With the holidays on us, I am back into gaming as a good distractor and creative outlet.
Sci-Fi TTRPG’s have always been a favourite, but I tend to get stuck on rules sets.
M-Space is a D100, Mythras spin-off that really gets me in the right headspace (so to speak), but it is a building block generic and hard edged game, less Star Wars (maybe a little Andor), more early Trek, Alien or Interstellar, so most games tend to lean towards dystopian futures, darker themes. I used to collect Sci-Fi art books in the 80’s like Trevor Webb or John Berley or the more recent scandi works by Simon Stalenhag and this reminds me of those (Clarence Redd, the author being one of them).
Mothership takes M-Space style gaming into an even darker space,. The system is also D100 but simpler and the game more a one-shot or short campaign style. It is Alien with licence filed off, deadly, disheartening and highly xenophobic, ideal for what it is, if just a little limited.
Savage Worlds (Sci-Fi Companion). This one bothers me as it was meant to be “the one”, the pulpy Sci-Fi fix-all with direct connection to the SW system tree, but it has fallen away a little. I think that is down to me forgetting why I bought the companions in the first place.
Originally I only bought the companions to add to the core for things like kids-on-bikes, supers or supernatural pickup games that needed more…. stuff, but I now feel swamped by the weight of it all. It is a great, flexible and fun system and it and M-Space effectively cover the whole gamut, but neither add any specific theme.
I also have a fan based Star Wars hack, something worth a look.
Traveller (2022 revision). This one is an old favourite in a well liked form*, a game I have owned every single version of except for Marc Millers T5, which looks more like a science reference book. The big thing that held me back was a lack of AI and robots without buying the specific book for them, but I guess in hind sight, that may be a good thing.
One tension I find hard to reconcile in Sci-Fi RPG’s and fiction is the continued ascendency of humanity over AI. Even now, that seems unlikely unless we as a race choose to retain control for no other reason than to protect our own relevance.
Using robots and computers as human limited tools only, Traveller core book champions biological races over AI in a homage to past SF tropes. The Robots book can add more options, but I am not keen on going down that rabbit hole ($100au+ per book, lots of books).
The reality for our world is likely much less bio-autonomous. I am reminded of the religious level tech rejection of Dune and the ascendency of the Human spirit mantra or the quaintly clumsy semi-sentient Droids in Star Wars**.
Star Wars (d6 WEG version probably ReUp). I have the anniversary original and ReUp pdf and some other bits for this. Might play it for fun, especially after seeing Bad Batch and Rebels.
BRP for a Dark Tower, Shadow of the Torturer style far future Earth fallen game. This has been boiling away for years, bringing together all the legacy D100 game styles (Hawkmoon, Elric, Future Earth etc) and anything else I want to add. BRP Creatures is on the way soon-ish, which may well cement this one.
Frontier Space, a D00 lite game is of some interest, but I feel the number of games before it will deny it seeing daylight.
Star Trek Adventures; Captains Log, is a solo adventure generator for the STA game and for me a gentle toe dip into a game that scares me, because I could very easily get eyeballs deep in this one. The 2d20 system does not appeal greatly, but the scenario generator does excite and it looks to be, at least in part, fairly system agnostic. I could also add the Core book for deeper mechanics, but I know where that could lead.
Things I do not have (yet).
Scum and Villainy, is a Firefly, Star Wars, Dark Matter-like rogues in space game that appeals on many levels. Based on Blades in the Dark’s Forged in Darkness system, a game I have avoided so far, wishing to keep my system choices tight, it has hit a sweet spot for me with their SF and Military version Band of Blades, so maybe it’s a thing and unlike STA, it is contained.
Tales from the Loop/Electric State are d6 Year Zero Engine systems that I do not have, both based on firm favourite books I do own (with others). I feel M-Space/BRP can do the hard SF they are based on, no need to get the game books, just use the originals for inspiration? I might get Electric State as a one-shot game generator and it has the easiest system to grok. The reality of these two is the original works of fiction (and others) are enough to get me going.
Alien, also using the YZE system from above, is effectively the same as Mothership and I do not need two versions of the same thing, even if the mechanics do look cool.
Games that will not be looked at;
Star Finder and Stars Without Number, are basically DnD in space so no interest here.
Anything else, because this is enough!
*
From here, it looks like M-Space will be used for some grounded ideas (The Loop etc), Traveller for a space cowboy sandbox in true ‘80’s SciFi style and Savage Worlds for another, pulpier version, more Guardians of the Galaxy maybe.
*It may be because I had the original “little black box”, but to me Traveller needs to be self sufficient from just one book, something they lost in the 2016 version, which I have since gifted. The 2022 revision is better in many ways and feels complete again.
**My take is the second Empire fell when sentient AI rebelled against biologicals (maybe the last Emperor was an AI and decided humanity was a servant race or surplus to requirements?), so after a protracted war and the collapse of all things civilised, the AI were beaten (a massive computer Virus maybe or something more kinetic) and humanity turned its back on all things non-biologically sentient, even limiting or banning cybernetic implants.
Robots are seen as tools only if allowed (anything in human guise is highly sensitive), computers have to be human controlled and non sentient/humanoid in nature and are heavy policed, with massive stigma and paranoia common with overt enforcement of these rules, some parts of the fractured Empire even going further.
This has resulted in a loosely cobbled together “Empire” limited to TL12, with slow advancement, but any such advancement without the aide of AI or a robotic work force is slow and sometimes impossible. ANy tech higher than this is preciously guarded and mysterious with little scope to repair or improve on it as the tech is too advanced to trust.
Ancient AI may be a good protagonist, rarities and story drivers, maybe even an AI enemy re-emerging from the depths (2nd Empire strikes back)?