Re: [GZG] First Sci-Fi Game

On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 3:07 PM, Tom B <kaladorn@gmail.com> wrote:
> That's a good question. That was a long time ago (and it seems like in
a
> galaxy far-far away). I'd guess Traveller in 1981. But it might have
been:
> Traveller, Gamma World (1st ed), Star Frontiers, Aftermath, Morrow
Poject,
> S3: Expidition to the Barrier Peaks, some Blackmoor stuff or ????
(there are
> some other vague memories so vague I can't even latch onto the game
system)

I believe I had all of those. I also had Ringworld. Ringworld kind of
inspired me, in an odd way, when writing _This Favored Land_. I
included a chapter on campaign ideas simply because Ringworld was the
quintessential "Okay, cool setting, but what do I _do_ with it?" game.
Even the authors couldn't get past the idea of mirroring the first
Ringworld book, as that was essentially what they did in the included
adventure.

> The only one that had much traction was Traveller. Gamma World was
silly.
> Aftermath was rules heavy (but had an excellent feeling to the
setting).

I remember the page long rules on firing a bow, and the combat
flowchart, and never got past character creation. On the other hand,
book three, the campaign book, was the sort of thing that Ringworld
needed.

> Serenity is a good setting, but I don't like the
> rules and think BSG must use similar rules.

I'd be interested in hearing, off list, what you didn't like about the
rules. I received both Serenity and BSG as gifts. I'm probably going
to play Serenity (with the rule mods from BSG) with Alana.

An interesting game is Eden's Unisystem. It comes in two flavours,
cinematic and classic. Buffy, Angel and Army of Darkness are all in
the cinematic line. Conspiracy X, Armageddon, Witchcraft and All Flesh
Must Be Eaten are classic. AFMBE is pretty close to a generic system.
Strip out the zombies and you have a pretty cool generic system. All
Tomorrows Zombies includes not-Star Wars, not-The Matrix, and
not-Aliens deadworlds, and their house "magazine" has rules for
not-Serenity.

My go to game for years has been Chaosium's BRP. As the BRP book is
now out, it finally has all the rules in one big location. It would be
very easy to use it for any kind of science fiction game.

Of course these days I'm pretty enamoured with One Roll Engine, as
seen in Godlike, Wild Talents, and my own WT supplement. I have an
idea for a sci-fi game in the system that I'm going to pitch when I
finally finish the other three books I'm working on.

> In the long run, hard sci games will be boring. No FTL = years of time
in
> transit = not a lot of dramatic tension just character aging.

You need to read Transhuman Space. Even if you don't care for GURPS,
it's a pretty nifty setting book. Hard science fiction set in our
solar system. You don't need FTL to be interesting, you just need to
have cool stuff happening locally.

I'm trying to think of a science fiction RPG that's really grabbed
people's attention in the last couple of years, and I can't think of
any that aren't licensed properties or a redux of a prior version.
Maybe Slipstream for Savage Worlds (and that's sci-fi pulp). Maybe
Burning Empires (more as an intellectual exercise than a game). I
guess it would be Transhuman Space, and that's, what, five years old
now?

In roleplaying, science fiction has taken a back seat to fantasy since
the beginning and horror since the late 80s/early 90s.

-- 
Allan Goodall		 http://www.hyperbear.com
agoodall@hyperbear.com
awgoodall@gmail.com

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