I'm not an expert, but I don't think the versions are different enough to matter to someone without personal experience of them. Also Mongoose are morons that can't spell or edit.
The amount of errors is truly disheartening, the economy is moronic, the adventures are plain bad. Nowadays I don't even bother pirating their stuff, I just play Savage Worlds to get into the cool laser fights and ship chases.
For traveller and battletech at least, where there is significant time delay in trans galactic communication, it at least makes sense.
Yes space feudalism is a significant part of my own sci-fi setting and I'm trying to cope how could you tell?
feudalism is pretty much the only way to maintain an empire of any proper cosmic scale if you don't have the kind of FTL that makes different planets feel like cities in the same neighborhood
It's either that, or have a million tiny fiefdoms who run things their own way, but that's a mess to write and keep track of
>feudalism is pretty much the only way to maintain an empire of any proper cosmic scale if you don't have the kind of FTL that makes different planets feel like cities in the same neighborhood
This is a cope by people that just want to larp as medieval Europe. There's no reason you couldn't just use federalism in a republican system. The USA had this shit figured out back before electricity, the idea that it's inconceivable that a spacefaring society could figure out how to upscale democracy is silly.
The reason people like feudalism is because republics are boring and monarchies are cool. Simple as.
>the idea that it's inconceivable that a spacefaring society could figure out how to upscale democracy is silly.
Any form of representative democracy completely fails when the representative you sent to vote in space parliament is 2-20 generations removed from the people who are actually living on that planet by the time he arrives. If you don't have FTL communications at minimum it just doesn't work, for the same reason that communication and travel delays caused Britain to lose control of its colonies with a delay of mere months.
And people have repeatedly said that some other system would be in play if FTL existed.
Also >Democracy >Lasting into the next century
Lmao
2 months ago
Anonymous
>Any form of representative democracy completely fails when the representative you sent to vote in space parliament is 2-20 generations removed from the people who are actually living on that planet by the time he arrives.
I can't think of a single TRPG sci-fi setting that has space travel take that long.
Moreover, it's straight up impossible to have any sort of interstellar government with such travel restrictions. You don't really seem to understand the implications of what you're suggesting. >Planet decides to secede from the kingdom. Because it takes 20 generations for the tithe ships to return empty of the tithe they were supposed to have, it's 20 generations before the king even finds out about the secession. >The king then has to send a message to the secessionists demanding their surrender or the payment of their tithes. This takes 20 more generations. The original king is long dead. The new king probably was never even aware that the planet was even his by the time he's aware they're seceding. >The planet responds "no" to the surrender demand. It takes 20 more generations before that reply is heard by the new king. >The king then has to assemble an army. He calls for troops from across the galaxy. It takes 20 generations for them to arrive. >Then the king has to end that army to the planet. Another 20 generations before they arrive. By this point everyone has forgotten that there was even a secession. Nobody even knows what's going on. They're not even sure if there's an invasion or if they're arriving to reinforce the planet. The planet is just as confused by their arrival.
All told, you're talking about a system where it takes 100 generations, or around 3,000 years, to respond to a single rebellion on a single planet.
Feudalism wouldn't work in such a scenario either.
Because:
• if I were to engage with what "sci-fi" actually means, I'd be bored out of my mind and constantly have to check the plausibility of everything
• if I were to engage with "sci-fi" as the mouthbreathing masses mislabel it, it's just fantasy anyway
So I'd rather just stick with fantasy like I'm already doing.
It's just fantasy that wants to be called something different for no reason other than marketing.
Fans of that sort of pretentiousness don't get to decide who does/doesn't have their head up their asses.
>Another hard scifi or the highway moron
There are classics in the genre that don't need to deal with orbital mechanics and other moronic shit that all you mouth breathing autists insist is required for scifi to be scifi.
Or is something like Hyperion not scifi enough for you?
All you need to do is look at what words mean for once, instead of hinging on what the sheep think.
Fantasy is the faculty or activity of imagining things, especially things that are impossible or improbable. If a work contains these things, it loses its connection to science and goes beyond fiction.
Science is the systematic study of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.
Fiction is just an untruth but could feasibly happen.
So, knowing the meanings of words, it's easy to examine how close to fantasy your "classics" are once you move past all the good feelings and fun memories they gave you and look at them without bias.
>Another hard scifi or the highway moron
There are classics in the genre that don't need to deal with orbital mechanics and other moronic shit that all you mouth breathing autists insist is required for scifi to be scifi.
Or is something like Hyperion not scifi enough for you?
I am and it's great, but my players are very conventional and don't think in terms of sci-fi very often. They get bamboozled by future-tech like automatic doors, cameras, and DNA. I suspect my players are secretly from the 1800s.
A couple of my players have said "I like fantasy more than scifi". And man does that sting. I want to call them moronic troglodytes. I don't really mean it, but I honestly am starting to hate fantasy, especially the generic kitchen sink DnD fantasy they all seem to gobble up.
Because I'm running a sci-fantasy kitchen sink made up of remnants from a dying universe. The setting is currently receiving Earth's rafio and satellite broadcast history, so future humans and aliens alike are reliving Earth culture and fandoms, but with more tech and space magic to use. There are megacorps making biotech pokemon, Astartes style power armor, Hatsune Miku sexbots, shady space wizards enchanting knock-off Swords of Omens and the like, War of the Worlds scares are happening all over again, space octillionaires terraforming and colonizing planets to recreate their favorite media, subscriptions to XenoFans and more.
Thinking of starting Traveler. Is mongoose traveler the best version? If so, which supplement is most worthwhile? they have so many
I'm not an expert, but I don't think the versions are different enough to matter to someone without personal experience of them. Also Mongoose are morons that can't spell or edit.
The amount of errors is truly disheartening, the economy is moronic, the adventures are plain bad. Nowadays I don't even bother pirating their stuff, I just play Savage Worlds to get into the cool laser fights and ship chases.
So are the previous editions of traveller better?
Didn't actually played them, on a skim it seemed too grognardy to me. I'm sure some people enjoy that.
Classic Traveller and MegaTraveller are the best versions, in that order. Everything after that is shit.
I've heard mongoose is quite good but personally I enjoy Classic. It's a solid system (once you figure out how to use it) and I keep coming back to it
I looked it up recently and apparently the new 5E is generally well received.
Because almost all sci-fi games are just fantasy games with a different aesthetic.
So you have to do the basic pseudo-medieval fantasy aesthetic Everytime or you'll die?
That's about the gist of it. Most sci-fi settings just become about feudalism in space. See Battletech, Warhammer 40k, Dune, Traveller, etc.
>feudalism in space
Absolute dezgra
For traveller and battletech at least, where there is significant time delay in trans galactic communication, it at least makes sense.
Yes space feudalism is a significant part of my own sci-fi setting and I'm trying to cope how could you tell?
feudalism is pretty much the only way to maintain an empire of any proper cosmic scale if you don't have the kind of FTL that makes different planets feel like cities in the same neighborhood
It's either that, or have a million tiny fiefdoms who run things their own way, but that's a mess to write and keep track of
>feudalism is pretty much the only way to maintain an empire of any proper cosmic scale if you don't have the kind of FTL that makes different planets feel like cities in the same neighborhood
This is a cope by people that just want to larp as medieval Europe. There's no reason you couldn't just use federalism in a republican system. The USA had this shit figured out back before electricity, the idea that it's inconceivable that a spacefaring society could figure out how to upscale democracy is silly.
The reason people like feudalism is because republics are boring and monarchies are cool. Simple as.
>the idea that it's inconceivable that a spacefaring society could figure out how to upscale democracy is silly.
Any form of representative democracy completely fails when the representative you sent to vote in space parliament is 2-20 generations removed from the people who are actually living on that planet by the time he arrives. If you don't have FTL communications at minimum it just doesn't work, for the same reason that communication and travel delays caused Britain to lose control of its colonies with a delay of mere months.
And people have repeatedly said that some other system would be in play if FTL existed.
Also
>Democracy
>Lasting into the next century
Lmao
>Any form of representative democracy completely fails when the representative you sent to vote in space parliament is 2-20 generations removed from the people who are actually living on that planet by the time he arrives.
I can't think of a single TRPG sci-fi setting that has space travel take that long.
Moreover, it's straight up impossible to have any sort of interstellar government with such travel restrictions. You don't really seem to understand the implications of what you're suggesting.
>Planet decides to secede from the kingdom. Because it takes 20 generations for the tithe ships to return empty of the tithe they were supposed to have, it's 20 generations before the king even finds out about the secession.
>The king then has to send a message to the secessionists demanding their surrender or the payment of their tithes. This takes 20 more generations. The original king is long dead. The new king probably was never even aware that the planet was even his by the time he's aware they're seceding.
>The planet responds "no" to the surrender demand. It takes 20 more generations before that reply is heard by the new king.
>The king then has to assemble an army. He calls for troops from across the galaxy. It takes 20 generations for them to arrive.
>Then the king has to end that army to the planet. Another 20 generations before they arrive. By this point everyone has forgotten that there was even a secession. Nobody even knows what's going on. They're not even sure if there's an invasion or if they're arriving to reinforce the planet. The planet is just as confused by their arrival.
All told, you're talking about a system where it takes 100 generations, or around 3,000 years, to respond to a single rebellion on a single planet.
Feudalism wouldn't work in such a scenario either.
i concerned there are no rational and straightforward rules in any setting about space battles with starships and fighter ships
Because:
• if I were to engage with what "sci-fi" actually means, I'd be bored out of my mind and constantly have to check the plausibility of everything
• if I were to engage with "sci-fi" as the mouthbreathing masses mislabel it, it's just fantasy anyway
So I'd rather just stick with fantasy like I'm already doing.
>pseud is too far up his own ass to enjoy sci fi
Your loss.
It's just fantasy that wants to be called something different for no reason other than marketing.
Fans of that sort of pretentiousness don't get to decide who does/doesn't have their head up their asses.
All you need to do is look at what words mean for once, instead of hinging on what the sheep think.
Fantasy is the faculty or activity of imagining things, especially things that are impossible or improbable. If a work contains these things, it loses its connection to science and goes beyond fiction.
Science is the systematic study of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.
Fiction is just an untruth but could feasibly happen.
So, knowing the meanings of words, it's easy to examine how close to fantasy your "classics" are once you move past all the good feelings and fun memories they gave you and look at them without bias.
>If I define words in a way nobody else in the history of fiction has, then reality can be whatever I say it is
Okay autist
>that midwit who formed his identity around how "smart" he is
>Another hard scifi or the highway moron
There are classics in the genre that don't need to deal with orbital mechanics and other moronic shit that all you mouth breathing autists insist is required for scifi to be scifi.
Or is something like Hyperion not scifi enough for you?
I would die to play a sci-fi game but there seem to be no good systems or interesting settings to play in. With fantasy I'm less picky.
Because I'm not playing any games.
I am and it's great, but my players are very conventional and don't think in terms of sci-fi very often. They get bamboozled by future-tech like automatic doors, cameras, and DNA. I suspect my players are secretly from the 1800s.
I am playing Rogue Trader actually.
A couple of my players have said "I like fantasy more than scifi". And man does that sting. I want to call them moronic troglodytes. I don't really mean it, but I honestly am starting to hate fantasy, especially the generic kitchen sink DnD fantasy they all seem to gobble up.
No one in my group is running one and i hate gming
Because I'm running a sci-fantasy kitchen sink made up of remnants from a dying universe. The setting is currently receiving Earth's rafio and satellite broadcast history, so future humans and aliens alike are reliving Earth culture and fandoms, but with more tech and space magic to use. There are megacorps making biotech pokemon, Astartes style power armor, Hatsune Miku sexbots, shady space wizards enchanting knock-off Swords of Omens and the like, War of the Worlds scares are happening all over again, space octillionaires terraforming and colonizing planets to recreate their favorite media, subscriptions to XenoFans and more.
Why are you making baseless assumptions? Is this a cry for help? A request for sci-fi games?
Still working on it. I need to figure out how to make a sci-fi/cyber-punk game out of CofD
Anyone played White Star?
No (0) friends
Why play sci-fi when you can play everything.