Quote:
Originally Posted by ericbsmith
The problem with that is that those are some vastly different sub-genre's to support. They vary drastically on the realism slider, on the power level slider, on the "weird powers" slider, importance of Space Battles, and even on the technology slider. Star Wars dials most of those up to 11, while Star Trek falls somewhere in the middle, and Battlestar Galactica dials them down to 2-3. I don't think you can capture all of that in a book that's anything like Dungeon Fantasy or Monster Hunters which removes the toolkit and provides a defined genre to play in. Ultimately, that's the big failing of the idea of a "Space Opera" box set, because you either need to make it so broad that it's still a tool kit - and thus fails to do the simplification that makes the Dungeon Fantasy RPG Box a good idea - or you have to narrow it down and annoy some people. I'd much rather see something like a Tales of the Solar Patrol box set, as that would at least narrow the subject down to something that can be played right out of the box.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen
I'd disagree here, actually. I think there's a bit less distance between the genres than is usually perceived.
<snip a lot of stuff I agree with.>
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And yet, I'd argue that Star Wars is the middle ground, say at about an 8 on the dial, Star Trek is a 9, and Galactica (original, not the really lousy new series (great graphics, terrible story)) is maybe a 7.5.
Buck Rogers is somewhere in between them.
All the rest is cosmetic, or far enough below the resolution of mechanics that they may as well be cosmetic.
I'll also note that to most people outside of these forums, Star Wars/Trek pretty well define the middle point of space science fiction.