Space RPGs compared

[kafka47]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Solo:
Oh, yeah, forgot...

Transhuman Space.

Really, really well thought out. The technology is realistic within the time frame the game covers (the next 100 years). The history is good (though a bit too "liberal" in some places.) Basically it's what 2300AD should have been sans the starships (a flaw in my opinion.) The only major flaw is that it uses the GURPS system which I personally dislike.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Still waiting for that review....

 

[TJP]

Ahem...I quess I promised a review of Transhuman Space (on some other thread) along time ago. Sorry Kafka, forgot about that.

Well, I'm in rush now, so this won't be it either (excuses, excuses). OK, just a quick one then.

Transhuman Space has been a slight disappointment for me. I dislike nanotech and excessive wetware, which this book is full of. Why did I buy it then? Short answer, for the hard sci-fi spacecraft rules in it. And they are very good! Also, I bought it for general interest in everything hard sci-fi RPGs and for scavenging it for stuff to use in my Trav campaign. The disappointment was mainly because the material wasn't very useful to me on the average. I run a quite "traditional" Trav campaign and naturally most of the wonders in TS aren't remotely useable without a lot of work on modifying them.

These are only my *opinions*, of course. Sorry, I haven't got time to go into more detail now, nor explain my opinions that much. However, this had nothing to do with TS being "GURPS powered," that didn't bother me. (...also, I disagree that TS is what 2300AD should have been, but no time to go into that now, gotta go...)

Oh, BTW the artwork is superb.

 

[Spinward Scout]

I haven't been paying that much attention to TransHuman Space, but it does look like fun. Anyways, which is the best book to pick up? I know there are supposed to be a couple of books in this series.

Thanks,

Scout

 

[tjoneslo]

There's the main book "Transhuman Space", plus the supplements which are going by planets.

There's a review up on RPG.NET: http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_6129.html

 

[Solo]

You can take a look at Transhuman Space here: www.sjgames.com/gurps/transhuman/index.html

 

[aramis]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Solo:
I think that DUNE by Last Unicorn has not been mentioned.

I've never played it (it's sat on my shelf the last 6 months or so) but I will...

Uses the same basic system as Star Trek by Last Unicorn. No supplements availalbe, nor will there ever be with WOTC buying Last Unicorn and losing the rights to the DUNE universe.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I didn't hear that they lost the DUNE license; I did know that they lost the trek license by the amalgamation, and chose to drop the DUNE RPG, as WOTC was after the trek license.

DUNE is visually gorgeous, and uses the same basic mechanics as LUG-Trek, but CG is more convoluted.

I'd rather play Fading Suns since DUNE has none of the needed setting supplements.

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-aramis
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Smith & Wesson: The Original Point and Click interface!

 

[aramis]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by T. Foster:
I suspect the first edition of Chivalry & Sorcery also predates Traveller, but that's just a guess.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

if so, by mere months. Copyright is 1977.

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-aramis
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Smith & Wesson: The Original Point and Click interface!

 

[aramis]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Emperor Cleon:

Here's one you likely don't remember...
Star Patrol, by Gamescience (1980). It was an obvious knock-off of Traveller, but with a more Space Opera feel. I've had alot of fun with this game, and still use it occasionally today.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It was the revamp or was revamed into: Space Patrol. Gamescience. Have both. Ugly to look at, some nice ideas.

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-aramis
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Smith & Wesson: The Original Point and Click interface!

[This message has been edited by aramis (edited 13 April 2002).]

 

[Cuparius]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Artikid:
Oooops, I forgot to ask, anybody played Ringworld?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Very detailed in most regards and quite enjoyable to play, but sadly lacking in the starship construction/combat departments. Only one supplement was ever published, The Ringworld Companion, which was really just the information they couldn't fit in the boxed game. Many of the worlds and races in Larry Niven's Known Space were described. It was a game with enormous potential in terms of future supplements, but Chaosium lost the license when another company started work on a Ringworld animated film, of which I have heard nothing since. 'Tis a pity when good game companies are backstabbed.

 

[GypsyComet]

Ringworld... <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Cuparius:
... was a game with enormous potential in terms of future supplements, but Chaosium lost the license when another company started work on a Ringworld animated film, of which I have heard nothing since. 'Tis a pity when good game companies are backstabbed.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Indeed. The movie option basically caused a huge inflation of the value of the property, and the next time Chaosium's license came up for renewal the price was several times what it had been before. Chaosium told 'em to stuff it, and Greg Stafford and gang strolled around DunDraCon a couple months later handing copies of the game (which they could no longer legally sell) to anyone who got too close...


[This message has been edited by GypsyComet (edited 22 April 2002).]

 

[Murph]

Anyone ever used/played the FTL 2448 game? I like the fact that he uses the Gliese data for his stars.

 

[N.I.C.E. Labs]

Classic Traveller will always be my first love...but I have tried a few others....

Prime Directive-- This is a Star Trek game put out by the same people who do Star Fleet Battles (which rocks btw) and is set in that universe...strictly old series stuff. You don't play ship captains or anything like that...the players make up a Prime Team assigned to the ship (picture S.E.A.L.S. also trained in science, linguistics, diplomacy etc...) They're a specialist landing party designed to go where the ship can't and do the things the normal crew can't do. It's very well written and the rules are easy to manage.

Champions-- Yes it's a superhero game, but the Hero System is very open and cutomizable to any genre (if memory serves it's what Steve Jackson originally ripped off to form Gurps, but don't quote me). Our group did various Sci-Fi games with it...ranging from Superhero's in Space to Classic Space Opera. Works well.

Gurps-- I won't touch it pretty much for personal reasons. I know people in the game industry, some who have written some major suppliment for SJG and know of Steve's habit of 'appropriating' ideas...our circle calls gurps the Generic Underhanded Roleplaying Pilfering System, but I'm not bitter

I know some are already collecting torches and pitchforks for me, but I do want to mention one product that really frosted me. Behind the Claw. I will admit it's a great guide detailing EVERY planet in the Spinward Marches...but did you notice that in the descriptions they tell the secrets and give the endings away for the Traveller modules, aka their competitors? 'So that's the secret behind twilight's peak...guess I don't need to run that...I should probably go buy a gurps module instead...yeah, right.'

Again, forgive the small tirade, but let's move on

Star Wars-- I am also a fan of the WEG version. We found it easy to use and mountains of source material. I haven't played it for a while, but I remember no complaints with it. We had fun playing it, which is all that really matters.

 

[Murph]

ANyone played the Tri Tac Games like Bureau 13, FTL:2448, Incursion, or Fringeworthy?

 

[Tarn]

I have run a couple of short campaigns using Blue Planet. I can't speak for the first edition, but the second edition is overall good. The mechanics are very simple mechanics and work better then they should. There are a number of rules that are missing completely (trade is an obivous example). The equpment guide has reasonable vehicle rules, but there is none in the core rule books. There is no ship design system in the game yet (basically everything happens planetside).

Where this game scores all its points is in the setting. Hands down the best single world designed for a hard scifi game. The designers went out of their way to realistically create many possiblities for conflict without obvious good vrs bad groups. The physical aspects of the world (climate, geography, ecology...) are well detailed, alien and realistic at the same time. Moreover it would be easy to bring this setting into traveller as a single world to visit.

Yeah, I like it alot... I hope it wasn't too obvious.

 

[lisagb]

Games I have played.....hmmm...
After my initiation into rpg's via T&T and The fantasy Trip my first sci fi rpg was..

Aftermath... will always be one of my favs, I remember seeing a film at school called Threads about the effect of a nuclear war an Aftermath had that gritty realism, bit over complex in some areas but bang on.

Gamma World... played a short campaign as a PSH, investigating a chicken processing factory?! Silly but fun.

Traveller... my first proper sci fi campaign, loved it, bimbling around in a clapped out old free trader, had a scout pilot!!

2300ad...played the aurore campaign didnt like the mechanics nice detail on the world background though.

Cyberpunk2020..great stuff, dark, gritty, Blade Runner with massive guns and black humour. Loved the char gen....background romances!!!

TNE...good character gen pants everything else.

Gurps Traveller...top notch, a bit unwieldy in some areas lots of lovely detail though.

Transhuman Space..gurps rules wicked background, real hard sci fi, bang on view of the near future, love it.

 

[lisagb]

My brother basically being nigh 7 years older an me an havin lots of fit mates lil 13 year old lisa could hardly decline.

 

[William]

Originally posted by thrash:
* BESM + Centauri Knights is actually a legitimate hard science fiction rpg, but with BESM's grainy mechanics and fast play style.

I just want to amplify this. I bought both based on the good Major's CT conversion for BESM in teh SJGames JTAS. It has turned out to be one of the most wonderful hard sf settings I've ever found. It helps, of course, that David Pulver is the author of CK...

Truely a great system and supplement.

I have heard that they just announced a D20 version of BESM, but as hip as I am on T20, that's one I gotta admit I can't see. Fast and loose just isn't a D20 play style.

William

 

[charlesduncan]

*Traveller Classic: Loved it, first real sci fi game i played
*Megatraveller: Hated it
*T20 Traveller: Not bad, could use more fleet combat rules
*Gamma World: Wonderful Mmeories
*Star Frontiers: Campy Sci FI fun
*Star Ace: Poker in Space
*Space Opera: Great system (as is all FGU systems)
*Space Master: Nice, but only one complex system at a time please
*Twilight 2000: Preferred aftermath (with some Living Steel rules thrown in)
*Stainless Steel Rat: Kick a@# game

 

[grendelttroll]

Well, here's a pretty old thread that got revived!

I guess my list would be:

Classic Traveller : First Sci-fi RPG. It gave me the bug and I compared all other Sci-fi RPG's to it ever since.

MegaTraveller : Liked it even better, including the Rebellion timeline. The main flaw, though, was the insanely large amounts of power it took to run a spaceship.

Traveller:The New Era : My favorite version, so far. The best thing to happen to the Imperium was in that version -- too bad everyone else had to suffer. Liked the game rules. Liked the equipment/vehicle construction rules the best.

Space Opera : Can you get any more unnecessarily complex with your game system?? The game said that it was worked on by many different people from around the world, and it showed. Apparently none of them ever talked to each other about what they were doing. The fact that you had totally unrelated rules systems for each individual aspect of the game was a major headache for most of my players.

Star Wars 2nd Edition, Revised and Updated : A version that was playable. Better rules and better background (Lucas finally allowed it).

GURPS Space : *^&*&^-ing english measurement system!!! How can you take that game seriously as a Sci-fi format??


Traveller 20 : Still waiting for it.

 

[Captain Black]

On Space Opera

I have to agree that SO was hideously complex. It grew out of a SF wargame called "Space Marine" (for those of you who like trivia). But most RPG's have two components:

1) The System

2) The Setting

The system is generally a function of mathematical implementation to drive the game. As many of us have pointed out, some games are easier than others and that complexity does not equal fun.

The setting is where you find the real creativity in a game. Any math or science geek can bang-out an RPG system (I've seen 'em do it). But the setting is where the players get hooked. Not everyone can create an interesting setting that people WANT to play in. Traveller did it real well (here we are participating with it over 20 years later), and those who actually read the SO Star Sector Atlases liked what they found there. The setting for SO was different but equal to Traveller in quality. The two titles remain foremost in my SF-RPG experiences.

Also:

For thse of you who so kindly remembered The Morrow Project, it is being produced again in it's original form and along with the original supplements and adventures. Look for it here:

http://www.abacusdimensions.com