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.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the expanse rpg. Link
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 :)
The Expanse started as an RPG setting, which is an interesting bit of trivia :)
I had no idea! That’s so cool!
Anyway, it looks like you wouldn’t be interested in Firefly RPG either.
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 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
The reason I knew about Impulse Drive is because I buy those huge itchio bundles that are put out every year or so, if you are in that habit you might also own it :P
+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?
Rumor has it Firefly was a game of Traveler that was made into a show. Having played traveler, I highly recommend it.
I’ve played a Fate game set in the Traveler universe with some of the GMs tweaks sprinkled in. It’s awesome.
Using extras for certain types of equipment (like power armor); weapon damage rating; scale… You can have a pretty realistic and complete system while still maintaining the narrative focus of Fate.
Of course the more options you add, the crunchier it gets, but you don’t need a lot and some things, like scale, only matter if you have a difference of scale at play (say a fighter vs a destroyer).
What about Rogue trader? It uses the Warhammer 40k system.
Looking to roll my own setting, and this one is too attached to the 40k universe. Which is awesome, just not what I want. Too much mysticism and woo :)
If you like Altered Carbon then Eclipse Phase does the “you can change your body” transhumanist-cyberpunk-sci-fi thing pretty well. It’s pretty hard sci-fi, but that means it doesn’t really have much in the way of ship combat, so not sure if it’s what you’re looking for!
Jovian Chronicles has a good base system that you can divorce from the setting pretty easily. (The same system is used in a planet-bound SF game—Heavy Gear—and an apocalyptic fantasy game—Tribe 8.) It has a pretty simple system for making vehicles which scratches your “statted ships with ship to ship combat” itch.
You could check out Hyperspace D6. It is a rules light reimagining of the old West End Games Star Wars D6 system. You wouldn’t have to use the Star Wars setting for it.
https://drive.google.com/drive/mobile/folders/1LjVQZVHLKtEaJO_XGe8VDRy6IWVk1sKt?usp=sharing
Mothership 1E is shipping soon. I enjoy the ship mechanics. I’m not 100% it goes where you want it to go, though, because it’s way more grimdark than those series.
I think Traveller is probably your best starting point. You just missed a Traveller Bundle of Holding. From there you’ll have a good foundation to understand other games and how they address different things. MCC (from DCC) and Starfinder (from Pathfinder) are both great general purpose games if you’re looking for a 3.5 feel.
I have been playing Genesys, and I LOVE it. I’m not playing in a sci-fi setting, but the whole premise behind Genesys is that is is adaptable to any setting, and from what I have seen of the system, it would be great for something like that. There are tons of rules for vehicle stats, combat, etc. and it has guidelines for how to design and balance your own vehicles.
If you are interested in making and playing in your own setting I would definitely recommend Genesys.
If you are wanting something with an existing setting that matches that vibe, then I’d first check and see if some of the community made settings will fit that, and if not, then maybe look elsewhere.
There are a ton of community made resources for Genesys on DriveThruRPG and also in a dropbox maintained by one of the community members, and that dropbox has some resources for an Expanse setting and other sci-fi stuff that would be a good starting point: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/raqr7usuzwizglm/AACMnwsNyT5DPHyjokWZwQLOa/Community Content?dl=0&lst=&subfolder_nav_tracking=1
I would also say you should definitely get the core rulebook AND the expanded players guide, as that has tons of good resources and better guidelines for creating vehicles, as well as other useful things. It’s really a fantastic GM toolkit.
EDIT: Also regarding the dice, which can be kind of hard to get, they have an app that you can use, as well as charts for converting normal polyhedral dice to the Genesys symbols, and what I personally do is just use the Star Wars dice, which are the same (with slightly different look to the symbols) and are more available, at least where I am.