Space RPGs compared
- Thread starter Murph
- Start date
charlesduncan
SOC-1
No it was Space Marines. It was a yellow book that detailed minature rules for sci fi. I remember it well (along with my copy of Bunnies and Burrows)
grendelttroll
SOC-12
Oh, of course. As for me, I likes SO's background, just not the game system. I even tried to use GURPS: Space in the same setting, but dropped it (see previous post).
Who knows, maybe I might run a Traveller-variant using SO charts and setting.
OK, here's my 0.02Cr:
Star Wars
Played first, second and d20 editions. Liked all of them a bit, but actually find the vast amounts of books, movies etc. a bit of a handicap.
Cyberpunk 2020
Love it, snapped it up as soon as I saw the cool black box (reminded me of Traveller!). Lousy mechanics but a great game.
Shadowrun
Hated the magic element and cartoonish art, but actually enjoyed playing in someone else's campaign.
2300 AD
Loved playing it (in one campaign we all had combat walkers!). Great game, the first that actually made it enjoyable to play a scientist.
Classic Traveller
Loved it, mined it for heaps of ideas, and just when I started playing a game of it I discovered ...
MechWarrior
Got into playing this through Battletech, loved it and had a good time playing, but finally the universe kept changing too often (it was hard to keep up with the constant tech changes).
Paranoia
Played it for fun once, stupid game, but kinda fun for a change of pace.
Star Trek Sims
Played a couple of these and had a great time - was even the Captain once! No rules to speak of, but fun (PBEM) roleplaying experience.
MegaTraveller
This got me back to Traveller in a big way, but I never actually played very much - our GM at the time liked the supernatural too much to want to run this.
Twilight 2000
Shot a few things on the way through the outback one time ... fun!
TNE
Hated the setting idea ...
T4
Put off by the massive typos and errata lists (got a signed copy mind you).
GURPS: Space
Never actually played it, but bought the book and got good ideas from it.
Ringworld
Played this and thought about running it (but a horrible system!). Great background and tech manual.
Along the way I kept trying to make up my own game system/universe, but here I am back with T20!
[Edit: Added Ringworld]
Star Wars
Played first, second and d20 editions. Liked all of them a bit, but actually find the vast amounts of books, movies etc. a bit of a handicap.
Cyberpunk 2020
Love it, snapped it up as soon as I saw the cool black box (reminded me of Traveller!). Lousy mechanics but a great game.
Shadowrun
Hated the magic element and cartoonish art, but actually enjoyed playing in someone else's campaign.
2300 AD
Loved playing it (in one campaign we all had combat walkers!). Great game, the first that actually made it enjoyable to play a scientist.
Classic Traveller
Loved it, mined it for heaps of ideas, and just when I started playing a game of it I discovered ...
MechWarrior
Got into playing this through Battletech, loved it and had a good time playing, but finally the universe kept changing too often (it was hard to keep up with the constant tech changes).
Paranoia
Played it for fun once, stupid game, but kinda fun for a change of pace.
Star Trek Sims
Played a couple of these and had a great time - was even the Captain once! No rules to speak of, but fun (PBEM) roleplaying experience.
MegaTraveller
This got me back to Traveller in a big way, but I never actually played very much - our GM at the time liked the supernatural too much to want to run this.
Twilight 2000
Shot a few things on the way through the outback one time ... fun!
TNE
Hated the setting idea ...
T4
Put off by the massive typos and errata lists (got a signed copy mind you).
GURPS: Space
Never actually played it, but bought the book and got good ideas from it.
Ringworld
Played this and thought about running it (but a horrible system!). Great background and tech manual.
Along the way I kept trying to make up my own game system/universe, but here I am back with T20!
[Edit: Added Ringworld]
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 </font>[/QUOTE]There is of course the d20 version of Centauri Knights that will be coming out at the same time. Not sure if you knew about that one.
Back in the late 70's when my brother was running us all from the country neighborhood (i.e. less than 10 houses in about a 1/4 mile radius - only half of those had kids my age) in a D&D game, I came across a hardbound book. Black with Red and White lettering. Something about Traveller and Science Fiction. I can't remember exactly what caught my attention. It's been so long and I no longer have that book (I have the GURPS hardcover and that has the Beowolf Mayday on the cover - I don't think the original book did, I know the box set did), but if I ever come across a copy at GenCon or something, I'm snagging it. Anyways, I bought the book, but never actually got to play the game for over ten years. My friends either wanted to play D&D or Star Trek. Now I really liked that version of Star Trek, and the system for running characters made a lot of sense to me. Percentile dice. Had a blast. MegaTraveller came out and I bought the main books and a couple of supplements. Still no one to play with. Liked the task system. Seemed to make a lot of sense. Anyways, joined the Navy and started making a lot of money (for someone my age that grew up in the country) and then found Star Wars by WEG and played that with some friends, and bought a ton of books for that game. Still no one to play Traveller. Got out of the Navy and lost almost all of my gaming books when my non-Navy stuff that was being shipped back from Japan got lost. Could have killed someone. Got over it after I got paid for my stuff by the Navy and visited my local Gaming Store. Never got the hardcover Blackbook again, tho. Could only find the softcover. And the Traveller Adventure. Found some new people to game with. I ran Traveller, Star Wars, Marvel Super Heroes and had a blast until my good friend and fellow gamer, Casey, died. We all still really miss him. Didn't game at all again for almost 7 years. Still bought books, if only just to read. FTL 2448, GURPS (which I only really use for reference material - never played the system - going to try out the World War II GURPS Lite in a couple of weeks), Albedo, Fading Suns, Jovian Chronicles, Alternity (which I really liked the StarDrive stuff), Aeon Trinity (which is what Trinity was called until they got sued by ViaCom over the Aeon Flux copyright - now I have a nice collector's item book thanks to ViaCom). And as much Traveller stuff I could get my hands on. TNE (only the mainbook - I didn't like this one much), T4 (and a bunch of supplements), GURPS Traveller (again with the bunch of supplements). Just started gaming again in fall of 2000. d20 D&D, Star Wars d20, and finally Traveller d20. Been having a lot of fun. Started a Traveller game that had to be post-poned. The guys I game with now all go to Bristol Renaissance Faire and everything else gets put to the side for 3 months. Then takes about 3 or 4 more months to wind back up again. Anyways, I now have about 45 Traveller books, including some BITS books, the first 4 of the reprint books, and a few MegaTraveller DGP supplements wrestled off of EBay. And to be honest, even after buying all the other games, I never wanted to do anything except for add on to Traveller with info from the other Space Games (except Star Wars - I love to play Jedi). I have about 10 Space/Sci-Fi game books that I just use for reference when I'm running a Traveller game. So it's Traveller (mixed rules - using T20 now) for Hard Sci-Fi gaming and Star Wars for Space Opera. Didn't really like the Space/Sci-Fi systems for anything else except Star Trek. Marvel Super Heroes (the original) would work great for a hard-core Psionics system (like in the Julian May books), but suck for a space game. I'd love to collaborate with David Pulver for a revised GURPS Psionics. Talked to him about it a couple of times through e-mail, but he had just started working on TransHuman space at the time.
Anyways, that's my take,
Scout
Anyways, that's my take,
Scout
Traveller Classic - This is the Sci Fi gold standard.
Megatraveller - Needed a bit of help, too much focus on combat.
Traveller TNE - Bought it, read it, never played it. Didn't have the heart to run it.
Traveller Mileu 0 - Bought it, read it, never playeed it.
Traveler T20 - Bought it, haven't had the time to play, looks like an improvementin some areas.
2300AD - Bought it, read it, never playeed it.
Space Opera - good for reference material, way too complicated
Twilight 2000 - Ran it 18 months on a USAFE base in Germany, late 80s. Worst game of Rambo syndrome ever seen.
Excursions into the Bazzar - Role playing characters from a fantasy or sci-fi universe in your own hometown. Great as a beer and pretzels game.
Justifiers - anamorphic game, light on background, but easy percentile system to use. The game had promise, still pull it out occasionally for games.
Star Frontiers - The best thing about it was the artwork
Star Ace - Thouroughly forgetable
Star Wars - Played 2 years, ran 18 months. 2nd edition was an improvement. cost too much to keep up with the massive number of expensive supplements. Great for Indiana Jones style action games.
Kobolds ate my baby - about as beer and pretzels as a game can get.
Paranoia - I threaten players with this game.
Mechwarrior - Great game for the munchkin types. Hell for a roleplayer
Space Master - Took a halfway decent fantasy game, rolemaster, and tried to put it into space. Should have sent the people who tried to publish this dreck into space instead.
Albedo - cute game system, light on tech, heavy on roleplaying.
Cyberpunk - a game aimed at the lowest common denominator
Shadowrun - A game that had a bit of promise
Star Trek - a game for those that want to play TV.
Gurps space - Usable for ideas
Megatraveller - Needed a bit of help, too much focus on combat.
Traveller TNE - Bought it, read it, never played it. Didn't have the heart to run it.
Traveller Mileu 0 - Bought it, read it, never playeed it.
Traveler T20 - Bought it, haven't had the time to play, looks like an improvementin some areas.
2300AD - Bought it, read it, never playeed it.
Space Opera - good for reference material, way too complicated
Twilight 2000 - Ran it 18 months on a USAFE base in Germany, late 80s. Worst game of Rambo syndrome ever seen.
Excursions into the Bazzar - Role playing characters from a fantasy or sci-fi universe in your own hometown. Great as a beer and pretzels game.
Justifiers - anamorphic game, light on background, but easy percentile system to use. The game had promise, still pull it out occasionally for games.
Star Frontiers - The best thing about it was the artwork
Star Ace - Thouroughly forgetable
Star Wars - Played 2 years, ran 18 months. 2nd edition was an improvement. cost too much to keep up with the massive number of expensive supplements. Great for Indiana Jones style action games.
Kobolds ate my baby - about as beer and pretzels as a game can get.
Paranoia - I threaten players with this game.
Mechwarrior - Great game for the munchkin types. Hell for a roleplayer
Space Master - Took a halfway decent fantasy game, rolemaster, and tried to put it into space. Should have sent the people who tried to publish this dreck into space instead.
Albedo - cute game system, light on tech, heavy on roleplaying.
Cyberpunk - a game aimed at the lowest common denominator
Shadowrun - A game that had a bit of promise
Star Trek - a game for those that want to play TV.
Gurps space - Usable for ideas
Forgot to mention Space 1889. Love the idea. lots of great gaming possibilities. This is the game I would mostlove to see made into a movie.
As a movie, it would blow the competition away. The only problem would be the special effects. Flying ships, winged martians, liftwood, Steampowered airship battles in the martian canals.
The interpred British explorers facing the barbarian hordes.
As a movie, it would blow the competition away. The only problem would be the special effects. Flying ships, winged martians, liftwood, Steampowered airship battles in the martian canals.
The interpred British explorers facing the barbarian hordes.
There is of course the d20 version of Centauri Knights that will be coming out at the same time. Not sure if you knew about that one. [/QUOTE]
No, I hadn't heard of that one... One can only hope they got Mr. Pulver to do it so there would be less damage that way. Though I'd rather he write the sequal instead.
William
SF games I have owned or played:
CT- played it for a few years until MT came out. I really liked it, but my group was into D&D and BattleTech
MT- played it for a few years, really liked it. New group of players anxious to get out of D&D Hell
2300 Ad/Traveller 2300- bought them both, played it, off and on, for several years. Eventually adapted TNE to it.
TNE- I actually liked the rules set. Gave a great deal of freedom in character design, though somewhat complex
Cyberpunk 2020- Eventually became my standard system until 2 years ago. eVen ran a Traveller game with it
GURPS Space- can't say as I care for the GURPS mechanics. Never played GURPS, just mined the books.
Space 1889- Simple mechanics, wonderful setting, alas torched by my ex-wife, along with my Challenge collection...
T4- I actually liked the mechanics, but I never played it. The errata was a little too much for me. Setting inforamtion and technology was great, though. Emperor's Arsenal a very good book.
Trinity- Great background, great aliens, storyteller system. 2 out of 3 ain't bad, never played it
Jovian Chronicles- grainy system, but good, concept-based chargen. Basically a hard-science setting, with giant robots. Vector-based space combat, could even be 3D. Multiple levels of realism, from Gritty to Cinematic. I really like this system, so much so that I contributed to two of the Planet Books (Venus, Cis Lunar Space)
Heavy Gear- same system as JC, above. Wonderfully detailed worlds, each with its own variant of the standard tech. All useful for Traveller.
T20- Just got it, looks good, but I haven't read through it yet. $75 CDN book sparked a bit of a "debate" with my wife.
CT- played it for a few years until MT came out. I really liked it, but my group was into D&D and BattleTech
MT- played it for a few years, really liked it. New group of players anxious to get out of D&D Hell
2300 Ad/Traveller 2300- bought them both, played it, off and on, for several years. Eventually adapted TNE to it.
TNE- I actually liked the rules set. Gave a great deal of freedom in character design, though somewhat complex
Cyberpunk 2020- Eventually became my standard system until 2 years ago. eVen ran a Traveller game with it
GURPS Space- can't say as I care for the GURPS mechanics. Never played GURPS, just mined the books.
Space 1889- Simple mechanics, wonderful setting, alas torched by my ex-wife, along with my Challenge collection...
T4- I actually liked the mechanics, but I never played it. The errata was a little too much for me. Setting inforamtion and technology was great, though. Emperor's Arsenal a very good book.
Trinity- Great background, great aliens, storyteller system. 2 out of 3 ain't bad, never played it
Jovian Chronicles- grainy system, but good, concept-based chargen. Basically a hard-science setting, with giant robots. Vector-based space combat, could even be 3D. Multiple levels of realism, from Gritty to Cinematic. I really like this system, so much so that I contributed to two of the Planet Books (Venus, Cis Lunar Space)
Heavy Gear- same system as JC, above. Wonderfully detailed worlds, each with its own variant of the standard tech. All useful for Traveller.
T20- Just got it, looks good, but I haven't read through it yet. $75 CDN book sparked a bit of a "debate" with my wife.
Ok, SF games I’ve played and/or owned:
Babylon Project (B5 RPG) – waste of money even as a B5 nut; I even sold the ship game book designed by the designer of Full Thrust which I really like
BESM – like Gurps but w/out a ton of optional rules; looks very promising for a Dr. Who game among others
Castle Falkenstein – great idea, some bad historical detail some excellent, loved the card system but I don’t think anyone actually plays this FtF; I’ll pick up the new Gurps sourcebooks someyear
CT – played with some friends from a copy of the Traveller Book in middle school; all the LBB’s coming out made it too $$ for my parents + little to no artwork
CT Reprints – nice to have these back in print, the format’s a bit unwieldy but to do otherwise would be a lot of work; would like to see a MT/TNE correct reprint of at least the core rulebooks (or T5 ^_^)
Cyberpunk 2020 – liked the LBB edition, interested in getting the current edition, not holding my breath for the next edition; liked the system and tech
FASA Dr. Who – good rules for FASA, doesn’t really do that great a job of capturing the show though some of the modules aren’t that bad
Dying Earth – another one of those games I’d love to find a group to play this with; gambling, stealing, trading witty barbs, and romancing while the Sun dies; Jack Vance is one of the greats
Fading Suns – Storyteller with a D20; 2nd edition is better; great background Dune meets Book of the New Sun/Dying Earth strained through a Passion Play; dunno about the D20 version
Forgotten Futures – very good game for the price (shareware) the printed book is excellent; still I’d print out the worldbooks and use BESM (very similar systems); captures Victorian Science Fictions better than Space 1889 did (uses period stories as basis for worldbooks)
Gamma World 2nd – great fun; decent system; looking forward to the Sword & Sorcery D20 version for D20 Modern; Mutant plants and power armor!
Gurps CthulhuPunk – good world for a Cyberpunk game or future Call of Cthulhu, if I get Transhuman Space this will be so used; have conversion rules between BRP (Call of Cthulhu) and Gurps
Gurps Lensman –got it cheap, got me to read the original books
Gurps Lite – better for playing Gurps with say Gurps Space etc. than the Basic rules (though they’re nice for any extra detail needed)
Gurps Prime Directive – much better in scope and rules than the previous version
Gurps Space – good sourcebook, been meaning to get Gurps Traveller and Transhuman Space.
Guprs Steampunk – ok sourcebook, still not quite what I was expecting; maybe the SteamTech book will help though I dislike having to buy two books when one should have been enough
Heavy Gear- great lite rules and very good background; suffers from too much story at the moment; like the Votoms style mecha; very good technical manual and tabletop game; the Ferret in buttwheel err roller mode is too kawaii ^ . ^
Jovian Chronicles – almost great; like gundam made by Canadians; wound up selling it all except for excellent ship minis and mini game; great ship designs but it needs a new edition
LUG Trek – like Star Wars D10 meets Fasa Trek; a lot of fun; no reason to buy Decipher Trek yet (esp. considering the lack of books so far); Andorian and Romulan books worth getting even if you don’t like the game; too bad the Klingon and Mirror Universe books never came out
Mechanoids – not bad at all for Palladium Books; Mechanoids Space is way overdue; never bought the MDC/Rifts version
Mechwarrior 1st and 2nd – tried to like this game, good background and artwork for Battletech; terrible rules and you were a human in a world ruled by giant robots
Mekton 2 – had it, great stuff (same system as CP2020), couldn’t get anyone to play it, now have Z and if anything else makes good stuff for BESM; IMO better rules than BESM for mecha games but takes longer
MT – looking back I would’ve bought it when it first came out if I hadn’t been playing other games at the time; background ok at first final conclusion a bit eh?; good artwork, nice to have everything together but there were errata and other problems
Paranoia – great artwook (the main artist also did a lot of the late 1st edition AD&D era TSR stuff, some FASA, etc. books), fun read, think I now have the humor to run this successfully
Rifts – main book and some of the supplements (Wormwood, Phaseworld, etc.) are quite playable, fun setting at first; power creep and rules are getting too much; badly needs a fix; example, combat good in theory but damage is off so combat takes FOREVER ; Dogboys and D-Bees!
Shadowrun – shudder; 1st & 2nd, too bad the so very good setting was shackled to such bad rules, worse than Mechwarrior (longer to play)
FASA Star Trek – never really played, took a look at a friend’s copy (that he’s wanting me to GM) recently, good char gen, good rules for FASA, liked the ship combat game
Skyrealms of Jorune – finally got 2nd and 3rd edition; great artwork, love to use some of the creatures in another game, don’t think a complete playable set of rules was ever published and it’s written as if you’re a native
Star Frontiers – great artwork, fun game when I was a kid, loved the races and having a ton of counters; looking back at it there’re some gaps but still Knight Hawks ow|\|z j00
Star Wars D6 – great cinematic game; I have friends who have played it since 1st edition
Space 1889: too many different systems in one game; some great source material and I like the Heliograph stuff but I’d not run a game off of this
T20 – so far so good, like Prior History and the Traveller’s Aides are good
T4 – initial thrill soon turned to dismay; had most of the books at one time; sold them all when I needed the $$ and space; ½ dice bad task system idea basically good needs overhaul; a few books I’d like to get again
Tekumel/Empire of the Petal Throne – La! Right up there with Tolkien. Great stuff, nowhere near as hard as Jorune to comprehend and a welcome change from ye old dungeons and dragons or generic space world. Still around and a new version’s coming out from Guardians of Order. Can’t wait.
Timelord – one of the best licensed games, much better than the Fasa Dr. Who game, however I’d likely use BESM nowadays, still worth getting
TNE – not playing when it came out and too $$ for me at the time; picked it up later; some good bits to use for a different system
Twilight 2000 2nd edition – fast deadly rules, lots of weapons and vehicles to run around with, lots of fun, wouldn’t mind seeing a updated/with other backgrounds included D20/T20 version of this
Votoms RPG – excellent sourcebook for the series, got me to buy the whole series, I prefer Interlock (Mekton) to Fusion in this case
Oh I’m sure I missed something but that’s good enough for now.
Open for a PBEM, IRC, etc. game using one of the games above that I at least tolerate.
Babylon Project (B5 RPG) – waste of money even as a B5 nut; I even sold the ship game book designed by the designer of Full Thrust which I really like
BESM – like Gurps but w/out a ton of optional rules; looks very promising for a Dr. Who game among others
Castle Falkenstein – great idea, some bad historical detail some excellent, loved the card system but I don’t think anyone actually plays this FtF; I’ll pick up the new Gurps sourcebooks someyear
CT – played with some friends from a copy of the Traveller Book in middle school; all the LBB’s coming out made it too $$ for my parents + little to no artwork
CT Reprints – nice to have these back in print, the format’s a bit unwieldy but to do otherwise would be a lot of work; would like to see a MT/TNE correct reprint of at least the core rulebooks (or T5 ^_^)
Cyberpunk 2020 – liked the LBB edition, interested in getting the current edition, not holding my breath for the next edition; liked the system and tech
FASA Dr. Who – good rules for FASA, doesn’t really do that great a job of capturing the show though some of the modules aren’t that bad
Dying Earth – another one of those games I’d love to find a group to play this with; gambling, stealing, trading witty barbs, and romancing while the Sun dies; Jack Vance is one of the greats
Fading Suns – Storyteller with a D20; 2nd edition is better; great background Dune meets Book of the New Sun/Dying Earth strained through a Passion Play; dunno about the D20 version
Forgotten Futures – very good game for the price (shareware) the printed book is excellent; still I’d print out the worldbooks and use BESM (very similar systems); captures Victorian Science Fictions better than Space 1889 did (uses period stories as basis for worldbooks)
Gamma World 2nd – great fun; decent system; looking forward to the Sword & Sorcery D20 version for D20 Modern; Mutant plants and power armor!
Gurps CthulhuPunk – good world for a Cyberpunk game or future Call of Cthulhu, if I get Transhuman Space this will be so used; have conversion rules between BRP (Call of Cthulhu) and Gurps
Gurps Lensman –got it cheap, got me to read the original books
Gurps Lite – better for playing Gurps with say Gurps Space etc. than the Basic rules (though they’re nice for any extra detail needed)
Gurps Prime Directive – much better in scope and rules than the previous version
Gurps Space – good sourcebook, been meaning to get Gurps Traveller and Transhuman Space.
Guprs Steampunk – ok sourcebook, still not quite what I was expecting; maybe the SteamTech book will help though I dislike having to buy two books when one should have been enough
Heavy Gear- great lite rules and very good background; suffers from too much story at the moment; like the Votoms style mecha; very good technical manual and tabletop game; the Ferret in buttwheel err roller mode is too kawaii ^ . ^
Jovian Chronicles – almost great; like gundam made by Canadians; wound up selling it all except for excellent ship minis and mini game; great ship designs but it needs a new edition
LUG Trek – like Star Wars D10 meets Fasa Trek; a lot of fun; no reason to buy Decipher Trek yet (esp. considering the lack of books so far); Andorian and Romulan books worth getting even if you don’t like the game; too bad the Klingon and Mirror Universe books never came out
Mechanoids – not bad at all for Palladium Books; Mechanoids Space is way overdue; never bought the MDC/Rifts version
Mechwarrior 1st and 2nd – tried to like this game, good background and artwork for Battletech; terrible rules and you were a human in a world ruled by giant robots
Mekton 2 – had it, great stuff (same system as CP2020), couldn’t get anyone to play it, now have Z and if anything else makes good stuff for BESM; IMO better rules than BESM for mecha games but takes longer
MT – looking back I would’ve bought it when it first came out if I hadn’t been playing other games at the time; background ok at first final conclusion a bit eh?; good artwork, nice to have everything together but there were errata and other problems
Paranoia – great artwook (the main artist also did a lot of the late 1st edition AD&D era TSR stuff, some FASA, etc. books), fun read, think I now have the humor to run this successfully
Rifts – main book and some of the supplements (Wormwood, Phaseworld, etc.) are quite playable, fun setting at first; power creep and rules are getting too much; badly needs a fix; example, combat good in theory but damage is off so combat takes FOREVER ; Dogboys and D-Bees!
Shadowrun – shudder; 1st & 2nd, too bad the so very good setting was shackled to such bad rules, worse than Mechwarrior (longer to play)
FASA Star Trek – never really played, took a look at a friend’s copy (that he’s wanting me to GM) recently, good char gen, good rules for FASA, liked the ship combat game
Skyrealms of Jorune – finally got 2nd and 3rd edition; great artwork, love to use some of the creatures in another game, don’t think a complete playable set of rules was ever published and it’s written as if you’re a native
Star Frontiers – great artwork, fun game when I was a kid, loved the races and having a ton of counters; looking back at it there’re some gaps but still Knight Hawks ow|\|z j00
Star Wars D6 – great cinematic game; I have friends who have played it since 1st edition
Space 1889: too many different systems in one game; some great source material and I like the Heliograph stuff but I’d not run a game off of this
T20 – so far so good, like Prior History and the Traveller’s Aides are good
T4 – initial thrill soon turned to dismay; had most of the books at one time; sold them all when I needed the $$ and space; ½ dice bad task system idea basically good needs overhaul; a few books I’d like to get again
Tekumel/Empire of the Petal Throne – La! Right up there with Tolkien. Great stuff, nowhere near as hard as Jorune to comprehend and a welcome change from ye old dungeons and dragons or generic space world. Still around and a new version’s coming out from Guardians of Order. Can’t wait.
Timelord – one of the best licensed games, much better than the Fasa Dr. Who game, however I’d likely use BESM nowadays, still worth getting
TNE – not playing when it came out and too $$ for me at the time; picked it up later; some good bits to use for a different system
Twilight 2000 2nd edition – fast deadly rules, lots of weapons and vehicles to run around with, lots of fun, wouldn’t mind seeing a updated/with other backgrounds included D20/T20 version of this
Votoms RPG – excellent sourcebook for the series, got me to buy the whole series, I prefer Interlock (Mekton) to Fusion in this case
Oh I’m sure I missed something but that’s good enough for now.
Open for a PBEM, IRC, etc. game using one of the games above that I at least tolerate.
Gallowglass
SOC-12
As one of the (few) resident Jorune obsessives, it falls to me to defend my all time favourite (today anyway
) game - 2nd edition was eminently playable (I ran two highly successful campaigns and played in a third) and I also ran a number of third edition games - the only significant ommission was the Stamina values for large creatures which I didn't even notice until I got the Sholari pack, several games in. And the whole game isn't written from the point of view of a native: only the Tauther Guide is an IC document. It was the first part of the third edition rulebook, which was a mistake: in 2nd edition it was a separate booklet in the boxed set, which worked much better.Jorune is not an easy setting to grasp (there's a huge array of races, the environemnt is wierd and science fantasy rather than hard SF) but the effort is amply rewarded by a wonderfully rich and evocative environment. It has about the only perfect "party of 'adventurers'" creating method that I have ever found entirely plausible (the quest for Drenn status) and in both second and third edition had rules features that were inovative and effective.
Ahem, right, sorry, I'll get of my soapbox now...
Someone mentioned the computer game Escape Velocity Nova, and I think that for computer games, they were very good. Too bad I moved over to pcs, but given what I hear Ambrosia's doing to EV Nova, I can't complain too much...
Now that I think of it, most RPGs and computer games tend to be either fantasy or not sci fi. I wonder why?
Now that I think of it, most RPGs and computer games tend to be either fantasy or not sci fi. I wonder why?
daryen
SOC-14 1K
Just an FYI: That was the hardcover version of The Traveller Book. It is odd that you found it new without a dust cover. The dust cover looks the same as the softcover version, but the actual hardcover itself is as you described.
It comes up for sale on eBay with moderate frequency. It usually isn't too pricy.
Merchant Reaper
SOC-9
Hi, I am new to these boards but have been a traveler fan for about 14 years. I have generated interest in a new d20 traveler game and this seemed like a good thread to ask if any of you know a good, moderately easy to adapt, game source for body enhancements? You know, cybernetics, bioware kind of stuff, etc... Traveler has always been seriously lacking in this area. Shadowrun has a lot of cool ideas for these kind of things, but I am looking for stuff already in the d20 format, if it exists.
Any pointers?
Any pointers?
Gallowglass
SOC-12
Doesn't really fit in the OTU so I'm not aware of anything substantial in Traveller, but there is a d20 Cyberpunk book called Digital Burn by Living Room Games (http://www.lrgames.com/digitalburn/intro.php), bizarrely teh people who have FASA's Eathrdawn...
I also googled across this which may of use:
http://www.geocities.com/hernes.geo/
hope that helps!
cheers,
Nick Middleton
