Tabletop RPG Sci-fi games?

[Gwazi Magnum]

So, after dealing with a less than enjoyable DM me and my friends ending up leaving a d&d group are going to be meeting up tomorrow to plan out a new one.

From what's been discussed so far though everyone seems keen on doing a sci-fi theme. General ideas suggested are Star Trek, Star Wars, Mass Effect or Firefly.

Note: We will not be ripping off any of these ideas completely or doing something like a 'star wars' role play. But they're sci-fi concepts we're considering drawing concepts and/or themes from.

So does anyone know of some good table top RP's that work for a Sci-Fi game?

-------------------------

Some other notes:

Currently they're fond of making our own campaign world with this. (http://www.clanwebsite.org/games/rpg/Dawn_of_Worlds_game_1_0Final.pdf)
Though this system was designed for traditional d&d in medieval fantasy, but we're considering alterations like instead of creating terrains we create planets and such.

Also for DM plan, no one person in our group would either make a good DM or shows much willingness.
Only person we had to show much willingness was the persons whose campaign we quit since he made it about his control over the players rather than the players having fun. To describe the current players situations though.

Me = Kind of willing but unsure of ability to pull it off right, but also still have desire to be a player

Player A = Is a great DM, but just recently finished DM'ing our last group (Not the one we quit, the one before that) and wishes to be a player

Player D = Wants to be DM, but has many issues with roleplaying and creativity. Every character he's made has either been ripped out of a book (Tordek), ripping off other players ideas (When I made a rogue focused solely on sneak attacks), or being video game characters (TF2 sniper). And stated 'when' he DM's his own campaign (He also plans to DM GURPS some day) it would involve a lot of alternate dimensions with many rip-offs.

Player T = Generally unwanting to be a DM.

Player Z = Has played d&d with us for over a year, has yet to understand the basics. He says he just shuts down when the mechanics get brought up and just wants to be able to roleplay and enjoy the game. We've all tried helping him learn how to understand the mechanics but so far there's been little progress.

Now, Player Z has suggested that since we're all getting together to make our own world as a group that a solution we could do is each work on our own character histories to be their own quest lines, and those quest lines will be our adventures and whose ever history it is at the time would be the DM.

Though he has expressed worry for when it would be Player D's turn to be DM. Suggesting that then an alternative could be two experience DM's just alternating, but that would then cause stuff to be spoiled for one another.

[Mutazoia]

So, after dealing with a less than enjoyable DM me and my friends ending up leaving a d&d group are going to be meeting up tomorrow to plan out a new one.

From what's been discussed so far though everyone seems keen on doing a sci-fi theme. General ideas suggested are Star Trek, Star Wars, Mass Effect or Firefly.

Note: We will not be ripping off any of these ideas completely or doing something like a 'star wars' role play. But they're sci-fi concepts we're considering drawing concepts and/or themes from.

So does anyone know of some good table top RP's that work for a Sci-Fi game?

There's quite a few to choose from, both current and past (out of print) systems....

Star Trek: There are several versions of this floating around. FASA, Unicorn games, Decipher... You don't have to play Star Fleet if you don't want to. FASA had a supplement for playing traders and such. But Star Fleet is where the meat is. You can change it up though...the last time our group played a ST game we decided, since all the TV show's were always about the best ship (or space station) in Star Fleet, we were going to go the opposite route and have the WORST ship in Star Fleet...the last stop before getting booted out or sent to jail...

Star Wars: There are several versions of this as well, though my particular favorite is the D6 version...it's a little faster paced and captures the feel of the movies better IMHO. You don't have to do a setting in the movie era. Our last game there was (with me as GM) set in the OLD old Republic, at the beginning of the first Sith War...

ME3: Isn't really an official system...It's D20 future rules with ME3 names for stuff (in a very basic nutshell).

Firefly: Haven't messed with this one yet...Loved the show but there's not a lot of sauce material to go with it, since the show didn't last as long as everybody would like (damn you Fox).

There is also:

D20 Future: The generic version. Create your own galaxy and get to exploring. You'll have to make everything from scratch but that's half the fun.

Ringworld: An old system but you can find copies floating around if you look (google) for it. Based on the books by Lary Niven. If you've read them or not it's still a pretty fun system.

Star Frontiers: TSR's first foray into Sci-Fi. Uses alot of the same concepts and rules as 1st ed D&D, and later was expanded and updated with "Zebulon's guide to Frontier Space" (again..google it). It's a decent system but again not alot of extra sauce material.

D6 Space: The same system as the D6 Star Wars (obviously) with all the SW specific material pulled. Again, not alot of specific sauce material but you could adapt the SW stuff (change names where appropriate).

Traveler: Hard(ish) science RPG. No real energy weapons beyond the odd laser gun, FTL is done through "Jump Space" that takes a week from point A to point B, no matter the distance. Lots of sauce for the original system, and there's a D20 version that has (to my knowledge) no additional sauce.

Albedo: Furries (Anthromorphs) in space.

Buck Rodgers in the 25th Century: TSR's third foray into Sci-fi. Based quite obviously on the comic books of the same name. Takes place in the Sol system so no real need for FTL drives...very little extra sauce as the game didn't do so well and TSR dropped it rather quickly.

Gamma World: Post apocolyptic RPG and TSR's second foray into Sci-Fi. Didn't do all that well and hard to find copies of.

Cyberpunk 2013/2020: Near future sci-fi...doesn't really need much explaining. Two version, the original and the updated version...plenty of sauce if you look.

Shadowrun: Cyberpunk and D&D got drunk one night and after a little bow-chika-bow-wow had a crazy love child. Currently on the 4th edition ( I think) with several decades worth of sauce material.

GURPS: Listed only because it can do ANYTHING (hence the G for Generic). Currently in the 4th edition with several decades of sauce.

BESM (Big Eyes Small Mouth): Anime RPG system. Much like GURPS, you can use it for any setting you want (there's enough sci-fi anime out there for sauce).

TFOS: Teenagers From Outter Space...based on the cartoon Galaxy High (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_High) (though the designers would never admit it). A very tongue in cheek game set on earth. Basic premise is alien teenagers from around the galaxy come to earth to go to high school...sillyness ensues.

Aliens RPG: Based on the Alien(s) films, and takes place after the second movie. Play as Colonial Marines...you don't HAVE to encounter the "Aliens" all the time....

The Dr. Who RPG: Three known versions of this one ...one very recent, one by FASA and another little known and extremely hard to find version (of which I have a copy burried somewhere in the depths of my ancient gaming materials). The FASA version runs on the same rule set as FASA's Star Trek rpg. You play other Time Lords and their companions, taking on the Doctor's traditional foes in your own TARDIS. Apparently the new version allows you to adopt the roles of characters from the new series, so I assume you could technically play the Doctor...

RIFTS: Kind of like GURPS, in that there is a sauce book for just about everything. Old but reliable but had the tendancy to make each successive sauce book trump and make obsolete everything in the sauce book before it (eventually rules for playing Gods and Demi-Gods came to be for example). Can be challenging for inexperienced gamers to learn all the rules....

Robotech RPG: Based on the once super popular anime but does not use the BESM rules (which came MUCH later), and instead uses the RIFTS system.

Warhammer 40K: Everybodies favorite Space Marines now in an RPG setting. Uses the same rule set as Warhammer Fantasy for the most part. A bit of sauce floating around but most people prefer their 40K as a tabletop strategy game rather than an RPG.

....just to name a few.... :smallbiggrin:

[Gwazi Magnum]

-snip-

Wow that's a lot... :smalleek:

Thanks, it'll probably take a bit of time to check through these and see which ones seems like they'd be the best match with the group (If I throw about 20 different games at them it will overwhelm though. This is a group whose just a few months ago didn't want to touch anything out side of 3.5, even pathfinder because they wanted to stay with what they know).

Anything that can help narrow it down to their more specific interests while I look through them would be appreciated. Basically they're most familiar with d20 but have some experience with the d6 system (I once DM'd the Star Wars D6 campaign for a few of them). For space it seems to be the general idea they don't care too much for fantasy or magic in this one. Well, fantasy would be fine, but nothing magical if you get what I mean.

Note: For those familiar with my last DM and the 'no magic' issue. He's the one we quit from and aren't playing this one with. So there's no magic on one side but not the other issue. Here when I say no magic I really do mean no magic.

Only real exception seems to be for Mass Effect theme but that's only the desire of 2 out of the 4 other players, who like me are very big Mass Effect fans. While the other two I imagine wouldn't want to be a world that's too heavily mass effect, can't say for sure cause I've never asked but one of them has never had much interest in it and the other has played the first game a bit but got bored of it.

As a whole the group tends to enjoy the ability to role play more than combat, but a solid and easy combat system is still preferable for when it does happen (and our style does cause it to happen occasionally). Also all of us other than the DM we had to quit from tend to be of the mindset of Enjoy-ability/Play-ability > Realism. Not to say we should throw wisdom out the window, it's nice to still have but we'd rather have a system that focuses on the enjoyment of playing it than one trying to be realistic about it.

Then with character creation, the more open the better. Classes work fine, but there's a preference for more the system where you have points and/or experience to buy whatever you want and make our own character rather than being restricted by a certain class.

[Agent 451]

Have you looked at the Dawning Star setting at all? It's a d20 system that works off of d20 Modern/Future, and it provides a fairly detailed look at the setting. They leave enough of the world/system open that you could incorporate or add anything you like easily. Pretty cheap for the amount of content, too (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/29237/Dawning-Star-Triple-Pack-%5BBUNDLE%5D?it=1). IIRC the two main books have something along the lines of 800 pages between them.

[ArcturusV]

I'd also suggest Robotech. I played a lot of it back in the day. Between the various Wars there's a lot of different themes to be playing along with. From the uphill struggle that is the First Robotech War, to the fall out of that conflict. The Second Robotech War against the Masters, the Third War against the Invid, the resistance fighting against the Invid Invasion of Earth...

It's a lot of fun times. The system isn't THAT complex.

The one thing I would warn about RIFTS (And Robotech), is often people do try to build Min/Maxed insane characters. But often they forget their Pre-requisite skills. For example piloting a mecha requires Read Sensory Instruments, which requires Advanced Math, which requires Basic Math (Which in RIFTS also requires Literacy which isn't automatically given). And when you remind people of the skills they have to pick up before hand, the characters end up toned down quite a bit.

Star Trek also has the Prime Directive series of RPGs. The first gen one was, pretty bad by all accounts. They rebooted it, instead making licensed system games instead of trying to make their own system. So you can find it in d20 Modern, DnD 3rd Edition, GURPS, and I'm thinking they did a D6 version too. I'd recommend it if you like Trek. It's based off the SFB game (Which also spawned other games like Federation and Empire, Star Fleet Command, etc), which was based off the original series (Though their license didn't allow them to use any "literary elements"). So it's pretty well put together, a bit more logical than some of the shows and it's revisionist nature. I'd recommend it.

I wouldn't suggest the FASA Star Trek RPG. Maybe it's just bad luck on my part, but the adventure modules I've all seen for it were, really, really boring. Most of them were written in a style where the entire adventure was pretty much just the DM reading lines to the players. Almost no interaction, everything's on autopilot.

[Gwazi Magnum]

I should note, I looked at D6 but ultimately chose against it.

How far (and unnatural) they went into things like disadvantages had me worried.
It seems like it's trying to be open to any concept but an even semi-realistic space rpg would need to cut a number of things out like rot where since it's not even that big of a book would be cutting out a good amount of the book.

In addition, having played Star Wars D6 before I've seen how OP attributes of 4D and skills of 6D can get, and seeing how this game allows attributes to start at 5D and skills at 8D potentially seems way too open to abuse.

Though at the same time I have similiar concern with GURPS. Not due to the need to remove stuff, it was clearly designed for that and has the amount of material that it wouldn't become restricting.

My concern was when reading over the book the typical character starts with 100-200 XP, which didn't seem like it could buy that much at all while 'Gods' apparently only had 1000? Either Gods are meant to be really weak or players really strong, and since during my trail run of it I had 150 XP to spend and felt like I was really restricted, attributes forced to stay low, not much advantages and skills to worry about at all... I'm running with the weak gods or the general idea players are just uncapable which I don't like the idea of.


Have you looked at the Dawning Star setting at all? It's a d20 system that works off of d20 Modern/Future, and it provides a fairly detailed look at the setting. They leave enough of the world/system open that you could incorporate or add anything you like easily. Pretty cheap for the amount of content, too (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/29237/Dawning-Star-Triple-Pack-%5BBUNDLE%5D?it=1). IIRC the two main books have something along the lines of 800 pages between them.

I should of also noted we're looking mostly for stuff we can get as pdfs (probably for free) atm.
Because we'd be unsure on spending money on a system we were unsure about and for a campaign we're not sure how long it will last.

We already have a player who owns a number of GURPS books so we'd probably default to that anyways if it was that or paying money to take chances on something else.


I'd also suggest Robotech. I played a lot of it back in the day. Between the various Wars there's a lot of different themes to be playing along with. From the uphill struggle that is the First Robotech War, to the fall out of that conflict. The Second Robotech War against the Masters, the Third War against the Invid, the resistance fighting against the Invid Invasion of Earth...

It's a lot of fun times. The system isn't THAT complex.

The one thing I would warn about RIFTS (And Robotech), is often people do try to build Min/Maxed insane characters. But often they forget their Pre-requisite skills. For example piloting a mecha requires Read Sensory Instruments, which requires Advanced Math, which requires Basic Math (Which in RIFTS also requires Literacy which isn't automatically given). And when you remind people of the skills they have to pick up before hand, the characters end up toned down quite a bit.

Star Trek also has the Prime Directive series of RPGs. The first gen one was, pretty bad by all accounts. They rebooted it, instead making licensed system games instead of trying to make their own system. So you can find it in d20 Modern, DnD 3rd Edition, GURPS, and I'm thinking they did a D6 version too. I'd recommend it if you like Trek. It's based off the SFB game (Which also spawned other games like Federation and Empire, Star Fleet Command, etc), which was based off the original series (Though their license didn't allow them to use any "literary elements"). So it's pretty well put together, a bit more logical than some of the shows and it's revisionist nature. I'd recommend it.

I wouldn't suggest the FASA Star Trek RPG. Maybe it's just bad luck on my part, but the adventure modules I've all seen for it were, really, really boring. Most of them were written in a style where the entire adventure was pretty much just the DM reading lines to the players. Almost no interaction, everything's on autopilot.

With Robotech, it looks like it's almost entirely around fighting robots in wars.
Is this true? Because I can the players normally wanting to avoid wars and/or not wanting most of their foes to be robots.

How can people forget about the prerequisites though? Should the abilities clearly state what's required to them?

I don't know much about Star Trek myself though, it was more just one of the players who had suggested it.

[ArcturusV]

Because unlike DnD they don't have a huge "Requires: _____" line in bold or anything. Usually it's something like buried in the description of Sensory Instruments it'll say something like you cannot pilot aircraft or mecha without it.

And yeah, Robotech is fairly geared towards the Heavy Metal. I mean the enemies you have:

Zentraedi: They are 40' tall warrior bred aliens, so generally humans fall under the idea that they need to use their own 40' tall behemoth mechs like the VF series Veritechs and Destroids to be able to fight them on their own terms.

Robotech Masters: Well, they're human sized. But they also don't fight on their own and do pump out a lot of (Smaller admittedly, only about 12' tall) mechs to do their fighting. The force they face, the Armies of the Southern Cross, actually feature quite a few Armies that are not Mech based, like the Sea Squad, Mountaineers, Recon Escort Patrol, Global Police, etc. So there's opportunities not to rock the heavy metal.

Invid: Again it's "Smaller" enemy mecha for the most part. The REF uses smaller versions of the original mechs, the Alpha and Beta Veritechs, and the new series of Destroids that are about half the size. But the real advantage in dealing with the Invid is that Cyclones are a major tool of the Trade. Basically man sized mecha/power armor that transforms into a motorcycle. The Invid Wars involve a lot of espionage, sneaking around, and generally aren't battles you fight in up front dogfights. Doesn't hurt that everytime someone is stupid enough to try they end up facing like 2,000 to 1 odds.

If you wanted to get away from all your adventures and missions being about the big steel, the Third Invid War, or the Invid Invasion, or the Second Robotech War between the ASC and the Masters would be the way to go.

[Lorsa]

The Firefly-based game is called Serenity (as the movie). It's not the best rule system (the Cortex system has been upgraded for later games so check that out) but there's a lot of fan-based help on a forum that I always forget what it's called...

If you're looking into sci-fi in general don't forget to check out Eclipse Phase. I think it's a very cool game myself.

[Gwazi Magnum]

Because unlike DnD they don't have a huge "Requires: _____" line in bold or anything. Usually it's something like buried in the description of Sensory Instruments it'll say something like you cannot pilot aircraft or mecha without it.

And yeah, Robotech is fairly geared towards the Heavy Metal. I mean the enemies you have:

Zentraedi: They are 40' tall warrior bred aliens, so generally humans fall under the idea that they need to use their own 40' tall behemoth mechs like the VF series Veritechs and Destroids to be able to fight them on their own terms.

Robotech Masters: Well, they're human sized. But they also don't fight on their own and do pump out a lot of (Smaller admittedly, only about 12' tall) mechs to do their fighting. The force they face, the Armies of the Southern Cross, actually feature quite a few Armies that are not Mech based, like the Sea Squad, Mountaineers, Recon Escort Patrol, Global Police, etc. So there's opportunities not to rock the heavy metal.

Invid: Again it's "Smaller" enemy mecha for the most part. The REF uses smaller versions of the original mechs, the Alpha and Beta Veritechs, and the new series of Destroids that are about half the size. But the real advantage in dealing with the Invid is that Cyclones are a major tool of the Trade. Basically man sized mecha/power armor that transforms into a motorcycle. The Invid Wars involve a lot of espionage, sneaking around, and generally aren't battles you fight in up front dogfights. Doesn't hurt that everytime someone is stupid enough to try they end up facing like 2,000 to 1 odds.

If you wanted to get away from all your adventures and missions being about the big steel, the Third Invid War, or the Invid Invasion, or the Second Robotech War between the ASC and the Masters would be the way to go.

I'd be a bit worried though about using a game system built largely around fighting with mechs and robots and then trying to do it with all that removed. Just seems like I'm taking a system without it's bread and butter.


The Firefly-based game is called Serenity (as the movie). It's not the best rule system (the Cortex system has been upgraded for later games so check that out) but there's a lot of fan-based help on a forum that I always forget what it's called...

If you're looking into sci-fi in general don't forget to check out Eclipse Phase. I think it's a very cool game myself.

I noticed the Serenity one earlier, not sure if a system based off it could work so well though since the show lasted such a short time (damn you Fox). Also since this is meant to be for a group of players who normally don't like to look outside of the books or pdfs infront of them (so won't be looking at forum/fan help) I'd have to pass on a system relying on fan support.

Eclipse Phase I'll give a look at though. Thanks. :)

[jedipilot24]

Star Wars--I was introduced on the Revised Core Rules but I now prefer Saga as it's much more cinematic. Unlike the RCR, the Saga rules encourage the kind of mobile and dynamic battles we see on screen.

It's a bit dated, but have you considered Alternity? It's the predecessor in many respects to D20 Modern and like D20 Modern, Alternity can be used in any setting and, at least IMHO, it's much more flexible. Wanna play post-apocalyptic? Gamma World. Alternate Dimensions? Tangents. Modern day conspiracy theory? Dark Matter. Sci-Fi? StarDrive or StarCraft. Alternity can also play fantasy, either high magic or gritty realistic.

[Gwazi Magnum]

Star Wars--I was introduced on the Revised Core Rules but I now prefer Saga as it's much more cinematic. Unlike the RCR, the Saga rules encourage the kind of mobile and dynamic battles we see on screen.

It's a bit dated, but have you considered Alternity? It's the predecessor in many respects to D20 Modern and like D20 Modern, Alternity can be used in any setting and, at least IMHO, it's much more flexible. Wanna play post-apocalyptic? Gamma World. Alternate Dimensions? Tangents. Modern day conspiracy theory? Dark Matter. Sci-Fi? StarDrive or StarCraft. Alternity can also play fantasy, either high magic or gritty realistic.

I can't seem to find either in pdf form, so it would be hard for me to get anything from it to show to the rest of the group before hand. I'll keep looking though.

But note, I'm due to meet the group in a few hours about this so if you guys have any more suggestions please get them in now.

[Bakkan]

I really enjoyed using Serenity. We didn't use outside help, but at the beginning we did have to read the combat chapter several times because the editing was a little poor (I think they might have missed an intended "overview" section or something). I think we wound up making a few minor houserules, but it wasn't bad. I liked it because it was a different mechanic but easy to use, somewhat less rules-heavy than D&D, and used a point-based rather than a class system. I rcommend giving it a try if you can take a look at it without spending a lot of money.

[Blackbard]

My group and I just did a game night of Star Wars: Edge of the Empire

The rules aren't entirely fleshed out, but we had a ton of fun.

The mechanics for making skill checks and combat is quite interesting, utilizing advantage and disadvantage dice, boosts, and other influences.


I'm going to be picking up the new books for it, mainly for PC creation and different options for a possible campaign.

[Mutazoia]

Wow that's a lot... :smalleek:

Thanks, it'll probably take a bit of time to check through these and see which ones seems like they'd be the best match with the group (If I throw about 20 different games at them it will overwhelm though. This is a group whose just a few months ago didn't want to touch anything out side of 3.5, even pathfinder because they wanted to stay with what they know).

Anything that can help narrow it down to their more specific interests while I look through them would be appreciated. Basically they're most familiar with d20 but have some experience with the d6 system (I once DM'd the Star Wars D6 campaign for a few of them). For space it seems to be the general idea they don't care too much for fantasy or magic in this one. Well, fantasy would be fine, but nothing magical if you get what I mean.

Note: For those familiar with my last DM and the 'no magic' issue. He's the one we quit from and aren't playing this one with. So there's no magic on one side but not the other issue. Here when I say no magic I really do mean no magic.

Only real exception seems to be for Mass Effect theme but that's only the desire of 2 out of the 4 other players, who like me are very big Mass Effect fans. While the other two I imagine wouldn't want to be a world that's too heavily mass effect, can't say for sure cause I've never asked but one of them has never had much interest in it and the other has played the first game a bit but got bored of it.

As a whole the group tends to enjoy the ability to role play more than combat, but a solid and easy combat system is still preferable for when it does happen (and our style does cause it to happen occasionally). Also all of us other than the DM we had to quit from tend to be of the mindset of Enjoy-ability/Play-ability > Realism. Not to say we should throw wisdom out the window, it's nice to still have but we'd rather have a system that focuses on the enjoyment of playing it than one trying to be realistic about it.

Then with character creation, the more open the better. Classes work fine, but there's a preference for more the system where you have points and/or experience to buy whatever you want and make our own character rather than being restricted by a certain class.

Well if they want to stick with D20 you narrow down your field a bit. A generic D20 Future game, and D20 Star Wars are the main choices. As I said, with D20 Future you can pick any setting you want...pick up the D20 Modern and Past, the Future tech sauce's. With "Past" you can add a touch of Magic if you choose...There's still the D20 version of Traveler, you'd have to track down the sauce from the original and do some manual conversions though.

If your looking at point buy systems then your back to GURPS and RIFTS (assuming you want to stay away from furries in space or silliness like TFOS)
I'm not a huge fan of RIFTS as you do tend to see a lot of Min/Maxing and with all the nested skill requirements it just starts to get to be a bit much ("what do you mean I can't fly my space ship because I can't read?")

Star Frontiers and Buck Rodgers will be pretty close to D&D 2nd ed so the transition from D20 might not hurt as much, but again you'll be doing a lot of home brew.

The FASA version of Star Trek is not a bad system, just stay away from the published modules...they try a bit too hard to pick up the feel of the original series TV show so there's not a lot of real action to them. Make up your own adventures and you should do just fine. They also revised and expanded the rules so look for that version as well...

The Decipher version of Star Trek runs on a D6 system but not the one used by WEG in D6 Star Wars or D6 Space. The game uses 2D6 for everything (kind of like GURPS uses 3D6).

I guess the first thing you need to do is pole your group and find out (besides Mass Effect) what kind of game they want...Space Opera, Hard Science..do they want to muck about in an established universe or a brand new one....

EDIT: I did send you a PM about finding resources for most of these...

[Gwazi Magnum]

I really enjoyed using Serenity. We didn't use outside help, but at the beginning we did have to read the combat chapter several times because the editing was a little poor (I think they might have missed an intended "overview" section or something). I think we wound up making a few minor houserules, but it wasn't bad. I liked it because it was a different mechanic but easy to use, somewhat less rules-heavy than D&D, and used a point-based rather than a class system. I rcommend giving it a try if you can take a look at it without spending a lot of money.

If I'm able to find it I'll probably give it a peek.
But if it does turn out to be too dependent on outside help I'd have to scrap it to make it easier for the group.


My group and I just did a game night of Star Wars: Edge of the Empire

The rules aren't entirely fleshed out, but we had a ton of fun.

The mechanics for making skill checks and combat is quite interesting, utilizing advantage and disadvantage dice, boosts, and other influences.


I'm going to be picking up the new books for it, mainly for PC creation and different options for a possible campaign.

How exactly are they not so flushed out?


Well if they want to stick with D20 you narrow down your field a bit. A generic D20 Future game, and D20 Star Wars are the main choices. As I said, with D20 Future you can pick any setting you want...pick up the D20 Modern and Past, the Future tech sauce's. With "Past" you can add a touch of Magic if you choose...There's still the D20 version of Traveler, you'd have to track down the sauce from the original and do some manual conversions though.

If your looking at point buy systems then your back to GURPS and RIFTS (assuming you want to stay away from furries in space or silliness like TFOS)
I'm not a huge fan of RIFTS as you do tend to see a lot of Min/Maxing and with all the nested skill requirements it just starts to get to be a bit much ("what do you mean I can't fly my space ship because I can't read?")

Star Frontiers and Buck Rodgers will be pretty close to D&D 2nd ed so the transition from D20 might not hurt as much, but again you'll be doing a lot of home brew.

The FASA version of Star Trek is not a bad system, just stay away from the published modules...they try a bit too hard to pick up the feel of the original series TV show so there's not a lot of real action to them. Make up your own adventures and you should do just fine. They also revised and expanded the rules so look for that version as well...

The Decipher version of Star Trek runs on a D6 system but not the one used by WEG in D6 Star Wars or D6 Space. The game uses 2D6 for everything (kind of like GURPS uses 3D6).

I guess the first thing you need to do is pole your group and find out (besides Mass Effect) what kind of game they want...Space Opera, Hard Science..do they want to muck about in an established universe or a brand new one....

EDIT: I did send you a PM about finding resources for most of these...

D20 Future I've been unsure of since it seems to be cramming everything into one. But I'm going to try to get it to download and look it over briefly if possible. But to honest D20 is what I'm thinking will just be easier for the group since they've played 3.5 already, but I know me and at least one other player would prefer a more point buy system as a change.

I'm doubting we'll actually do a Star Trek RP though. It was just suggested as something we can take some ideas from.

I'll be sure to ask the group for preferences they have though too.

@Edit: I saw it and thanks for that. :)

[NilsRichter]

We already have a player who owns a number of GURPS books so we'd probably default to that anyways if it was that or paying money to take chances on something else.

If you are already considering GURPS, I can highly recommend the Transhuman Space (http://www.sjgames.com/transhuman/) setting.

It describes an optimistic view of the solar system in 2100 AD. No apocalyptic wars, no alien invasions, no doomsday devices. Humankind has kept on going, has solved a few problems and has come up with a lot of others.

If Hard Science sounds boring to you, just let the players create characters as they want and add to the setting (i.e. if someone wants to play a telepath, add psionics). And if you find a group consisting of an ex-slave-bioroid, an uplifted cat, a filthy rich disembodied AI and a french detective (my current group) not exotic enough, let First Contact (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FirstContact) happen on the PC's watch.

[Certified]

If I can self promote for a moment, Fractured Kingdom is now available for PDF Download at Drive Thru RPG and for Pre-Order with Studio 2. It's not hard sci-fi but we do have a dark future for you.

Drive Thru Link (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/113604/Fractured-Kingdom)

[Gwazi Magnum]

Thanks for all those who replied, but we discussed yesterday and we're going to be giving GURPS a shot. Though we only have one player who understands it and he

1) Doesn't understand combat since he plays Cthullu GURPs
2) Is pretty bad at explaining what he does understand

So any general help and advice on how to play GURPs would be most appreciated.

As for the general RP theme, we seem to be deciding on more of a firefly theme, space travel worthy world, able to land on and colonize planets. Though weapons will be more modern like and not being laser weapons.

Magic and it's relevance in the world is still unsure but the more popular opinion at least seems to be little to none of it.

We also using the Dawn of Worlds (http://www.clanwebsite.org/games/rpg/Dawn_of_Worlds_game_1_0Final.pdf) system for making the world/solar system this game will be taking place in.

[NilsRichter]

So any general help and advice on how to play GURPs would be most appreciated.

(1) Use 4th Edition, even if most books you have are 3rd ed.

(2) Rules-wise, have everyone read the free GURPS Lite (http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/lite/). Add only the rules that are needed for the PCs you want to play (i.e. if nobody wants to play a telepath, ignore Psionics for now).

(3) Expect that weapons are very powerful and that combat can be very short and deadly.

(4) I already mentioned Transhuman Space (http://www.sjgames.com/transhuman/). Most of the books are reduced in price to $10 (because they are 3rd ed.).

[Mutazoia]

Thanks for all those who replied, but we discussed yesterday and we're going to be giving GURPS a shot. Though we only have one player who understands it and he

1) Doesn't understand combat since he plays Cthullu GURPs
2) Is pretty bad at explaining what he does understand

So any general help and advice on how to play GURPs would be most appreciated.

As for the general RP theme, we seem to be deciding on more of a firefly theme, space travel worthy world, able to land on and colonize planets. Though weapons will be more modern like and not being laser weapons.

Magic and it's relevance in the world is still unsure but the more popular opinion at least seems to be little to none of it.

We also using the Dawn of Worlds (http://www.clanwebsite.org/games/rpg/Dawn_of_Worlds_game_1_0Final.pdf) system for making the world/solar system this game will be taking place in.

Gurps 4e and Transhuman space are available on that resource I sent you so that should help. while your there I would also recommend picking up Gurps Space Terradyne to go along with Transhuman Space.

[ericp65]

Space Master.

[Kraynium]

There is a sci-fi roleplaying game called Omega Connection. It leaves a lot of stuff open for GMs to create or add their own material to it. Fairly simple system, easy to play. Been playing it for a long time, pretty good.

[Haruki-kun]

The Winged Mod: Thread Necromancy.