Game System for a sci fi setting with no magic.

[techgorilla]

Hi guys, lately i've been thinking of creating a new campaign for me and my friends to play. The campaign would be set in an hostile alien world. The campaign will center on survival and creation of a permanent settlement on the world.

With this in mind, what are potential game systems i could use for this campaign?

I was thinking of using d20future. But before i first wanted to ask if you guys knew of any other system that is better than d20future for this type of campaign.

I know there are systems for Warhammer and Star wars and Shadowrun. But i do not want to set my campaign in worlds that already have so much defined lore. I wanted this to be a mostly home brewed world. But if you guys think that it is possible to use this systems and strip them of the lore, i could consider using them.

Any Idea?

[Rhynn]

Stars Without Number is a great, simple but robust, very open OSR-game with an implied setting that's easy to junk. There's psionics, but you can easily junk that too. There's rules for factions and spaceships, and even several supplements with more material.

GURPS is very solid for sci-fi if you don't mind a lot of pages to wade through.

Alternity is pretty great, but it's too old to easily find by now.

Traveller sees reprint after reprint; I think the latest version is still the Mongoose version, and it's quite good. Very simple rules, generally.

I can't speak much to Blue Planet or Eclipse Phase, but either might be bent to fit your needs.

There's also Spacemaster, but I wouldn't recommend anything based on Rolemaster to anyone who's not already a fan of Rolemaster.

You could definitely use Unisystem; All Tomorrow's Zombies can be a useful sci-fi supplement for it even if you're not into the zombies. (As a bonus, if you buy All Flesh Must Be Eaten to use for this, you'll also own the best zombie RPG ever!)

[Kiero]

Ignore aliens and biotics and there's still enough meat in Mass: the Effecting (http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Mass:_the_Effecting) (an nWoD hack) to mess around with. Depends on how closely the tech aligns with that in Mass Effect, though.

[techgorilla]

I will try to read up on some of this systems and see which one i like best.

I enjoy mass effect a lot but i was expecting to have some melee classes which the mass effect universe does not have.

[Zavoniki]

Eclipse Phase, while good, is somewhat tied to its setting(mainly the body swapping). It might be worth looking at it but if you want your own setting out of it you'll need to hack something together(including Backgrounds and Factions).

I'll throw at Cortex as a good generic system that does Sci-Fi very well and is pretty simple.

I'm also not sure how successful you'll be at finding a sci-fi system that allows melee to be an option. Maybe Dark Heresy.

[techgorilla]

Yeah i know that i will have to hack some stuff. I am mainly looking for something that gives me a base for melee, ranged combat. Skill check, social checks, monster templates, character templates. that kind of stuff.

Dark Heresy sounds nice, the problem is that this kind of stuff is usually balanced within it's lore. If i try to remove cybernetics, mental powers and other lore specific stuff i might end with an unbalanced mess of a system.

[erikun]

Eclipse Phase is as functional for generic sci-fi as it is for its own system. You'd be working without psi powers, which is just fine and the system is designed to allow you to do without them just fine. Uploading and resleeving (switching bodies) could probably be ignored as well, if you want. You'd want to remove some skills as well, such as Psychosurgery (fixing mental problems, generally related to resleeving or Psi powers) and Freefall (maneuvering in zero-G environments).

The biggest concern is that Eclipse Phase has a lot of skills and stats to be familiar with, and it can take a long time to get a character properly created because of that. Even removing the skills you'd never use, there will still be a large number available.

Other than that, Traveller (yes, Mongoose edition looks best) can do realistic, or at least mundane gritty, settings well. There's also the general Fate system, and I have a system called Diaspora that is an older Fate game designed for a similar theme to Traveller. I haven't had a chance to look through it yet, though.

Depending on the power level you're talking about, you might also want to look into something bigger, like Mutants & Masterminds. I mean, if you're planning aliens with laser pistols and everything, you might be better going with a higher power level system even if the PCs are standard human level. (Perhaps M&M is too high, though.)

[Rakaydos]

Myriad Song (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/118669/MYRIAD-SONG---Role-Play-Adventure-of-Ten-Thousand-Worlds) is another possibility- While it does put a lot more focus on ranged combat, it gives enough slack to "primitive" characters that melee isnt an impossibility, if you're willing to throw a few spears as you close. No attacks of opportunity though- instead, there's counterattacks as defenses, meaning you might be shot if you try running at someone with a sword, which kinda ruins your aim.

[Mando Knight]

I was thinking of using d20future. But before i first wanted to ask if you guys knew of any other system that is better than d20future for this type of campaign.

I know there are systems for Warhammer and Star wars and Shadowrun. But i do not want to set my campaign in worlds that already have so much defined lore. I wanted this to be a mostly home brewed world. But if you guys think that it is possible to use this systems and strip them of the lore, i could consider using them.

If you file off the serial numbers and purge the mystic powers, Saga edition Star Wars becomes basically a newer version of d20 Future with a whole lot more 1st party support, AFAIK. It's more weighted towards combat than survival/intrigue, though. (And more ranged than melee... some can make devastating melee builds even leaving Jedi out of the picture, but ranged gets more out of the box and at least as many toys to play with)

GURPS has been mentioned, as has Mutants and Masterminds...

[Tengu_temp]

Ignore aliens and biotics and there's still enough meat in Mass: the Effecting (http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Mass:_the_Effecting) (an nWoD hack) to mess around with. Depends on how closely the tech aligns with that in Mass Effect, though.

I have no idea why would anyone play this game, to be honest. The mechanics of nWoD are already bad at representing nWoD (it's a game you play for the setting, not the mechanics), and they do an even worse job at Mass Effect. Not to mention that any thin semblance of balance this system had gets thrown out of the window with this hack. Also, there's very little meat to it even before you get rid of aliens and biotics.

[Kiero]

I have no idea why would anyone play this game, to be honest. The mechanics of nWoD are already bad at representing nWoD (it's a game you play for the setting, not the mechanics), and they do an even worse job at Mass Effect. Not to mention that any thin semblance of balance this system had gets thrown out of the window with this hack. Also, there's very little meat to it even before you get rid of aliens and biotics.

Twenty sessions of enjoyable actual play experience of M:tE says you don't have a clue what you're talking about. nWoD is a perfectly serviceable rules-medium system once you fix armour/weapons and ditch the bloated and broken Fighting Styles. Those changes do wonders for balance in combat and the templates are broadly equivalent.

I'd say custom power-sets for biotics, combat and tech, which can be combined pretty much as you like is more than enough meat. We've certainly found each of the five PCs in our game to be quite distinct. Losing biotics might halve the base templates and reduce the power options by a third, but that's still a lot to be going on with.

[techgorilla]

Thank you for all the recommendations. i am currently reading about these diferent books to see which one i should buy for my game.

If anyone else has any melee based sci fi recommendations please tell me, Or maybe someone has some homebrewed rules to enhance melee in a ceratin game system. that would help as well.

[Yora]

I use Star Wars Saga Edition for everything. When you take out the Force and Jedi, it's really good generic modern/sci-fi system.

[Tengu_temp]

Twenty sessions of enjoyable actual play experience of M:tE says you don't have a clue what you're talking about.

I'm pretty sure that's because the group is good, not because the system is.

[techgorilla]

Thank's for all the help guys. i will try to figure out which system is best. but whichever i choose it seems i will have to customize it a lot.

[Kiero]

I'm pretty sure that's because the group is good, not because the system is.

We're sensitive enough to system. DFRPG ground to a halt because that iteration of FATE just didn't work for us. That was all the same people, yet the system spoiled things.

[Jlerpy]

Yeah i know that i will have to hack some stuff. I am mainly looking for something that gives me a base for melee, ranged combat. Skill check, social checks, monster templates, character templates. that kind of stuff.

Dark Heresy sounds nice, the problem is that this kind of stuff is usually balanced within it's lore. If i try to remove cybernetics, mental powers and other lore specific stuff i might end with an unbalanced mess of a system.

LOL, as if it weren't already. :)

[AMFV]

I'm pretty sure that's because the group is good, not because the system is.

I love the system for NWoD actually, it's pretty good at many times of games, is fairly easy to learn, simplistic, contains a morality system that I'm extremely fond of, and the combat system isn't a problematic as people suggest, it could certainly use some tweaking, but I would say that blanket damning the system is pretty rough, since people have apparently enjoyed it enough to create custom settings for it, and more than just that particular custom setting. I would argue dif'rent strokes for dif'rent folks here.

[LibraryOgre]

Since no one else has said it, I'll throw out Savage Worlds. While you're looking for no magic, my Savage Effect (http://rpgcrank.blogspot.com/2013/08/savage-worlds-mass-effect.html) hack used Savage Worlds powers to mimic some of the more fantastic tecnhology, as well as biotics. It'll handle most of what you're looking for pretty easily, and has an array of critters that can be refluffed to cover your alien world.

[Mutazoia]

I'll throw in a couple of suggestions:


D6 Space (System once used for the original Star Wars RPG)
Star Frontiers (Now open source , fan supported)
Ring World RPG (Out of print but still available if you look)
Serenity RPG

[LibraryOgre]

I'll throw in a couple of suggestions:


D6 Space (System once used for the original Star Wars RPG)
Star Frontiers (Now open source , fan supported)
Ring World RPG (Out of print but still available if you look)
Serenity RPG


I'll toss out that d6 Space is not exactly the one used in the old Star Wars; there've been some updates, including reducing the "blasterproof wookie" effect.

[Jarred Stone]

If you file off the serial numbers and purge the mystic powers, Saga edition Star Wars becomes basically a newer version of d20 Future with a whole lot more 1st party support, AFAIK. It's more weighted towards combat than survival/intrigue, though. (And more ranged than melee... some can make devastating melee builds even leaving Jedi out of the picture, but ranged gets more out of the box and at least as many toys to play with)

GURPS has been mentioned, as has Mutants and Masterminds...

Bro, with the right build, I have seen guys pulling around 40 of damage per hit... at level 4! Maybe it's my table, but they still prefer meele than ranged combat. They find the later too boring and not so efficient.

In my case, I suggest you Star Wars Saga (banning everything about the Force) or Eclipse Phase. And, to add something to the list of possible system, Warhammer 40K: Dark Heresy.

[Knaight]

GURPS is particularly solid, though if you want to see much in the way of melee combat you'll have to be careful when it comes to selecting what technology is available. There is also Fudge, which is a lighter GURPS in a lot of ways.

That said, I'd actually recommend Nemesis (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/90427/Nemesis). Nemesis is a modern horror game, but the horror aspect is really easy to remove, and it's built in such a way as to handle sci-fi well. It also has a very strong core engine, which works well for modelling all sorts of things in an interesting way. It's also free, and relatively short while still being fairly crunchy.