What are we playing here?

Monster of the Week would be for an Urban Fantasy game, not sci-fi. There are some slightly more sciencey Playbooks in the Tome of Mysteries, but still not 'sci-fi'.

If we wanted sci-fi-ish Urban Fantasy, I would probably just go with Apocalypse World and set it in 'modern times'. Might bring in some of the Patreon Playbooks for that.

@TheGenerator: What about Sci-Fi are you interested in? We can tailor the system choice around that.

I wanna shoot lasers, talk to robots, replace limbs with machines, explore planets and abandoned spaceships.
If we're doing sci-fi, I'd like to go all out!

I asked about MotW on the GP discord and Falconloft showed me this:
Planet of the week
What do you guys think about that one?

So you are OK with space combat, you just don't want it to be a dominant factor? That is fine for most of the space game systems we have discussed.

I do feel I should also mention Offworlders to this group since it is WoDu based space/sci-fi. It is a pretty nifty game, and I am a fan of WoDu, but I did find that 'space' needed a wee bit more structure than WoDu or Offworlders offers. If we are keen, I can easily make it work.
I had not seen that. Like others, it is just reskinned Playbooks and Moves, so it is easy enough. I am not sure what MotW brings to the table though, aside from Use Tech and Technobabble (terrible name for the Workshop Move).

We can take a look at those Playbooks and Moves, compare them to Impulse Drive, Star Wars World, or Offworlders (I must check if Offworlders' reference sheets are available, else I will dup them here (I have them in markdown, so it is easy enough to export to bbcode (missing the bulleted lists)), or make a drive share with what we need), and we can decide on a system, or Traveller. If people have strong feelings, I can make do with Uncharted Worlds as well.

Yes, pretty much that. I'm fine with having spaceships, but no emphasis on huge space battles. Something like Engage ship -> shoot a few times -> board -> normal battle/dungeon would be fine by me.
I'd like a character sheet with a few more bits on it. In FFA I find myself lacking inspiration at times because my character sheet is so limited.
Exactly. I didn't mention is because it's a preference for me, but it's PbtA and I've seen some MotW recommendations going around, people seem to like it.
I'm quite curious to try Traveler, tbh. So, definitely would be up for that still. Or any other system you/we feel is appropriate.
Haha, I totally agree there!

You think you might be a ship-taker? Is 'hostile boarding' a thing you are particularly keen on, or just an example?
Yes, that is why I keep trying to point out to people that these simple games are not the best fit for new players. Really new players can benefit from the simplicity, but once they get past the stage where they have to rely on the GM for all answers at each decision point anyway, the lack of any guidance hurts, they can't branch out on their own. Normal PbtA is good at that stage, since they have a nice list of things they can do, this lets them know what to think about, and then PbtA Moves get out of the way once they gain some proficiency.

WoDu is ideal for both very new and very experienced players --who have seen hundreds of Moves and Playbooks-- but most players fall somewhere in between those and need a little more from a system.
I like it. I still maintain that it has the best magic system of any game.

We can always do a MotW game as well. There is a fair bit of interest. Maybe once this is settled in?
Me too, but it does not need to be with this group.

It was just an example. A space bounty-hunter type of game in a star wars universe could be pretty fun. Instead of "Planet of the week" it could be "Bounty of the week" for instance.But it can be. And if it doesn't work, we can always switch. Maybe we should just set up a poll and vote on it? We could be playing the "But this might also be interesting"-game forever :P

Adding it to the list.
With two players?

My problem with polls is that they don't come with discussions about why a choice is made. So often, during follow up, it turns out everyone just went with what they thought the others wanted, but most often the answer I see is "it was an option from the list, and I had to pick one".
If we want to go with Monster of the Week, then sure. If we want to go with sci-fi first, then we go with that. We can always make an MotW game later.

If we go with sci-fi, then we have a few systems to look at, and can weight the pros and cons easily enough once we know the sort of game we want to play.

If sci-fi/space, we would decide on Traveller vs PbtA; and, if PbtA, we can look at which one to use, by examining the Playbooks and Moves and seeing which set fits the game the best.
We have a fairly narrow list (think about the 'off the top of my head' list I started this thing with:). Really only three decisions, leading on from each other. (With a possible fourth of 'do we recruit a red shirt... er... spare... er...nother).

Let's see what @TrailHead says.

Fair points.

Yes, let's see what his opinion is. :)

Sorry for the delay - I started to write a post yesterday but then got interrupted.

I have a hard copy of the Mongoose Traveller 2e core book, but all my other Traveller materials are pdfs. It would be cool to have physical copies of the little black books.

I am interested in playing Traveller but also would be up for one of the PbtA options discussed above.

I have not looked at MotW, but have heard good things. I would rather try a sci fi game first, though, and we seem to have momentum towards that.

So I think you’re right that it comes down to picking Traveller or PbtA. I’m good either way, seriously.

Traveller could be bent towards Star Wars, but that’s not it’s natural flavor of sci fi, at least to me. If we decide to go for a Star Wars science fantasy space opera feel, then I’d vote PbtA. Having our game be in the spirit of Star Wars is not a must for me, though I think I’d enjoy it.

Another thought I had about Traveller is that character generation is a cool mini game in itself but I’m not sure how that would translate to PbP.

I agree having a more substantial character sheet or playbook would be helpful, compared to WoDu.

Oh and I agree about ship to ship space combat being short and sweet rather than a focus.

It happens. :)
Apparently they are easier to come by than the original brown (or were they beige?) books of DnD (from the same time).
Settled then. Sci-fi it is.
OK, let me get Traveller and give it a read, unless I find it unpalatable (decades old nostalgia might not live up to the hype, or PbP may conflict) we can start with that. If we find it does not work, then we can change later.
Yeah, I don't recall it being a perfect fit, we can make Psi (The Force) a large part of our Traveller if that is what we want from Star Wars, if it is just the grunge aspect, we can emulate that easily enough by sticking to such locations.
Yes, I think you are probably right.

@TheGenerator: How much 'fantasy' do you want in your sci-fi? Traveller can do quite hard sci-fi, if we want.
I think it would play very well in PbP. We may have to make a few decisions ahead of time to streamline it.

If we know that we are all doing the same number of Terms (and now my age is showing and I can not recall what they are called... let's go with 'Terms') we can do what the books suggested (but what seldom worked at the table) and look at/for Connections between the characters after every cycle. All players can do their Term at the same time, rather than needing to wait and take turns --as they did at the table-- so PbP could make that easier.

We don't have to decide on the number of Terms, just that we are starting at the same point in time, then we can do what I preferred, which is to keep playing Terms together till we decide to stop (everyone needs to stop at the same point).

I was also almost thinking about doing Traveller Character Creation as the whole game. I have had groups that did not continue after CC and enjoyed the 'game' tremendously. I am not proposing we do that here, just saying that it is also an option, just an extreme version of 'we can change systems later'. :)
Offworlders has 'proper' playbooks, but is still closer to WoDu (as it is WoDu) than it is to bigger PbtAs.

As with Star Wars, I think psychic powers should be a rare thing. The movies are all about people with powers, so it's a bit biased in that regard. Most people/aliens in the universe do not have that ability. And there are definitely some bad-asses without powers.

Basically, I'd like to have rare occurrences of unexplained mysteries.

Technically you can always explain magic as science we haven't figured out yet. So where does Sci-Fi end and Fantasy begin?
From what I gathered (Disclaimer: it was just a YouTube video), any character can keep going with new terms until they feel like stopping. Others can keep going if they want to. The terms also determine your age, which would mean all characters would be the same age when we start. Or am I thinking of the wrong thing?

Cool, that is the default for Traveller. Feel free to try to angle the random character generator to give them to you, but don't hold your breath. You can always pursue Psi training during the game.
Yep, which clashes with the other rules that suggest Finding connections between the characters after each four year Term.
Yes, the rules are unwavering (though I am not) that you start your first Term at age 18 and each term is 4 years, and your age matters.
By the rules yes...

But, as you observed above, the ending Term defines your age when we start playing, and therefore also defines when you started. So we can each do a different numbers of terms, but then we have to either wait till the end before making Connections (a significant mechanical element of the game which gives Skills and such on the sheet), or know ahead of time how many Terms each character will do, else we can not work out during which Term they may have crossed paths. We basically have to work backwards from the current date, which works well enough, especially with PbP where can go back and read what happened during each Term.

We can work out the details, and decide which method of Connecting the characters we want once we have looked at the book. The new books may have solved this problem, but I don't believe so, they yew fairly close to the original.

I always preferred letting the Mustering out happen when it seemed right during character creation, rather than knowing we are only doing 'X Term characters'.

Depending on the number of players, making Connections can be quite straightforward. I recall having much larger groups back then.

Oh, I see. I did not know that. I'm fine with doing it your way if that would make things easier :)

Thread renamed. Nobody panic. Keep your and hands and heads inside the thread at all time.

I doubt I will have time to open Traveller before tomorrow night, but will try to read it over the weekend and decide (but I am optimistic).

I kind of like our characters not necessarily being the same age, the way Traveller usually works, with each player deciding how many terms. It’s a little of a push your luck mechanism. But if it makes it easier, we could decide up front on a minimum number of terms, then when we reach that decide together whether or not to continue, one term at a time. That way we could make connections after each term and end up the same age, but have some flexibility on the number of terms.

I like what TheGenerator is saying about magic/psionics being rare and that this is the source of unexplained mysteries. And that it is science we haven’t figured out yet. That is how I picture it, too.

Have a good read, VagueGM. I’ll break out my book and give it a reread this weekend as well.

I generally agree. It has the small benefit of making stronger connections (you could have grown up together) but often makes for less interesting relationships going forward.
True. I remember that now. That was one of the main reasons we left it open ended, and was an important part of the fun of Character Creation. I would not want to loose that part.

You can't die in character creation anymore, so there is less luck being pushed (I think) till aging comes into play. But it is still a big part of the process.

Ignore what came before. We can just go back and find connections when everyone is finished. I will make a thread for each character and they can run at their own pace.
Good. That is how the book does (did?) it by default. So that is easy.

This all sounds good to me. Getting excited about playing - including character creation and group world building.

I highly recommend Seth Skorkowsky’s series of you tube videos on how to play Traveller.

Me too.

I have got the rulebook open, and hope to get a moment to start reading soon... (here's hoping:)
Cool, thanks. He does some good stuff. I don't usually care for other-people's-RPG-stories, but his are good.