So I've been watching a lot of space exploration/survival shows lately, and I realized that I have never DM'd nor played in a space fantasy campaign. My play group is interested in trying it, but, I don't know many different systems. Do anyone of you guys have suggestions on which system we should start with?
We looked at Rogue Trader briefly , but none of us are interested in the 40k universe. Are they're any good alternatives?
Bumping with Owls!
>>44362948
I've heard lots of things about traveler.
Here is an additional Owl for your perusal.
>>44362948
Traveller.
But you should ask them specifically what they want, since everyone has their own idea of what space is like and none of it is based in reality anyway. Spelljammer might work too if you can find modified rules for 5e or whatever.
Traveller is best if you want a "D&D in Space" feel where a ragtag group of characters wanders around the universe and takes on various assignments to make enough money to keep their spaceship running.
Sputnik Lost is a one-page RPG about a botched Soviet moon landing. It's great for horror, but really only works for one-shot games, not campaigns.
Stars Without Number is more "D&D in Space", but less Firefly-ey.
I don't have any owl pictures.
>>44364726
>I don't have any owl pictures.
Here, have some more.
I swear I must look like this when checking the front blind spot on my car.
Lady Blackbird is a nice concept, and you can start playing out of the box. It's the same situation, with the same characters, each time. There are a few more in the series.
Traveller is just like DnD (it isn't D20 thank the gods!) only in space. It's great for a character centered combat encounter game where you level up and loot. It is almost as old as DnD and there's tons of materials.
If your party is up for meta mechanics you can try Fate. It has become the standard for Space Opera, there's maybe 10 completely independent settings building on the crunch, and Fate Core or FAE also serve nicely. The base game without fluff might work wonders for a cross genre thing incorporating Fantasy and Scifi.
Then there's FFG with EotE, AoR, and Force Awakening or somesuch. It's gimmicky with the dice, but it works. And it's on top of the hype right now.
If you just want to test the waters try a session of Lasers and Feelings. It's a one page Star Trek parody with a fun mechanic: on crits players can ask one meta question.
Wasn't mentioned by people bringing it up, but Traveller is especially good for exploration. Basically everything can be randomly generated, from characters to star systems, to the point where you can play it solo and just roll random encounters for yourself. So if you want to just sandbox-ish explore space, Traveller will probably be unrivaled.
>>44366878
Is there fuel and other volatile expenses like o2 and water?
>>44366911
Look at Diaspora.
>>44366808
>Traveller is just like DnD (it isn't D20 thank the gods!) only in space. It's great for a character centered combat encounter game where you level up and loot. It is almost as old as DnD and there's tons of materials.
This is inaccurate. Traveller has virtually no D&D in it; the creators had never played it and had only heard about it through the wargamer grapevine. As such it works differently from most other RPGs.
Traveller has never had levels, for instance, and in the original release of the Classic edition there weren't even rules for character advancement at all -- that was all done during your character's youth before play begins. It reflects a more mature outlook than D&D's youthful vision -- rather than having your best years to look forward to, you've already hit your peak, and you know it, and now there's nothing left but to stave off the inevitable decline and death as long as you can.
Traveller's similarity to D&D is mostly that a lot of folks play it as Murderhobos in Space, which is a game type it does pretty well. But the differences vastly outnumber the similarities, and you can run a ton of other kinds of games with it.
>>44366911
Yep. Running your ship and paying off its mortgage is a big part of a ship-based game.
>>44366987
If they have to pay for volatiles, then there's a limit to how far they can explore.
Does everyone die when the ship runs out of o2?
>>44367033
Wow, have you ever written a story?
Yes, the threat is very real. No, you can never let it happen. Watch Out Of Gas from Firefly.
>>44367087
>Wow, have you ever written a story?
I'm not sure how to take that.
>Yes, the threat is very real. No, you can never let it happen. Watch Out Of Gas from Firefly.
In Traveller, i meant. Because people are saying it's great for exploration, but that would have a hefty cost. You'd be limited by your oxygen tanks and fuel reserves.
>>44367033
You need to refuel and resupply now and then, but you can pick up fuel and supplies on a planet.
Fuel is just processed hydrogen. Any sufficiently clean source of water can be cracked for fuel, so a lake, a gas giant, comet or such. If you don't have a fuel processing unit, though, it's bad for your engine in the long run.
If you've got one and a decent jump drive, you can just head out to Spinward between the Zhodani and Aslan and explore for years if you like. Nobody really knows what's back there far behind the claw.
>>44367141
Just hydrogen? The ship never needs maintenance? What's the MTBF on a magic fusion drive?
Maybe gurps is more of this thread's speed, by the looks of it. It's full on autism with proper normal distribution probability.
>>44367132
The real limit to exploring is finding a jump route, and preventing a misjump. Jumping into an empty hex is certain death if you don't have the extra fuel for another jump out.
Fortunately it's easy to pick up large mass objects from dozens of light years away, and you can predict where these islands of matter willl be in the jump space grid, but not what they'll be until you get there.
>>44367171
General maintenance can be handled by the crew. Once a year you'll need to have the engine overhauled at a dock, orthings start to get risky. Misjumps are seriously dangerous, and the odds increase if you use crap fuel or don't do your yearly strip-down of the engine.
>>44364121
that is some serious gurren laggann tier shit, I'm gonna need to see a source on that for um reasons
>>44367326
Diebuster. Gainax made it as well.
>>44367472
It's unbearably weeby. So if you liked gurren lagann, you'll probably like this.
Hey guys, OP is back. Thanks for the info here! More specifically I think we are wanting more of a Firefly/Dark Matter kinda of setting. We like the idea of missions running along with on planet/space station capibilities along with dog fighting. A little bit of everything, more or less.
My issue with using a Star Wars based system is that 1/2 of the group hates Star Wars and I'm almost certain that the name will set them off. If the game can be played without any of the the SW lore/cannon/fluff then that could work. I'm going to keep bumping with
