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.
Stars Without Number is a fun system. Traveller can be a bit complex but the character generation is the best.
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?
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
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
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.
I like Green Ronin, in general, and love The Expanse as a setting. However, I want to be in a homebrew setting rather than in The Expanse. I suppose I should have said that in the original post.
The Expanse started as an RPG setting, which is an interesting bit of trivia :)
I was thinking use the rule system and home brew the story and setting. I rarely use the written setting for a game system, I don’t want to have to become an encyclopedia of someone else’s fictional universe, lol.
What I worry about us having to reskin stuff non stop. Like, imagine using the Star Wars RPG as your basis, but playing in an Expanse-like universe. All the character feature relating to The Force need to be replaced with… Uh, protomolecule powers? “I use my protomolecule infection to force cho, I mean, psychic choke uh… What universe are we in?”
But you’re right. I could probably look at the ruleset and cherry pick good ideas and transplant them to Traveller or something. Maybe they have excellent asteroid cities I can translate or something :)
I recently picked up Scum and Villany which is made to do exactly what you describe. I havent had a chance to run it yet though so the advertised use and actual game feel may be a bit different.
There is also Vast Grimm, a scifi reskin of Mork Borg. It is more locked into its setting than Mork Borg but with the expansion books that just came out it has plenty of options for space combat added in.
I played a Mork Borg one-shot a few weeks ago and didn’t like the system at all – for my playstyle. I think it would be an excellent rogue-like system though, if that was your cup of tea. But that means I probably avoid Vast Grimm.
Scum and Villany may be a good choice – one that I wasn’t aware of. I’ll poke it :)
I have not played any of these, so this is less of a reccomendation and more listing things that you can look at, and ask other folks if they agree its better suited for you, but I’ve heard of a few games that fit some ‘extremes’ of sci-fi roleplaying
Scum and Villainy probably being the most famous, having a Forged in the Dark style of gameplay where your characters are rogue-ish underdogs, constantly on the run, striving for each job to make them last a few more days
Farflung With a post-scarcity, lighthearted style, where you’re travelling, romancing, exploring, creating and living among the stars with your crew
and Impulse Drive for something that’s more middle of the road. You have a crew taking jobs and exploring, but they aren’t as scrappy and struggling, but also aren’t as free and lackadaisical
The reviews on Impulse Drive are great (assuming they aren’t planted reviews…). I wish I could get a better preview without having to buy it first. I recently played in a Monster of the Week one-shot, which also uses the PbtA (Powered by the Apocalypse, for those unfamiliar) general ruleset, and it was quite enjoyable.
I’ll investigate the others too. Much thanks!
e: found the preview version https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/190933/Impulse-Drive-PWYW
+1 for Scum and Villainy
I did something like this with Fate because I had specific ideas about my setting and the aliens, corporations, and organizations I wanted in it. I added some of my own mechanics for ships and stuff, giving them their own attribute tracks and letting players make rolls during space battles based on their position in the crew. It worked well enough for what I wanted, which was more of an action, space opera feel, like Outlaw Star. It won’t have a lot rules for all the hard sci-fi stuff you may be looking for if you prefer crunch.
Although recommending a generic system like Fate makes me feel like the kind of guy who suggests GURPs every time a question on a recommended system pops up lol.
Although recommending a generic system like Fate makes me feel like the kind of guy who suggests GURPs every time a question on a recommended system pops up lol.
I was thinking of Fate but decided I’d better not recommend such a generic system, but you beat me to it!
Fate is great with the right players, but it’s not crunchy.
We did have a fun little game that was sort of “Shadowrun in space” where we statted up the ships. The players’ ship was a stolen evil-fedex-in-space shuttle. It had a stunt “just doing my job” for a bonus to deceive, and “built for bad drivers” to reduce stress from impacts. Fun stuff, but real life ended the group before we got too far.
We got close to the end, but then everyone ended up moving away. I still have people ask me when we’ll finish that because it was so fun, so I really need to go ahead and cut 75% of my planned end game content and then arrange one final online game day to wrap it up. Only issue now is real life, jobs, kids, and time zones…
So, have you tried using GURPS? Hey at least no one has recommended d20 Future yet ;)
I appreciate the recommendation nevertheless. Sometimes it does feel better to roll your own with a basic framework. In so many RPGs, the system and setting are inextricably linked, and disentangling them becomes far to tiresome. (Try playing D&D5e in a non-forgotten realms setting – as much as you try to avoid references…) Rolling your own lets you start entangled, but in a way that fits your universe.
What’re the odds you have some favourite details on what you did that made it feel right for you?
I am that guy that recommends GURPS, which I’m actually using right now to run a sci-fi campaign. 3d6 is a great system, there are tons of sci-fi skills baked right in, Ultra Tech is a great resource for laser guns and robots and all sorts of fun tech, and there are like half a dozen supplements full of ship stat blocks. Yeah the crunch can be a lot, if you want it to. You can also ignore most of it if you want, or slow-drip it to your players.
I think the broad nature of sci-fi means that, when it comes to systems, your choices are to either find a system that fits the exact universe you’re running, or build it piece by piece.
If you like The Expanse because of the hard sci-fi and you don’t know about GURPS Transhuman Space, you absolutely need to check it out. It will blow your mind. Even if since then, the transhuman sci-fi movement has evolved, it’s still choke-full of inspiration, imho.
I dream of combining that setting with Stars Without Number…