You're favorite Sci-Fi/Futuristic RPG of all time?

[Inquisitor Tremayne]

Since obviously there is a super huge amount of them. (see this thread.)

Give me a list of some of the more popular games out there that folks are playing and i will post a poll when we have a decent selection.

Right now all I got is Star Wars, Shadowrun, and D20 Future (anyone play this?).

What else are you playing?

[tesral]

Well for setting I can't beat Star Trek. I love it. The thing is to get a good Star Trek game you need Trekkies that are also gamers. Trek is a different head than the average RPG.

I don't hew to any given system, its the setting I dig. I have source books from four or five Trek and Trek-like efforts I use ot spice up my game.

I've played Traveler and Star Wars. A short dip into each. The Trek game has been running more or less since 1997.

[boulet]

I ran a few sessions of Athanor, a French sci-fi RPG in the 90s. This game didn't have a real success there : a bit complicated, a bit too ambitious too. But the concepts were neat : our planet has been overwhelmed by man-made viruses and every life form suffer permanent mutation, not every generation mind you, in real time. One can take medicines to prevent that but generally animals, plants and humans have specific traits depending on their local ecosystem. Human populations become very focused on their local ground and quite xenophobic, especially big cities people who live in an hermetic environment saturated with stabilizers. Mutations stimulated psych powers too and the game had many quotes from Philip K Dick Ubik (which I love btw).

I remember was a very nice sourcebook for Venezzia, sci-fi meets medieval culture and carnaval. One of those games I read and reread even if I'll never play them anymore...

[Zigurdain]

Alternity

Lame that it fell right on the twilight of TSR and then Rich Baker got snatched up for WoTC lines. Could have been a much greater game with better timing.

Best thing about the game was that it was one of the best toolbox games I'd ever seen. (Even the new World of Darkness games don't come close to the customization of that game.)

Anyway, by far and away the best, but few have heard of it.

[b8amack]

Spacemaster
Robotech (even though Palladium is pretty much the worst system ever, I still have a soft spot for that game... although I have run it as a Spacemaster campaign instead, and it works so much better.)

Haven't actually played Blue Planet, but I've been reading it, and I like the idea of it.

[GBVenkman]

Ghostbusters?

[tesral]

Ghostbusters?

Who you gonna call?

[Farcaster]

Well for setting I can't beat Star Trek. I love it. The thing is to get a good Star Trek game you need Trekkies that are also gamers. Trek is a different head than the average RPG.

Ahh, too bad you're not in the same area as me. I'm with you on Star Trek. It would definitely be my favorite futuristic setting. I've played it in several incarnations, including the original FASA edition, the ST:TNG update, the Star Fleet battles rendition (what was that called anyway? Prime Directive?), and the Paramount / Unicorn Games version. I really enjoy the problem solving / mystery aspect to which Star Trek games lend themselves well.

[Webhead]

Favorite Sci-Fi RPG of all time? Well, I couldn't give it to anything other than Star Wars D6 no matter how hard I tried. That was basically the gateway RPG for me and the one with the fullest and most positive longevity of any RPG I've ever played. No RPG has brought me more fun, excitement and fantastic story-telling than Star Wars D6. If someone told me that I could only keep one of my RPG books, I would choose my Star Wars corebook...then I would curl up in a ball and weep.

Sci Fi RPGs are a tricky bit for me. I've tried so many and liked so few. Not that they were necessarily bad games, just not games that seemed to convey long-term interest to me. There were a few that I did like though:

Cyberpunk 2020
Shadowrun (liked the setting but not the rules)
Paranoia (oh yeah)
Original Gamma World (really science-fantasy, but one could call it Sci-Fi)

I recently picked up Rocketship Empires 1936 and it looks quite promising. It seems like the most unique and interesting sci-fi RPG I've seen in a long time and that might be just the thing to fill my non-Star Wars sci-fi niche. Something that I have tried hard to fill for several years with no success.

[teckno72]

Star Frontiers (from TSR--can be downloaded off the Net free--ask me)
(Aeon) Trinity from White Wolf is one of my favorite games.
I need to get the Blake's 7 game.
Oh, and Dr. Who.
Serenity.
Continuum. Great time travel game.
Engel.
Shadowrun and Star Wars.

[GBVenkman]

Favorite Sci-Fi RPG of all time? Well, I couldn't give it to anything other than Star Wars D6 no matter how hard I tried. That was basically the gateway RPG for me and the one with the fullest and most positive longevity of any RPG I've ever played. No RPG has brought me more fun, excitement and fantastic story-telling than Star Wars D6. If someone told me that I could only keep one of my RPG books, I would choose my Star Wars corebook...then I would curl up in a ball and weep.

Sci Fi RPGs are a tricky bit for me. I've tried so many and liked so few. Not that they were necessarily bad games, just not games that seemed to convey long-term interest to me. There were a few that I did like though:

Cyberpunk 2020
Shadowrun (liked the setting but not the rules)
Paranoia (oh yeah)
Original Gamma World (really science-fantasy, but one could call it Sci-Fi)

I recently picked up Rocketship Empires 1936 and it looks quite promising. It seems like the most unique and interesting sci-fi RPG I've seen in a long time and that might be just the thing to fill my non-Star Wars sci-fi niche. Something that I have tried hard to fill for several years with no success.

My first RPG experience was with d6 SW. I never learned about dnd until later, and I've still only played dnd a few times (out side of NWN.) Those d6s were great.

[tesral]

Ahh, too bad you're not in the same area as me. I'm with you on Star Trek. It would definitely be my favorite futuristic setting. I've played it in several incarnations, including the original FASA edition, the ST:TNG update, the Star Fleet battles rendition (what was that called anyway? Prime Directive?), and the Paramount / Unicorn Games version. I really enjoy the problem solving / mystery aspect to which Star Trek games lend themselves well.

Yep. However I currently play it nearly systemless. I have all of the above except the Deciper game (It wasn't different enough from the LUG version to bother with). and all of all of the above but have never played any of them. No face to face Star Trek to my name. It is about the only game I play on line, and only with one person. Yea, Strange New Worlds is the flavor of choice.

I find the on line medium good for the kind of descriptive prose required to really get the flavor of the game. Helps I have been writing ST fiction for eleven years now.

[DetCord]

For me it has to be CyberPunk 2020. Spent years running campaigns for that. Its easy to use, flexable and has a nice fast combat system ( once tweeked). Not forgeting the whole us Vs The world feel of the game.

[ronpyatt]

Psi World was a fantastic near-futuristic campaign the was hard to put away.
Status Quo was the best future space setting game I ever played. Rich, complex, and loads of fun. I wonder if they ever published the books?

[nijineko]

well, my first inclination would be towards star frontiers as clunky as it was. one's first rpg game and all that.

to this day i'm fond of frontier exploration type rpg style of play, especially if they are sci-fi.