Quote Originally Posted by Anonymouswizard View Post
Honestly, I don't think that it's that fantasy RPGs are actually more generic, it's just that people assume they are. It's also a bit weird that we use 'fantasy RPG' and actually mean 'Heroic Fantasy RPG' most of the time, but we don't really tend to assume a specific genre of science fiction RPG, lumping Space Opera, Cyberpunk, and even post-apocalyptic RPGs into the group.

In theory a generic fantasy game would handle European Heroic Fantasy, Dark Mythological Fantasy, and High Wuxia all under the same ruleset. I can't actually think of anything that does, at least without really getting on the sourcebook treadmill. In fact I own more fantasy RPGs than science fiction RPGs, and while they tend to be less honest about their assumed setting (for Heroic Medieval Europe ones at least) it's still there. The way you set up your magic system matters as much as the way you set up star travel. There's a reason the 'D&D in Middle-Earth' book suggests that you shouldn't use the core classes that didn't get reprinted.

That's why Osprey Games has been able to release four fantasy RPGs (with a fifth on the way) and one science fiction RPG in the last two years. The SF one, those Dark Places, is exactly as you described for SF RPGs, while the explicit setting is limited to two pages and what we can extrapolated from it's talk of ships and bases, it has consistent theming that's one part Alien, one part Western, and arguably one part Revelation Space. But the exact same thing can be applied to the fantasy games, whether that's Romance of the Perilous Land's mix of British folklore with some elements of D&D, Paleomythic and it's stone age Conanism, Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades and it's more gritty take on Wuxia, or Jackals and it's bronze age war setting. And I'm being somewhat unfair to all the fantasy RPGs, as it's hard to get every element in a single phrase.
I mean, the reason for that assumption is because Dungeons and Dragons has been around so long, and cast such a wide shadow, that most gamers just default to it, regardless of specifics. Forgotten Realms, over the years, has tried to cram all those different styles you mentioned in to the same setting, and it's only become more pronounced as FR became the primary D&D setting through sheer inertia. And Pathfinder did the same thing with Golarion. When people say "Fantasy RPG," most of the time what they mean is "Dungeons and Dragons," and what I'm trying to say is that there isn't really a "Dungeons and Dragons" tier sci-fi RPG, though Lord knows Starfinder is TRYING to be that...