Best system for a game set a few hundred years in our future?

[Myth27]

No magic, human/earth centric with some colonised planets, not too crazy technology.

Something like a Star Trek or battlestar galactica rpg. Anything particularly good out there ?

[Flallen]

No magic, human/earth centric with some colonised planets, not too crazy technology.

Something like a Star Trek or battlestar galactica rpg. Anything particularly good out there ?

There's options. Stars Without Number could probably be run like that. Alien RPG could work, maybe Coriolis (can't 100% vouch for it here, but it looks along those lines). I think there are both Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek RPGs.

[Jorren]

There's quite a bit out there that would work. What type of system are you looking for and are you planning on using an existing setting or building your own?

Just off the top of my head:

Traveller
Stars without Number
The Expanse
Cepheus
Blue Planet
Battlestar Galactica
Firefly

FATE, GURPS, Savage Worlds, etc. could also work.

[Anonymouswizard]

No magic, human/earth centric with some colonised planets, not too crazy technology.

Something like a Star Trek or battlestar galactica rpg. Anything particularly good out there ?

Crazy as in plausible, or crazy as in significantly changes how society works? I'm assuming you mean the latter.

Traveller, TL 9-10 no superscience GURPS, Fate with the Space Toolkit, and Savage Worlds with the Science Fiction Companion, Modern AGE/The Expanse, a decent number of licenced games, and possibly some indie stuff all spring to mind. Maybe Scum and Villainy, it's default aesthetics are pretty far future but you could always dial that back without affecting the rules.

Knowing what sort of crunch level and where you'd rather be on the narrative-world simulation scale would be useful to help make relevant suggestions. GURPs thinks it's important you know how fast your hyperdrive is, Fate suggests you abstract it to the lines of 'you can move a few parsecs a day' unless it's vitally important (if it even matters at all). Jump Drive sppeds are vital in Traveller, because it's potentially the only downtime you get to study Skills.

maybe Coriolis (can't 100% vouch for it here, but it looks along those lines)

I've not fully read the technology chapter yet, but it seems to tend towards relatively grounded. Lifestyles aren't going to differ much from 21st century unless they've regressed and not returned yet, and I believe the setting uses an aristocracy but I haven't finished the book yet. It would definitely work though, although there's no Earth in the setting (well there is, but the wormholes/portals back to it have been destroyed).

Actually, Coriolis is probably not worth pursuing if you don't want the setting, It's not that the mechanics are bad, but most of the book is setting and the mechanics are probably about average and actually assume widespread religion (because regularly praying gives mechanical benefits).

[SunsetWaraxe]

Stars Without Number would work really well for that, it would need a little adjusting but nothing too crazy.

Modern AGE would likely work for this as well.

[Quertus]

I find your optimism for what the world will look like in a few hundred years refreshing.

How do you feel about Transhumanity in your RPG?

[Anonymouswizard]

I find your optimism for what the world will look like in a few hundred years refreshing.

How do you feel about Transhumanity in your RPG?

Yeah, my first thoughts on seeing the title eye Transhuman Space and Eclipse Phase, particularly the Fate hack for the latter. But not everybody's comfortable with Transhumanism, so I stuck to more traditional SF.

Also Mindjammer, but that's just because I'm reading the book. It's setting is another millennia or so ahead of what the OP asked for, and does little you couldn't incorporate with just the Fate Core book.

[Eldan]

Ooh, there's a FATE hack for Eclipse Phase?

[Anonymouswizard]

Ooh, there's a FATE hack for Eclipse Phase?

Transhumanity,s Fate. It's not great, but it's significantly better than Eclipse Phase 1e (and from what I've seen probably better than 2e).

[Quertus]

Transhumanity,s Fate. It's not great, but it's significantly better than Eclipse Phase 1e (and from what I've seen probably better than 2e).

What makes it better than Eclipse Phase?

[Anonymouswizard]

What makes it better than Eclipse Phase?

Eclipse Phase has a few issues with character creation and gearing, including starting with an enhanced morph being a trap option (it costs CP that you don't get back if you move to a less costly morph, which could happen as you might not be spending so much CP on Cred and Rep), and characters who bother buying gear basically taking a trap option compared to people who buy blueprints. Oh, the core system is solid, and character building works even if it is overly complicated, but Transhumanity's Fatte has small tweaks such as Morphs costing Refresh, which you get back if you have to move to a less costly morph.

I mean, other than the character creation stuff and simplification, it's not better just different. But those things like not needing to track Blueprints versus gear, and having a vastly smaller Skill list makes it more accessible.

Although I suspect EP2 might be better designed, it certainly looked that way in previews, I've not actually read it yet. It has, I believe, sadly retained CP costs for Morphs instead of just bumling up the additional Flex from low end morphs to make them more competitive.

[Mechalich]

Beyond character creation the actual core mechanical setup for Eclipse Phase is just not great. d100 roll-under with comparative determinations and a weird system for counting doubles is just overly wonky. It's the kind of mechanic designed to be run using a calculation program, not by actually rolling dice. Even more broadly the setting of Eclipse Phase is extremely complex and overstuffed - because the design team looked at all the big ideas in the last two decades of highly speculative science fiction and decided their setting needed to use all of them - and paring it with a complex system imposes very high barriers to entry, especially to people who haven't read any of the source material in question.

[Anonymouswizard]

d100 roll-under with comparative determinations and a weird system for counting doubles is just overly wonky. It's the kind of mechanic designed to be run using a calculation program, not by actually rolling dice.

Nah, unless I'm very much misremembering the mechanics the most unusual thing about them is that they start from 0 instead of 1. But d%, roll under, high is good, doubles are special is pretty normal. Heck they even designed it so that you never have to subtract to find out if your roll failed.

It's everything sounds that system that gets problematic, like the massive skill list and the fact that resleeving requires you to recalculate every one of them.

Even more broadly the setting of Eclipse Phase is extremely complex and overstuffed - because the design team looked at all the big ideas in the last two decades of highly speculative science fiction and decided their setting needed to use all of them - and paring it with a complex system imposes very high barriers to entry, especially to people who haven't read any of the source material in question.

Yeah, it's great once you're into it but it's a really hard hurdle.

[LordCdrMilitant]

No magic, human/earth centric with some colonised planets, not too crazy technology.

Something like a Star Trek or battlestar galactica rpg. Anything particularly good out there ?

Battletech's A Time of War might be good for you, or maybe Traveller

[Chronic]

Infinity 2d20, by modiphius, the same people who makes the new Conan and star trek. If you are looking for a plausible near future, it's hard to do better. There is a few aliens races but they play a relatively small role and most human have never been in contact with one. Humanity established colonies on other planets and a few superpowers have emerged. War is rare because it's incredibly expensive to wage war in space and on other planets, so they prefer to **** with each other's in small an discreet actions. Resurrection technology allow people memory and conscience to be transferred in another body in case of death, but the ressource needed is rare and it's trade and use highly controlled to insure fair access to resurrection and prevent both large scale war between factions but also social class wars.
in terms of system it's fairly good, it has a triple aspect system, based on combat, social and hacking, and since they all work on the same general principle they aren't separated. You can use social actions or hacking actions in combat to great effect for example.
one of it's strong point is the design of weapons and tech, it's varied and effective, and it push players to use a variety of equipment and weapons.

[Pauly]

GU.RPS would be my go to. I find it works best in contemporary or near contemporary setting.

[Mutazoia]

The Buck Rogers RPG would work

[Mordante]

Any true nasty dystopian RPG would do. mad max themed. Dying world, lack of resources, tribal fights and all that good fun stuff.

[Beleriphon]

Depending on how action-adventure you want your game Mutants & Masterminds works great. I created most of the cast of Battlestar Galactica in 2E M&M as well as TNG's cast. Did the ships too, that was fun. Borg for example was a remote mind control character with a high level of telepathy limited to assimilated drones. So, it literally didn't matter how many drones got dropped you couldn't beat the Borg.