RPGs in SPAAAAAAAACCCCCCCEEE

[fltadm]

Ok me and my gaming group are looking to try somting a little diffrent. We want to try an RPG that will let us explore space with the posability of some space combat on the side but one where the combat is not the main focus. Also we don't want the game to be set in a know universe like B5 or Serenity. So I desided to ask you fine folkes for help finding a good system.

BTW the first person to recimend F.A.T.A.L. gets flushed out an Air Lock

[Matti]

A Time of War

[Matti]

I just remembered another one:
Heimot
Translated by Google

[fltadm]

Interesting but we all only speak english (Badly at times)

[Matti]

Right... I'm not sure is that game available in english, but you can mail and ask them. I found game universe interesting: it's comparable to worse parts of BattleTech's periphery, like neighborhood of Oberon Confederation (Greater Valkyrate, Star's End etc.) Few ships are given with stats and some modifications can be done. Interstellar travel is done by jumps much like in BattleTech, but jump/hyper drive is less than half of ship's mass (I think). I recall this info from one gaming session and related discussion.

[cray]

GURPS: Transhuman Space
Eclipse Phase
Shadowrun (has some limited space extensions, like Target: Wastelands)
Traveller

[fltadm]

Of those 4 wich one is the best in your opinion?

[guardiandashi]

I will probabally get yelled at but you could also look at the palladium books rpg's (rifts, robotech etc)
D20 (starwars or similar)
the old west end games D6 system star wars
there is also the ever (un)popular star trek RPG

[Nerroth]

The handy thing about Traveller is that the core rules open the door to a number of different settings; there'll be a Prime Directive (Star Fleet Universe) adaptation due out at some point this year, for one.

(In the case of Prime Directive, there are versions of it already out for GURPS 4th Edition and D20 Modern; but neither of those have much in the way of space combat support as it currently stands. In contrast, T:PD should, if things pan out, have more deeply integrated support for ship-vs-ship operations.)

Also, it's still a way off yet, but Equinox (RedBrick's upcoming future-of-Earthdawn-and-possibly-Shadowrun setting) might be one to keep an eye on once it's up and running.

[cray]

Of those 4 wich one is the best in your opinion?

I don't know what you're looking for beyond, "Explore space, some space combat." Do you prefer cyberpunk, space opera, or something else?

Transhuman Space is a very realistic, near-future (2100AD) view of the solar system, with room to explore the system, fight competing corporations, pirates, and nations, and have plenty of combat on a personal level. The various supplements detail the setting very well. I've always been lukewarm toward the GURPS rules, though.

Eclipse Phase is Transhuman Space with more exotic technology and star gates. Exploration is a major feature of the setting, but there's plenty of room for combat. The game system is easier to use, too.

Shadowrun is Shadowrun. It doesn't have much support for space exploration so much as sabotaging or hijacking other megacorp's space exploration efforts, but you can get into space.

Traveller is a far future, imperial space setting. It's all about space exploration and recovering lost systems and that sort of fun.

Guardiandaishi brought up some good suggestions, too. Star Wars is always fun and you're probably familiar with the setting.

[E. Icaza]

Savage Worlds...but then I recommend Savage Worlds for almost anything RPG related.

[Drop Bear]

Traveller you can do so much, you can be Explorers, Free-booting Merchants,, Mercenaries, Troubleshooters, Troublemakers and so much more. Depends on the GM's and Players wishes.

FASA did adventures based around Archaeology (The Sky Raiders Trilogy), Various Dramas on a Luxury Liner (Action Aboard), Hostage Rescue, Swiping a band pharmaceutical from one group of outlaws for an other group of outlaws, Diplomacy, and a bit of Mercenary work. and FASA was just a licensed third party publisher.

you have 5 GDW/FFE editions to choose from as well as a GURPS edition and a resent one from Mongoose Publishing. Mostly from nostalgia I prefer Classic edition, but that's just me (I have bean gaming for 30 years and It was either Trav or T2K that was my first game).

other games to look at Jovian Chronicles, Space with Giant Robots.

2300AD Adventures against the backdrop of Interstellar war is the main them but you can do other stuff (Exploration, Trade, Troubleshooting, Crime, Espionage and so on).

Space 1889, Steampunk Space.


there are others I'll have to go through my Archives and I'll post the best.

[Von Jankmon]

Various genres have a lot to offer.

1. Grimdark

You could try one of the 40K ones,  Rogue Trader or Dark Heresy.

Or try Fading Suns, which is essentially 40k grimdark just not in the same official universe.


2. Near Future

Cyberpunk had campaign packs for orbital play.


3. Space Opera

Any of the Star Wars or Star Trek RPG's available and there have been at least two of each.

For a not-known universe try Space Master or Traveller.  The latter being one of the seminal RPG's from the 70's.

[TS_Hawk]

Savage Worlds has some pretty cool stuff regarding space type RPG

[nerd]

Traveller.  Still around, and you have the options of GURPS (3e and 4e) support, and the new Mongoose neo-Classic support.

Besides, it's was the Game Where You Can Die in Character Creation.

[guardiandashi]

nerd you talk like having a character killed off during creation (before the game starts) is actually a good thing.

I would argue that being able to be killed (or horribly crippled when not intended as a plot hook) during charactor creation is more of a bad thing

[StCptMara]

You could always try adapting Paranoia?

No...seriously: the Computer is the Ship's Computer..You arrive in a system, it sends you on suicidal exploration
missions....oh, and your Ship's Computer is completely insane and might decide to blow up your shuttle at whim,
or have you test dangerous new devices it has fabricated, like that thing that breaks you down into your component
atoms, and moves the atoms through space, and then re-assembles them at the destination...or anything else you
can think of!

[Drop Bear]

(Classic) Traveller you can get the complete Canon for $35 + P&H on CD ROM, about the same for the Complete JTAS (the Canon Magazine), Apocrypha 1&2 CD ROMs go for  $35 each. Drivthrough RPG if you go the Bundles you can get the lot for under 60  Bucks, that's less than the cost of a Soft Cover Core Book in the Shops down hear, and that gets you the Complete Canon Game, 10 years of Canon Magazine support and about 12 years of 3rd party support products.

DTF come for about $30 each, Core books (0-8 for $28 US) in one, 2 Alien Module collections (1-4 & 5-8 $30us ea), the complete Supplements (1-13 $35) and 3 volumes of the collected JTAS ($30 ea).

Mega-Traveller on CD-ROM (less the 3rd party Canon) for $35.

and on the Death in Character Generation, since 1980 you have the Fail the Survival Roll you can elect to opt out on a Medical after a short term option.

[Matti]

What about A Time of War and Explorer Corps? I don't have later, but can it be get to work with ATOW?

[Niopsian]

Fading Suns has already been mentioned.

RIFTS is everything-but-the-kitchen-sink, including space, and the Robotech books are compatible with the rules if you decide later you don't mind a taste of an established universe.

Is CthuluTech still being published? It's mostly Earth based, but there are space-based plot hooks that could be exploited.

[GreenDragon]

I will probabally get yelled at but you could also look at the palladium books rpg's (rifts, robotech etc)
D20 (starwars or similar)
the old west end games D6 system star wars
there is also the ever (un)popular star trek RPG

Level based isn't a great fit for SF.  I've actually translated Trek, and Star Wars D6 over to WEGs Masterbook system to good effect.  But I would imagine a system currently in print to be a better option for the OP.  I had a brief encounter with the newest edition of Traveller.  Better than earlier editions, less chance of getting killed in character creation, and more likely to end up with the character you actually want to play.

[glitterboy2098]

RIFTS is everything-but-the-kitchen-sink, including space, and the Robotech books are compatible with the rules if you decide later you don't mind a taste of an established universe.

palladium books doesn't have much of a space system. about the level of scientific accuracy of buck rogers or star wars. the game system doesn't do accelleration or inertia at all as written, and the 'top speeds' are pathetically slow. you can house rule fixes for it, but as you can see there is a lot of problems to overcome.

setting wise i'm note sure palladium book's settings would work for the poster. Phase world is a star wars like setting, though much of the tech is more star trek like, but most of the setting material published for it is more combat oriented than exploration oriented.

the Aliens Unlimited setting of Heroes Unlimited, their superheroes setting, doesn't have much in the way of information. just two rather small sourcebooks.

and RIFTS:space itself has half of one really thin sourcebook that is almost 20 years old, and really really clunky to use. it shares a book with After the Bomb's "Mutants in orbit". and both don't range much away from the orbit of mars, and your limited to sublight ships that in any other game system would take years to get around the solar system (as opposed to palladium's 'speed' numbers, where just getting to the moon ought to take months and going to mars ought to be a multi-decade trip..)

and robotech doesn't have any detail on space at the moment.

so as much as i love the system and settings... i'd not recommend it for this.

[Cannonshop]

Ok me and my gaming group are looking to try somting a little diffrent. We want to try an RPG that will let us explore space with the posability of some space combat on the side but one where the combat is not the main focus. Also we don't want the game to be set in a know universe like B5 or Serenity. So I desided to ask you fine folkes for help finding a good system.

BTW the first person to recimend F.A.T.A.L. gets flushed out an Air Lock

Traveller.  The ORIGINAL Traveller RPG-three little books in a black box.

[Drop Bear]

FFE has what's basically "Deluxe" Traveller a reformatted Little Black Books (known as LBB's) 1-3 PDF for like 10 bucks and the proceeds go to charity IIRC, Fantastic way to sample a first rate Classic game, heck their are folks that have bean playing the game for 35 years using just LBB's 1-3.

Traveller in the LBB's can be Universe neutral, but Adventure 0 (more a campaign) is exactly what your looking for, help the government out, the Scout Service wants the PC's help their in the middle of an audit process of the Sector, check the Survey data on the apx 440 worlds in the sector, they will give you the use of a ship and 50K per report on each Non-Interdicted world (and a 100K under the table payment on the Interdicted ones).

then their is Traveller New Era (TNE), almost a century a go Civil War shattered the greatest civilization in recorded history, 70 years ago in civilizations final death throws a Cybernetic Apocalypse was unleashed as a finial super weapon, finishing off what almost two decades of Total Dirty War started. Today People (human and otherwise) are returning to the Stats, the Default has the PC as "Star Vikings" (the RCES, Reform Coalition Exploration Service) their Goals are to Re-Explore once Charted Space, Salvage what they can from the Grave of Civilization to Rebuild, Overthrow Tinpot Dictators and take their stuff to help with the Reconstruction, convince the Locals and Tramp Freighters to join in on the Better Tomorrow the RC is trying to build and avoid the Psychopathic Genocidal AI Vrises that have infected everything from Capital War-Ships and Planetary Data Nets down to Kids Walky-talkys and Toaster Ovens.

[Cannonshop]

I love me some Vampire ships, honestly...

[Lorcan Nagle]

Mongoose have also used Traveller for a bunch of licensed RPGs - they did Babylon 5 (though it went out of print very quickly due to WB not renewing their license), Hammer's Slammers, Judge Dredd, Strontium Dogs, and the upcoming Prime Directive.  It's a good system that builds on the spirit of the older Traveller sets well.  And if you want to see what the rules are like, it's got an Open Game License so you can get the SRD here

[cray]

What about A Time of War and Explorer Corps? I don't have later, but can it be get to work with ATOW?

Sure, those work for space exploration if you want the BT setting. I guess I took the "Off Topic" selection of the OP to mean that a non-BT setting was preferred. If that's incorrect, BT puts a fair amount of detail and effort into the space aspects of its setting and with decent realism (certainly more than Star Wars/Trek.)

[fltadm]

Well thanks all for responding. 2 pages alredy, wow  :o

Now the reason we arn't going with ATOW was because we wanted a univers we where not familer with, and we where having lots of trouble with charactor creation.

Drop Baers explnation for Traveller sounds almost exactly what I was thinking of.

This dose not mean you cant keep throwing around ideas

[cray]

Now the reason we arn't going with ATOW was because we wanted a univers we where not familer with, and we where having lots of trouble with charactor creation.

The point-based system without life modules should be as straightforward as any point system. If you go to the RPG forum, feel free to voice your questions and problems there. Herb tends to be attentive to questions about ATOW.

[fltadm]

If we try again I will kep that in mind.

[ShadowRaven]

Bah, I know the group. I think we would be all better off if we kicked the kids out, drove Am nuts, and just sat down and watched Crest of the Stars all night. Have you noticed how far off track we get when using a system we're all already familiar with? Something new, and we'll never get anything accomplished.

[Wrangler]

You could go for Jovian Chronicals, its not interstellar travel, but its pretty strong roleplaying in space genre.   Plus it has 'Mechs.  ;)

[bytor]

How about D20 Modern with the D20 Future supplement?  I’ve never tried it personally, but it might be one to go with if your group happens to like the D20 rules set.  I recall that the D20 Future book had rules for campaigns that might fit the bill

Traveller is of course a great option as well, and there seems to be a few versions of the rules to use……..original, GRUPS, even D20 (called “T20”, but essentially a heavily modified version of the D20 rules).

[Drop Bear]

If you go with (Classic) Traveller and decide to run Adventure 0 (or A 0 as it's known shorthand), A 0 is more a Campaign than an adventure and a good framework to hang Published and your own Home Brew adventures off of. I've bean running it myself since new years for a single player with a good amount of success.

It's bean many years since I've played or run a TNE Star Vikings game but they are lots of fun, you can mix it up one Tour your out doing Survey, Exploration & Contact, to spice things up throw in some Relic Technology Salvage and run in's with Pirates, The Guild and perhaps a Vampire scare. The next your off on a Contact/Diplomacy mission or running Smash & Grabs on Teddies Weapons & Tech Cashes and Cold Recoveries on forgotten WMD stockpiles.

the Wikipedia page is a good place to start deciding between editions as are the FFE homepage and the Travller Wiki pages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveller_%28game%29
http://www.farfuture.net/
http://traveller.wikia.com/wiki/Traveller_Wiki

[Lore]

Is CthuluTech still being published? It's mostly Earth based, but there are space-based plot hooks that could be exploited.

Supposedly. Unveiled Threats was the last book released, back in November 2010.

The newest source, Dead Gods, was supposed to have been released in March 2011, but it's been stuck in limbo for much of the time since. No new release date has been set.

[Matti]

I just remembered another one:
Heimot
Translated by Google

We can scratch that over: I e-mailed and got response that game is sold only in finnish language and there won't be any translations in near future. So that game is finnish exclusive right now. Maybe I should buy that for myself...
*Looks at pile of unread (BattleTech) books
Maybe not yet ::)

[Doug Glendower]

Cosmic Patrol?

[gooseman]

nerd you talk like having a character killed off during creation (before the game starts) is actually a good thing.

I would argue that being able to be killed (or horribly crippled when not intended as a plot hook) during charactor creation is more of a bad thing

Which brings us to the VERY FIRST house rule I was ever involved in. If your character did not make the survival roll, you were immediately discharged from service with a one point reduction in one of your physical attributes, determined randomly.

[StCptMara]

Which brings us to the VERY FIRST house rule I was ever involved in. If your character did not make the survival roll, you were immediately discharged from service with a one point reduction in one of your physical attributes, determined randomly.

Exception: If you REALLY did not like how things were going already, let the character die and start over with a sense of relief because,
if you hadn't died....well...Steven Hawkings had better mobility and communication CAPABILITIES then you...(honestly..that is
what I always really saw the 'Aww...I died in Chargen' results as...a convenient lie you could tell the GM)

[gooseman]

Exception: If you REALLY did not like how things were going already, let the character die and start over with a sense of relief because,
if you hadn't died....well...Steven Hawkings had better mobility and communication CAPABILITIES then you...(honestly..that is
what I always really saw the 'Aww...I died in Chargen' results as...a convenient lie you could tell the GM)

No, we didn't have that exception.

[StCptMara]

No, we didn't have that exception.

I would HATE to make a traveler character in that group, then....(Seriously! I never rolld 'dead', but I would get
every OTHER bad possibility, it seemed....)

[gooseman]

I would HATE to make a traveler character in that group, then....(Seriously! I never rolld 'dead', but I would get
every OTHER bad possibility, it seemed....)

Not to worry, it was about 30 years ago.

[Wrangler]

Not to side track the thread too much.  Which Traveller is the current one anyways?  I've been always confused on which one it was. 

A guys ran a really slick game at con i went through,  Monitor showing characters, the maps, while players got dossiers of their appointed characters they were playing.   I never asked which one it was.

[worktroll]

Traveller.  The ORIGINAL Traveller RPG-three little books in a black box.

I must concur with my learned friend. Although it does make me smile, remembering a bunch of teenagers sitting around role-playing people in their 30s and 40s ... Happy days.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Exception: If you REALLY did not like how things were going already, let the character die and start over with a sense of relief because,
if you hadn't died....well...Steven Hawkings had better mobility and communication CAPABILITIES then you...(honestly..that is
what I always really saw the 'Aww...I died in Chargen' results as...a convenient lie you could tell the GM)

Honestly, I always considered it to be a sign of a bad game system if it was possible, via random rolling, to wind up with a character who was game-breakingly crippled in some way during character gen.

[Lorcan Nagle]

Not to side track the thread too much.  Which Traveller is the current one anyways?  I've been always confused on which one it was. 

There's two "current" Traveller editions: Traveller 5th ed (T5), which is published by Far Future Enterprises and developed by Marc Miller (the original Trav developer), and is in Beta.  FFE also sells ebooks of older Trav editions on CD.

The other is Mongoose Traveller, which if published by... Mongoose and is developed by a couple of their usual writers.  It follows the original Traveller's style fairly well.  It also has an open game license so anyone can develop for it.  Mongoose do a line of generic books for it, a series based on the official Third Imperium setting, and sourcebooks based on other SF universes.

On top of that, there's also GURPS and D20 Traveller mods, I'm not sure if they're still in print or not.

[gooseman]

Not to side track the thread too much.  Which Traveller is the current one anyways?  I've been always confused on which one it was. 

A guys ran a really slick game at con i went through,  Monitor showing characters, the maps, while players got dossiers of their appointed characters they were playing.   I never asked which one it was.

http://www.farfuture.net/hardcopy.html

Yummy Classic Traveller! (And T:2K also)

[Jackmc]

One very significant thing about the GURPS adaptation of Traveller is it occurred during a time when Steve Jackson Games incested a huge amount of effort into reducing the initimidation factor of the game which most tend to consider to be in the character creation.  Correspondingly, the Gurps:Trav books have character templates which are pre-gen archetypical characters without all their points spent.  The result is that regardless of what you do, you end up with a charcter that is competent in the core area while havign a fair bit of personalization without being overwhelming to finalize.

Plus, they have the extravagant level of support one would expect when a rich man (Steve J.) indulges in a personal pet project with cost not being the primary consideration.

-Jackmc

[Dave Talley]

I am or was a big fan or Gurps in general
was about to start a homebrew campaign may years ago
using couple H Beam Piper novels as a starting point

that would have been fun

[Force of Nature]

A really old RPG that I played way back in the early 80's was Star Frontiers. IIRC, you could start out by being one of five races. Human, some type of flying monkey race, a shape shifting blob race, a large multi legged bug race and one other I can't seem to remember offhand (Sathar?). Lot of good scenarios with that game. Easy to pick up.

Then in high school a friend of mine got the RPG Space Opera. It was okay.

Force

[Jackmc]

and one other I can't seem to remember offhand (Sathar?).

Nope that was the bad guys.

-Jackmc

[Lore]

A really old RPG that I played way back in the early 80's was Star Frontiers. IIRC, you could start out by being one of five races. Human, some type of flying monkey race, a shape shifting blob race, a large multi legged bug race and one other I can't seem to remember offhand (Sathar?). Lot of good scenarios with that game. Easy to pick up.

The flying monkey-race are the anthropoid/ape-like Yazirians, the shape-shifting blobs are the amoeboid Dralasites, and the insectoid Vrusk are the requisite "bug-race."

Zebulon's Guide to Frontier Space introduced several other races, including:- the Ifshnit [basically, space-dwarves], the Osakar [parthenogenic quadrupeds], the Humma [which were, essentially, kangaroos], and my personal favourite, the Mechanons [thinking robots].

Nope that was the bad guys.

-Jackmc

Enemies of the United Planetary Federation. But there were rumours that they had secret allies somewhere.

Regardless, the sathar usually weren't a racial option for PCs.

[Drop Bear]

Not to side track the thread too much.  Which Traveller is the current one anyways?  I've been always confused on which one it was. 

ATM T5 is in Bata test, Mongoose is printing books for their version, SJG still has a valid license and many of their books are still in stock and though it's thin on the ground has some online support.

Classic Traveller is in Reprints and on CD-ROM, MegaTraveller & Traveller: The New Era are also available on CD-ROM.

the D20 License for T20 has expired and the books have bean pulled, don't know the status of Hero Traveller.

Classic (CT), Mega (MT) and Mongoose (MgT) are the easiest to convert between each other.

[TS_Hawk]

FASA had one called Renegade Legion: Centurion I believe that was the RPG setting for the Renegade Legion games

[Lorcan Nagle]

The RenLeg RPG was called Legionnaire - it was pretty good.  Centurion was the tank combat game.

[Korsar]

Let me throw one or two odd ones in...

1.) Diaspora - It's based on the FATE system, which means it can get quite metagamy, but, as I discovered recently is a lot of fun to play. Especially because you and your buddies get to design your own universe at the beginning. Don't worry, the process shouldn't take longer than one session.

2.) Ashen Stars - I haven't played but it is based on the Gumshoe system which I really, really like. It's more investigation based, so this might be a little problem

and for fun:

3.) 3:16 - A little Indy game that you can use for a few evenings in between. Basically it's "shoot the alien, conquer the planet, R&R, repeat ad nauseam"  ;D

[Ruger]

Star*Drive?

Ruger

[Lore]

Star*Drive?

Ruger

I'll gladly second Star*Drive. Certainly one of the best settings ever published for the space-adventure RPG genre.

[deathshadow]

Toon man... Toon.

[Sledge]

Looks like Traveller is both most recommended and highly accessible. I guess that intro adventure should be a good guide to see if we like it.