Which SciFi ttrpg has the largest player base?

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Yeah, I understand and agree with that (and am heavily annoyed by it). I get really, really annoyed when people mistake 'common set of assumptions' for 'generic' for precisely that reason.

Yeh, it bugs me too.

Plus urgh, D&D is so bad at Wuxia as written (but I understand this forum has worked out a decent way with ToB and 3.X), but I don't want to do another rant.

No need, I understand EXACTLY what you're saying. And honestly, if you want to really get into a Wuxia story, you really have to play a game specifically designed for it. We are starting to see more games that do that, though, which is a good thing. That's also part of why we're seeing Afrofuturism games and stuff which is cool too!

The only other RPG that is D&D tier is, honestly, oWoD, and even it's fallen by the wayside. But that's a somewhat separate discussion. But lumping all of fantasy (or SF) together annoys me because it ignores all the wonderful diversity in the genre. D&D especially annoys me because by sticking everything together it loses a lot of nuance and causes issues (do not get me started on monks versus Monks*, or the implication that Fighters aren't martial artists created by the rules).

* Oh, and how the game refuses to try to integrate them into the default fluff properly.

While I greatly enjoy Golarion as a setting, your point stands (at least Paizo is now attempting to think through some of the stuff in their setting and fill in the blanks with their 2nd Edition). What I'm trying to say is I think that specificity is sort of necessary in a sci-fi game of any kind, and it's more that the fantasy genre is catching up to that diversity after having been dominated by D&D for so long.

I don't think this is true of fantasy anymore, outside of gaming. I can't think of the last time I've seen a fantasy novel with dwarves or elves in it that wasn't set in a universe created like 20+ years ago. Anymore one hardly gets any sapient species besides humans at all. Nowadays it's all oppressed wizards solving colonialism.

Within gaming related properties these remain much more default, probably because they require basically no explanation at a thematic level, and remain useful shorthands for particular gameplay archetypes. If you want to be tough, go dwarf. Fast, go elf, etc.

EXACTLY! And we're starting to see more fantasy GAMES about oppressed wizards solving colonialism or other such stuff, which is a very cool thing! Like I said, it feels like this stuff was more present in sci-fi than it was in the fantasy genre, and what's happening now is fantasy is playing catch up as a genre, and that's why you have 10 different sci-fi games, each with their own specific niche, but for fantasy games people just seem to instinctually try and shape their ideas to fit D&D's mechanics and core assumptions, rather than come up with their own mechanics that better suit their game and the story their game is trying to tell. About the only fantasy game I can think of that dodged this was Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and that's mainly because it has that degree of specificity in its setting and core assumptions is powerful enough to override D&D's hegemony, but also condemns it to niche status.