miller's Traveller, GURPS Traveller, and Megatraveller.

Of course you could just figure out how to game in Orion's Arm
(http://www.orionsarm.com) and get the best of both universes.

 

[Goodsport]

I would say 2300 AD, though I'll admit that that's the only game on the list I know quite well. The only other game there that I'm at least somewhat familiar with is Traveller.

Among the other things already stated in this thread about it, 2300 AD also has the benefit of being a "sequel game", set in the same universe as Twilight: 2000 but 300 years later (which is why the first edition of the game was called Traveller: 2300 - though after some customers complained about mistakenly believing that the game was instead set in the Traveller universe, the game's second edition was retitled 2300 AD).

Both Twilight: 2000 (the latest edition was Version 2.2) and 2300 AD each has a nicely-detailed history - when combined together, the amount of detail is massive!

Another nice thing about 2300 AD is that different parts of its universe are differently-themed (though that's probably true of all the games listed in the poll):

• Core worlds (i.e. Earth and Alpha Centauri): Very developed, with large metroplexes dominating much of both planets. Metroplexes and big cities fully or partially cyberpunkish, though the rest of each planet is pretty cozy and quiet.

• French Arm: Most extensive and developed of the three Arms (not surprising, since France had pulled out of NATO just prior to the start of the Twilight War in Twilight: 2000, pretty much stayed out of the fighting and escaped the war relatively unscathed while the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.* and allies pounded each other with nuclear weapons - by 2300, France is the superpower). Its far reach comes at a price, though, as it has extended into the violent Kafers' space.

• Chinese Arm: Lots of smugglers and pirates.

• American Arm: Unlike the other two Arms, many inhabitable planets are too far out of range for current stutterwarp drives, so much attention being paid on how to solve that dilemna. Less development means more frontier worlds (not in a cowboy sense ala Firefly, but simply in a "fend for themselves" type of way).

I hope that helped.


-G


* 2300 AD's Earth/Cybertech Sourcebook was released in 1989, yet stated that in 2300 there'd be Russia (not the U.S.S.R.) and that its second-largest city would be the St. Petersburg (not Leningrad, as the city was still called in 1989) Metroplex. Two years later (in real life), the U.S.S.R. (or at least most of it) became Russia again, and Leningrad once again became St. Petersburg. ...

 

[PaulKemp]

Of those on thel list, I'd recommend 2300. But I'd also recommend "Blue Planet" before that (not the d20 version, but the earlier version). Like Traveller, it had a lot of "implied" setting, but it was reasonably hard sci-fi, with what I thought to be a very cool premise and setting (whether you set it on earth or poseidon or moved through the wormhole and used both).'

In fact, thinking about it, I may need to revisit that game.

 

[Psion]

Thanks for the link, but that looks like it complicates things needlessly.

Really? I think that using four different probability curves complicates things, myself.

That task system (the one The Shaman quoted) looks like it is out of Book 8, the same system that was used in the DGP magazines and later became the standard in MegaTraveller.

 

[Goodsport]

Another plus for 2300 AD is Star Cruiser, the RPG's boxed set of hex-based starship combat (though it was actually released between the releases of Traveller: 2300 and 2300 AD). It played very nicely, and 2300 AD included rules to incorporate player characters on ships in Star Cruiser - the two could be played rather seamlessly.


-G