Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 03-10-2012, 09:23 PM   #1
apoc527
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Seattle, WA
Default [Poll] What is your favorite sci-fi setting to use with GURPS?

I'm trying to get a feel for what GURPS does best in terms of sci-fi games. To avoid the discussion of "what does sci-fi" mean it means everything from the hardest science fiction to the runniest space fantasy a la Star Wars and includes the in betweenness of Mass Effect, Star Trek, Babylon 5, and a myriad of other well-known and less known settings.

My dilemma is born of the vast possibilities with GURPS. Clearly, "hard SF" would do wonderful in GURPS. But I suspect so would more of a space opera-y setting and, with the right "switches," even a Star Wars style fantasy.

I'd like to place ONE extremely major restriction on the settings discussed for this thread though: the setting must be spacefaring science fiction. This rules out Reign of Steel, Infinite Worlds, and any other setting that is science fiction but lacks at least interplanetary travel as a significant component of the setting. Thus, THS is fine, as is Stargate SG-1, but Cyberpunk style games are probably not.

So, with that caveat, what have you run and enjoyed using GURPS? What settings played to GURPS's strengths?

Thanks!
apoc527 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-10-2012, 09:33 PM   #2
lachimba
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Sydney
Default Re: [Poll] What is your favorite sci-fi setting to use with GURPS?

I like THS
lachimba is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-10-2012, 10:23 PM   #3
chandley
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Re: [Poll] What is your favorite sci-fi setting to use with GURPS?

Ive done both a Living Steel campaign (Strike rail era to Rhand era, so there is/was space travel) conversion and a Trinity/Aberrant/Adventure conversion. Both seemed to work quite well.

GURPS, especially now that Tactical Shooting is out, is the best possible successor to the venerable and frankly overly complex and fiddly (but still attractive for all that) Phoenix Command system. GURPS Psionics and Supers basically built my Aberrant/Trinity conversion FOR me (I mean, I had to actually build out all the Aberrant powers, but it wasnt too bad).
__________________
My GURPS stuff
chandley is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-10-2012, 10:28 PM   #4
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: [Poll] What is your favorite sci-fi setting to use with GURPS?

Reviewing my records, I see that my first campaign was GURPS Uplift, and I've run two in Transhuman Space since then. All worked reasonably well, though the first THS had no space travel and the second has only ventured off earth in the past couple of months. I'm really very happy with Transhuman Space as a setting.

Bill Stoddard
whswhs is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 03-10-2012, 10:44 PM   #5
apoc527
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Seattle, WA
Default Re: [Poll] What is your favorite sci-fi setting to use with GURPS?

It's no surprise that THS is popular around here. How about a starfaring game that is NOT GURPS: Traveller related?

Has anyone run something 2300 ADish (ok, that's technically Traveller related, but it's a completely different setting)? What about a B5 or Mass Effect inspired game?
apoc527 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-10-2012, 11:09 PM   #6
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: [Poll] What is your favorite sci-fi setting to use with GURPS?

Quote:
Originally Posted by apoc527 View Post
It's no surprise that THS is popular around here. How about a starfaring game that is NOT GURPS: Traveller related?
As I said, GURPS Uplift went reasonably well for me. It was my first GURPS campaign ever, and it convinced me to go on playing GURPS and eventually to write for it. . . .

Bill Stoddard
whswhs is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 03-10-2012, 11:13 PM   #7
apoc527
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Seattle, WA
Default Re: [Poll] What is your favorite sci-fi setting to use with GURPS?

Sorry, I'm not familiar with Uplift. Is that the David Brin series? For some reason, I thiught it was just the solar system, like THS.
apoc527 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-10-2012, 11:16 PM   #8
David Johnston2
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Default Re: [Poll] What is your favorite sci-fi setting to use with GURPS?

I liked the setting with the default assumptions of the GURPS Space Atlases. THS doesn't offer much in the way of an actual space faring game. The horizons are so limited you might as well not leave Earth. The Solar Patrol setting works nicely fused with Atomic Horror.
David Johnston2 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-10-2012, 11:33 PM   #9
jspade
 
jspade's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Top of the deck
Default Re: [Poll] What is your favorite sci-fi setting to use with GURPS?

I ran in the Vorkosigan universe before GURPS Vorkosigan came out, and it was an enjoyable and memorable campaign for the Dendarii Mercenaries, though we ultimately came to the conclusion that military role-play wasn't well suited to the players we had. I've played in campaigns based on the Babylon 5 concept (different universe, though clearly inspired by the show), a couple of Star Trek based campaigns (one Federation, one Klingons), and one THS campaign.

The settings that played to GURPS' strengths were the harder ones; Trek was not as good a fit as Babylon 5, for example. The ones that really played to it were the home-brews; GURPS as a toolkit exceeds anything else out there for creating internally consistent advanced technology, provided you know your assumptions.
__________________
[][] C. Lee Davis
© 2014 C. Lee Davis, some rights reserved

Last edited by jspade; 03-10-2012 at 11:37 PM.
jspade is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-11-2012, 05:00 AM   #10
pyratejohn
 
pyratejohn's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Columbia, Maryland
Default Re: [Poll] What is your favorite sci-fi setting to use with GURPS?

I have played Traveller, 2300AD, and Firefly using GURPS. Years ago, so long that it barely would qualify as GURPS, I dabbled in Star Trek. My favorite would be something like 2300AD, and given that Mongoose will have a new edition of 2300 out in another week or two, I can easily see myself buying it and converting it all to GURPS.
__________________
Happily RPGing since 1976.
My Gaming and Reenacting Site (under construction)
pyratejohn is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 03:46 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.