Best sci-fi system?

The genderfluid part of Eclipse phase is a logical consequence of a transhuman setting where the personality can change bodies constantly, it doesn't have anything to do with feminism.

I am looking for some realistic sc-fi system where I can discharge my autistic needs.

I really enjoy Fragged Empire, but it too is all I have played.

Spot the biocon.

...

I'm interested, but my english accent is atrocious.

Albedo is as hard as it gets. It got a furry paintjob, but yiffing is almost non-existant. It got very interesting mechanics an is a pretty good tactical combat game. It can rapidly turn into PTSD simulator due to the game system.

Got one excellent module where you have to survive in a wrecked spaceship, with enphasis on clash between people, too.

Lasers and Feelings.

>Albedo
>as hard as it gets

Find songs in English (with actual lyrics and good pronounciation, like Queen) you like and try singing along silently, focusing on mouthing the words correctly. Once that works without effort, add voice. 20 minutes practice every day a month and your pronounciation should improve (assuming you're trying to mimic the singer and not repeating your mistakes). I had a student once who actually followed my advice (I taught English to a few people) and this technique helped her a lot.

I like Diaspora, but many folks do not like narrative-roleplaying.

HA

is that the system with art by jay naylor

Wouldn't it be easier to try and mimic somebody famous through watching interviews rather than have to deal with singing?

My homebrew

Thanks, will try it.

Don't think so, it's based on a comic by Steve Gallacci, I think he did most of the art, if not all.

What's the difference between your homebrew and regular Diaspora?

Interesting. Having skimmed it, I see little different from Diaspora. What was your motivation behind making it?

Two questions of any sci-fi systems being mentioned:
- Does it have Flamethrowers ?
- If yes, is there enough information to know if the flamethrowers will work in vacuum ?

I ask because a surprising number of systems are written by people who never think of that question. Which means they don't provide enough question to answer it.

I don't care if the flamethrowers work in a vacuum or not. Only that there is enough information to make the answer clear to everyone.

I have high hopes for the upcoming 3.PF in SPAAAAACE! called Starfinder.

I'd imagine the lack of pressure would cause the flammable material being shot out of the flamethrower to dissipate to the point where the flames can no longer sustain themselves and get snuffed out.

Oh god no. Sci-fi is the only refuge against D&D players, I am not excited.

But a flamethrower works with dense liquids that stick to surfaces and as "greek fire" does, doesn't require oxygen in their reaction to burn.

But I doubt the liquid stays a liquid when ignited out of the nozzle. Any form of gas is going to fuck off into space.

Updating Diaspora to Fate Core and tweaking Fate to be the way I like, namely less powerful PCs and a more sensible level up mechanic.

Doubt won't protect you from superheated fire liquid

Oh wait hang on I just realized, there is a liquid that could work as a flamethrower liquid, but... uh... well, letting a human anywhere near it would be the dumbest mistake possible.

A hydrazine flamethrower could work. God help you if you're the poor sap that has to operate it.

Oh yeah and its about 250 pages shorter

Isn't hydrazine rocket fuel ?

Which means that:
- It would be easily available. Because people use it to fuel their ships.
- Some people would know how to handle it. Because they work with the ships engines.

user, it's x-treeeeemly toxic and corrosive, you need fancy big reinforced hazmat suits to handle that kind of stuff.

Here's the fluff on the flamethrowers in Myriad Song:

>The hypergolic guns mix a few drops of rocket fuel into the firing chamber, then combine it with accelerant to ignite it, and a fraction of a second later, the resulting jet of fire is vented towards the targets. These guns are extremely expensive because of the material involved, and even then, use of the weapon slowly burns out the lining and the mechanism.

What about a fully sealed, armoured, spacesuit ?

Superheated fire liquid would make more sense than an attempt at a flamethrower in space.

Losing your liquid in the form of having fire (hot gas) may cause the liquid itself to rapidly cool in the form of ablative cooling from the loss of mass given by the gas spreading.

If you want something REALLY deadly you would want to have something that stays a liquid even when it's stupidly hot. If you can somehow heat tungsten to a hot enough point where it becomes a liquid you'll basically have a tungsten jizz cannon that can melt through ship hulls like a knife through butter.

Hydrazine is incredibly deadly, and wants to kill you the instant you know of its existence. In Europa Report an astronaut gets a tiny amount of hydrazine on his suit, and everyone freaks the fuck out because if he enters the airlock everyone inside of the ship could die:

youtube.com/watch?v=m7Xs-iPgm_k&ab_channel=MagnoliaPictures&MagnetReleasing

I think it's made to protect you from the vacuum of space, not from corrosive liquids.

Heating the atmosphere that much in a closed system (e.g. a spaceship) would be pretty devastating for people and electronics. If you had much better insulation or were otherwise protected (send in drones) it'd be a great boarding weapon.

The tech and power needed to make it an effective anti-ship weapon could probably be better used just making a better laser/railgun/missile though.

>Europa Report
Pretty good movie.

user did say armoured, so that's already atypical of space suits unless you want to say they're armored against vacuum. That would be redundant with it being a space suit at all. Sounds like he meant some kind of sci-fi gear, and not the typical sexy scifi gear that looks like it was designed by a fetishist. Such a suit could very well be designed to resist corrosives. As for shipboard contamination, well, that would depend on the level of technology involved. Maybe they'd know how to neutralize it. Maybe they have duct tape 2.0 which can resist even the fires of the sun itself. No frigging clue.

It depends on the setting and the grace (or technical ignorance on the subject) of the GM.

Personally liked it alot better than Interstellar or Gravity. Much less stupid bullshit even if it didn't look anywhere near as pretty

I'm into diamond hard sci-fi, but I still liked Interstellar because it was pretty.

>not appreciating several systems in differing genres for what they are

no true grog...

For what? Hyperion Cantos, Dune, Star Wars, Farscape, and Neuromancer are all SF.

A true grog would be playing Traveller. Pathfinder is not for grogs it's for 3eaboos.

But which Traveller?

Classic. The one that came out in the 70s.

THE best scifi. So what's the best system for the best scifi?

The best scifi is hard scifi, as other forms are fantasy hybrids. Hard scifi is thus more scifi, and a thing is better at being itself.

Neuromancer > Hyperion > Farscape > Dune > SW

Seen The Expanse?

Yeah, and I couldn't stand how pointlessly grim it wanted to be. I couldn't make it through the first episode because it felt like it was trying REALLY hard to be Game of Thrones in space.

It's the only accurate sci-fi thing that I won't watch, and it's painful for me to be the only one not liking it.

Ah, that's too bad for you. I try not to consume media hypotextually.

>The best scifi is hard scifi, as other forms are fantasy hybrids.
That just means it's the purest, and purest does not always mean best.

I like traveller. The combat system is extremely deadly if you're not wearing super awesome armor so that may surprise people, but there's a lot more to do than fighting and the attention to detail is just enough to make me happy without boring me. The chargen is a lot of fun too especially for >tfw nogroup.
Bought pic related from a flea market for laughs and it was like an autistic version of traveller with 3d space maps instead of the hexagon system and a lot more gear.

Well now that you dismissed my dislike of the show I guess I have to elaborate.

I like hard sci-fi, but the premise of the show had so many elements that were only there to create dramatic tension.

>all the poor belters, water is more valuable than gold
Why are there no probes doing any of this? Humans are ill equipped for space, which is why 90% of the work in a hard sci-fi setting would be done by probes. In addition, water is hydrogen and oxygen. We need oxygen just to exist, and hydrogen is needed just to make most ship designs run.

>belters even being a thing
The asteroid belt is far more sparse than you would think. It would make far more sense to mine Phobos, Deimos, Mars, The Moon, Mercury, Venus, and near Earth asteroids. Any kind of asteroid belt mining would be far better suited for probe work as probes can be built for maximum mining efficiency. We already know of an asteroid that's pretty close to Earth that's FILLED with platinum.

He's not wrong but all travellers are good even if they are not equal. Moongoose traveller is still awesome compared to your usual starwars/trekD20

Oh also, I should add:

>general corruption still being a thing 200 years into the future
If humanity does not get better as a whole it will kill itself before that time hits. We discover more and more things to kill ourselves with, but we also discover more reasons not to kill ourselves. If you go back 200 years the average person would be far more of an asshole than now, and 200 years into the future, if the human race survives, would look back at us as assholes.

That's the reason why I think the cyberpunk influences in The Expanse are stupid, especially when you try and sell the most plausible scenario possible.

>which is why 90% of the work in a hard sci-fi setting would be done by probes
What kind of diamond hard sci-fi do you read that nobody ever leaves the Earth and everything is done via remote probes and drones?

I'm not dismissing your dislike, you have an opinion, I have an opinion, I learned a long time ago there's no point in arguing over opinions.

NASA white papers

That's a terrible opinion

It's not that people don't leave Earth, it's that most of the work is done by probes and drones because that's way more efficient. Also:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Walk_in_the_Sun_(short_story)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Crossing
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_trilogy

Give me a fucking break. Just go on one of their general threads and you'll see constant Tumblr tier whining and ideological cant.

GURPS Transhuman Space does everything better. Hard sci fi. No psychic magic. All the philosophical and ethical issues of transhumanism, but no preachy left-wing grimderp. Every major ideology represented- represented FAIRLY- and brand new ones that make sense in the context of the game. Some supplements are written by real life big names in the Transhumanist movement. And the game is just plain FUN. Did I mention no grimderp?

Even if you hate GURPS, this is pretty much the ideal setting for a near future hard sci fi. And with GURPS's biggest strength being tactical oper8ing and flexibility, you have the perfect match.

Er wait I didn't mean to include that last one. I only wanted to include Mars Crossing and A Walk In The Sun

>that's a terrible opinion
In your opinion.

>Mars Trilogy
That's a particularly good example of exploring speculative technology's affect on humans at both the personal and societal level. Alas most writers aren't that creative nor are audience interested in so niche a topic.
"Communism, but this time it works" was a bit of a cop out. Energy-based economy is beautiful though.

Sax best boy.

While Transhuman Space is my favorite, also consider Traveller. It's a "good old fashioned future" and was a partial inspiration for Firefly. Star Wars and Rogue Trader are also good but you probably already know if you want to play one of those.

If you're looking for hard sci fi and/or transhumanism, no other game comes even close to Transhuman Space.

>Give me a fucking break. Just go on one of their general threads and you'll see constant Tumblr tier whining and ideological cant.

But the main theme of those thread is about how the devs mistreat the jovians as simple nazi baddies and the planetary consortium is the necesary evil in the setting while the anarkiddies are just everywhere being perfect.

Whenever I read GURPS sourcebooks they always seem like such a scattershot of ideas that they leave up to you to stitch together and play. Seems like good inspiration but a lot of work to run as a ruleset.

How do GURPS games usually go? The players just narrate whatever and its up to the GM to make rulings? Or does the GM compile a definitive ruleset out of all the OPTIONALS in the books and expects players to be familiar with it?

Two things that I wish I saw more in science fiction though would be:

1.Sci-fi authors getting their heads out of their ass about Mars and choosing Venus as the superior planet to colonize.
>1atm pressure available at 45km in the air
>air is a lifting gas
>rockoons are entirely viable to make liftoffs trivial
>0.89g (at 45km in the air) compared to 0.3g (at the surface)
>radiation protection
>endless energy generation from all that heat and sunlight
>easier to get to
>more scientifically interesting than mars (Venus fucking spins backwards)

In fact I'd think it would be interesting to write a story based around most colonists going to Venus and then a Martian old guard getting upset about their funding starting to dry up, ultimately leading to tense political situations between Martians and Venutians making Earth a FIERCE economic battleground when it comes to each party trying to secure continued colonists and supplies.

2.More emphasis on asteroid colonies, less emphasis on space stations and larger moons, and spinning asteroids, even a spinning Deimos. We can survive on various smaller bodies by spinning them and using centrifugal force to provide close to 1g.

Stop shilling Venus, it ain't happening.

Yeah but like... it's conceptually boring. The political scene is just the 90's projected 100 years into the future. They have mind-copying technologies but they're conveniently flawed or illegal so nobody needs to care about the consequences of the technology. Everywhere that isn't Earth is pretty sparse. There's not that much conflict built into the setting.

>Or does the GM compile a definitive ruleset out of all the OPTIONALS in the books and expects players to be familiar with it?
This one normally, though it's usually more along the lines of 'Basic Set/Lite + XYZ' than 'the entire body of GURPS supplements, but we're not using XYZ'.

>Sulfuric acid rainclouds
>Hotter than mercury
>Overwhelming atmospheric pressure
>Magnetic field too weak to ward cosmic radiation
Even with terraformation and regulation of the atmosphere, the last one kills us outside of radiation shielded bases.
It's easier to stick troglodite bases on mars without worrying about atmosphere.

user, he's talking about aerostats. At 50km or so, atmospheric pressure on Venus is about 1atm, and temperature goes from 20 to 70°C or so, IIRC.
Which wouldn't dodge the problem of sulfuric acid clouds or magnetic field, ofc.
Mars is just better and easier.

Well you stay above the first three on Venus. Cloud cities, and the like.

That's intentional - they're intended primarily as a toolbox for GM's and players, giving a broad swathe of options and generally an overview of the genre and its appropriate setting lenses.

For a game, the GM and players sets what's being used (which isn't much work), tech level, and gets everyone on the same page for the themes of the campaign. It's not much work.

Players don't have to be familiar with anything but what's on their sheet.

If you're playing in a setting like Transhuman Space or Dungeon Fantasy, then all the work of what options to use is already done.

>Yeah but like... it's conceptually boring. The political scene is just the 90's projected 100 years into the future. They have mind-copying technologies but they're conveniently flawed or illegal so nobody needs to care about the consequences of the technology. Everywhere that isn't Earth is pretty sparse. There's not that much conflict built into the setting.

The mind-copying techniques are being worked on, and they *still* see intense use - to the point that they've been incorporated into funeral rites as a way to preserve an ancestor's living ghost. AI and Ghosts have no rights across most of the solar system, including many of the traditional good-guy nations.

Bioroid rights are causing social disruption across the solar system. There's plenty of conflict, it just doesn't rely on Good vs Evil vs Mythos.

THS is in the middle of huge social shifts already, but right on the cusp of everything kicking off.

There are still sulfuric acid clouds at the proposed altitude for colonization of Venus, m8.

like you said there's still obious problems
and that's not to account, being high in the atmosphere is getting torn apart by violent winds.
violent winds carrying acid clouds

>If you're playing in a setting like Transhuman Space or Dungeon Fantasy, then all the work of what options to use is already done.

Money quote right here. Too many options is a valid critique of GURPS, but prebuilt settings like THS do this all for you.

Any links for these stories ? My google-fu is really weak today

#bookz

>tfw nobody plays fading suns anymore

So, it's fading?

>acid
Sulfuric acid is countered with teflon and various other forms of plastics that laugh at sulfuric acid. You'd need to wear a thick spacesuit on Mars just to survive. On Venus the suit can be skintight, and only has to be acid resistant.

>wind
The winds are fairly uniform and actually helpful for allowing you to keep a proper day and night cycle as they move you from one end of the planet all the way around. The reinforcement needed for the wind is not that much of a problem compared to having to design a pressure vessel like you would on Mars.

>radiation
Venus actually has an induced magnetosphere just because of how thick its atmosphere is. There's enough radiation shielding just from the atmosphere itself that your chances of getting cancer are most likely marginally higher than on Earth. On Mars your chances of getting cancer are SIGNIFICANTLY higher. But, then again on Mars you couldn't go outside without a spacesuit anyways.

All of my sources come from NASA and NASA scientists:

arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2015-4612
arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2015-4545

youtu.be/xqQB0WqOahc (scientist involved in the project to test the feasibility of a Venus mission)

In addition here are some extra facts about Venus that make it ideal that I didn't mention before:

>Because of Venus's thick as fuck atmosphere and size, Venus would be an ideal candidate for some fantastic fuel saving through aerocapture. Mars is much harder to perform an aerocapture on: solarsystem.nasa.gov/docs/Concepts_Munk_Spilker.pdf

>Due to how orbital mechanics work, a Hohmann Transfer from Venus to the asteroid belt would take less time than a Hohmann Transfer from Mars to the asteroid belt (though this one is not from a scientist the creator of this website is extremely dedicated to studying orbital mechanics):
clowder.net/hop/railroad/VJ.htm
clowder.net/hop/railroad/MaJ.htm

>There's enough radiation shielding just from the atmosphere
Didn't you propose an hour ago that people live above 99% of said atmosphere?

All I know about it is that it's space feudalism with magic bits. Can you say more about it?

You misunderstood just how thick and high the atmosphere on Venus goes. On Venus, sea level is 50~km above the ground. That means there's enough atmosphere standing between you and cosmic rays as there is at sea level on EARTH.

At 50km you still have nearly 20 more kilometers of atmosphere above you before you start to close in on the Armstrong Limit.

On Earth, at sea level, the Armstrong Limit is reached at 19km above you.

Thanks dude

My vote goes to Stars Without Number. I've been running a campaign for about six months so far and both the players and myself really enjoy it. Can't say enough good things about it.

>Can't say enough good things about it.
You've said 0 good things about it, though.

...

"It's fun for me and my friends" doesn't really help convince people to give it a try, you know.
How about them good things, then?

Oh and one last thing about wind speeds. Hurricane force winds are not that hard to design for: citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.195.172&rep=rep1&type=pdf

When you think hurricane force winds you think of a plane on Earth trying to fly through a hurricane and then everyone on board dying because of it. But, traditional heavier than air aircraft would not be necessary on Venus and far more reinforcement can be used making air travel safer due to both the fact that air is a lifting gas, and at 50km gravity is only at 0.89g.

Not even that guy, never played Stars Without Number, but I gotta post the epic eye-roll gif when someone intentionally misinterprets a well-known and understood idiom on purpose just to be a wise-ass. You could have just said: "What do you like about it?" or "Tell me more." But no. You couldn't do that. And now you're paying the price.

I'm not paying anything though.

Vanguard Free RPG

I highly doubt any rpg does hard sci-fi well. The equalities that make something hard sci-fi do not lend themselves towards making a good game.

You would be wrong:
rpg.net/reviews/archive/15/15778.phtml