Looking to recreate the feel of Firefly, The Outer Worlds, The Expanse, or similar, in a ttrpg that is somewhat leaning to the hard sci fi side. Any thoughts?
I’ve been poking Traveller but it’s hard to tell what the definitive versions are. Also Stars Without Number looks interesting.
I’m particularly looking for ship based stuff – where the ship is statted and you can have ship to ship combat.
I did something like this with Fate because I had specific ideas about my setting and the aliens, corporations, and organizations I wanted in it. I added some of my own mechanics for ships and stuff, giving them their own attribute tracks and letting players make rolls during space battles based on their position in the crew. It worked well enough for what I wanted, which was more of an action, space opera feel, like Outlaw Star. It won’t have a lot rules for all the hard sci-fi stuff you may be looking for if you prefer crunch.
Although recommending a generic system like Fate makes me feel like the kind of guy who suggests GURPs every time a question on a recommended system pops up lol.
I was thinking of Fate but decided I’d better not recommend such a generic system, but you beat me to it!
Fate is great with the right players, but it’s not crunchy.
We did have a fun little game that was sort of “Shadowrun in space” where we statted up the ships. The players’ ship was a stolen evil-fedex-in-space shuttle. It had a stunt “just doing my job” for a bonus to deceive, and “built for bad drivers” to reduce stress from impacts. Fun stuff, but real life ended the group before we got too far.
We got close to the end, but then everyone ended up moving away. I still have people ask me when we’ll finish that because it was so fun, so I really need to go ahead and cut 75% of my planned end game content and then arrange one final online game day to wrap it up. Only issue now is real life, jobs, kids, and time zones…
So, have you tried using GURPS? Hey at least no one has recommended d20 Future yet ;)
I appreciate the recommendation nevertheless. Sometimes it does feel better to roll your own with a basic framework. In so many RPGs, the system and setting are inextricably linked, and disentangling them becomes far to tiresome. (Try playing D&D5e in a non-forgotten realms setting – as much as you try to avoid references…) Rolling your own lets you start entangled, but in a way that fits your universe.
What’re the odds you have some favourite details on what you did that made it feel right for you?
I am that guy that recommends GURPS, which I’m actually using right now to run a sci-fi campaign. 3d6 is a great system, there are tons of sci-fi skills baked right in, Ultra Tech is a great resource for laser guns and robots and all sorts of fun tech, and there are like half a dozen supplements full of ship stat blocks. Yeah the crunch can be a lot, if you want it to. You can also ignore most of it if you want, or slow-drip it to your players.
I think the broad nature of sci-fi means that, when it comes to systems, your choices are to either find a system that fits the exact universe you’re running, or build it piece by piece.
If you like The Expanse because of the hard sci-fi and you don’t know about GURPS Transhuman Space, you absolutely need to check it out. It will blow your mind. Even if since then, the transhuman sci-fi movement has evolved, it’s still choke-full of inspiration, imho.
I dream of combining that setting with Stars Without Number…
Interesting. I’ll check it out. Google is getting worse for finding things, so discussions like this become more important. Appreciate the rec. :)