I might be autistic but I'm trying to understand sci-fi TRPGs after playing and DMing fantasy. When you expand the scale to planets and galaxies, interstellar armies and fleets how do you keep the PCs actions relevant? Keep their adventures localized and personal instead of involving them in grand events? Have wars stay in the background? I can get a band of heroic fantasy adventurers changing one magical fantasy world but once it gets to sci-fi scale it feels convoluted. I know there's space opera where you just shove fantasy traditions but in space. Do people enjoy that?
 It's All Fucked Shirt $22.14 |
 CRIME Shirt $21.68 |
It's All Fucked Shirt $22.14 |
>AI art
>AI post
>Bullshit non-issue
... and then people wonder why /tg/ lost over third of its posters in past two years
Rude.
>people wonder why /tg/ lost over third of its posters in past two years
I have the feeling those were mostly no fun allowed mudcore russian posters
I say good riddance
too bad we didnt lose u
>85-95 of the threads on /tg/ are shit
It's been like this for years.
Why don't you just use your mod powers to delete the thread?
If you're wondering why /tg/ is dying, look in the mirror.
Your only valid criticism is the art
> Grand Scale
Try K.O.T.O.R. 1 and 2. See how specific events on specific planets can hold sway over a war between 2 superpowers.
> Otherwise
Check Heavy Gear's lore (restricted to Terra Nova). See how Sci-Fi doesn't mean fricking Battletech's Inner Sphere.
>When you expand the scale to planets and galaxies, interstellar armies and fleets how do you keep the PCs actions relevant?
You could just involve your PCs in an epic scale battle for the good guy planet and have them blow up the alien mother ship like in independence day. Have the PCs fighting the actual battles that matter. Sure millions of star ships may be attacking the villains but yours is the one that will blow up the death star.
>Keep their adventures localized and personal instead of involving them in grand events?
You could do that too, a "planet of hats" approach where the PCs hop from planet to planet solving local problems and doing an odd job here and there can be great, or al alternatively an adventure set entirely on a single planet exploring the alien environment.
>I can get a band of heroic fantasy adventurers changing one magical fantasy world but once it gets to sci-fi scale it feels convoluted.
It's as convoluted as you will make it. Most fantasy adventurers are out raiding dungeons instead of propelling empires to begin with. Fantasy can do both obviously and so can sci-fi. You could fight a band of space pirates terrorizing the local solar system or you could take on a Galactic conqueror with a cosmic scale mega weapon.
>there's space opera where you just shove fantasy traditions but in space. Do people enjoy that?
Yes Space opera is enjoyable. But if scale is what bugs you maybe look into hard sci-fi settings without FTL where galaxy scale civilizations are ether impossible or would take a million years to fully colonize a galaxy. In such a setting, humanity would settle the solar system and the asteroid belt, and most of your adventures would happen there.
Everything would be easier if more people played steam punk games instead of space adventures.
even lotr is absolutely contrived so you are wrong about fantasy as well. players dont have to make a world-changing difference
Maybe finding a surrogate family and protecting them is enough.
It's not about making a difference. It's about playing a role.
You should read some of the better big-picture SF and pay attention to if and how the MCs change their setting by their actions.
Dune, Frank Herbert
Destiny's Road, Larry Niven
Foundation, Isaac Asimov
Ringworld, Larry Niven
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
Hyperion, Dan Simmons
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein
Wasp, Eric Frank Russell
Restoree, Anne McCaffrey
Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson
Also generally the Dumarest Saga by E.C. Tubb, and Stainless Steel Rat and Deathworld series by Harry Harrison.
Read them as campaigns, See what the stories have to say about the agency of the characters.
>When you expand the scale to planets and galaxies, interstellar armies and fleets how do you keep the PCs actions relevant?
Just like in Fantasy. You put them in pivotal positions in the plot. I mean, the Enterprise was always in the right time and place. It was also the flagship of the fleet. How is this a hard concept to grasp?
>Keep their adventures localized and personal instead of involving them in grand events?
Yes, you can do that. One of the most enduring science fiction tropes is that of the crew of a small ship traveling and doing odd jobs.
>Have wars stay in the background?
Yes, you can do that. Firefly was a fairly beloved series for all of its one season, and it takes place after the good guys already lost the war.
>I can get a band of heroic fantasy adventurers changing one magical fantasy world but once it gets to sci-fi scale it feels convoluted.
Skill issue. Unironically. The size of a Fantasy world is already beyond the scope of regular thinking. I mean, do you physically roll for every soldier in some battle that takes place in your Fantasy war? No, of course you don't. You abstract. You say "if the players don't get this vital information to the general in time, he loses the battle" or some shit.
>I know there's space opera where you just shove fantasy traditions but in space. Do people enjoy that?
They clearly do, otherwise it wouldn't be a genre. What you're describing is already closer to space opera than to traditional science fiction.
Assasination
Players don't have to be the most important people in a setting to make a difference. Most of my favorite stories are ones where a bunch of nobodies happen to be in the wrong place at the right time and end up embroiled in events far bigger than themselves. I'd prefer something like that to chosen one saves the day every time. It can feel a bit contrived but that's the beauty of coincidence, the author is in control of it.
Scale only matters outside of that contrivance. The Army might be a million ships but the macguffin that powers the super weapon can get lost or intercepted. The space ambassador can be kidnapped. The plans for the doomsday machine might be hidden in a little robot (I hate star wars but here it's proving my point).
Scale is only an issue if you let it be. You might not be able to tell a story where the PCs are the MOST important or powerful people, but those sorts of stores are, imo, a crutch so that the whole world revolves around what the GM is most focused on and nothing happens outside of it ever.
As someone who has played and GM'd a lot of the FFG 40k line - sometimes your players just have to accept that they're unimportant in the grand scheme of the setting, but that doesn't stop them from being important on their local world, solar system or even sector of space.
The trick is to make the players already important as you up the scale, however, and increase the scale of what each character is responsible for through authority and expertise rather than personal presence. A 'Fighter' in a large scale sci-fi can be a fantastic warrior or assassin, but their narrative purpose should be that of a general commanding armies unless you're going for Star Wars esque heroic space opera.
The player archetypes should follow from that same philosophy. The Rogue-type is now the Spymaster, the Wizard-type is now the Head of Research, the Fighter-type a General; you can even add in archetypes that don't exist in traditional adventure-crawling fantasy like the space noble/politician.
when the scope in game is tough big just do it make a difference where you can
Some of the best Science Fiction revolves around small people dealing with small, more personal problems. Cowboy Bebop, Do Androids dream of Electronic Sheep, Fahrenheit 451, 1984, the Bicentennial man, Rogue Planet, hell most of the Twilight Zone and the Outer Limits followed normal people.