Your fav science-fantasy RPG system?No Shadowrun

What is your favorite science fantasy system? I write "system" as I would like to play something that is build from ground up for those themes.

Technology, magic, science, cybernetics, preferably: also space ships. Some crunchiness of the rules is very welcome, but RPG are not war games and overcomplicating things is not good too(Shadowrun 4th and later additions). From other side of things: very simple rulesets(PbtA - I'm looking at you!) won't do here too.

Also I'm less willing to hear about the "settings only" - that try to do it for some other existing systems(especially anything "new DnD" derived as I simply don't like those, but OSR have some interesting things).

Of course obvious choice would be: Shadowrun - but I'm looking for something less obvious, less mainstream(if that was ever the case with Shadowrun? ;) ). As I have already discusses it in other threads. And as AFAIK it is not aimed to have space ships and exploration?

Traveller - as is probably my favorite system right now - is not "fantasy" at all... even having phonics. So is crossed out too.

I know about Numenera and Cypher systems... but still willing to hear why they are best science fantasy systems - if you really think about them in that way?

So: something less obvious, less "mainstream".

That was in general. A specific case for what I'm looking for, or putting it in other words:

I'm looking for a system that allows me to buy official/ready adventure modules:
- from fantasy systems - you can always land your ship on some underdeveloped planet that is at the level of Middle Ages and go in for some dungeons under the castle, and find there something magical, (Stare Gate-like?)
- from hard-sci fi system - space station overtaken by rouge AI - no problem with that,
- from other sicence fantasy systems - like i.e. Shadowrun, Numenera(also alien dungeons filed with magical artifacts, strange technology and the real feel of exploration of new worlds)

And then: Adopot them. And play it with the same bunch of PC moving from one planet to another. With the same rulesets. That allow for long and interesting development of PCs.

AND to still feel that the world is complete, concise and logical(as it seems with Shadowrun but it is only aimed on one planet, and fighting with corporations not so much exploration AFAIK...).

Coriolis is pretty great. It's a Middle East-themed sci-fi game. Not much fantasy, but it's different than other sci-fi games because there are gods and its a more gritty feeling. It's made by Free League and they put out high quality products.

Genesys system has many science-fantasy settings. There's Star Wars, of course, but also Salvage, Keyforge: Secrets of the Crucible, and Starcana. There's also a fan-made Final Fantasy VII book for Genesys. Never played any of these settings but they look cool!

There's a very Stargate-like game of Egyptian sci-fi called Baroque Space Opera which uses the Fate system.

Last, there's Vhain: Claim to Power which is sci-fi where you play elite warriors who travel to other worlds and have psychic powers and can gain blessings from gods.

Thanks! Those are VERY interesting recommendations. Certainly will explore them some more. Starcana looks very good also at the first glance.

But does it have some additional rules for space ship combat?

I presume you are a Genesys player, so do you find space ship combat rules in core book good enough?

The best one I have seen - providing the role and something to do for almost everyone during the space combat battle - were indeed in Corliolis. Are there similar rulesets for some of the Genesys supplements? Which one you find the best?

Hi,

If this is your goal:
... then you don't need the fluff, only the crunch. In this case, I would recommend that you just pick a generic system. Some that could easily implement science fantasy settings include Fate, Cortex Prime, Savage Worlds or GURPS.

I am a fan of Genesys, but not in PbP; too much back and forth needed for the narrative dice. I've only used Genesys for Star Wars and an 80s/90s brawler setting, so I unfortunately can't answer anything about ship combat.

Rifts

The Savage Worlds adaptation is excellent, and I would happily play that game. If you haven't given it a try I strongly suggest you check it out.

Palladium had (has) a Robotech system using their standard percentile mechanic that I played the hell out of in the 90's. Awesome stuff, all the main serialized sagas (Macross, Southern Cross and Invid) were included in their own books.

Take a look at Dark Sun, perhaps?

Love Dark Sun. So ahead of its time for a DND publication back then and what a cool world concept they built.

Saw Stardrifter ttrpg online. It's free to play and that would be a cool ttrpg to play as a play by post game. you basically have a ship and you fly in outer space and get to explore planets, avoid supernovas and stuff.

The best system I can suggest at the moment would be FrontierSpace. It uses DwD Studio's D00-Lite system (well, an evolution of it, really). This means the combats are dynamic as combattants gains progressively worse penalties the more actions they perform in a round.

The Frontier is pretty well established, has a rich history going back for hundreds of years, and has several powerful factions and corporations. Still, everything is superficially described to help you make your setting your own.

The Referee's Guide as plenty of good advice on making your own sector of space and your own alien species. There are also plenty of published scenarios available, both official and from 3rd party publishers so that your players should easily progress to about Rank 3 or 4 (out of 10).

Any flaws would be that the system is oddly obsessed with multiple of 5s compared to past iteration of the system, but hey, it still works. Specialized skills are odd in that you'll never roll them under their actual score until a few Skill Abilities are later purchased. I'm also not a huge fan of armor that just grants people another pool of "HP" opponents have to punch through in order to harm the person inside...


Another good contender would be Aliens & Asteroids which sells itself as a mix of Starship Troopers, X-Com, and Lovecraftian cosmic horror, and yeah, I can totally see it! The universe is a bit more fleshed out that in FrontierSpace, but you'll have to search a bit to find published material for it, such as purchasing the Ouroboros magazine, or searching the defunct A&A section via the Way Back Machine on Gallant Knight Games' website.

Thanks for all suggestions!

One game that I found recently and looks very promising in this subject is: Subversion RPG - by Fragging Unicorns Games. Recently was on KS and the provided some test rules.

Looks like having all the aspects of Shadowrun, but don't have buckets of dice.

We will see:)

Subversion looks like it could be good! I'd be interested to see the rules to see if it is as good as I hope.

It looks like their test rules are still available form their KS... so here you are:
Subversion+v0.50.pdf

:) Looking forward for any opinion(as I don't have time currently to analyze the rules deeper) and if you will ever consider GMing it here on GP - count me in as first player! :)

Awesome, thanks! I'll give it a read this weekend.

I still have a love of Spelljammer. Just rock it in all its AD&D glory.

Also Trinity isn't science fantasy but the psions there are basically magic users so I'd count that if you like the white wolf style "here are the ten tribes, er clans, er aspects, er" style.

For science-fantasy, I need look no further than Savage Worlds. It really is a versatile system, but you asked for something specifically designed for such. I should note that Traveller is perfectly capable of doing science fantasy just fine with minimal changes to the system (see Flynn's Guide to Magic in Traveller). My favorite fantasy science-fiction setting was Alternity, though it is hard to find now (the original), or Gamma World, though GW is more of a setting unto itself. If you are a Star Wars fan, then really, the original d6 System can't be beat. And then there was Spelljammer, which really did justice to science-fantasy.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I like Traveller, but I feel that still didn't discover it full potential. But I like its "serious" attitude to the subject:)

This Flynn's looks interesting. Someday I will buy it and read:)

I'm a fun of SW too, but in this case it seams too generic - as you mentioned I look for something with "dedicated science-fantasy feel".

You mean: this Alternity??

Gamma World and Spelljammer is from DnD family.... and somehow I don't like this rule sets. I don't know, maybe to rigid. Maybe I don't like the "most popular things"... :) I know they are part of history, but I prefer other rules system. (But I like Knave! and it's hacks:) )

I'm looking "at" some d6 systems for some time now. They really seem to have something interesting in them.

But how you would compare Mini Six: Bare Bones Edition isn't it the same but condensed ?

If I would have to define what I'm looking for it would be: ruleset supporting science-fantasy feel as much as The One Ring ruleset supports "Tolkien feel" being very elegant at the same time.

Maybe Fria Ligan will release some science-fantasy system that is not too dark some day? I hope so:)

I had a lot of fun with the Palladium system for Robotech: Invid Invasion back in the 90's, a dystopian sci-fi setting with an ever-present alien oppressor. The Palladium system is well done if a little crunchy but I found it easy to absorb as a teenager so I'm sure it would be easy for you.

Nope, the one that predates that. The system that was the predecessor to that one.
I'm honestly not sure, as I've never read the Mini-Six rules, but I've added them to my cart and intend to rectify that. I will provide a more in-depth answer when I have read them.