Why are sci-fi scenarios so thin on the ground?

[Myrdin Potter]

I still think there are a ton of adventures available. Mongoose Traveller has a lot of material published:

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

Including a really massive pirate campaign:

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

If you want more OGL so varied adventures, there is Clement Sector:

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

Now, granted, much of it is source books, but those books usually have plenty of adenture hooks. And there are adventures:

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

Cepheus Engine is similar, a ton of source books:

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

But there are adventures as well:

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

If these are useful I can link a few fantasy spell supplements and the one for White Star opens up traditional D&D modules as well.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I do feel that published adventures and campaigns may not be in such high demand for games like Traveller and Stars Without Number simply because they provide great tools for randomly generating worlds and stars, sandbox-style...but that's just a random theory of mine.

That feels right.

Although I will say, looking at my shelf, that I've got over 20 Classic Traveller Adventures. There's plenty out there.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I am surprised that morrus doesn't have a sci-fi section here.

@Morrus did there used to be an SF RPG section?

 

[Morrus]

@Morrus did there used to be an SF RPG section?

There was a d20 Star Wars section once upon a time, but we've never had sections for specific genres.

 

[Tun Kai Poh]

It's so hard to break down RPGs into just genres anyway, so that's fine.

Call of Cthulhu is horror and investigation and historical 1920s.

Eclipse Phase is transhuman sci-fi and horror.

Beyond the Fence, Below the Grave is Norse myth and investigation.

And so on...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I spent over thirty years as a police officer. You can't Google much, if any, of that. Just because PCs have high-speed Net service doesn't mean they can access restricted data.

That’s true here and now, but may not be there and then.

The difference between the types and costs of online resources available to me as a law student in 1990 and as a lawyer in 2020 is astronomical. Add just 100 years more in technological advances, and we might simply have “Lawtomitons” instead of one or both of our fields.

 

[Jd Smith1]

That’s true here and now, but may not be there and then.

The difference between the types and costs of online resources available to me as a law student in 1990 and as a lawyer in 2020 is astronomical. Add just 100 years more in technological advances, and we might simply have “Lawtomitons” instead of one or both of our fields.

Actually, they have software right now that are supposed to be capable of writing legal documents. How true that is, I can't say, because my experience with them is via efforts to sell them.

But things like DNA testing is not a purely computer process, was my point.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Actually, they have software right now that are supposed to be capable of writing legal documents. How true that is, I can't say, because my experience with them is via efforts to sell them.

But things like DNA testing is not a purely computer process, was my point.

True. Something requiring chemical reagents is going to be limited by factors like volatility, how much reagent is required, required samples for testing, size of the testing equipment, etc.

But look at DNA and blood testing requirements of the 1990s vs 2020. Not only is it faster, but the amount of material required for testing is a fraction of what it was. What used to be untestable is now good enough for a conviction.

Imagine if the Lawtomitons (of say...200 years from now) could accurately and non-destructively scan a biological sample and transmit that data back to a central lab for testing after a Star Trek style replicator/transporter reconstituted the sample. Minutes later, the Lawtomiton is on the hunt for its prime suspect...

 

[Ace]

SF scenarios are actually fairly plentiful however they are extremely setting specific. For example there isn't much use for a typical Starfinder scenario for Traveller or Star Trek Adventures players and conversion is often not worth the work.

Also most gamers play D&D and a hotchpotch of other games. Despite efforts by publishers there really isn't a "everybody plays this" SF game. Traveller which has possibly a hundred scenarios spread out through many many years and publishers and D6 Star Wars were huge not that long ago but neither nowhere near D&D size or even World of Darkness size

In my estimation a fair number of SF sold well enough but unless you were in a with many many gamers odds are you never played Serenity/Firefly , Starship Troopers, Other Suns, Space Opera or any of the others. Heck Star Trek is a very well known global franchise and the closest I ever got to playing was making a a character.

 

[Jd Smith1]

True. Something requiring chemical reagents is going to be limited by factors like volatility, how much reagent is required, required samples for testing, size of the testing equipment, etc.

But look at DNA and blood testing requirements of the 1990s vs 2020. Not only is it faster, but the amount of material required for testing is a fraction of what it was. What used to be untestable is now good enough for a conviction.

Imagine if the Lawtomitons (of say...200 years from now) could accurately and non-destructively scan a biological sample and transmit that data back to a central lab for testing after a Star Trek style replicator/transporter reconstituted the sample. Minutes later, the Lawtomiton is on the hunt for its prime suspect...

You're right.

I usually go with a decaying society (Fading Suns) or a 'cheap tech to the frontier' (Firefly) campaign because it lets me control that sort of thing.