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Windstorm
2014-07-23, 07:31 PM
playground, I find myself in need of advice.

while my exposure to D&D and D20 modern is pretty good, and I have reasonable exposure to the FFG 40k systems, I've been searching for a decent system to run a more optimistic sci-fi campaign in, and don't really have any idea as to where to start or what is recommended.

type of feel I'm looking to get out of it: something along the lines of Deus Ex (HR), or the Crysis series, something nearer future, not necessarily far-future space travel stuff.

Anderlith
2014-07-23, 08:37 PM
Traveller, parts of Shadowrun, Mutant's & Masterminds & other generic games.

Sidmen
2014-07-23, 08:44 PM
I'm currently using Star HERO from the HERO system line to run a sci-fi game. Actually, nevermind - I'm just using the core HERO system to run the game. I just had to redo all the weapons in Star HERO because they varied wildly in power. I can't, really, think of anything from Star HERO that I'm using now.

SouthpawSoldier
2014-07-23, 08:46 PM
Problem Solved. Not all-inclusive; missing my beloved Firefly RPG, but still useful.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_b_Wux_kl6mM/TT2yJBmttCI/AAAAAAAAAcw/bKml21bJ-y8/s1600/rpgchart14.gif

Windstorm
2014-07-23, 08:58 PM
now thats a funny and really useful flowchart.

looks like shadowrun/spycraft are where I end up.

SouthpawSoldier
2014-07-23, 09:03 PM
Aparently GameInformer offered it as a poster a while back. Firewall at work makes digging for it difficult, but worth putting up on a game room wall.

Pluto!
2014-07-23, 09:27 PM
"Light" is an... interesting description for Spycraft.

Edit:
Not hating on the game. I think it's the absolute best d20 game. But what it does well is tweak the fiddly overcomplicated d20 rule set to be fiddly and over complicated at the parts of the game where the important parts of the fiction are supposed to take place - a great thing for a rules-heavy system to do, but it's basically unplayable without the reference charts for all the fiddly little bonuses, penalties and procedures.

Windstorm
2014-07-24, 12:42 AM
so what is the most common/preferred edition of shadowrun then? (where I might find the most official material) from my reading so far 5th edition is brand new, but usually the majority of the advice is designed for the most commonly used version of the system, and for shadowrun I am finding lots of mixed messages as to what edition is the most common one

Anderlith
2014-07-24, 01:38 AM
4th is my favorite so far & has the most support, but I haven't had a chance to play 5th. I hear the Matrix rules are wonky but other than that it's good. YMMV

TheEmerged
2014-07-24, 09:04 AM
It's probably hard to find now but the second-longest running campaign our gaming group has ever run was a sci-fi campaign in the Alternity system (put out by T$R shortly before & during the early days of the WotC buyout). It was a skill-based system where your class determined the cost of the skills. I actually dug out my books for this recently in a nostalgia attack after finding our old campaign info by mistake (ah, I remember filling forms out on paper, in the heady days of taking a laptop with me...).

DigoDragon
2014-07-26, 10:50 AM
Problem Solved. Not all-inclusive; missing my beloved Firefly RPG, but still useful.

...that is sooo accurate with my group that laughing is awkward. :smallbiggrin:

CombatOwl
2014-07-26, 11:18 AM
playground, I find myself in need of advice.

while my exposure to D&D and D20 modern is pretty good, and I have reasonable exposure to the FFG 40k systems, I've been searching for a decent system to run a more optimistic sci-fi campaign in, and don't really have any idea as to where to start or what is recommended.

type of feel I'm looking to get out of it: something along the lines of Deus Ex (HR), or the Crysis series, something nearer future, not necessarily far-future space travel stuff.

GURPS has a lot of support for science fiction.

The Grue
2014-07-26, 05:55 PM
Eclipse Phase is near-future transhuman cyberpunk horror kind of stuff.

So a bit more Deus Ex than Crysis.

Leviting
2014-07-26, 07:20 PM
Eclipse Phase is near-future transhuman cyberpunk horror kind of stuff.

So a bit more Deus Ex than Crysis.

I think what is interesting about Eclipse Phase is how the mental stats are treated almost exactly the same as physical stats, they just are used for different things. That and the fact that you can essentially make the Terminator using a (severely) upgraded case morph.

Grinner
2014-07-26, 07:35 PM
That and the fact that you can essentially make the Terminator using a (severely) upgraded case morph.

Or a psychic sexbot. Or a fireproof space whale. Or both, at the same time.

Rakaydos
2014-07-26, 08:51 PM
Chart is missing the Fantasy Flight Star Wars games. (Edge of Empire and Age of Rebelion, with Force and Destiny soon to be in beta) Also FATE should be in a couple differet places on that chart.

Edge of Empire handles your Boba Fetts, Han Solos, and Malcom Renolds of the 'Verse
Age of Rebelion handles your Wraith Squadrons, Commander Shepards, and Babylon 5 type games.
Force and destiny isn tout yet, but is expected to cover all flavors of space magic/biotics/psi for your games, in more detail than the basics in the other books.

Windstorm
2014-07-27, 01:07 AM
thanks for all the responses, after poking a few of the suggested systems my group is looking at shadowrun 4e for a future game.

good discussion though, as discovering new systems is always fun, and threads like this often help others beyond the original post :smallsmile:

Lord Raziere
2014-07-27, 02:32 AM
well, there is Starblazer Adventures if you want Fate variant for sci-fi. real flexible, even though focused on far future flight stuff, the system is the most flexible and could probably do near-future stuff pretty well.

there is Traveler if you want to randomly generate your character. its supposedly the sci-fi equivalent of DnD but....I never played it and I have no idea what its like. also, real rules light. but focused on the far-future space traveling though.

if you want sci-fi from the point of view of a 1920's child, there is always Rocket Age, and TECHNICALLY its optimistic, as in "silliness that makes Star Trek and Doctor Who look realistic" optimistic, and technically its near-future, if the present is the 1920's, thinking of what it'll be like in 1938, where people will be flying to other planets within the solar system in classic rockets with fins, meeting martians and venusians on their planets with breathable atmospheres capable of supporting life, fighting Nazis and Europans (as in aliens from Europa) with ray guns, using rocket jetpacks, and the only FTL vehicle was made by Einstein who then used it to fly off to parts unknown with out sharing the blueprints with anyone, and its pretty much unapologetically optimistic golden age pulp sci-fi. definitely not what your looking for.

I list these ones because Eclipse Phase and Shadowrun was already mentioned. I however recommend Eclipse Phase over Shadowrun even though technically they're both not very optimistic, because Eclipse Phase is more focused on the pure sci-fi.

golentan
2014-07-27, 02:54 AM
there is Traveler if you want to randomly generate your character. its supposedly the sci-fi equivalent of DnD but....I never played it and I have no idea what its like. also, real rules light. but focused on the far-future space traveling though.

Running traveller now, so I can talk about this pretty well (it's one of my favorite systems). It's not like DnD at all. It's not at all concerned with balance, it's skill based with no level or class system (unless you want to count careers, but that's only for chargen and is not prescriptive) and it's potentially way more lethal than DnD in it's best known incarnations.

But it's great. The system is flexible, and geared toward giving people tools for worldbuilding and sightseeing: You can generate NPCs and PCs in such a way that their backstory writes itself in an interesting and organic way, you can start with a blank piece of paper and a pair of six sided dice and wind up with a whole world or sector of space with interesting local quirks to explore, you can generate new animal species on the fly, you have all the tools you need to design spacecraft specific to the world, you can figure out what goods are being hawked and whether there's a pack of mail that needs to be delivered to another world and how willing the authorities are to trust it to you, and that's all in the core book (mongoose edition, anyway).

It's not so much rules light as modular. There are rules for resolving all sorts of complicated tasks and generating various devices and outcomes and polities and people and more, but the core system stands alone without the subsystems, and you can choose which ones to include in any given game (which is good as the editing isn't always as good as it should be, though there's always several good things in any given book in my experience to balance the questionable).

The core system and setting is designed to have a very age of sail feel: information travels at the speed of ship, and the minimum time between worlds is a week, so interplanetary systems are distributed and provincial to cope with the stress of a minimum 2 week round trip to get instructions back. It's designed as an adventure friendly world: there's always something to explore, some new people to meet, some job to be done. It's an old universe built on the ruins of old disasters, with the promise of hope and a bright future and the threat of another collapse both looming on the horizon.

A good example of a traveller style game might be watching firefly: The traditional scenario is the party has a ship, the ship is their greatest asset, and yet it's such a valuable and complicated device that it also consumes much of the resources they can acquire to keep her flying, and is almost an additional character with her own personality and moods. The firefly crew can't make ends meet with conventional trade, and so turn to odd jobs and the occasional crime to keep Serenity in engine components, similar to how many traveller groups get by. Similarly, the crew isn't remotely mechanically balanced (Wash is next to useless on land, while River's psychic powers and combat skills make her an unstoppable juggernaut when her triggers go off) but they each contribute something to the whole.

Lord Raziere
2014-07-27, 02:56 AM
I meant more like Traveler being "sci-fi equivalent" in that its the default go-to sci-fi rpg that is the oldest in the genre and such....sorry I wasn't clear....

golentan
2014-07-27, 03:03 AM
I meant more like Traveler being "sci-fi equivalent" in that its the default go-to sci-fi rpg that is the oldest in the genre and such....sorry I wasn't clear....

Yeah, but anytime I poke my head in a sci-fi system discussion I'm contractually obligated to goob about Traveller.

I have many odd clauses in my contract. Such as the one that grants me immortality so long as I dissect at least one animal body part every three months...

I do like my contract though. It's a roller coaster of fun.

Premier
2014-07-27, 09:52 AM
Stars Without Number would certainly be an option. It's rather rules-light, since it's essentialy old-school D&D in space. The default setting assumes quite a bit of spacefaring, but you can easily ignore that - it will still have abstract, easy-to-use vehicle combat rules, a skill system (which is actually sort of like Traveller's), cybernetics, psionics, customisable mechs and AI characters - take what you want, ignore the rest.

And the best thing is: it's free. Or rather, there's a free version which is only missing two chapters from the commercial one, and is perfectly complete and playable (well, the mech and AI rules are actually in the full version).

SouthpawSoldier
2014-07-27, 04:00 PM
I love these tips; finding more and more free stuff. Probably have a GB now of random one-shots and samplers for various games. Some I searched for after reading the chart, others from ya'll's comments, and some from promos on DriveThru RPG and the like.