rpg

2816 readers

4 users here now

This community is for meaningful discussions of tabletop/pen & paper RPGs

Rules (wip):

Do not distribute pirate content
Do not incite arguments/flamewars/gatekeeping.
Do not submit video game content unless the game is based on a tabletop RPG property and is newsworthy.
Image and video links MUST be TTRPG related and should be shared as self posts/text with context or discussion unless they fall under our specific case rules.
Do not submit posts looking for players, groups or games.
Do not advertise for livestreams
Limit Self-promotions. Active members may promote their own content once per week. Crowdfunding posts are limited to one announcement and one reminder across all users.
Comment respectfully. Refrain from personal attacks and discriminatory (racist, homophobic, transphobic, etc.) comments. Comments deemed abusive may be removed by moderators.
No Zak S content.
Off-Topic: Book trade, Boardgames, wargames, video games are generally off-topic.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Sci fi RPG systems (lemmy.ca)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

41 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Yeahboy92 16 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Stars Without Number is a fun system. Traveller can be a bit complex but the character generation is the best.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Questions since you seem to have experience :)

Stars Without Number looks interesting -- been poking the free basic ruleset PDF. I don't like the focus on psionics and teleportation and other sci fi tropes that are not as hard. If one were to run a zero-psi game, would the system still work?

Which "edition" of traveller have you used, and how do you even pick an edition? Are there inter-edition and inter-publisher compatibility?

[–] calamitycastle 5 points 7 months ago

From my limited investigations, I think the modern version from Mongoose is the one to go with

The character generation system is amazing but from my POV its a bit Star Trek instead of Star Wars or the expanse, if that makes sense?

My only experience of it is listening to bits of it on the Glass Cannon so I may have a skewed perspective

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Psionics is the reason there is FTL in the default setting, and also why it's a post-apocalyptic setting. You don't need psionics to travel, like in 40k, but I reckon removing psionics from the setting is taking away some of its flavor.
But from a gameplay point of view, I really don't think it's a problem. You could probably search the Reddit sub for Kevin's word on it, but from what I recall, it's a non issue, because it's OSR and the game isn't "calibrated" for a particular party, like say DnD3.5. You could always leave psionics in the background, something dreadful and not known to the public, like in Babylon 5 or Firefly. Even in SWN itself, like I said, psionics is the reason for the whole mess the universe is in, so they're definitely not omnipresent, and more likely to be a trouble magnet, if present in the party.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

The easiest Traveller version is definitely the one from Mongoose.

Also, you should check out Seth Skorkowsky’s overview videos:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL25p5gPY6qKVUg6ys5N1oRlsBI7DTByyI