Science Fiction Games...that intrigue yooouu most?

[Grav_Moped]

That's the thing about Traveller: it's high tech rather than magic disguised as tech, except where explicitly noted.

Gravity control violates physics, fusion power (may) exceed theoretical maximum energy conversion, and Jump Drives violate relativity. They're necessary for the setting, and have lampshades hung on them*.

For everything else in the game, technology advances rather than being a fait accompli. It's not magic; sophonts developed it over time and the process by which it advanced is clearly laid out. And the products of the intermediate steps are often also in use somewhere!


Oh, right. Psionics. <shrug>


*Lampshade Hanging (or, more informally, "Lampshading") is the writers' trick of dealing with any element of the story that threatens the audience's Willing Suspension of Disbelief, whether a very implausible plot development, or a particularly blatant use of a trope, by calling attention to it and simply moving on. (TV Tropes)

 

[whartung]

*Lampshade Hanging (or, more informally, "Lampshading") is the writers' trick of dealing with any element of the story that threatens the audience's Willing Suspension of Disbelief, whether a very implausible plot development, or a particularly blatant use of a trope, by calling attention to it and simply moving on. (TV Tropes)

My favorite line in "Terminator":

Sarah Connor: [disbelieving] Are you saying it's from the future?
Kyle Reese: One possible future. From your point of view. I don't know tech stuff.

Cameron adroitly dumps all of the time travel-ness on to the street by the side of the car and drives away.

 

[Tiikeri]

Fading Suns, 1st Edition.

It's an excellent game that integrates combat, cybernetics, psionics, and supernatural powers quite well. I liked its lifepath character generation system too, it was well done. It suffered terribly from the lack of a starship combat / construction system. There was a later supplement for space combat, but it was more like a tabletop wargame. The setting was rich with dramatic opportunities, and players could really make very different characters.

Albedo

Surprisingly I liked the Albedo rpg. If one can overlook that the game is about anthropomorphic animals, it was a well-designed, well-put-together, internally-consistent decently hard science game.

Aliens Adventure Game

The Aliens tabletop roleplaying game by Leading Edge Games. Excellent game. Limited in scope, but it's an excellent game. The Leading Edge game mechanics are simple and graceful once you understand how the tables work together. I kept them all in a slim 1/2" binder so I could quickly flip back and forth, and even combats with more than 10 characters went quickly and smoothly.

Eclipse Phase

Interesting well done high quality cybertech scifi game, in which characters frequently change bodies. It's like Altered Carbon the roleplaying game. Character generation is a beast, because it's a point based system and the totals and so on change frequently. It has all kinds of interesting character options, bodies, cyber-nano-bioware enhancements, and the locations in the setting are frequently very different (I recommend a spreadsheet). This is another setting rich with dramatic opportunities. The writers rub their political opinions in the reader's face, but it's easy enough to ignore and enjoy the game. The system is d100 based. Tragically, this game also lacks a space combat system or design system, and the writers state that spaceships should be used as plot devices or just a way to get from point A to point B. This is disappointing, but I think that writing space combat system wasn't the writers' forte', so they set it aside. Best of all, the writers made the pdfs free for download from their website.

 

[Ulsyus]

T5 - for the potential that's built into it, it's so fascinating to make/design/build places and things with it

Space Opera - for the insanely epic sweep of it's setting - real big-hands-little-map stuff

Eclipse Phase - for it's update of one of my favourite classics: High Colonies

Fading Suns - for the interplay between all the political, faith, profession and alien groupings

Imperium - for the endless playability it offers

Dark Nebula - for the template it gives for other board games of exploration and expansion

 

[Straybow]

There are lots that I never had the chance to try, and probably never will. I never owned any rpgs beyond D&D/AD&D 1e and Traveller. If I ever connect up with a gaming group I'd give most of the games mentioned a try. But life has not left me that kind of free time, except late at night when the kids are asleep.

Space Opera
I played Space Opera once. For many years I never knew the name of the rpg, nor saw it in gaming stores. It was a mystery to me until wikipedia helped me pin it down.

Star Fleet Battles
I'm a wargaming grognard at heart. If I'd stayed in contact and lived near my high school friends I'm sure we would have gotten this. But we went to the four winds, from New England to southern FL.

FASA Star Trek
Yep.


StarForce, StarSoldier, Outreach
I have the combo pack, seeking nerds to play. Outreach is the simplest to learn for a new player to jump right in. 2D game map, high degree of abstraction, simple mechanics. I got part of the way through writing a similar computer adaptation, but it would have needed networking for humans or a passable AI, both beyond my skills. I played the others once with my brothers and maybe a few times beyond that. Fun, but more grognardish than Outreach.

Warp War
Super-simple ship combat game, akin to the classic Melee. We used to play both during lunch, or sometimes in the hour while waiting for the bus, in high school.

Ogre / GEV
Another very simple game, tank combat mostly. Played once at a gaming store.

D6 Star Wars
I did play a Star Wars game that was more of a board game with cards and dice, and it was fun. A full fledged rpg in the SW universe would be fun.

 

[whartung]

Star Fleet Battles
I'm a wargaming grognard at heart. If I'd stayed in contact and lived near my high school friends I'm sure we would have gotten this. But we went to the four winds, from New England to southern FL.

Probably for the best. For some, there's a sirens song in SFB along with the sharp rocks and shallow harbor. It consumed many of us in its heyday.

Ogre / GEV
Another very simple game, tank combat mostly. Played once at a gaming store.

Quite the phenomenon. A friend of mine bought me the uber 3D super deluxe extra colossal "box the size of my desk" Ogre kickstarter. I haven't opened it.

I guess it's akin to a $2000 chess set.

But I think its simplicity is its attraction, along with the specter of the giant tanks rampaging the countryside.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

I usually get pulled in by the setting
Fringeworthy: That was my go to for parallel universes. Every universe I have run has a pylon and ring station, somewhere.

Eclipse Phase: Intrigued by the other settings aspects like the network economy and the X-Risks. Don't like the "I'm an irresponsible pretty, pretty fuzzy human" aspect of the game so much and how short a time it took humans to get there. I would be a Jovian bio-conservative the first game or two.

SpaceMaster: (original, not Privateers). We used to play Rolemaster a lot. We would cheer when anyone got the fun criticals:
"You become a superconductor. Your sad death provides a excellent lightshow for everyone else".
"Your strike is masterful. Besides your opponent's death, everyone else on the battlefield stops what they are doing and claps for 1D rounds. Carry on."
The setting in the SpaceMaster main rules was tantalizingly Dune-like.

 

[Vile]

Space Opera remains the game I most wanted to play that I'm least likely to ever be able to play.

Blake's 7 is a fan-produced game with a Call of Cthulhu ancestry, though much mutated. I had a lot of fun running a post-Gauda Prime campaign with it.

M-Space using the Mythras system is spawning settings and adventures that I'd like to try, but again probably lack the time to get into. The books are square, which is cool.

 

[AtlanticFriend]

That's the thing about Traveller: it's high tech rather than magic disguised as tech, except where explicitly noted.

Damn right. Taught me a lot abaout astrophysics and ecosystems.

 

[robject]

My preference in RPGs is very narrow.

I chose Gamma World 1e over Traveller in 1979. I liked the quirkiness, although I was bored by its similarities to D&D. I also found it severely lacking in tools. Although at the time, I didn't know that that was the problem. I remember seeing the two spacecraft, and wondering why they didn't have build rules.

At any rate, the interest faded in the mid 80s.

20 years after I bought GW, I found CT Book 2, and that ticked all the boxes.

 

[Timerover51]

The talk of Space Opera got me curious to see if it was on DriveThru, and sure enough, it is. I now have a downloaded copy to have some fun with. However, also on DriveThru is Tyrannasaurus Wrecks, which I have in hard copy, and now have a PDF copy. Then there is Royal Armies of the Hyborean Age for Conan, along with Heart of Oak for Age of Sail naval fighting, and Privateers and Gentlemen. AH, a treasure trove.

 

[mega-striker]

Are we talking RPGs or games? From the title I took it as games.

Games

Striker: I loved it back in the day for sitting around making things with the design sequences and unit organizations. Just like generating characters from the LBBs. Less so on the game table where it's issues came out.

I like the ideas in Mayday but never got a game in.

Snapshot is fun. In many ways better than AHL.

Starguard: 25mm sci fi from John McEwan, the game that would not die!


RPGs

Got my 1977 edition of the LBBs and never looked back. Bought a lot of additional stuff, some used most not but never regretted any of it.

The Morrow Project: I have #50 of the pre publication first edition. Think 1980s version of kickstarter. The combat system was a major pain but the rest is awesome. Just like the more recent (post 1990s) Traveller versions I have no idea if the newer ones are as good.

 

[Timerover51]

The Morrow Project: I have #50 of the pre publication first edition. Think 1980s version of kickstarter. The combat system was a major pain but the rest is awesome. Just like the more recent (post 1990s) Traveller versions I have no idea if the newer ones are as good.

I need to figure out where my original copies are. That is a fun post-apocalyptic game. I did use a different combat system, but is also is the source of one of my game stories.

I was playing after I was out of the Army, and there was a teen running the game. He was used to other teens playing, and throwing around demolition packs to blow down a door, and the building attached to it. Well, I would up with one, and needed to take out a door. I pulled out my Army demolitions card to figure out the minimum charge. The look on his face was priceless.

 

[mega-striker]

I need to figure out where my original copies are. That is a fun post-apocalyptic game. I did use a different combat system, but is also is the source of one of my game stories.

I was playing after I was out of the Army, and there was a teen running the game. He was used to other teens playing, and throwing around demolition packs to blow down a door, and the building attached to it. Well, I would up with one, and needed to take out a door. I pulled out my Army demolitions card to figure out the minimum charge. The look on his face was priceless.

I played with a contemporary (mid 20s). He was a great game master but he did use the included combat system. Bogged things down at the time. But almost all the game was done as a joint story telling so overall it was tons of fun. That edition was still testing the waters background wise so much of it was made up on the fly. That and, unlike all the other players involved, I actually was attempting to rebuild civilization so it became more one on one for me.

I was at the Michicon where TMP was introduced. That is how I ended up getting the pre production version. They had a game session then a long Q&A. Most memorable part was they admitted the initial reason for the game was to take modern weapons down into a dungeon crawl.

 

[AtlanticFriend]

Not exactly a game per se, but the Rocketship Empires setting is quite intriguing, something like a 1936AD with interstellar travel made available to 1930s nations by a semi-benevolent alien power.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I have very few RPGs these days outside of Mongoose Traveller 1st edition. One of them is The Morrow Project and its modules I bought in the '80s. I still use it for reference in MgT1.

 

[Chris Barlow]

SF games liked most and least

Liked other than traveller.

Cyberpunk 2020. Because I could run adventures resembling William Gibson short stories. Plus the layers background system was god for its time. It gave the players useful contact, friends and enemies.

Disliked strongly.
Shadowrun fifth edition. Personally for me the worst player character generation system ever. :nonono:

 

[Tiikeri]

Morrow Project is an excellent game. I converted Traveller to it and used it as my system of choice before i discovered Phoenix Command and Leading Edge Games. If were counting post nuclear games, then Aftermath too. I also dislike shadowrun. The mechanics really turn me off. The setting is a hard meh. Its a drag how many games of the genre assume everyone is going to buy into "futuristic" lifestyle choices like everyone thinks social media is cool and getting mirrorshades implants even though it would make it impossible to scratch an itch on your eyelid. Think about what a hell it would be to have a phone implanted in your brain. Youd think after ten years of it people would say "this is stupid" and get all their chrome removed.

 

[Spinward Scout]

The new Doctor Who game looks interesting - but I haven't played it. The Vortex system is a 2d6 system like Traveller, but they have Attributes and Skills with an added Traits making the task resolution much different. And you can play anywhere from the beginning of time to the end of time. The initiative part of combat seems a bit odd, but I haven't tried it.

I hear someone has played Traveller with it, too.