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Other Hard SF games

kafka47

kafka47

SOC-14 5K
Marquis
2300AD or 2320AD were pretty hard SF with some notable handwaves. What were the other Hard SF games - past, present. I know about Jovian Chronicles, Transhuman Space/Terradyne/Space, High Colonies. What were the others?

And, where might obtain them? Preferably, as free PDFs...
 
Space Opera by FGU, not so much hard as Extensive.

Universe by SPI, pretty hard, a nice alternative world generation system, vastly different from scouts.

Spacemaster, by Iron Crown Enterprises
Kind of a mix between fluffy, and hard, but also extensive, and worth a look for the detail fanatics out there.

Any of these can typically be had on eBay for ~ 20.00
 
Blue Planet. Interesting setting, heavy environmental protection theme. I like the personal combat damage system, which is quite deadly.

Centuari Knights, a BESM setting, has some in common with Blue Planet (it's about colonizing one world) and some with Transhuman Space (David Pulver wrote both).

Interestingly, both examples use found alien nanotechnology for their handwaving and as a MacGuffin.
 
Actually, someone bought SpaceMaster and rereleased it. I've been thinking about buying some of those...

Blue Planet is Hard Sci-Fi, I think.
 
Jovian Chronicles has a partner: Heavy Gear. It is just a touch less hard, but uses the same rules mechanics overall.
 
I'd say Babylon5 is resonably hard SciFi. FTL and Gravitics is all they have and even Gravitics is limited. And no Universal Translators either (Nobody laughts or Markus kicks your Butt!). Currently out by Mongoose games

Heavy Gear actually is on the level of 2300AD with no gravity, very limited FTL and fuel-using engines. Even the gears are quite resonable compared to that other Mecha game. And IMHO a bit more realistic than the power suits from Jovian. Dream Pod 9 currently (sadly) concentrates on the wargaming side but the roleplaying stuff is still availabel
 
Originally posted by The Traveller Formerly Known As...:
Actually, someone bought SpaceMaster and rereleased it. I've been thinking about buying some of those...

Blue Planet is Hard Sci-Fi, I think.
Click to expand...
Is SpaceMaster already out? I was under the assumption that the new Rolemaster is but SM will take some time.
 
I've run the older editions of spacemaster. It's NOT hard Sci-Fi if MT isn't...

Another good hard sci-fi is Albedo. (T&I, Chessex) Despite being a Furries game (YES, I SAID FURRIES), it IS hard SciFi, but to know that you'd have to have read the Albedo Comics, specifically the "Erma Felna, EDF" stories. There is a Hard SF rationale for the furries. It is limited fuel, and very realistic spacecraft. The ships supplement for second edition is the most realistic ship system for a game I've seen yet. But it's as simple as T20 ship design. Tech is Fusion, slugthrowers, AI computers, FTL travel. No gravitics.
 
I've run the older editions of spacemaster. It's NOT hard Sci-Fi if MT isn't...

Another good hard sci-fi is Albedo. (T&I, Chessex) Despite being a Furries game (YES, I SAID FURRIES), it IS hard SciFi, but to know that you'd have to have read the Albedo Comics, specifically the "Erma Felna, EDF" stories. There is a Hard SF rationale for the furries. It is limited fuel, and very realistic spacecraft. The ships supplement for second edition is the most realistic ship system for a game I've seen yet. But it's as simple as T20 ship design. Tech is Fusion, slugthrowers, AI computers, FTL travel. No gravitics.
 
I've run the older editions of spacemaster. It's NOT hard Sci-Fi if MT isn't...

Another good hard sci-fi is Albedo. (T&I, Chessex) Despite being a Furries game (YES, I SAID FURRIES), it IS hard SciFi, but to know that you'd have to have read the Albedo Comics, specifically the "Erma Felna, EDF" stories. There is a Hard SF rationale for the furries. It is limited fuel, and very realistic spacecraft. The ships supplement for second edition is the most realistic ship system for a game I've seen yet. But it's as simple as T20 ship design. Tech is Fusion, slugthrowers, AI computers, FTL travel. No gravitics.
 
The 3rd edition Spacemaster's been out for a while.

Check here.

However, it is nowhere near as hard as 2nd ed. They've changed the setting (in 2ed it was Frank Herbert meets OTU meets transhumans) to be like a kid's version of the OTU crossed with 2300. Take the lamest elements of the OTU and 2300, and you got Privateers.

If you want doglike aliens, you got 'em. Same with the old catlike ones. And ones like a cross between a Wookiee and an orc. Very meh.

However, they are offering all the 2ed stuff as pdf download. I'm tempted by that. Found Spacemaster 2ed to be very useful and versatile. The tables were easy to find too.
 
I have run both the 1984 Spacemaster and the 1989 spacemaster; they are nearly identical. I'd argue it to be more Star Trek meets Dune... in both cases...

I've not even looked at third ed. Mostly since I've never gotten more than 3 sessions into a Spacemaster campaign. But the stock setting is very dune-inspired, the tech is handwavium, and while great fun, it's about comparable to MT in terms of Hard Sci-Fi-ness, perhaps a touch more cinematic.

Another good (but OOP and not in PDF) is Justifiers. Yes, it is another "furries" game. Again, no gravitics, a limited form of FTL, personal laser weapons exist, but slugthrowers predominate. Really well written low-percentile-scores percentile system. COuple of good hooks.
 
Originally posted by Aramis:
I have run both the 1984 Spacemaster and the 1989 spacemaster; they are nearly identical.
Click to expand...
I've always liked the Spacemaster stuff. But, to be honest, I've never looked at it more than just supplements for Classic Trav.

SM has some good adventures that are easy to convert (heck, they do some of the work for you by giving you that conversion scale at the beginning of each module!).

So, SM has always been "Traveller" to me. If I read something in them that doesn't sound like Traveller, I just ignore it.




On another note: Aramis, a few of us had the multiple posting issue you obviously had in this thread earlier today. I cleaned up my multiple posts. Why not delete those duplicates?
 
Thanks for the pointers, I've been emptying boxes on to book shelves and found the second edition of Space master and the original (Mekton) version of Jovian Chronicles. I guess my reading pile just got bigger.
 
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