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PaintByBlood
2013-12-04, 07:58 PM
A long desire of mine has been to play a roleplaying game set in the distant, spacefaring future, replete with spacecraft of varied sizes, space combat, space marines, and all that sci-fi stuff.
Does anyone know any good systems with a focus on spacefaring? I'm primarily interested in the idea of a party essentially playing the crew of a ship, though I could settle for space marines, with a focus on space battles and other futuristic combat, though of course other elements are a bonus and even if a system doesn't /focus/ on those things I'd probably still be curious about them.
The only names I've heard about having any focus there so far are Traveller and GURPS. Though I guess the Star Wars systems probably have some attention paid there too.

MonochromeTiger
2013-12-04, 08:00 PM
warhammer 40k: rogue trader, it's in the older RPGs section in the warhammer threads.

Rakaydos
2013-12-04, 08:43 PM
Star Wars: Edge of Empire does this suprisingly well... though you might want Age of Rebelion instead of Edge of Empire. (Same system, but AoR focuses of paramilitary stuff, where EoE focuses on "you cant take the sky from me" smuggler shenanagans)

Space Sorcerers are original trilogy strength, not the over the top stuff Saga allowed. (if you want more, wait for the Jedi book)

In space combat, EVERYONE can help... even if you're jumping on the intercom to do a Jpop inspirational song, it's still assist dice. :p

Grod_The_Giant
2013-12-04, 11:27 PM
Saga edition isn't bad, from what I've heard. A friend of mine is a big fan of Traveller.

When I had a hankering to play a game of that sort, I wrote a FATE hack (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=268483) to do so. It was based on the Dresden Files version of the game, but it should be easy enough to use with Core... worked out pretty well, I thought, especially the space combat.

Findpathfencer
2013-12-04, 11:35 PM
Eheh spelljammer:smalltongue:


And look http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_role-playing_games_by_genre

Rhynn
2013-12-05, 02:52 AM
Traveller is pretty awesome.

Stars Without Numbers is the bomb, though. It has rules/guidelines for space combat and creating factions and, most importantly, for mapping out and describing entire sectors of space in minutes, down to creating planets full of adventure hooks. These rules are perfect for e.g. a Star Trek -style campaign. If you use the implied setting, some good ideas are the PCs serving as part of one of the few surviving interstellar power groups, like the Perimeter Agency (police, essentially) or the Archive (preserving and spreading knowledge of technology), maybe travelling from sector to sector and system to system to rediscover lost worlds and reunite them to the larger galactic society...

I guess there's also Spacemaster...

Mutazoia
2013-12-05, 07:09 AM
Star Wars (several versions)
Traveller
D6 Space
Star Frontiers
GURPS (Sci-Fi and Transhuman etc. )
Ringworld RPG
Dune RPG
Albedo (Furries in space)
Aliens (make your own colonial marine now with free face-hugger)
Cthonian Stars (Cthulhu in space)
Eclipse Phase
Rogue Trader
Robotech
Serenity
Star Trek (several versions)


Just to name a few :wink:

hamlet
2013-12-05, 08:47 AM
Alternity, if you can get past preconceptions about what it's doing, is really good.

PaintByBlood
2013-12-05, 12:18 PM
Awesome, thank you for the responses everyone.

A question about Traveller, for the ones who mentioned it: I've located the version that is open content, does anyone know how much similary the newer systems bear with that version, which is apparently (based on?) the classic version?

I'll have to look through all of these, though. Hopefully plenty of them can be found with a little OGL content or a sample or two, so that I actually can freely look at them.

Thanks again!

Radar
2013-12-05, 01:03 PM
In space combat, EVERYONE can help... even if you're jumping on the intercom to do a Jpop inspirational song, it's still assist dice. :p
You mean, it can emulate Macross? I might need to look into it then. :smallbiggrin:

Hunter Noventa
2013-12-05, 01:30 PM
You mean, it can emulate Macross? I might need to look into it then. :smallbiggrin:

This is now the only way to play Star Wars. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf-hD_DFeyU)

I looked into the new Star Wars system. the fact that is uses a strange dice/success system with wonky custom dice really turned me off. I know you can use normal dice, but that doesn't make the system less weird to work with when you're used to d20 for everything.

Rakaydos
2013-12-05, 03:56 PM
You mean, it can emulate Macross? I might need to look into it then. :smallbiggrin:

Pg 234 Additional Ship and Vehical Actions

...ok, so it's not listed by name. But... "The number of options open to (non pilot/gunner characters) is limited only by a players creativity."

Mutazoia
2013-12-05, 05:12 PM
Awesome, thank you for the responses everyone.

A question about Traveller, for the ones who mentioned it: I've located the version that is open content, does anyone know how much similary the newer systems bear with that version, which is apparently (based on?) the classic version?

I'll have to look through all of these, though. Hopefully plenty of them can be found with a little OGL content or a sample or two, so that I actually can freely look at them.

Thanks again!

Before you go too much further, we should probably ask what style of sci-fi you are looking for. Traveller is a great game but it has always been based more on hard science than space opera (such as Star Wars or Star Trek).

BWR
2013-12-05, 05:18 PM
Before you go too much further, we should probably ask what style of sci-fi you are looking for. Traveller is a great game but it has always been based more on hard science than space opera (such as Star Wars or Star Trek).

Hard science with FTL travel, psionics and godlike beings, to be precise.

Gnoman
2013-12-05, 05:46 PM
You might want to look into the Star Fleet Universe. It started off as a Star Trek TOS licence but has diverged completely from the original franchise (their original licence didn't cover anything after TAS, and they can't get too specific. Thus, there's no offical Kirk, Spock, or McCoy in any of the material, and the Enterprise appears only on ship lists as just another Federation CA) , and undergone considerable expansion (Besides the Gorn and Kizinti (races mentioned in canon but designed pretty much from scratch for the game universe, as nothing was known about the Gorn, and the Kzinti were tacked in when the TAS writers stole adapted a Known Space story; there are several races entirely unique to the universe such as the Hydrans, Lyrans, and ISC).


The product line consists of two ship/fleet level wargames (the orginial Star Fleet Battles and the lobotomized cousin Federation Commander), an empire-level tactical game (Federation and Empire), and the Prime Directive RPG (which currently comes in D20 and GURPS flavors). All of these products are designed to integrate fairly well, so you can, for example, attack a planet in F&E, fight the defending fleet in SFB, and then use Prime Directive for the ground missions (although there are rules for large-scale ground combat in SFB)

The rules are a little complex for the non-RPG levels, though.

PaintByBlood
2013-12-05, 07:15 PM
I struggle with how to succinctly describe what I'm after. I suppose the main things I'm leaning toward are Space Western themes, but with more focus on technology and politics and some of those kinds of elements than I have typically seen in a Space Western. I'm kind of thinking of it as like... Firefly and Star Trek meeting mid-way, if that makes sense to anyone but myself.

Definitely hard science, for this one, but I'm okay with psionics and FTL at least in my hard science, and probably some other things that aren't absolutely scientific.

Part of the trouble is that I'm thinking about a few game concepts I have in my head and each have somewhat different focuses, and hoping I would be able to accommodate any (or all roughly at once) in one system, so I'm probably apt to be more picky than I ought to be.

Rakaydos
2013-12-05, 09:06 PM
Edge of Empire definately handles "Space Western" wonderfully. Obligation is a wonderful mechanic for "this is why the PCs are having an adventure" that doesnt end in money-creep, and helps justify owning a starship and not much else.

Zavoniki
2013-12-05, 09:38 PM
I would also suggest looking into the Serenity Roleplaying game and Cortex. Cortex is the more generic version of the system and the Serenity game comes with pretty good starship rules(I think... they might be in a splat) where ships have mostly the same stats as player characters.

I would also not suggest Eclipse Phase if you want to do things involving space ships fighting each other. A friend and I spent about two hours trying to hack together a space combat system based on the information given in their books only to come up with Engines can't put out the numbers the Core book says they do.

1337 b4k4
2013-12-05, 11:12 PM
Well, my login timed out and I lost a big long post. I don't feel like typing it all out again, so here's the short version:

If you want space wester, and really like the "edge of civilization" feel of Firefly, definitely check out traveller. It comes in a lot of different editions (including a d20 and GURPS version) but they all share a lot of the same features and the community is pretty open to all edition players and makes it real easy to convert from one to the other. The SRD is ok, but you lose a lot of the feel that makes Traveller so appealing. I recommend getting a copy of the rules and luckily you can get Starter Traveller (basically, the first three books of Classic Traveller) for free from RPG Now until Dec 31 (http://www.rpgnow.com/product/80190/CT-ST-Starter-Traveller) so I would check that out (because, you know, free). The blogger Greywulf did an excellent series of posts (http://greywulf.net/tag/travellerrpg/) on Traveller the last time it went free, so download the rules and read along. The rules in CT are a little clunky in places, but the community is really helpful. You can also if you decide, buy the full collection of books for classic traveller on CDROM from the original author here (http://www.farfuture.net) or conversely, buy the latest edition he just released. Seriously, traveller cool, even if you never use it for real, it's got some neat ideas and is worth at least getting the free rules.

Also if you prefer a D&D style chassis, I second the recommendation for Stars Without Number.

Telok
2013-12-06, 01:27 AM
Classic Traveller is also incredibly easy to hack.

For one game I rewrote the entire combat engine to be a little more realistic in ground combat and much more detailed and party friendly in space. It took maybe a day to work out what I wanted and another to write it up. I did this because I was runnig the game for a group that had only played D&D or Shadowrun and I knew I would have to beef it up a little to keep them involved.

Then I rewrote the FTL stuff to fit the story and made a series of tables in a spreadsheet so I wouldn't have to do any calculations at the table.

Lorsa
2013-12-06, 10:10 AM
I've also got some inspiration lately for doing spacefaring sci-fi roleplaying where there could actually be ship-to-ship combat. I looked into Space without numbers and it's not exactly what I was looking for, so maybe I should see what Traveller has to offer.

Or maybe I should try to write some rules myself, based on inspiration from the various games. Only problem is that it can easily become quite complex, and visualising ships in 3D can be problematic. Also while characters in normal combat usually have movement, a spaceship only has acceleration (which decreases with speed) which means you need to keep track of your current speed in every direction. It can easily become a bit of a mess...

Zavoniki
2013-12-06, 10:47 AM
I believe a while ago someone asked this as well and the best advice that I could come up with was the two part hack.

Take a good role playing system(Generic Brand Roleplaying System TM) that does small scale(as in by physical size) well.

Take a good Space Combat system(I suggest Triplanetary or Attack Vector:Tactical/Saganami Tactical Simulator).

Smash together with vigorous force until they work together.

skyth
2013-12-06, 11:16 AM
There is always SpaceMaster (Has all the elements you are describing) and Star Frontiers (Though being a ship crew from the start requires a hack as ship skills are pretty high level.)

Rakaydos
2013-12-06, 11:52 AM
Take a good Space Combat system(I suggest Triplanetary or Attack Vector:Tactical/Saganami Tactical Simulator).

I need to learn Saganami. It's been sitting on my shelf for awhile with noone to help me learn.

Grod_The_Giant
2013-12-06, 02:35 PM
I need to learn Saganami. It's been sitting on my shelf for awhile with noone to help me learn.
Same here. I remember my head exploding the first time I tried to figure out the rules for moving, and I don't think I ever looked back at it. Friggen vectors, man...

Rakaydos
2013-12-06, 02:51 PM
Same here. I remember my head exploding the first time I tried to figure out the rules for moving, and I don't think I ever looked back at it. Friggen vectors, man...

Its acceleration and turning that boggles my mind

Is there a maptoolvprogram for hexes? Perhapsvwe couldvget online practice...

Grod_The_Giant
2013-12-06, 03:00 PM
Its acceleration and turning that boggles my mind

Is there a maptoolvprogram for hexes? Perhapsvwe couldvget online practice...
Roll20 can do hexes, and is a generally excellent program to boot.

Rakaydos
2013-12-06, 03:13 PM
Ive used but not hosted roll 20. Would you like to put something together?

Grod_The_Giant
2013-12-06, 03:34 PM
Ive used but not hosted roll 20. Would you like to put something together?
I can't until finals are over in ~2 weeks. (No time, and I don't have the stuff here). After that, though, it could be interesting.

skyth
2013-12-06, 03:59 PM
Is there a maptoolvprogram for hexes? Perhapsvwe couldvget online practice...

Maptools handles hexes as well as squares (And Freeform). You just have to specify hexes when you create the map.

Kadzar
2013-12-06, 05:04 PM
Though I haven't yet had the pleasure of playing a game in it, from reading the core book Stars Without Number seems to be a very well designed game that nonetheless is very easy to make houserules or homebrew for or incorporate things from other games.

But even if you don't use the rules themselves, the core book is available for free download (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/86467/) and has all kinds of great resources for any space game, including but not limited to a plot hook generator, random alien generator, a faction system which can be added onto any game, quick corporation and political party generators, etc.