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Old 05-26-2020, 12:05 AM   #61
doctorevilbrain
 
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Default Re: GURPS - Space Opera?

The Enterprise wasn't being chased by the Romulans, it was chasing the Romulans.
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Old 05-26-2020, 04:52 AM   #62
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Default Re: GURPS - Space Opera?

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Originally Posted by Inky View Post
If so, presumably it'd have to come down on one side or the other about whether FTL communication is possible. But you could still have both options available by having it invented some time after FTL travel in the setting's history, and allowing for GMs to set their campaigns in the pre- or post-FTL communications era.
You can also have different types of FTL coms. I like "slow" short distance FTL coms, so that ships can talk with planets without relevant time lag delays. But as long as it is significantly slower than ships, it´s almost useless for interstellar communications. Limit the range to a dozen AU or so, and you may cover most of a system with relay stations, but an interstellar chain of relay stations will be unaffordable, or only exist between the most important systems, though an established courier ship system will be cheaper and faster and less easily disabled by taking out a single relay station.
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Old 05-26-2020, 06:37 PM   #63
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Default Re: GURPS - Space Opera?

I've heard the problem with a general Space Opera line comparable to Dungeon Fantasy best summed up as "Science fiction has settings, fantasy has tropes."
You can do a general Fantasy line because everyone agrees on what an elf or orc is but aliens don't work that way. If you include Vulcans you're automatically doing something based on Trek, if you have Wookies you're doing Star Wars. If you're introducing a home-brewed species you're in you're own setting that you have to sell to the players on it's own merits. The same goes for what technology exists and what super-science is allowed in a world.
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Old 05-26-2020, 07:00 PM   #64
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Default Re: GURPS - Space Opera?

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I should mention that during the recent Fnordcon, Douglas Cole announced that he had permission to do a DFRPG-like GURPS-based SF game, which I think falls under the general heading of space opera without making the mistake of trying to be a comprehensive space opera game. It's going to be an "early days of expansion into the galaxy" sort of game inspired by things like X-Com and the Stargate franchise. He hasn't, last I heard, started actually writing it, but he has plans and is doing research (which is to say, binge-watching SG-1).
I even got my wife hooked.

"Do you want to watch something else tonight?"
"NO!"

(Also

Her: "You know...that guy kinda does look like MacGuyver."
Me: " . . . "
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Old 05-26-2020, 07:01 PM   #65
DouglasCole
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Default Re: GURPS - Space Opera?

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...inspired by things like X-Com and the Stargate franchise.
I will also mention "Old Man's War" by John Scalzi as an inspiration as well, though less so later books of that series than the implied setting of just the first one.
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Old 05-26-2020, 09:11 PM   #66
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Default Re: GURPS - Space Opera?

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Originally Posted by rkbrown419 View Post
I've heard the problem with a general Space Opera line comparable to Dungeon Fantasy best summed up as "Science fiction has settings, fantasy has tropes."
You can do a general Fantasy line because everyone agrees on what an elf or orc is but aliens don't work that way. If you include Vulcans you're automatically doing something based on Trek, if you have Wookies you're doing Star Wars. If you're introducing a home-brewed species you're in you're own setting that you have to sell to the players on it's own merits. The same goes for what technology exists and what super-science is allowed in a world.
The tropes can sometimes be applied to SF, too. Consider Star Trek. Vulcans are elves, Klingons are orcs, the Horta are earth elementals, Apollo is a god, etc.
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Old 05-26-2020, 09:54 PM   #67
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Default Re: GURPS - Space Opera?

SF has plenty of tropes as well, though good SF, like good fantasy, focuses more on characters and settings more than it does on tropes.
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Old 05-27-2020, 08:28 AM   #68
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Default Re: GURPS - Space Opera?

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...Her: "You know...that guy kinda does look like MacGuyver."
Me: " . . . "
Better than McGruber. ;)
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Old 05-27-2020, 09:48 AM   #69
Michael Cule
 
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Default Re: GURPS - Space Opera?

Well, if it happens I'll look forward to the SPACE OPERA ROLEPLAYING GAME POWERED BY GURPS.

I think it's sort of a shame that we don't have the SF equivalent of BANESTORM. Not the Space Opera setting but a Space Opera Setting.

Me, I want Ruritania in the Galaxy (or may be EN GARDE IN SPAAAACE...) with duels and force swords.
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Old 05-28-2020, 02:56 AM   #70
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Default Re: GURPS - Space Opera?

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I will also mention "Old Man's War" by John Scalzi as an inspiration as well, though less so later books of that series than the implied setting of just the first one.
I am HERE for this! I even think that the last couple entries return to form a bit, after John Perry’s family exits the story.
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