Let's discuss space opera games/settings since I'm trying to make one of my own

>What don't you like to see?
The warrior race, the scientist race, the criminal race, any other race where everyone has the same occupation.

Good list but Ender's game should be at the top

>Calls Star Wars good while SBY is garbage
>Implying that DS9 was garbage
>Calling Cowboy Bebop a space opera

>No Mageworlds

For shame.

I don't really get what makes a sci-fi setting space opera rather than any regular old sci-fi. Could anyone explain?

Basically, space opera = soap opera IN SPACE.
I.e. something like: Ay, dios mio, chica! It's the dreaded El Guapo in his mighty battleship 'Cazador de putas'!
He's probably looking for some fresh slaves for his intergalactic harem again! ... Quick - help me put some make-up on.

The way I understand it is the primary focus of Space Operas is the characters with the SciFi setting around them enabling their story to be told. Science Fiction is almost the opposite in which the premise, setting or technology in question is the center of the piece with a narrative and characters to make a story around it. A good example of science fiction is Asimov's work, which were often story's about explaining how a technology may work or a question of "what if?" Made into a story. On the other hand Star Wars is a Space Opera as it is mostly about the relations of the characters with the setting enabling their drama. I'm not a literary expert, but as a writer by hobby this is how I understand it.

Trek can't acknowledge the powerups or the dumb niggers writing for the shows can't think of enough conflicts to drive plots. That's why Voyager is still the furthest ahead in the prime timeline 0f Trek.

Be inventive. Mixmatch things. Get inspired from other sources and real life. Sky is the literal limit.

Inventive societal worldbuilding. Or at least a non stereotype pile of "hats", copy a goddamn real culture with a little bit of brain.
And while we're at it: if the culture is vast, make is less homogeneous. ESPECIALLY with yer old "single planet of aliens" thing.

I don't like one thing of SWs: spacetravel is mundane and easy as taking a plane. Hell, even easier. It cheapens everything. Make it complex, not necessarily rare, but with its own culture an mannerism and taking a fair bit of time - and space needs to feel very different from planets.

Tech done with a grain of salt. You want to do the trope of the old fallen republic with snazzy tech? Give me something that actually IS as distant to us in 2017 than we are to cavemen. Not necessarily realistic, but I want the society to fell different.

I don't like to see good vs evil as in a SWs-like cardboard cut. It does work in SWs, but SWs is more or less a fairytale... which has its dignity, but it's not really what we play for. Most of the time, at least.

Aliens can be done in many ways but in RPGs they absolutely need to be NOT humans in funny suits. Want to do an acquatic race? Give me a fucking dolphins with fingers. Imagination has no budget restrcition.
>in some cases humanoids might make sense, but they still should be more than just a makeup session different from us

Laser swords are kinda cheap, but as much as I like suprisingly hard scifi and I don't think it's really necessary to handwave shit (i honestly tend to "hard scif-y" ships).... I don't fuss over laser swords more than, say, renassiance-like intrigues a là Dune when the empire spans 10.000 worlds and you'd think they'd have the CIA or something.

Fading Suns is my favorite. It's not the best, but the one that captured my heart the most.

Read it on tvtropes. Really, it's a pretty good explanation.

>Should there be laser swords?
Absoloutly not! plasma swords are ok

Also, use rules lite systems for hard science fiction. Nobody in their right mind wants to play a physics simulation with RP elements.

For an example of "real life" and "don't copy the usual shit":

We all like Han and Chewie and there are many good reasons why, but the "smalltime scoundrel" trope is ready to go upside down. Why not go big and high class?

I recently went to an art exhibition about a fake archeological discovery of a bigass Roman ship carrying sculptures, jewels and whatnot.

Imagine this: in the dark neofeudal future, there is not much freedom to journey, but as much as the old Republic is forgotten in practice it still has a place in high culture as it was in the middle ages and in the Renassaince. A noble would like an artefact even in his planetary castle, the only decent place in not!Tattoine, but might as well do in the imperial seat to impress other nobles.
Sounds like an overall decent gig, right? Well... problem is, you gotta also recover these artefacts, make them safe, not be nuked from orbit by whoever isn't totally agreeing with your ideas of recovery and propiety.
And look snazzy at the next Imperial Salon, of course.

Possible PCs:
>the Tech and his squad, finest minds of the Empire (more like "holy shit we found this fabled quantum bullshit device, let's not make it exploded in a 10-gigaton boom" than grease monkey)
>the Lieutenant, possibly a noble with a proper company of navy seals-like motherfuckers to get shit and general security "on foot"
>The Captain, pretty obvious
>The Face, actually half "noble with connections" and half "aggressive capitalism"
>The Ace, for when you positevely need to win that spacefight
>the Ordained, because someone needs to get not!Church connections and magic bullshit
>the Empath, who actually is the worst mind-reading bastard out there

>Star Wars prequels okay
>Fifth Element better than Firefly

>Holy shit is that pic real?
Why wouldn't it be?
mediafire.com/folder/lwhe4nr16l5w6/Space_Opera

This is venturing into horror, which I think always works if used sparingly.

I like the idea of making a sci fi setting like something from the 40s. Where the universe is exploding with life, sentient life, and more drama and intrigue than an entire by-monthly pulp magazine could contain, but where aliens aren't generally attacking earth. And the grand scope of what's known about the universe, generally isn't to the masses.

...

>Kyle Katarn
>"okay"

Asimov didn't write about concepts well at all, and was very much about characters over the premise. He made extremely heavy handed use of deus-ex to force things to work towards character relationships at the direct cost of the exploration of the premise.

Anybody wanna give a quick rundown of the system?

Mass Effect literally took all its lore from big name space opera settings.

You poor man. Go read some sci-fi books if you want to see what real world building is like. “Inspired by Mass Effect” seriously? You ought to be ashamed of yourself. How old are you?

AD&D 1E in Space (whereas Traveller is D&D in Space), with a strong dose of Palladium style wall'o'charts and redundant skill trees for everyone
Basically this is the game you play if you think Traveller is too simple and you need to determine what a particular planet's population's annual wage is in relation to their solar cycle and gravitational field or whatever
Even the wiki page is full of pointless lists
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Opera_(role-playing_game)

I’m not here for that kind of gatekeeping bullshit. So what if I get inspired by something entry level, is that a crime? There’s a wide variety of folks who identify as geeks, we all like different things and shouldn’t be shamed for it.

>How did they got away with the Death Star retarded brother in the back?
Machine planets were not an original creation of George Lucas.

You are too retarded but at least you're cute.

Back in the 1950s, soap operas were named because the primary product advertised during the commercial breaks was soap, because the primary audience was housewives. When more people got televisions and westerns started becoming more popular, they were nicknamed "oat operas". This naming scheme persisted and when sci-fi became more popular on television, the genre was called space opera.

Here's your (you)

>I don't really get what makes a sci-fi setting space opera rather than any regular old sci-fi. Could anyone explain?
Plenty of science fiction doesn't take place in space. I think that's the key factor, and all else is probably at least somewhat debatable. I would say that hard sci-fi isn't really space opera, even if it takes place in space, but I'm not sure everybody would agree.

A quick look at Wikipedia gives us this: "Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, melodramatic adventure, interplanetary battles, chivalric romance, and risk-taking." But I think that is a bit overly specific, and that the term isn't so carefully calibrated, at least in common usage.

Yeah, I agree with this 100%. I like to see species, cultures, and worlds that could have evolved naturally but took a different path than our world. Species that are pure allegory are schlocky, lazy, and stupid.