Hey Veeky Forums whats your favorite sci-fi rpg? Or one you might recommend to others?

Traveller is great, bar the "midlife crisis in space" aspect.

But that's the best part. Who doesn't want to Han Solo around the galaxy? Or be this guy, who is obviously a badass.

3:16 Carnage for marines, violent bug hunts and ptds with a simple but elegant rules system.

Fading Suns for setting, moodyness, space opera drama and being a romantic wanker. System is meh though. Might try and port it to Diaspora or Stars Without Number. Diaspora has a neat character and system generation built into it for including everyone. As contrast Stars Without Number has a neat system generation and faction tracking for if you're really bored and want to play a lot with yourself. I like both approaches.

Paranoia for one-shot dystopian benny hill fun. Played 1st and XP but the Fiasco book actually works better.

Apocalypse World for, well, post apocalyptic stuff. The Quiet Year is interesting too, but only a few times with the same people.

Any, doesn't matter. I'm a big fan of the genre. I know of some games I just want to hear your guys opinion.

Big fan of Traveller if I want crunchy* sci-fi. If you don't want to deal with the horrors of realizing that highly competent people are usually in their 30s or older, just halve the time it takes to get through a career block from 4 years to 2 years.

Disaspora is cool, but I never got to play past chargen. Stars Without Number is a fun "D&D in Space" game.

3:16 is neat but I've never gotten the chance to play it.

*nobody cares about your opinions you fucking autist

Didn't know about this. Looks neat. Thanks.

Traveller. I want to see someone who's not a clueless schmuck (eg, other than me) to run it do i can get a better idea of how to do cool things in it.

GURPS
really simple rules allow for great versimillitude

Have you listened to Behind the Claw? Have you read Freelance Traveller? 'Cause they're both full of cool stuff.

>Hey Veeky Forums whats your favorite sci-fi rpg?
Eclipse Ph-

>one you might recommend to others
Nevermind

But we want your opinions user, that's the point of the thread.

Traveller. I love it like family. It is my favorite.

I've played GURPS Space/Ultratech during my GURPS phase ca. 2004ish and it was great, but the GM really needs to know his stuff and control what items are in the setting.

I played one game of Savage Worlds space (can't remember the book name, sorry) and I didn't care for it much, but I think it would work well for like a Flash Gordon campaign (ours was more like Mass Effect and it felt like there wasn't enough crunch to match the theme for my tastes but ymmv).

I played Eclipse Phase and didn't care for it.

>nobody has recommended the game where you're literally a Space Conquistador

Rogue Trader is a really fun game that I highly recommend. It could use some tweaking, but there's nothing more fun that basically having the full might and authority of the God-Emperor to do as you damn well please (so long as you don't piss off other Rogue Traders or the Inquisition, of course).

The asterisk was meant for the user(s) who want to argue about whether or not Traveller is crunchy.

>nobody considers Rogue Trader their favorite game

Yeah

VFR - Vanguard Free Roleplaying system

Yea Rouge Trader always seemed like a lot of fun. I'd like to give it a go sometime.

Traveller, I should think. I like how pants-shittingly huge the setting is. At the same time, it's cool how focused it can get- your adventure can take place within the confines of a very small cluster of planets, and still feel expansive and epic if done right. The diversity of tone between the different versions gives some cool variety, too- your adventure could be more of a high-seas-ish feeling, no-limits Privateer sorta campaign in MGT trav, or a darker, more dangerous struggle, sorta FTL-ish but worse in TNE trav, where the galaxy has been plunged into another Long Night.

Was in a Rogue Trader game for a bit. Didn't like it. But then again I'm not a huge fan of 40k so that was probably a big factor.

What edition of traveler do most people play?

Mongoose

That's the easy(ish) to obtain one right?

I think I might have it somewhere...

I thought about buying the newest edition (4th officially I think) But I didn't feel like getting a loan from the bank, for the books and the gym membership to carry it.

In terms of setting, Gamma World is my favorite (unless that's too science fantasy for the discussion at hand). Star Frontiers is also really cool as far as settings go. In terms of actual mechanics, I'm never really satisfied with anything I play, so that's a trickier one to answer. You might be better off playing the Savage Worlds port of Gamma World (or not, I've never done more than glance it over--I'm just saying that it's not like any of the editions of Gamma World that I'm familiar with really knocked it out of the park). And the actual mechanics of Star Frontiers were rather meh.

Mongoose, Classic, or a Frankenstein system made of various editions' pieces all bolted together. Actually that last one is probably the most popular.

You can go with eclipse phase ,traveller and GURPS of course

Traveller seems like it's pretty popular. I guess your standard fantasy setting is more popular then sci-fi though.

If you don't really give a shit about 40k, how do Rogue Trader's rules stack up to other games if you're basically trying to follow the same "arc" as Rogue Trader does (explore the vast unknown/known-but-forgotten and bring back its forbidden wealth for profit).

Generally the only reason to put up with the clunky rules of the 40k RPGs is because you love the fluff enough to put up with the clunky rules of the 40k RPGs.
Take the fluff away and all you've got is a crappy, badly dated RPG.

This, really. The basic idea of Rogue Trader is something you can achieve with any generic sci-fi system. The only real reason to play it is if you like 40k

For sheer balls-to-the-wall ridiculousness, it's hard to beat Strike Legion.

forums.spacebattles.com/threads/vampire-ships-bunny-commandos-and-space-marines-lets-read-strike-legion.196770/

The system's somewhat unpolished in that it needs a lot of GM adjudication of difficulties, especially with Mastery abilities which explicitly scale from "firecracker" to "ignite atmosphere of planet" or "create your own dimension, with blackjack and hookers", but it works well enough.

You play a Legionnaire, a supersoldier that makes a Primarch look like a limp-wristed girlyboy, with handheld weapons that can cut up cities, antimatter grenades that can be set to stun and singularity grenades that can the whole planet. You fight against an Imperium where every single civilian has a pretty potent psychic talent, their special forces factories churn out X-Men, Zoanoids and Zerg, and their Space Marines come in higher than pre-Heresy numbers, equipment and education. Plus the Empress is alive and kicking and sometimes pops over to destroy a solar system.

It's not just a 40k rip-off mind. It rips off *everything* and ends up pretty funky.

Gross.

Mongoose. 2e just came out and has cleaned up rules. 1e has more material for it.

Sufficiently Advanced: Diceless rpg that's all about transhumanism and technology's effect on the world.

Traveller: The system that actively wants to kill you.

Diaspora: One of the few systems out there that has your ship overheating in space as a core mechanic on top of things like no artificial gravity and travel between planets taking days at best.

Star Frontiers: Almost as old as Traveller. Great setting, but I haven't read that much about the rules to say anything other than "they seem fine to me". All of the books are free, now.

Traveller. One of the best.

Spacemaster. Quite good.

Fragged Empire has my attention for an awesome setting. I'm totally hooked.

>1e has more material for it.

More material featuring Mongoose's wonderful editing, you mean.
Man, once you get outside core, Mongoose's books are lousy.

wanderinggamist.blogspot.com/2012/03/mongoose-traveller-campaign-guide.html

Pic Related

Also Mongoose Traveller and maybe FFG Star Wars.

So, nobody like Stars without number?
Why? Tell me whats wrong with it.

It's fine. The GM tools in it are fantastic, but I don't particularly care for the system itself -- I love Basic D&D, and I love Traveller, but the two don't go together well, IMO. I don't want skill systems in my Basic D&D, and I don't want classes, levels, XP, saving throws, and D&D combat in my science fiction.
But I don't think it's a bad system by any stretch; it's beautifully designed, just not to my tastes.

Traveller and Cyberpunk 2020

Franchises included, Dark Heresy and FFG Star Wars

I never understood why people always plug FFG Star Wars when people ask for a sci fi system. I have a general feeling when people don't explicitly ask for a Star Wars system then they probably don't want to play a Star Wars game.

Same with Rogue Trader and DH, really.

I don't see much point when there's already Classic Trav.

50 posts and no one has mentioned 2300AD yet. Sure the system's clunky but the setting's fucking fantastic.

I guess what it comes down to is does the OP want a recommended sci if system or recommended setting?

If he wants to make his own setting then Traveler or GURPS or SW work best, IMO.

If he wants to use a special setting, well then I don't know what it is because he hasn't said anything. People have recommended setting-specific systems in this thread, like Star Wars or Eclipse Phase.

Because it's Classic Traveller without any of the things that make Classic Traveller fun, and more D&Disms that do nothing but make character creation boring as fuck.

You're mechanically better off by picking a skill package rather than rolling your own skills, which is incredibly boring. Instead of organically becoming whoever you are through the lifepath system you just pick one of the three classes and a skill package which is incredibly boring. Adepts and psychics can have plenty of out of combat uses, but warriors skills are pretty much pure combat, so if somebody picks warrior and the GM wasn't planning on having a lot of combat they sure as shit will have to add more to make the warrior actually useful.

I like it just fine. Some people are against the inclusion of a class based system, but honestly traveller basically has that anyway with careers. Its less restrictive in some ways, more in others, but its still highly influential in what your character has done, can do, and comes with. Or if they even make it through character generation for you to play as. ymmv tho.

The thing I don't like about SwoN is that the psionics feel sort of flat and lifeless. The level progression seems too linear given that in setting, the psionics are learning in smaller groups, or are self taught post collapse, and torching as a mechanic is interesting but largely too detrimental for players to ever bother doing. I'm looking at some ORS stuff like DCC for alternatives to downsides/costs, and maybe meshing in some form of defiler rules from dark suns to give them a grittier feeling that players will consider using.

I don't mind SwoN, I just prefer Machinations of the Space Princess. I really like the HM(2K) vibe it's got going on, and the way it handles alien species is pretty neat.

Totally in love with Fragged Empire.

I always hate it when systems do this. In any setting soldiers are going to have a lot of useful skills. They're certainly going to be more well-travelled than the average person, for instance. And for some reason tactical skill is also never properly represented.

And "but they're strong on combat, so they have to be weak outside of it" has always been a shit excuse.

If you have a Boner for old hard sci fi, and have a PHD in math Try the Ringworld/known space RPG. it has skill percentages

This is why you shouldn't use class systems in sci fi.

The worst part is that Classic Traveller made rolling a soldier useful for even a pacifist party, but SWN just throws that out the window. In Classic Traveller joining the military gave you a shitload of useful skills that can make you invaluable to a team whenever shit hits the fan, regardless of whether or not combat is happening. The warrior in Star Without Number is not a "shit hits the fan" class, it is a combat class, the only bonuses it gives are JUST for combat. In Traveller you wanted to avoid actual combat as much as possible because of how much tech varies, a lot of encounters could become save or die if you actually try to fight.

>traveller basically has that anyway with careers

What? Hardly. Careers just get you various skills, and it's skills that define your character, not what his Career used to be before play. Once chargen ends, your career (or careers if you moved between them) is just a footnote rather than a defining feature. It doesn't matter if you learned piloting from the Navy or the Scouts or the Merchant service or a criminal background or civilian job or what, you can pilot a ship all the same.

1. Rogue Trader
2. not Rogue Trader

Space refuge cyoa

Apart from the Mary sue race its ok

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