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
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.
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
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
Rumor has it Firefly was a game of Traveler that was made into a show. Having played traveler, I highly recommend it.