Traveller (any edition)
D6 Star Wars
then it gets difficult..

Star Frontiers: Still one of my favorite SF RPGs for its nearly hard SF style. Ignore the art which ignores the game and go.

Universe: If only because it has one of the most robust system generation systems Ive seen.

the original Albedo: Aside from the non-human cast its one of the better hard fiction games out there. Avoid "platinum edition" like the plague.

Another vote for D6 star wars. It got so much right! Even as I moved to 2nd ed and Revised and Expanded, one thing from the first edition that I prefer (and use) is starship speed being expressed in dice rather than a static number. So much better for running chase scenes!

I want to say Traveller, although I feel handicapped a little by not having played all the other contenders.  (Never played Star Wars for instance.  :eek:)

I actually have a soft spot for Spacemaster, but... a soft spot doesn't mean best.  

Stars Without Number has the best back end for GM tools I've seen, but class-and-level does nothing for me in sci fi.  It strikes me as a weird that a game explicitly built to let you use D&D monsters and dungeons in space gets praised for serious sci fi, but the praise seems sincere, so I just have to conclude people are seeing something I don't.

I really can't answer this question... I suppose that's a good thing for SF RPGs, that there are so many good ones.

However, the "Best SF RPG that you have never heard of" would be Humanspace Empires. Second place in this category would be Machinations of the Space Princess.

Quote from: RPGPundit;801934What SF RPG do you think, of all those ever made, was the very best?  Note that this is across all SF genres, for 'overall best', it doesn't matter whether it was space opera or hard sf or whatever.

I would rate a few editions of Traveller as the very best Scifi Rpgs. Classic Traveller, MegaTraveller, and (to a much lesser extent) Mongoose Traveller.

Some others I would rate highly:

• Jovian Chronicles/Heavy Gear - I'm not really a fan of mecha, but I enjoy both DP9 settings. I also have a soft spot for the Silhouette system. I have yet to run JC, but I ran HG about 10 years ago and had a great time.
  
• Blue Planet v2 - brilliant, well-developed setting; interesting game system. Frankly, the best published Scifi Rpg setting I've ever read.
  
• Star Frontiers - I've loved this Rpg since I first bought it around 1982. Just a blast to play, with a few good published adventures.
  

Classic Traveller (though I only played it as a kid), then Star Frontiers (again only played it as a kid), then D20 Future.  I have never played Star Wars however, so I do not doubt that would beat something like d20 Future.

Quote from: Just Another Snake Cult;801999I really can't answer this question... I suppose that's a good thing for SF RPGs, that there are so many good ones.

However, the "Best SF RPG that you have never heard of" would be Humanspace Empires. Second place in this category would be Machinations of the Space Princess.

Two great entries! We all seem to remember only SWN when "OSR SF RPGs" comes up but these two rock.

I'll also throw in Hulks & Horrors as the best "D&D in Space" (as in, D&D's premise, not just system) game out there. SWN is a better toolkit but H&H is refreshingly quirky and soft-SF-ish about it.

FGU's Space Opera would have got my vote if the quality of game systems had been a match for the scope of elements. As in the ads for a spaghetti sauce, "It's in there!" was the answer to almost any classic space-opera gadget, creature, etc., one might think of.

Unfortunately, the rules were a spaghetti-noodle snarl of design by a commitee in which the left hand really did not know what the right hand was doing. Once one figured out character generation, it was so complex and time consuming, I expect a lot of people just gave up on actual play - though as I recall that was much easier.

Building starships and playing out battles was a snap, though, and almost perfectly captured the inertialess action of Doc Smith's Lensmen saga.

Quote from: Will;801939I'm going to nominate (or back) GURPS Space, though not because it's necessarily the best to play, but because GURPS Space is a sourcebook I'd recommend ANYONE doing multi-star system scifi games (or writing!) to buy.

Same here, though I'm not acquainted with editions beyond the first two (iirc). The earlier Humanx book is great for fans of Foster's novels, but Space is an all-round resource. Some minor errors may have been corrected in later editions.

GDW's 2300 AD line impressed me with its setting. The planet books were very vivid, and  like the whole line were better grounded in science/engineering fact and speculation than usual for games.

The mechanics seemed a bit offputting to me at first, but quickly became easy to use.

Blue Planet is a game I admired from what I saw of it in the store, but I never got more fully acquainted with it.

I actually wrote for Blue Planet (Natural Selection), but I wasn't very fond of the system. Fun setting and material, though.

Speaking of FFG games, Dragonstar also has a fun premise -- literally D&D in space. Again, I thought the system was weak (it basically stuck guns into D&D without adjustment), but the ideas are fun.
(I also contributed to Imperial Supply)

As adaptations from other media, Chaosium's Ringworld, FASA's  Star Trek and West End's Star Wars are outstanding. My favorite of those is Ringworld. It is for the most part an excellent rendition of Niven's Known Space (Chaosium's additions being of variable quality).

For sheer influence, West End takes the prize for the game's contributions to later SW canon.

From a critical standpoint, I'd have to say there are a lot of really good games out there -- Ringworld is oft-forgotten but deserves props, WEG Star Wars is incredible, Traveler is a classic for a reason.  I love Blue Planet and Eclipse Phase.

But my heart says Fading Suns.  It's the Glorantha of sci-fi settings.  I ran a couple of my best campaigns ever with it.  It's just my fave.  System wonkiness, and the fact that the current license-holders have done nearly nothing with it aside, it's been so good to me, I have to give it the respect it deserves.

I don't think there is a credible challenger to Classic Traveller. I accept that Mongoose did an excellent job revising and republishing this material, but in my book that doesn't make it better than the original. Particularly considering how well the original holds up on its own.

There are other great scifi roleplaying games, but none have Traveller's scope and flexibility. And, it is the only scifi rpg that really 'gets' the intent behind campaigns in table top roleplaying. Traveller clearly aims to have players make long term plans and seize control of the arc of the campaign. In my mind, that is the pinnacle of table top role playing.