Metamorphosis Alpha and Gamma World both can be played as gritty, dark, light, goofy, comedic or serious as desired.

There are elements of both games that lean much more to fantasy than science. The way  radiation and mutations work for instance.

'Dogs of Hades' mixed Greek/Hellenic influences with space-faring and elements of the classic epics. Interestingly they used gods, the Hellenic city state gods in this instance, as an explanation for the magic.

Carcosa fits the bill.

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;860986Well, there are two Luther Arkwright RPGs...

True, but Luther Arkwright strikes me as much less 'trippy' than Cornelius which had a central character raving in a coffin for much of one of the books and a chocolate covered bishop. Its been a while since I read them but those are real stand out moments.

Why am I the first to say Tekumel:)?

Tekumel!

Also, Skyrealms of Jorune and the original setting of Tenra Bansho Zero deserve a mention, though TBZ might count as silly depending on who's reading it;).

Manhunter.  Disregard the pathetic Rifts port.  

Lesser advice would be merging Traveller with Adventurer and doing what you love with the setting.

Quote from: AsenRG;861061Why am I the first to say Tekumel:)?

Tekumel!

You're not.

From novels there are two series that spring to mind. Not certain if they really fit your bill though, technically they are straight sci-fi.

Dream Park by Larry Niven et. al. Giant Disneyland like parks that run professional LARP games as sporting events in the near future. Computers and holograms simulate magic spells, sword blows, rifle shots, etc.

Riverworld by Philip Jose Farmer. All of humanity is reborn on a world reshaped by aliens to be one long continuous river. The humans are forced into a primitive existance as the world displays advanced technology which is almost magical in effect. Who is doing it, why and what it all means are the big mysteries.

[Farmer also wrote The World of Tiers series about super-advanced humans creating whole worlds and dimensions. I haven't read it so I don't know how much "fantasy" is in it but I suspect alot. Reportedly Roger Zelazny cited it as inspiration for his Amber series.]

Someone mentioned Zelazny, which got me thinking that 'Lord of Light' would make for an awesome sci-fan setting.

Quote from: Simlasa;861105You're not.

Oops, sorry, I wasn't indeed! Sorry, not sure why I missed your post:)!

Quote from: Battle Mad Ronin;861188Someone mentioned Zelazny, which got me thinking that 'Lord of Light' would make for an awesome sci-fan setting.

"Lord of Light" was the system FATE was originally being created for, IIRC;).

Talislanta - science-fantasy. Robotic playable races, technology-as-magic.

The Prince of Nothing series by R. Scott Bakker. It's a staight-up fantasy whose conceits are its inhabitants are dealing with Cthulu-like race of aliens hell-bent on wiping out every living thing on the planet, but think of them as "demons". Dying for some RPG treatment.

Quote from: Battle Mad Ronin;861188Someone mentioned Zelazny, which got me thinking that 'Lord of Light' would make for an awesome sci-fan setting.

His Amber books were probably bubbling around in the back of my mind when I created my tarot based rpg Fortunes Wheel https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1613337354/fortunes-wheel
Not really the same sort of thing as the Amber RPG but both share Tarot cards and multiple worlds.

I agree 'Lord of Light' could make a good setting.

Quote from: AsenRG;861242Oops, sorry, I wasn't indeed! Sorry, not sure why I missed your post:)!


"Lord of Light" was the system FATE was originally being created for, IIRC;).

Never knew that - interesting.

Not exhaustive, but just a few thing on my bookshelves and/or play rotation. And as your definition of science fantasy seems pretty loose, I'll follow suit:

Iron Lords of Jupiter: Setting in the planetary romance vein, published in Dungeon magazine in their D20 Modern dedicated offerings of the day. I adapted it to a Flash Gordon style retro-sci fi premise using Fate (which turned out to be one of my best received convention/gameday offerings).

You can pick up Dungeon #101 and 102 over on Paizo here: http://paizo.com/products/btpy7z7a?Dungeon-Issue-101-with-Polyhedron-160

Mars: Published by Adamant as a subset of the John Carter Mars property (IIRC, only part of the source books were public domain at the time), sort of blended with other old SF/Science Fantasy source (e.g., the martians of War of the Worlds also exist there.) They originally put out a D20 Modern sourcebook (which mechanically wasn't great) and later, a sourcebook for Savage Worlds.

Masters of Umdaar A relatively new setting/adventure sourcebook for Fate, inspired by planetary romance fiction (Mars etc.) and Saturday morning cartoon fare like Thundaar. The setting material is pretty light, mostly a premise (basically: you're on a fantastic world ruled by warlords and you are an "archeonaut" *coff*dungeon crawler*coff* looking for ancient technology for your people.)

Much of the setting as it stands is a sort of old school "tables as a muse" sort of thing. You get to randomly generate what your character is (humanoid mutant, half-cyborg manta, scorpion-man, robot, etc.) and get to extrapolate what your people are like, etc. It's my flame of the moment and I hope to run a few sessions with my girls.

You can get it at rpgnow/drivethrurpg here:
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/155458/Masters-of-Umdaar--A-World-of-Adventure-for-Fate-Core

Quote from: The Butcher;860884Numenera: Monte: "Hey Butch, let's play a New Sun sort of science fantasy RPG." Me: "Fuck yeah, let's do this!" Monte: "I'l bring the super abstract, unintuitive newfangled game engine and the artwork that doesn't really fit the setting as described, and you can bring the New Sun science fantasy bits." Me: "..."

Yeah, I love the setting more than the system. I did run a short lived Fate adaptation to it for a bit. The system, though I don't love it, is serviceable, and I have run a few games of it as-is.

Rules sets are one thing; fascinating worlds for adventure can be found in non-game fiction. Why pass up Gene Wolf's creation in favor of Monte Cook's imitation?

Chaosium's Hawkmoon product, mentioned earlier, illustrates I think that if you already have a flexible system (e.g., the Basic Role Playing framework) and a world vividly described in books (e.g., the Count Brass/Runestaff series), then it doesn't take much to plug them together.

Metamorphosis Alpha is sort of a mash-up of Aldiss's Non-Stop and Hothouse. As with the later Gamma World, the main draw seems to be the catalog of mutations (and secondarily of equipment).

Having stats for such things already written up can be handy, but a sufficient set of examples as starting points may be all one needs for a different variation on that theme. So, for instance, Traveller's skills and gadgets and psionics may be plenty to do something rather different than what you might think of as a 'typical' Traveller campaign.