Quote from: flyingmice;585414So was Diaspora. Yet it would be hard to find 3 more different games in approach. The one thing all three have in common? Tools. All three games are very much toolboxes, at least setting-wise. As was the original Classic Traveller.

-clash

Very true, I'm just playing the fanatical fanboy for the fun of it.

I think that your point is one of the areas where Traveller outshines D&D and all other games. The toolbox aspect of the settings and how it is married to a description format that is robust and elegant.

For my classic spacefaring SF fix, I use Mongoose Traveller when I want gritty, dangerous stuff, or good old D6 Space (free download), which entertained us for countless hours in its old Star Wars incarnation, for over-the-top space opera.

I tried Starblazer Adventures but FATE isn't my cuppa; it is a pretty comprehensive toolbox, though. And Mindjammers is a kick-ass supplement, worth adapting to your favorite system.

If you're into "new school" transhuman SF, I'd nudge towards:

Traveller: 2300AD. Rehash of the classic GDW 2300AD setting using the Mongoose Traveller system. The politics are quite a bit dated, but there's plenty of good stuff in there.

Eclipse Phase. I'm dying to try this game since I picked it up on a whim in 2009. It's a transhuman SF game with elements of horror (not supernatural, "just" horrific alien stuff), post-apocalypse (a "hard takeoff" singularity results in hostile, godlike AIs reducing civilization on Earth to a smoking ruin) and conspiracy (as a bunch of factions fight each other for living space and resources in a solar system that's grown cramped in the wake of the Earth getting destroyed). Free download under a Creative Commons license (no link but the authors themselves seeded it on P2P filesharing networks).

Septimus. The game that killed WEG! D6 Space plus transhuman elements and a far, far future setting. I'm not sure about the setting, but I'd love to take the system and use it to run large-scale transhuman space opera a la The Culture or Revelation Space. Also a free download.

Traveller still works best for me. Now if only we could get 40k with Traveller rules in a big hardcover rulebook...

I know that at some point I'm going to give SWN a try.

RPGPundit

Quote from: danbuter;585808Traveller still works best for me. Now if only we could get 40k with Traveller rules in a big hardcover rulebook...

I swear at some point there was a Traveller(ish) based wargame, but damned if I can find anything about it now.

As a fan of hardish sci-fi, I think the hobby goes very well in the genre. While there are not much games out there, the ones that exist are very good ones:  Transhuman Space, Blue Planet, Eclipse Phase, Freemarket.

And if Science-fantasy counts, we also have Skyrealms of Jorune, Empire of Petal Throne, Metamorphosis Alpha and Warhammer 40k. Oh, and Cook´s Numenera is being released. (even if I don't know how strong will be its "Sci-" part)

It's a crowded market right now. Honestly, I still have trouble beating games like Classic/Mongoose Traveller for my sci-fi/space opera kick, and I've got Stars Without Number (my group loved it), and StarCluster 3 for those wanting a toolkit approach.

Honestly, there's a lot of great stuff out there right now, but for me, it's tough to beat the champs. I find myself remarkably settled right now in terms of the games I want in that genre.

Quote from: Zachary The First;586596It's a crowded market right now. Honestly, I still have trouble beating games like Classic/Mongoose Traveller for my sci-fi/space opera kick, and I've got Stars Without Number (my group loved it), and StarCluster 3 for those wanting a toolkit approach.

Honestly, there's a lot of great stuff out there right now, but for me, it's tough to beat the champs. I find myself remarkably settled right now in terms of the games I want in that genre.

You're very right. The SF RPG market seems fairly well saturated right now. That was one of the reasons I chose to try my hand at writing SF for Savage Worlds. It's got the proverbial Loyal Following who like to stick with that rules set, but at the moment there's still demand for more SF in that  corner of the market.

Aside from that, I've had a blast learning to play/run SW. It's turning out to be a great system for SF, and adapting my previously-written setting to SW is giving me tons of new ideas.

I've been fiddling around with doing a Transhuman Space campaign using the SW rules rather than GURPS - the latter is just to crunchy for the folks I play with, and the setting is what I want to run.

Don't forget the re-release of the Shatterzone RPG and books. ShipTech, which is a reprint of Tech Book: Ships, just came out -- advanced ship combat and construction rules.

Quote from: brettmb;586819Don't forget the re-release of the Shatterzone RPG and books. ShipTech, which is a reprint of Tech Book: Ships, just came out -- advanced ship combat and construction rules.

Brett, I'm still out of the country and don't have my library to reference; wasn't Shatterzone based on the same system as Masterbook/Bloodshadows, which I vaguely remember as being something very similar or based on Torg but using 2d10 instead of 1d20?

It seems like it was something I remember seeing when it first came out but never got a decent look at.  I'll probably add that to my list of things to pick up when I get back (and add to my stack of reading material that's already piled up at home).

Quote from: Panzerkraken;586824Brett, I'm still out of the country and don't have my library to reference; wasn't Shatterzone based on the same system as Masterbook/Bloodshadows, which I vaguely remember as being something very similar or based on Torg but using 2d10 instead of 1d20?

It seems like it was something I remember seeing when it first came out but never got a decent look at.  I'll probably add that to my list of things to pick up when I get back (and add to my stack of reading material that's already piled up at home).

Correct. It's very similar to MasterBook, with a few differences in the numbers. It didn't do well under West End Games, due to poor marketing and a crappy box that didn't tell you anything -- that's why I never picked it up originally. The reprint compiles the three books into a single PDF/Softcover/Hardcover - the PDF includes the MasterDeck cards for more cinematic/dramatic play (a physical card deck is also available).

Quote from: brettmb;586831Correct. It's very similar to MasterBook, with a few differences in the numbers. It didn't do well under West End Games, due to poor marketing and a crappy box that didn't tell you anything -- that's why I never picked it up originally. The reprint compiles the three books into a single PDF/Softcover/Hardcover - the PDF includes the MasterDeck cards for more cinematic/dramatic play (a physical card deck is also available).

Since you evidently picked up the rights to those two from WEG (or their creditors), and in line with the Torg conversation that Daddy Warpig is having, is Precis looking at Torg in the future as well?  I do remember thinking that the 2d10 rolls with their bell curve would've worked much better than the d20 rolls for Torg...

I'm working on a Mecha Supplement for Fudge/Fate.

Quote from: Panzerkraken;586842Since you evidently picked up the rights to those two from WEG (or their creditors), and in line with the Torg conversation that Daddy Warpig is having, is Precis looking at Torg in the future as well?  I do remember thinking that the 2d10 rolls with their bell curve would've worked much better than the d20 rolls for Torg...

Well, Torg is now owned by Ulisses Spiele. There isn't anything currently available from them (as far as I know), due to certain issues revolving around the source material (nothing legal, just logistics). Whether that has been corrected or not, I'm not sure.