1. Alternity using the Star*Drive setting. This setting was magnificent. Lot's of fun details in there.

2. GURPS Traveller. Crunchy and interesting. I still don't dig the setting much, I always kibbled my own thing out of it. :-)

Honorable mention: Mercenary Breed by Mystic Throne Entertainment for the Legend system. I haven't played yet, but I'm currently running a Legend game, so it could be fun.

Honorable mention 2: HARP Sci-fi. I'm digging HARP after I realized I was running it wrong. :-)  Has a generic and useful setting baked in that handles the space opera thing without being cumbersome. Haven't tried it yet, but I'm prepping an adventure for a local Con, so I will be play-testing it soon.

1. Star Frontiers. My first and still favorite sf rpg.

2. Mongoose Traveller. Everything you need in one small book. All other books are just options.

Like just about everybody here, there's multiple games I count as being "the best of all time" for a variety of reasons...

The Progenitors
For me these games were the Big Bang of the genre and related subgenres in RPGs...
   

• Classic Traveller
• Gamma World
• Star Frontiers
• Mekton/Mekton II/MZ
• Cyberpunk 2013 and 2020
• Shadowrun

Old School Next Generation
These are - for me - representative of the old school revival in SF games. In my opinion, Mongoose Traveller pretty much outranks SWN in that it has made the best come back through the OGL...
   

• Mongoose Traveller
• Stars Without Number

Most Accessible and Greatest of All Time
D6 Star Wars has a lot going for it in my estimation, and I confess that I'm biased with regard to this game. I grew up with Star Wars and this was the game that got me back into RPGs. D6 Star Wars has an easy to learn system tied to one of the most recognizable settings. Just grab the rulebook, pencils, paper, steal the dice out of your family's boardgames and *BOOM* - you're ready to go. It's because of all these things that it's the greatest of all time for me.
   

• D6 Star Wars (all editions)

Later!

Harl

Quote from: trechriron;8020401. Alternity using the Star*Drive setting. This setting was magnificent. Lot's of fun details in there.

One thing I noticed was that the background for the Bughunters Amazing Engine setting fit rather neatly into the Star*Drive setting's history. Bughunters worked really well with the clone soldiers being the Union of Sol's dark secret... Even the boundaries of human space fit neatly within the borders of the Union of Sol on the Star*Drive map. :cool:

Later,

Harl

I'm going to go with WEG D6 Star Wars too. I'm not even that big a Star Wars fan but it was the first game system I came across that I found I could really relate to, a game that shared the same priorities as I did. These days I think there are quite a few games in that mold (medium-light rules, cinematic and character-centric) but at the time it felt very fresh and different to me.

Even now I still feel the 1st edition is the ideal introductory, full, non-crippleware roleplaying game ever made.

I'm also really like Bulldogs! (Fate edition) but takes bit more work.

The answer should be the 40k games, as WFRP is the best fantasy system, and they're that, just in space.

The answer is not the 40k games, as they are bad.

So the answer is SWN or Star Wars 1e.

I've never really liked any flavor of Traveller. It seemed very dry and boring to me.
That and no real character progression.
I loved the character gen though.

I ran Spacemaster for some years and had many, if not all of the supplements for it, including Star Strike (space combat, building ships etc) and armored assault (ground combat and building ground based vehicles).
That and the immensely rich background material and the rich descriptive combat system, psionics etc, it would probably be my favourite SF RPG.
Still, you need a fair amount of time and the right players for it as well, as being a derivative of Rolemaster, you're going to like it or hate it.

I would say a VERY close second is Stars without number.
It seems a very simple system as first and it IS to run and work with.
But the huge amount of background material and additional material in general makes it a great Scifi RPG to run.
That and characters actually do develop and progress, albeit pretty slowly. The levelling is pretty slow, but that's good really as the game isn't really about levelling per se.

If I were to run an Scifi RPG now again and I had a choice of Spacemaster vs SWN, SWN would win hands down now as it's just quicker to run and play.

I would miss the SM crits though, I had some hilarious times with those!  

I'm new but I'll chime in. The best...at least in terms of which ones I've played and love the most...are Fading Suns (wonky-ish system, but it works), Star Frontiers (need I say anything more?) and FFG's Star Wars* (sure the dice are funny, but it really captures Star Wars for me). Sadly, I've no experience with Traveller but I've heard amazing things about it.

*can it be argued that Star Wars is too space opera and not sci-fi enough?

To add, I love WH40K's setting but the rules make me consider playing Exalted...

This thread makes me wish I had the chance to play more sci-fi games over the years.  There were all too brief experiences with Star Frontiers, Star Wars and Star Trek- but nothing more than a game, maybe two.

My definite favorites would be Star Frontiers, and GURPS Space. I really like Mekton Zeta and Mon Traveller. But have as yet to run either for the group. I can definitely see why Trav is a big fave of folks.

Well, my personal favorite is Spacemaster Privateers but as it makes Traveller 5 look well organized and edited I'll admit a certain amount of bias for any sf game where lightsabers can take off limbs with crits in the low A range.  Good thing the medical tech is a match for the damage output and pcs who hate playing medics can just buy / hire a medical android.

Still, its scope is nearly as great as T5s, though we never got world or creature generation (robots, vehicles, aliens, yes, and worlds are in SM2) and it's more mechanically sound.  The setting was under developed but fun.

Anyhow since we're letting that slide, I'll vote for Star Cluster 3 which is deeply developed and has great scope.

Much like D&D, Traveller has always managed to let me down.  I love Traveller for what it wants to be but every edition and version is tragically flawed in some way.

Going with Best in terms of most successful commercially, I am going to say none. At least in a way that is comparable with D&D for fantasy, as no Sci-Fi RPG had had the kind of continuity and consistency of D&D.

For older RPGs, the contenders are:
- Traveller certainly has the heritage but it has had a very shaky run compared to D&D.
- Star Wars D6 is also a contender but has nowhere the longevity of D&D or Traveller.

For newer RPGs, the contenders are:
- FFG's WH40KRP
- Star Wars D20 and FFG's Edge of the Empire/Age of Rebellion/Force and Destiny

About the only way you can find something comparable to is if you included all iterations of Star Wars RPGs (and TBH they are probably as cohesive entry as all editions of D&D are)

Quote from: David Johansen;802104Well, my personal favorite is Spacemaster Privateers but as it makes Traveller 5 look well organized and edited I'll admit a certain amount of bias for any sf game where lightsabers can take off limbs with crits in the low A range.  Good thing the medical tech is a match for the damage output and pcs who hate playing medics can just buy / hire a medical android.

Still, its scope is nearly as great as T5s, though we never got world or creature generation (robots, vehicles, aliens, yes, and worlds are in SM2) and it's more mechanically sound.  The setting was under developed but fun.

Anyhow since we're letting that slide, I'll vote for Star Cluster 3 which is deeply developed and has great scope.

Much like D&D, Traveller has always managed to let me down.  I love Traveller for what it wants to be but every edition and version is tragically flawed in some way.

It's not the greatest, but T5 (once you click into its mode of thinking) is quite nice. Yes, yes, yes it needs and is getting patched up post-release, but the way the planets are generated oozes plot hooks to me. I expect, if I went back through my CT books and MgT book I could do something similar. But as it is the only one I have actually spent time going through it has stuff that jumps out. Some might, for example, feel limited by the choices of sector capital and why is has certain gravity or resources or whatever, but these speak to me of populations finding and making solutions and trying to survive in strange environments.

So, honourable mention to the latest Traveller (not including Liftoff, the MgT intro system)

The thing about T5 is that it's 90% of the way there.  The ten percent that's missing is mostly descriptive text, explanations, and cross referencing.  It's great but it struggles in play.  Yes, I've played and run T5.

I'm mainly mad that they won't get to the errata and patches before I die of old age, let alone Marc and Don.  It's been a very frustrating process.  I love where they're going but the progress is painfully slow.

And I still like SPAM better.

It's odd to see so many people mentioning Spacemaster... it always seemed an outlier to me that I never heard much mention of or read articles about.
That, even though I had/have most all the books for it and was particularly fond of Dark Space and Cyberspace (as valuable idea mines).
My initial interest in Spacemaster was thinking it was somehow related to the Silent Death miniatures game... which it might have been but not really.