What are some of the currently hot SF RPGs?
Quote from: Thanos;585303What are some of the currently hot SF RPGs?
I believe the current "hottest" sci-fi RPG would be the Warhammer 40K games.
The new Star Wars is also in beta, that's kinda big.
If you mean off the mainstream, Stars Without Number is a recent and very good game, with old school D&D-style rules meeting Traveller's sensibilities and great built-in support for sandbox campaigns.
Other Dust is a post-apocalyptic game from the same author, but I haven't read it yet.
It's not hot - my games never are - but you might be interested in StarCluster3 (//www.flyingmice.com/starcluster3.html) and In Harm's Way: StarCluster (//www.flyingmice.com/ihwsc.html), the civilian and military SF sides of the same setting.
-clash
Quote from: Premier;585306If you mean off the mainstream, Stars Without Number is a recent and very good game, with old school D&D-style rules meeting Traveller's sensibilities and great built-in support for sandbox campaigns.
Other Dust is a post-apocalyptic game from the same author, but I haven't read it yet.
If you like SWN, you'll like Other Dust. It's a more refined product; SineNomine's added experience shows in it. The core rule mechanics are the same, but the best thing about the SN products is the wealth of STUFF they include.
Quote from: Thanos;585303What are some of the currently hot SF RPGs?
Traveller still lords over all others like a benign tyrant with chained naked slave girls and goblets full of rubies for adventurers.
Quote from: jeff37923;585393Traveller still lords over all others like a benign tyrant with chained naked slave girls and goblets full of rubies for adventurers.
Yep.
Quote from: jeff37923;585393Traveller still lords over all others like a benign tyrant with chained naked slave girls and goblets full of rubies for adventurers.
Possibly, but he's recently given himself over to gluttony and bloat. One wonders if the dynasty will end with a gastro-intestinal explosion and younger, leaner, younger games fighting over the scraps :)
Also deserving a plug (from our own rolls as well as SineNominae) is Class with Starcluster.
Quote from: Panzerkraken;585402Possibly, but he's recently given himself over to gluttony and bloat.
Traveller 5Quote from: Panzerkraken;585402One wonders if the dynasty will end with a gastro-intestinal explosion and younger, leaner, younger games fighting over the scraps :)
Mongoose TravellerQuote from: Panzerkraken;585402Also deserving a plug (from our own rolls as well as SineNominae) is Class with Starcluster.
Clash was inspired by
Traveller. So was
Stars Without Number.
:D :p
Quote from: jeff37923;585407Clash was inspired by Traveller. So was Stars Without Number.
:D :p
So 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
I like Bulldogs. The rules are a slimmed down version of Fate but it's main attraction is the selection of playable alien races that makes it perfect for the sort of soft-sci the lines of Ice Pirates or Fifth Element.
Quote from: jeff37923;585393Traveller still lords over all others like a benign tyrant with chained naked slave girls and goblets full of rubies for adventurers.
That was King Osric. :D
Looking a little farther out, it appears that 2013 is going to be a big year for Science Fiction gaming in the Savage Worlds community. I've seen play-test announcements for Savage Worlds editions of Twilight Imperium and Fringeworthy (IIRC), the beta pdf version of High Space did very well, and I'm working on a SW edition of Terracide for Blackwyrm Games. There will also be a SW edition of Widening Gyre, Blackwyrm's steampunk setting.
Bulldogs Fate Edition is sweet, Starblazers Adventurers is a huge wonderful book of Fate SF as well, lots of people love dino--er Diaspora (which is not for me. You might like it.)
In addition to Fate their is Starcluster3, which is the third edition of a nice traditional SF game with lots of room to build your own stuff and tools to do it with, not to mention In Harms Way: Starcluster which does military stuff in Starcluster rather than civilian. Mongoose produced a version of Traveller, and 2300AD, which I've heard good things about. (The latter, the former I own and find it a nice sweet completely usable game.)
We won't bring it out till late 2013 or early 2014, but we're planning a sci-fi setting for Sixcess Core called "StarDust". It has pulpy, noir elements, though.
We also have a "near future" sci-fi world that will be about the same time-frame (though it has a stronger horror element).
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. :D
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 (http://criticalpressmedia.com/publications/open-d6/)), 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 (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/63991/Bill-Coffin%27s-Septimus).
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.
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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.
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).
When you send me my author copies of LoO, you should include a review copy of the Shatterzone book.
If you should want to send the cards, send them in a separate small package labelled with nothing but "cards", and valued at something like $5. The freaking Uruguayan postal service could otherwise try to claim that the cards are a "toy", and justify that to require that I have to pay a 60% tax and hire a Customs Agent if I want them to release the cards and anything that comes with them. So just the presence of cards among books (which are free of any taxes), would be a risk for the whole package.
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Quote from: RPGPundit;587183When you send me my author copies of LoO, you should include a review copy of the Shatterzone book.
If you should want to send the cards, send them in a separate small package labelled with nothing but "cards", and valued at something like $5. The freaking Uruguayan postal service could otherwise try to claim that the cards are a "toy", and justify that to require that I have to pay a 60% tax and hire a Customs Agent if I want them to release the cards and anything that comes with them. So just the presence of cards among books (which are free of any taxes), would be a risk for the whole package.
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Yeah, I was getting a hardcover ready for you, but was worried about the cards.
As the author of the "Habitats" section in Panopticon, I'll admit to my bias, but I also have to recommend Eclipse Phase. ;) Rimward came out this summer and it's a fantastic look at the outer solar system.
What I really enjoyed about writing for the setting was that I had complete freedom in developing the "fluff" so long as I tried to remain consistent with the rest of the established story and that those of us working on Panopticon collaborated with the team that had started Rimward to ensure they could build on our ideas.
Quote from: brettmb;587197Yeah, I was getting a hardcover ready for you, but was worried about the cards.
The Wench has probably the largest collection of Tarot decks in south america. Any that are really valuable she never trusts to the Uruguayan Post, shipping them off to canada instead (to pick up on her or my next trip), or having someone trusted courier it into the country.
But cheaper ones she'll have sent, and one arrived just the other day. The label she uses on them are "cards" because the post workers will likely mistake them for business cards and not bother to try to steal them.
So yeah, you could send the cards if you want, but send them in a separate package than the books, and have them labelled as nothing but "cards".
RPGPundit
you might want to look into New Horizon (http://www.newhorizonrpg.com). Right now we are a small company, but we are in the process of finishing up books and working on expansion.
That aside, I'm always a fan of Warhammer 40k. Star Wars is fun when you get the right DM.
Quote from: Stephen (Alto);588726you might want to look into New Horizon (http://www.newhorizonrpg.com). Right now we are a small company, but we are in the process of finishing up books and working on expansion.
That aside, I'm always a fan of Warhammer 40k. Star Wars is fun when you get the right DM.
In case I didn't say it already, welcome to theRPGsite!
RPGPundit
thanks for the welcome.
My groups usually don't play sci-fi much, but I have been in a few fun games. I have been thinking of doing something like a final fantasy advent children game using Exalted and Scion as a basis.
Quote from: RPGPundit;587183The freaking Uruguayan postal service could otherwise try to claim that the cards are a "toy", and justify that to require that I have to pay a 60% tax and hire a Customs Agent if I want them to release the cards and anything that comes with them. So just the presence of cards among books (which are free of any taxes), would be a risk for the whole package.
Quote from: RPGPundit;588431The label she uses on them are "cards" because the post workers will likely mistake them for business cards and not bother to try to steal them.
Thanks for the heads up. I'm compiling a list of countries and the specifics small companies should be aware of when dealing with them, and this is quite helpful and horribly depressing to know.
BTW, do they have any justification to the 60% tax beyond greed?
WH40K is fun, if rules-clunky. But still relatively hilarious stuff.
Something that really interests me is Aethos (http://www.btrc.net/forum/15-aethos), an upcoming sourcebook for BTRC's EABA (http://www.btrc.net/eabav11) (of which v2 is in the works). Human societies on a colossal, planet-eating alien spaceship. Could be fun.
Nova Praxis (http://voidstar.squarespace.com/nova-praxis) just started a Kickstarter and looks like it will be pretty good.
I'll back Eclipse Phase, it's a damn good game with good writing and a good concept, lots of room for you to develop your own ideas in.
Quote from: Sandepande;589447WH40K is fun, if rules-clunky. But still relatively hilarious stuff.
Something that really interests me is Aethos (http://www.btrc.net/forum/15-aethos), an upcoming sourcebook for BTRC's EABA (http://www.btrc.net/eabav11) (of which v2 is in the works). Human societies on a colossal, planet-eating alien spaceship. Could be fun.
OMG! Another EABA fan! I didn't expect to find any here.
EABA is good stuff. Especially for sci-fi.
Quote from: chaosvoyager;589440Thanks for the heads up. I'm compiling a list of countries and the specifics small companies should be aware of when dealing with them, and this is quite helpful and horribly depressing to know.
BTW, do they have any justification to the 60% tax beyond greed?
A socialist government where one in every 3 working adults are public employees of some kind?
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