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Ratter
2021-05-21, 01:00 PM
I'm going to be running a game set in a world that was for a while an intergalactic equivalent to a landfill. It's a hard sci-fi game, not meant to be sci-fi fantasy at all really, and I was just wondering what RPGs would be good for that style of game.

I was currently considering Savage Worlds, but divorcing Savage Worlds from its magic aspects and porting it to the future seems like it may be difficult, and other more grounded rpgs may be better.

Thank you for the suggestions in advance!

JeenLeen
2021-05-21, 01:48 PM
I read... I think off of Kickstarter... a setting book and maybe entire system where everything was basically post-human earth where overpollution had basically wiped out mankind.

The different races were things like mutated animals, trash that has become sentient, and similar things. I forget if it was d20-based or not, but it seemed a humorous setting at least. But could definitely make sense as a galactic dump site.

But my memory fails on the name.

Quertus
2021-05-23, 08:32 AM
IIRC, Savage World has some good rules for what you're looking to do. But, yeah, it would effectively be writing your own system, with Savage World as inspiration / with lifting the useful rules to remove the "magic" from the system.

farothel
2021-05-23, 10:12 AM
I would look at some general systems, like GURPS or Alternity. They can easily be used for different kinds of games.

The Glyphstone
2021-05-23, 12:09 PM
I assume you're using a fairly flexible definition of 'hard sci-fi, since traditional "hard" sci-fi would preclude FTL travel of any kind, and thus make an intergalactic society impossible.

As far as systems...I suppose it largely depends if you intend the game/campaign to leave the junkyard planet at any point. If you're primarily dirtbound, you have a lot more flexibility because physics-friendly space movement/travel rules are few and far between.

SunsetWaraxe
2021-05-23, 06:38 PM
Star Wars SAGA with all of the Force Powers and Jedi stuff pulled out is a fabulous sci-fi system that could definitely suit your needs.

Ratter
2021-05-25, 12:57 PM
I assume you're using a fairly flexible definition of 'hard sci-fi, since traditional "hard" sci-fi would preclude FTL travel of any kind, and thus make an intergalactic society impossible.

Hard Sci-fi could be anything in that way, though yes its mostly flexible, FTL travel is still possible through things like rosen bridges if you could come up with some hand wave-y technology to make them.

Bohandas
2021-05-25, 04:01 PM
I assume you're using a fairly flexible definition of 'hard sci-fi, since traditional "hard" sci-fi would preclude FTL travel of any kind, and thus make an intergalactic society impossible.

What about the alcubierre metric?

Geordnet
2021-05-28, 03:10 PM
It's a hard sci-fi game, not meant to be sci-fi fantasy at all really

There is a huge range between those extremes. Where does your setting sit? (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness)

"Garbage Planets" don't really fit into what I would normally consider "Hard" Sci-Fi (>3 on that scale) because hauling your trash off to another planet is usually the most expensive way possible to deal with it. (Not to mention that if it were somehow cheaper to ship it offworld instead of incinerating it locally, why are they landing intact garbage ships on a dedicated planet instead of simply letting it crash into the nearest uninhabited rock, or even just let it float adrift in the endless void forever?)

So, I'm guessing you're probably looking at a 1.5~2 on the scale? (Fallout and Star Trek hardness, respectively.)

TyGuy
2021-05-29, 12:07 AM
Maybe Numenera. I think it could easily be flavored up to be a giant landfill planet instead of future earth. It's all about salvaging and discovering ancient tech from past long forgotten eras. There's materials like synth (futuristic plastic) that can't be created with current technology.
It does have a lot of fantasy though. It's all flavored as technology so advanced it's indistinguishable from magic. But it's crazy stuff like extra dimensional phasing and becoming the human torch.

Geordnet
2021-05-30, 10:25 AM
What about the alcubierre metric?

A ton of problems with that one:


It requires negative mass-energy. An ABSURD amount of negative mass-energy to move anything big enough to have a human inside. The lowest estimate I've seen is a negative Jupiter's worth.
There's no way to accelerate the warp bubble. So even if we could form one, it would remain travelling the same probably subluminal) speed forever...
According to the very theory that it's based on, any practical FTL would allow time travel. And said theory is infamously incompatible with the theories which suggest the multiverse might be a thing, so there's no resolution for paradoxes.


So really, the Alcubierre metric is nothing more than a mathematician's pipe dream, like the Tippler Cylinder before it. Personally, I find my impression of the scientific accuracy of a work almost always decreases when it's invoked, because it's clear the author is just throwing out a buzzword without fully understanding it.