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

[agoraderek]

paranoia was the game du jour for a while, shadowrun was the alternative to d&d for my early 90's groups.

when i was younger, i LOVED traveller, though.

[tesral]

paranoia was the game du jour for a while, shadowrun was the alternative to d&d for my early 90's groups.
when i was younger, i LOVED traveller, though.

Traveler is the only SF game I played way back when. The game sort of dried up and blew away however.

[Aidan]

I liked Traveller. I had about a dozen books. High Guard, Scouts, Robots...can't remember them all. Lost them some time ago.

I helped run a GURPS Space campaign for a few years as well.

[tesral]

I liked Traveller. I had about a dozen books. High Guard, Scouts, Robots...can't remember them all. Lost them some time ago.

I helped run a GURPS Space campaign for a few years as well.

The GURPS Traveler source books are a treasure trove. I love them and use them.

[Grinnen Baeritt]

Background and Setting: Blue Planet

Rules: Alternity or Spacemaster:Privateers.

[Webhead]

I had the boxed set of the first edition of Traveller "little black books" but never had any of the supplements. Never actually played that edition, but then I never got a feeling of overwhelming enthusiasm from the game. It came off as a "here's how to play a guy who flies a ship around in space"...

A friend had us make characters for the later edition, Marc Miller's Traveller. My character was mortally wounded and died during the last phase of character creation, though the GM kindly had me re-roll that result to avoid having to make a whole new character. I think we played an "intro" session, but I don't remember us going back to the game after that. Thus my "actual" experience with Traveller is pretty limited.

Still, I must be picky about sci-fi RPGs as I have trouble finding good, serious ones. I've found a lot of great comedy sci-fi games (Paranoia, Men In Black, Star-Toon, etc.), but not many intended to be played with a straight face.

[agoraderek]

I had the boxed set of the first edition of Traveller "little black books" but never had any of the supplements. Never actually played that edition, but then I never got a feeling of overwhelming enthusiasm from the game. It came off as a "here's how to play a guy who flies a ship around in space"...

A friend had us make characters for the later edition, Marc Miller's Traveller. My character was mortally wounded and died during the last phase of character creation, though the GM kindly had me re-roll that result to avoid having to make a whole new character. I think we played an "intro" session, but I don't remember us going back to the game after that. Thus my "actual" experience with Traveller is pretty limited.

Still, I must be picky about sci-fi RPGs as I have trouble finding good, serious ones. I've found a lot of great comedy sci-fi games (Paranoia, Men In Black, Star-Toon, etc.), but not many intended to be played with a straight face.

the thing about traveller (the original) was it came out in the era of "make it up as you go along" so the lack of rules for everything wasnt really much of an issue, and the system was fairly easy to make fit just about any situation. but the setting was awesome...

[mrken]

The first Sci-fi game I tried was Traveller. It really rocked. Used to spend time away from the game thinking of the game, but it had it's problems. So I tried Star Frontier. That game was pretty good too. It was simpler and after I finished all the modules we just kept going. Had to do a bit of tweaking the rules to make it work a bit better but the rules were so simple and the games run rather fast. Then I played Star Wars the d6 game. That too was pretty good except I didn't really like being stuck to the story line that much. All of those games really worked for me so I have no idea which was best. After years of playing them I kind of made them all one game. lol

[teckno72]

Yeah, we played (relatively) a lot of Star Wars D6 in high school. Our game master was kind of strict about the Jedi Code, though. He was kind of strict about the alignment system in D&D too. But, that's another story.

I got to run Trinity once. My brother wanted to try it, and he wanted to be a neutral (non-psionic/normal human). I was aghast! I played my Chinese Ministry character online a little, but there weren't too many takers for that game (and they, of course, were on at different times of the day, to make it worse).

I played a rather bad game of Star Trek: Next Generation at a con one time. I played Picard. This other guy played Data. My friends played everyone else. Trouble was: the adventure really only required Picard and Data to solve, so my friends were horribly bored (and, as a result, their characters played with the pharmaceuticals in sick bay most of the time).

A friend had Megatraveller, but we never played it--not enough interest in it at the time. My college years were filled with the World of Darkness. We did have a crossover game with Shadowrun as the future. It works disturbingly well. Vampires love to control megacorporations too.

Paranoia--I can't run it. I just can't be zany/funny that long. Sorry.

One of my earliest tries at creating my own roleplaying game, kind of converted D&D to a space/future game. The dwarves were genetically engineered humans called "hefts," built to live/work on high-gravity planets. "Frails," an elf-like genetically engineered race of humans were built to live in low-gravity locations. My friend was in charge of the weaponry that we mostly "liberated" from Star Frontiers and Gamma World. We played that maybe twice.

I love Blake's 7 (British sci-fi show of the 70s). Imagine Star Trek, but the Federation (it was even called that in the show) was evil. A crew of near-criminals/wannabe liberators/rebels, etc. find an alien space vessel that puts all human vessels to shame with its advanced systems (in almost every way). They try to foment revolution against the Federation and free as many planets as they can from the tyrannical grip of the Federation. The acting is superb/Shakespearean, but the special effects are some of the worst I've ever witnessed. Still, the stories are great and very memorable, as we learn more and more about the main characters and how they got where they are.

Sorry, just waxing poetic, I suppose. Those were the days!

[mrken]

I love Blake's 7 (British sci-fi show of the 70s). Imagine Star Trek, but the Federation (it was even called that in the show) was evil. A crew of near-criminals/wannabe liberators/rebels, etc. find an alien space vessel that puts all human vessels to shame with its advanced systems (in almost every way). They try to foment revolution against the Federation and free as many planets as they can from the tyrannical grip of the Federation. The acting is superb/Shakespearean, but the special effects are some of the worst I've ever witnessed. Still, the stories are great and very memorable, as we learn more and more about the main characters and how they got where they are.

Sorry, just waxing poetic, I suppose. Those were the days!

Blake's 7 sounds like Dr. Who to me. I watched it through several differnet doctors. Could not say the acting was very good, and the special effects were about the same as the first Star Trek, pathetic. Still, I watched it, and laughed at it while watching. :: I just know I am going to get creamed by both Dr. Who and Star Trek fans ::

[agoraderek]

Blake's 7 sounds like Dr. Who to me. I watched it through several differnet doctors. Could not say the acting was very good, and the special effects were about the same as the first Star Trek, pathetic. Still, I watched it, and laughed at it while watching. :: I just know I am going to get creamed by both Dr. Who and Star Trek fans ::

ok, star trek fan here: the old dr. who special effects made kirk era star trek look like cgi...

[Moritz]

IT, I'm hooked on Star Wars just as you seem to be. But I doubt I'd find the enjoyment in 'playing' it that I get out of 'running' it. I love GM'ing a SW game. There's just so much latitude in that universe and so much to do and convey.

[Inquisitor Tremayne]

IT, I'm hooked on Star Wars just as you seem to be. But I doubt I'd find the enjoyment in 'playing' it that I get out of 'running' it. I love GM'ing a SW game. There's just so much latitude in that universe and so much to do and convey.

Agreed!!! It can be overwhelmingly so because you have an entire GALAXY full of adventure ideas. A 10 year campaign can still only barely scratch the surface.

So for favorite games we have the following list:

Traveller
Shadowrun
Star Wars d20 (OCR, RCR, or SE)
Star Wars d6
Blue Planet
Cyberpunk 2020
Gamma World


Any others to add to the list before I make the poll?

[Webhead]

I'd say Gamma World deserves a spot on the poll. Lots of fun, that game...

[Inquisitor Tremayne]

I'd say Gamma World deserves a spot on the poll. Lots of fun, that game...

Noted and changed.