General What's the best for a solar system game?

[Spinward Scout]

The Artemis II Moon mission has sparked some curiosity for me. I'd like to see how we colonize our solar system in game terms. It's a game I'd like to play in. Retrieving comets from the Oort cloud at the edge of the solar system. To be used for terraforming Mars. Mining the Asteroid Belt. Drilling water from Europa, and so on...

What would be the best supplement for doing that?

Orbital 2100, by Zozer Games, looks interesting, but it seems limited to the Earth and the Moon, with moons of Jupiter and Saturn being side quests.

Outworld, by Zozer Games, could be good, too.

World Builders Handbook, by Mongoose, seems like a good choice, but maybe too much.

I don't know what else is out there for this kind of thing.

And I don't want to 'reinvent the wheel' if it's already been done.

Does anyone have any ideas for this?

 

[kilemall]

What’s your emphasis, howto or organizational/national conflict, and how hard science/engineering?

 

[Spinward Scout]

What’s your emphasis, howto or organizational/national conflict, and how hard science/engineering?

Honestly, it could be Traveller without the Jump Drive. TL13 or TL14 without Jump, or a minimum of TL10. Maybe the current or modified Nations. Definitely off-Earth colonization. Being able to get from Earth to Jupiter in about a week would be nice, tho. That was the goal of the Mach/Lorentz drive, if I remember right.

 

[mike wightman]

TL9 m-drive and fusion power plants make exploitation of the solar system trivial.

TL8 where you have gravitics to lift you to orbit, fusion power and fusion rockets... much more of a challenge.

TL8 with no gravitics discovery means chemical rockets to launch and then fission or fusion rockets in space... I would take a punt on Pioneer for this.

 

[whartung]

Didn't Mongoose just release, or at least, announce a Solar System game or supplement?

Touting something like 17 skill checks to put your space suit on or some nonsense?

Ah, yes, here it is. Kickstarter, so I guess it's not quite out yet.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mongoosepublishing/the-pioneer-rpg-explore-the-solar-system

Yea, the biggest issue is Ye Olde Rocket Equation, those tiny symbols that keep us trapped in the gravity well.

It's, truly, all a matter of how fuel efficient your selected drive tech is. Everything else hinges on that, and that's simply something you get to decide to set flavor.

A 1G drive gets you to Jupiter in a week, heck that's faster than New York to London by cruise ship.

The other problem to solve is interface -- how you get on and off the planets.

Again, this is a flavor element you need to decide on.

Exploring the solar system with "modern" tech would, frankly, suck.

"2+ years to Mars!" What fun will that be!

Otherwise, modulo the whole air thing, if you're on Mars, you're "on your own". You can talk to Earth, but moving stuff suffers a 2 year delay. You could also just be in Antartica. Almost as hostile, just a little less remote.

 

[Badenov]

Does anyone remember Earth Orbit Stations? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Orbit_Stations I played the hell out of this in 87-89 before RL took my time away.

 

[Takei]

There's always the Sol System Sourcebook for Green Ronin's The Expanse RPG. I've not got it myself so can't say how much of the book is AGE system specific and how much is fluff.

 

[Spinward Scout]

There's always the Sol System Sourcebook for Green Ronin's The Expanse RPG. I've not got it myself so can't say how much of the book is AGE system specific and how much is fluff.

I'll have to get that. Jovian Chronicles might be another good one. I'll have to dig it out of a box in storage.

Does anyone remember Earth Orbit Stations? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Orbit_Stations I played the hell out of this in 87-89 before RL took my time away.

Never played it. It sounded interesting, tho.

A 1G drive gets you to Jupiter in a week, heck that's faster than New York to London by cruise ship.

The other problem to solve is interface -- how you get on and off the planets.

That's what I'm talking about. Getting around the Solar System as easy as possible.

I might be able to steal from Cluster Truck for the system.

TL9 m-drive and fusion power plants make exploitation of the solar system trivial.

TL8 where you have gravitics to lift you to orbit

That's sounds about right.

 

[spank]

The Artemis II Moon mission has sparked some curiosity for me. I'd like to see how we colonize our solar system in game terms. It's a game I'd like to play in. Retrieving comets from the Oort cloud at the edge of the solar system. To be used for terraforming Mars. Mining the Asteroid Belt. Drilling water from Europa, and so on...

What would be the best supplement for doing that?

Orbital 2100, by Zozer Games, looks interesting, but it seems limited to the Earth and the Moon, with moons of Jupiter and Saturn being side quests.

Outworld, by Zozer Games, could be good, too.

World Builders Handbook, by Mongoose, seems like a good choice, but maybe too much.

I don't know what else is out there for this kind of thing.

And I don't want to 'reinvent the wheel' if it's already been done.

Does anyone have any ideas for this?

2100 covers a bit more than Earth and the Moon, There are people on all the planets out to Neptune. And Far Horizon features a mission to intercept and explore a rouge planet in the Kuiper Belt.

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

 

[Takei]

Far Horizon (as mentioned by Spank) is a nice little scenario. Also from Zozer:

Outpost Mars, a prequel to Orbital 2100.

Pioneer Station, a 600 dT generic industrial platform that be used just anywhere in the system.