>D&D game ends, my turn to GM
>suggest Traveller
>"But anon, sci-fi's too complicated and boring. Let's just stick with fantasy, or at least settings with fantasy elements like Shadowrun or WH40k or Star Wars"
>"Seriously, there's no sense of mystery or wonder in sci-fi. You can just look up everything on the space Internet if you come across something you don't recognize"
I like playing fantasy games and I enjoy the genre but holy shit this made my asshole explode with concentrated sodium.
>>47942324
Boy, I'd be pretty pissed too. How did you respond?
If they really don't like the idea of "just looking things up" and want "mystery and wonder" then point out stuff like Star Trek where the whole point was to explore the unknown. Hell, if they just want fantasy in their sci-fi there's nothing to stop you from taking your spaceship and collecting ancient artifacts from a distant planet.
Hell, point out how Traveller is named fucking Traveller. That should give them the adventure and shit they want. The setting doesn't even have FTL internet if that's what they're worried about.
>>47942324
I vote fire
In their beds
While theyre sleeping
>>47942324
Sounds like youve got convincing to do
Have them watch "The Expanse" from SyFy; shits cash yo. Murder mystery/political intrigue IN SPAAACE!
Woo for Traveller!
Anyways, from what I've found playing Traveller as "space Indiana Jones" is fucking great. Set the group in a rickety old spaceship, and tell them they're treasure hunters exploring unknown, abandoned, or dangerous worlds for alien artefacts they can sell for cash. Mystery! Adventure! Fantastic Locations! It's got it all.
>>47942524
We're still negotiating. If the vote still swings to D&D I'll contemplate running this by converting it to D&D 5e, with the players completely unaware of the sci-fi twist. That, or Expedition to Barrier Peaks. Or both.
At least one of the four players is willing to give a sci-fi RPG a shot (mostly because he's played non-fantasy RPGs before).
I might just call a temporary break in games and force them to binge watch shit like Firefly and >>47942636 The Expanse so they can get into it.
>IT'S TOO COMPLICATED
>IT'S TOO SIMPLE
>THERE'S NO SENSE OF MYSTERY SO LET'S USE A SETTING WE ALREADY KNOW
AAAAAAAAAAAA
>baww my friends don't like thing I like
>>47942636
>Have them watch "The Expanse" from SyFy; shits cash yo. Murder mystery/political intrigue IN SPAAACE!
That sounds awesome. I've been watching Dark Matter lately, and it's pretty good, too. Six people wake up on a ship, with no memory of who they are. They soon find out they're a bunch of criminal mercenaries wanted across half the galaxy, and one of them apparently is a traitor who wiped everyone's memories for unknown reasons.
It's all secrets and lies, man.
I'm really glad the Great Wheel of Genre is finally turning again, it was stuck on Fantasy for way too long.
>>47942729
you listen here u little shit im going to come over to ur house and microwave you with my fucking plasma pistol. ur dead kid. ur fantasy garbage wont save u from superheated gas
>>47942753
>ur fantasy garbage wont save u from superheated gas
not even fire immunity?
>>47942767
According to Pathfinder, which is the only d20 fantasy system in existence, plasma damage is half fire, half electricity. So your fire immunity will only PARTIALLY save you, idiot!
>>47942753
Technically it's so superheated it's now simply "electrified"
>>47942767
So yeah, you'd be fucking electrocuted.
Or exploded.
>>47942324
Offer to run it yourself, but don't be a dick about it
>>47942552
Also turn their Earth
While they're dancing.
>>47942686
If you're forever GM then shouldn't you have a bit more of a say? At the very least you should be able to push for a sci-fi oneshot if you've just got off of a long D&D game. Tell them that you want a break from fantasy for an evening to recharge your GM batteries.
>>47942943
>D&D game ends, my turn to GM
>my turn to GM
He DID offer to run it.
>>47942324
My guess is your GM is A. stupid and uncreative or B. really not into sci-fi to the point of outright ignoring it. It is more likely in Shadowrun to find everything in the “Internet” then in Traveller (mind that you have to Heck through a lot of Servers to get what you want). I ran both and if you want mystery there will be mystery. It really dose not depend on the setting.
>>47942324
I'm a hardcore Fantasy Fag, but holy shit.
>there's no sense of mystery or wonder in sci-fi
Shit we do, build, explore or research RIGHT FUCKING NOW can already make your head explode with mystery and wonder, and those faggots are saying that THE INFINITY OF MOTHERFUCKING SPACE holds no mystery or sense of wonder?
>>47943163
>My guess is your GM is
OP's GM is OP.
>>47943002
>>47942976
Good one.
>>47943001
Not forever GM, the last two games with this group I was a player. What I need is a recharge from the genre.
I should bring up the idea for a one shot though. Maybe that should at least give them a taste of what to expect.
>>47943224
No, it's more that they believe that in a sci-fi setting, you can just look up everything on some kinda magical, faster-than-light, omnipresent Internet-Pokedex thing or science lab that can analyze anything.
>>47943373
Why the fuck would they believe that? Unless they have some kind of advanced AI that is simulatneously capable of understanding what the fuck you want AND able to independantly research, work and process the request, that shit just doesn't exist.
Not to mention the infinite vastness of space and all the crazy shit out there that we can't explain OR is completely new and unheard of.
Also, where fuck is the difference to a magical tome of knowledge or all-knowing imp in a 8-Ball that will answer literally any question truthfully and correctly, no strings attached?
>>47942324
GMO elves
GMO furries
GMO monster races
Ultratech with magic style controls like Nanoha.
Sci-fi is better than fantasy.
Can't look it up if you don't know what it is. Post pics of it on space4chan and wait for replies? Good luck with that while it's trying to eat your face.
>>47943645
Let them start with a WH40K, Shadowrun, Star Wars, etc. campaign plus what you want, but it's all of Earth origin and technology. All those "alien" races are Terran GMO's. No alien contact yet. Have the aliens closer to the start of the Galactic Habitable Zone.
>>47943755
Conversions and GMO's. Like "I want to be a furry, mom."
>>47943517
I brought this up to the player who said this, and he admitted it was hyperbole. It's just more that fantasy tends to be rooted in myths and legends and touchstones that a lot of people are familiar with, while sci-fi has no base assumptions, and is therefore more intimidating to get into. At least, according to him.
I guess my challenge, if I get to do a one-shot of Traveller (or any sci-fi setting), is to a) not overwhelm them with setting details beyond the bare basics, and b) have a simple premise. "Space truckers" or something.
>>47942324
>space internet
Good luck getting WiFi out in the middle of fucking no where!see: in the middle of space flight/ on a wilderness planet.
>>47943846
That's generally how I handle my space-internet: Sure, you have easy communication between star systems... but only from developed, central planets or important stations.
Fringe worlds, where most action takes place, is the ass end of the galaxy. That's the entire reason for having PCs flying around solving problems.
>>47943802
The answer to this, then, would be to run sci-fi with cultural touchstones to grab onto. From basic storytelling styles (Star Wars is a classic Hero's Journey) to settings that aren't "pure" sci-fi (Star Wars, again, is Science Fantasy, Firefly is Space Western). It's entirely possible to have your setting be a spaceship sailing between the stars while still having themes and a story that's easy to grasp.
Like you say, go with something that doesn't overwhelm with tech and use a straightforward premise.
>>47943902
Even if you have a well-developed FTL internet system, there's no reason things are going to be easy to find. With so many people in the galaxy, it's going to be filled with unrelated topics and amateurs talking about things they have no experience in. Trying to search for an answer to your problem on the space internet should take the better part of an afternoon and end up with finding half a dozen different answers to the same problem.
>>47943959
There is that, too, yes.
>>47942324
They want a world disconnect from ours.
Give them a different past.
Have Gear Krieg as your WWII:
http://www.deviantart.com/browse/all/?q=Gear+Krieg
Gear Krieg is non-mystic super science all the way down. You can have zombies, but they're non-mystic science or super science experiments, prototypes or production models. Everything you can think of or in fiction can be invented, but some are easier than others, and everything is made of pieces of reality / science or science fiction.
Have the things you can't explain come from weird single researchers or small groups; research destroyed, partially destroyed, "nonsense". Break up what you thought of rather than a coherent explanation or a 1, 2, 3, profit "explanation". Make the process closed, unrepeatable, safe and limited payed for and made with hidden resources when you can't explain it. If you find out it's really expensive or hard to do you'll already have built the shadows to hide that in.
>>47945185
Give them a update for a history class as a first adventure.
Gamification of education. Automatic downloads of updates to old grade school classes.
D-Day (Gear Krieg)?
>>47945235
Narrate the current chunk of your Gear Krieg history outcome. Then have them play as a Gear Krieg "historical" mod of Team Fortress 2. Respawns, MOS/class (Military Occupational Specialty), alternative gear, minor cosmetics; multiple stages, map changes.
>>47942691
D&D it's a system for fantasy settings not a setting on itself, if you want something new you can just make your own world with it's own cosmology, races, classes, monsters, etc.
>>47942324
Why don't you give eclipse phase a shot. Lots of horror elements, crazy body swappin', weird psychics, evil corps, lost alien civs. Also the starting plot hook could be "wake up on a ship leaking O2 with no memory and a corpse far from the ansible net and well traveled trade lanes". Shits cash yo
>>47942324
>People have different tastes
>>47946316
Yeah but some people are giant plebs too.
>t-t-t-too complicated and boring xD
>n-n-n-n-no sense of le mystery or wonder in sci-fi xD
>sp-sp-sp-sp-space internet xD
>l-l-l-l-l-l-let's just stick with fantasy xD
So fuck their different taste. I don't mind it being different, I do take issue with it being worse.
This thread gives me ideas, are there any RPG adventures based around a science fiction dungeon crawl through ancient ruins on a planet?
>>47943802
Rip off Planetes
Just do it
>>47946316
I'd normally agree with you but their apparent reasons for disliking sci-fi are sophomoric as fuck
I'd sooner accept "eh I just don't like sci fi" before "lel there's no wonder in it also I think the internet breaks it"
>>47942324
So let's toss out some one-shot sci fi ideas
>Players are salvage workers scrapping a derelict ship with a terrifying secret
>players are intelligent lab rats in an animal testing facility long abandoned by humans
>Players are space merchants and must deliver a strange cargo to a hidden asteroid base
>Players are future law enforcement trying to stop a cyborg criminal a la Blade Runner
>Players are soldiers trying to rescue hostages from a space station captured by rebels
Really as long as there's a simple story with a straightforward goal your players can fall in relatively easily. Any of the stories above could be a fantasy game with a few minor tweaks. You know this, just let your players know this and ask them to trust you. But yeah, I'd start with a one shot to ease them into it.
