Space. The Final Frontier. These are the science fiction RPGs that I’d love to play, if only I could find the time, crew, and mental bandwidth to play them:
- Eclipse Phase, 2nd Edition – A new, allegedly easier to play, iteration of the post-human science fiction/horror role-playing game.
- Paranoia – The satirical (and usually fatal) role-playing game in which players are given six clones and a laser pistol by their friend Computer, and told to solve a problem.
- Star Trek Adventures – I’ve had the core rule book for years, and thanks to a Humble Bundle, a ton of the PDFs.
2022 Update: I’ll add this this list:
- Alien – the atmospheric, dread-filled RPG in which you only roll for the crucial decisions. It’s also the game I keep buying rulebooks for, and not playing (so I should really either stop buying books, or start playing the game).
- Diaspora – A Fate-based, hard science fiction RPG. Being Fate, there’s a lot of player-focused world building around creating the network of stars and planets you travel to.
- Mothership – Inspired by Alien and its myriad space horror imitators, Mothership is a rules-lite horror RPG who’s tag line is “Survive. Solve. Save. Pick one.” I backed the kickstarter, which is arriving in November (fingers crossed)
- Mutant Crawl Classics – The apocalyptic spin-off of Dungeon Crawl Classics is an Old School style, retro-RPG that borrows heavily from the legacy of Gamma World. Mutants abound, artificial intelligences are gods, and there’s all manner of weirdness lurking in the wastelands.
- Gaslands Refueled – Technically, this Car Wars-inspired, Matchbox-car modding homeage to Death Race 2000 isn’t an RPG. But I still want to play it.
- Those Dark Places – An “industrial science fiction” role-playing game in the vein of Alien, Outland, and Blade Runner.
- Savage Ringworld – The Blackrazor Guild’s sci-fi Savage Worlds campaign, inspired by Larry Niven’s Ringworld launched during the pandemic and lasted a few sessions. I’d like to bring it back. Check out my posts on the campaign over at Lair of Secrets.