So after years of only playing and reading Fantasy, I have recently discovered the joys of Sci-Fi and am looking for any good systems that really give the players a feeling of exploring the wonders of space, kind of like Star Trek. Anyone know of any gems?
>>55163233
There aren't very many good space games, unfortunately. And it's difficult to say what you will like when I don't know what games you have played, which ones you liked, why you liked them, and how open or closed you are to trying systems that are very different from what you've tried before.
People are going to recommend Traveller. It is okay, but very old school. Huge amounts of crunch, high lethality, low to mid level character capability, and a focus on trade and economics over combat or exploration. If you like super crunchy systems like GURPS, you will probably enjoy it. If you like simpler, more modern style systems, you probably won't.
People will recommend Stars Without Number. It is pretty much dungeons and dragons in space. You will either love it or hate it based on your opinion of the d20 system.
There is the Firefly system, three Star Wars systems, a few Star Trek systems, and a ton of 40k systems, all of which are very, very bad. I would avoid those like the plague.
Barbarians of the Void, the Savage Worlds sci fi companion, and Bulldogs are all okayish.
>>55163733
I've mostly played DnD so I will definitely look into Stars Without Number, thank you for your help!
I honestly don't remember if Mindjammer have exploration mechanics but I'd like to mention it anyway.
>>55163733
What do you think of Diaspora? I haven't played it, but I like both FATE and hard SF, so I'm interested in it.
Star Frontiers is an osr rules light space opera game, though it's less 'epic' than I think you're looking for
>>55163733
I wouldn't put Traveller near GURPS in crunch, uness you were talking about New Era or FURPS Traveller.
>>55164298
>FURPS Travelelr
Uh, GURPS Traveller. Though a "Fuckin' Universal Role Playing System" might be fun to see.
2300ad
Have you heard of Rogue Space?
Found a review from a translated Polish site.
-translate-Rogue Space - Review.pdf
http://www107.zippyshare.com/v/PCa5wJYJ/file.html
There are a few OSR space games out there if you're interested in borrowing bits from each and building a custom setting.
>>55164240
I don't know anything about Diaspora except that it is FATE based.
>>55164298
You can argue that back and forth, but my point was that it is a similar level of crunch from a similar era of gaming. People who look at GURPS and say, "this seems like a good amount of detail", usually think the same of Traveller. People who look at one of those games and think, "wow, too many rules", will probably say the same thing about the other. I would have said that Traveller is like the science fiction version of Burning Wheel, but less people know that system than know GURPS.
>>55164298
Yeah, Traveller, leaving out TNE, T5, and the GURPS port, is not crunchy.
Full of detail, and little mini systems for character and world creation, but not crunchy.
>>55163233
Despite what >>55163733 says, Mongoose Traveller 2e is actually pretty fun. Its an equipment progression system and has a more modern angle on the classic Traveller formula. Its a mix of classic science fiction and more contemporary sci-fi concepts and discards the skill bloat of the previous editions.
>>55165651
>I would have said that Traveller is like the science fiction version of Burning Wheel
Not even close! Burning Wheel is massively more crunchy than Traveller. The actually popular editions of Traveller are fairly rules light, rules medium at best.
I can run a whole campaign of Traveller with less trouble than trying to generate a character in Burning Wheel.
>>55163233
WEG's Star Wars game is in no way plague-like. The whole line is available legit free at starwarstimeline.net. The Revised and Expanded 2nd edition is the place to start.