Monday, August 10, 2020

Thoughts on the Best All-Purpose Science Fiction RPG for the Moment

 Lately I've been thinking about how I'd like to run another SF campaign soon. As my year+ long Pathfinder 2E campaign winds down, I can sense that I need a palette cleanser in the mix before tackling the next mega campaign in PF2E, and science fiction generally does the trick. The problem, of course, is that what I most need right now is a game system which will support the particular vision I have in mind.

There are five choices in my repertoire: Traveller, Cypher System, GURPS, Savage Worlds and White Star. For various reasons I have narrowed the list down a bit: Traveller is too formal and comes with a heap of stylistic baggage; GURPS would be cool but GURPS Space is too complex for what I need; Savage Worlds would be fine but I am waiting for the Sci Fi Companion to get revised to the SWADE edition; Cypher System with The Stars Are Fire expansion is looking like the best choice overall, but there's a problem: Roll20 seems to hate my players, and when you have three sessions of Cypher System in a row in which failure rates even on level 1-2 tasks are approaching 90% it becomes enormous dispiriting for the players (and as GM I got tired of the constant grouching about the failure rates and simply ended the game). I love Cypher System, but there seem to be two issues at hand: it requires a bit of system mastery to play the odds and reduce the levels of difficulty, and it also requires accepting the dice where they fall when the time comes. 

In fact....the brutal honesty of the Roll20 dice randomize might be so offensive to some players for reasons that I can only speculate on in my head, but I do think ultimately that when the game requires resource management to improve your odds of success, that puts more demand on the player to actually understand the mechanics and work to play them in their favor. Spend those points when you need them, and often!

So what about White Star? With White Star I might just have a good balance. The biggest problem I can identify is that the Galaxy Edition is almost Too Much Kitchen Sink....if you don't want uttin*, yabnabs, novomachina and brimlings in your campaign, for example, then you as GM better go into the book with a big hatchet. But other than that, it's a great system with a tight and easy old school aesthetic. I have run two prior campaigns with it now (using the original rules with some supplements) and I feel like this might indeed be the perfect palette cleanser. A Short 5-10 session White Star campaign would be a lot of fun.

There's a new setting sourcebook out for White Star on Drivethrurpg.com now called Heart of Varrul, which I just might check out. White Star, like all OSR games, continues to have its groundswell of support and remains in many regards timeless. I think I'll need to see how much support it has on Roll20 now....





*I'm actually cool with uttin, the grittier and dirtier version of ysoki; but to hell with yabnabs! And Brimlings are a halfling too far for me. 


7 comments:

  1. I tried to fall in love with Traveller earlier this year and we just aren't compatible. Life path systems sound great but I don't enjoy them as much as I think I would.

    I agree about Cypher System. It requires players who want to master the system.

    I'd run White Star too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My love of Traveller is primarily around the world generation mechanic...I love rolling out sectors and subsectors. The char gen seemed very exciting...in 1981! But not so much these days. What makes Traveller tough for the long haul is the fact that is has such an unusual progression system (aimed at skill training in the lonely weeks between stops). I like systems with some sort of progression reward tied to the activities going on in the game, so White Star works better.

      Delete
    2. I like Traveller, and my group played a bit of the Pirates of Drinax set (MonTrave2e). However, if you're planning to use the Traveller system to run anything but a setting with the Traveller feel, you'll have to do a LOT of hacking.

      I tried to do a preliminary run through the numbers on GURPS Spaceships, and found that a) the rules are needlessly complex because they try to be generic in places they don't need to be, and b) the default system assumes such a massive dominance for missiles over other beam weapons that I'd have to hack the system up to fix it.

      I've yet to try Savage Worlds, and I'm also waiting on the Science Fiction Companion to be updated to SWADE. Though we may run TLP soon, so I hope it works well as a horrible edition mashup :)

      Delete
  2. Is Stars Without Number an option?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SWN is interesting but there are some mechanical issues I don't like and like Traveller it's implied setting is baked in. Arguably the same us true of White Star, but White Star just happens to be easier to modify (for me). In a lot of ways SWN has the same general issue Cepheus does....great, but if I'm going for that style I'll just run Traveller instead.

      Delete
  3. I've yet to run White Star, but it looks like a fun system. The Galaxy Edition is pretty massive. Been reading my Esper Genesis book. It is a 5E mechanics in space system.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It really is....and you only really need the base rulebook (the Galaxy Edition is just pure indulgence). I have Esper Genesis on my Must Buy list, will order it eventually when I also have the extra cash (and I remember to get it before the other hundred items on the list!)

      Delete