Quote from: wulfgar;250017If you're a fan of the Palladium ruleset, you might consider picking up their Mutants in Orbit book.  It's divided 50/50 for After the Bomb and Rifts, detaling what the orbital community, moon, and mars look like for both settings. If you've got a copy of Rifts or TMNT& Other Strangeness, you've got everything you need to run the setting in the book.  You could also just use the background in Mutants in Orbit and run it as straight hard sci-fi.  

If you want a more galaxy spanning campaign, I'd also suggest the TMNT Guide to the Universe and Transdimensional TMNT as two other books to pick up.  Palladium has put out various "Aliens Unlimited" books as well, but I've never used any of them so can't comment too much.

Availabilty:  Mutants in Orbit is in print and available off the Palladium website.  TMNT&OS, TMNT Guide to the Universe, and Transdimensional TMNT are all out of print but available second hand through the usual sources- ebay, amazon, etc.

While I love Mutants in Orbit to death, wulfgar, I would hardly call it Space Opera. OTOH, I heartily second the recommendation to pick these games up, as they totally rock! TMNT&OS is one of the top ten RPGs of all time in my book.

-clash

Quote from: flyingmice;250015It looks like there's two different types of stories with Space Opera. One where you move from place to place, never staying long in any one place. Let's call this the Star Trek model.
 
Then there's the home base model, where the players move out from their home world to others, then back. Let's call this the Babylon 5 model.
 
Are there others?
 
-clash

Star Wars points of intrest: there are a couple of planets (like Tatooine) that are revisited several times, but none of them is actualy a home base.
 
Star Blazers: There and back again.
 
Odyssey: You go from place to place, but always in the direction of home.
 
Hunter: You're in persuit of something that moves around. This could be a railroad game, or one where cagey detective work wins the day by getting one step ahead.
 
Hunted: You've got to stay one step ahead of the Empire, but if you get a large enough lead, then you set up camp and get some real work done.
 
Pirate: You're the hunter and the hunted.

Yeah, that's why I made sure to mention it covered the orbital community.  Which is a very different space setting then you usually get.  In Mutants in Orbit the asteroid belt is a long way off, anything beyond that is pretty much entirely unexplored.  

Of course, if you put Mutants in Orbit, TMNT Guide to the Universe, and Transdimensional TMNT in a blender, I think you could get a pretty rocking space opera game out of it.  Guide to the Universe is pretty space operay on it's own the the intergalactic war going on and all.

Quote from: Malleus Arianorum;250022Star Wars points of intrest: there are a couple of planets (like Tatooine) that are revisited several times, but none of them is actualy a home base.

True. A slight variation on the StarTrek model.
 

QuoteStar Blazers: There and back again.

Assuming you mean the Anime series and not the Brit comic, this is kind of halfway between the two. You have a home, but instead of a bunch of loops out and back, there is one big loop.
 

QuoteOdyssey: You go from place to place, but always in the direction of home.

Another variation on the StarTrek model.

QuoteHunter: You're in persuit of something that moves around. This could be a railroad game, or one where cagey detective work wins the day by getting one step ahead.

This could be done using either the StarTrek or Babylon 5 model, but isn't a model in itself.
 

QuoteHunted: You've got to stay one step ahead of the Empire, but if you get a large enough lead, then you set up camp and get some real work done.

Same as Hunter, as this is the flip side of that coin.
 

QuotePirate: You're the hunter and the hunted.

Again, this could be played either way.

-clash

Quote from: wulfgar;250025Yeah, that's why I made sure to mention it covered the orbital community.  Which is a very different space setting then you usually get.  In Mutants in Orbit the asteroid belt is a long way off, anything beyond that is pretty much entirely unexplored.  

Of course, if you put Mutants in Orbit, TMNT Guide to the Universe, and Transdimensional TMNT in a blender, I think you could get a pretty rocking space opera game out of it.  Guide to the Universe is pretty space operay on it's own the the intergalactic war going on and all.

Yep - The Triceraton/Utrom/etc. galactic business is definitely Space Opera.

-clash

Thanks, Wulfgar - I'll take a look.

It isn't an RPG but for an evocative Space Opera setting you can't do much better than The Dragon Never Sleeps by Glenn Cook (author of the black company books). It does a very good job of twisting many standard Space Opera trops (especially the role of humans in the galaxy).

Quote from: flyingmice;250015It looks like there's two different types of stories with Space Opera. One where you move from place to place, never staying long in any one place. Let's call this the Star Trek model.

Then there's the home base model, where the players move out from their home world to others, then back. Let's call this the Babylon 5 model.

Are there others?

-clash

You defined two large types, basically, moving around and not. So, yeah, most all will fit one or the other. You could say this for any game. You have moving around (caravan guard) and home base (dungeon delves). The devil is in the details.

I have run games where the group found an abandoned dreadnought and we spent 2 years (IRL) going through it. By the end, they were using found weaponry (ammo had long since been exhausted), had lost half the group to be replaced with an bio-bot, a Builder (what they called the original builders) and a member from an alien team who had gone in before them and all died. Now, I imagine that might be the home base version or maybe not even Space Opera but it was plenty strange.

Bill

Quote from: HinterWelt;250818You defined two large types, basically, moving around and not. So, yeah, most all will fit one or the other. You could say this for any game. You have moving around (caravan guard) and home base (dungeon delves). The devil is in the details.

I have run games where the group found an abandoned dreadnought and we spent 2 years (IRL) going through it. By the end, they were using found weaponry (ammo had long since been exhausted), had lost half the group to be replaced with an bio-bot, a Builder (what they called the original builders) and a member from an alien team who had gone in before them and all died. Now, I imagine that might be the home base version or maybe not even Space Opera but it was plenty strange.

Bill

Actually, I think there's three models - You keep moving and never stop long, you stay in one place, and you use one place for a base, going out but always returning home.

-clash

How much of your game takes place onboard the character's ship can impact the style of the campaign a lot too.  The ship can simply be a plot device that moves you from one adventure to another, or if you flesh it out enough, it can be just as much a home base as a planet would.  Look at how many Star Trek adventures take place pretty  much entirely on the ship.  That kind of blurs the lines between the different styles mentioned.  You get to go around to all different planets, but you also have a home base- which moves with you- the ship.

Quote from: flyingmice;250936Actually, I think there's three models - You keep moving and never stop long, you stay in one place, and you use one place for a base, going out but always returning home.

-clash

See, I think you are making an artificial divide there. Regardless, it is still high enough level that you can group any adventure under them. I don't know if that has a lot of use. Something closer to the theme of the adventure, like "Explore alien ship" might be more helpful in looking at how campaigns are modeled and the differences between them.

Of course, I could also be talking out my ass.

Bill

Quote from: HinterWelt;250950See, I think you are making an artificial divide there. Regardless, it is still high enough level that you can group any adventure under them. I don't know if that has a lot of use. Something closer to the theme of the adventure, like "Explore alien ship" might be more helpful in looking at how campaigns are modeled and the differences between them.

Of course, I could also be talking out my ass.

Bill

I agree with you there.  To me Firefly didn't have this divide.  The ship was their home and they kept moving.  When your home is a ship though you can have the best of both worlds I guess.  Despite how large their world seemed, to me it always felt like they stuck to their hometown, even regular neighborhoods have those people who seem to be everywhere and just always seem to be around when interesting things happen.  I never felt the crew of Serenity were travelling far but they still never stopped travelling for long.

Kinda proves that in the right context you can have that big setting feel without actually having to explore the whole setting.  You can pick a nice corner of the universe and make it yours.

Then again I could be wrong, I didn't delve behind the show and film looking for more in depth setting information.  I do think however the appeal of the show (for me) was the fact that the world never seemed bigger than the characters themselves.