Really distance becomes irrelevant with FTL as you go back in time as you go FTL.  In one of my settings the FTL actually includes an engineered time loop that causes the ship to sit in extradimensional stasis until it catches.

It depends on how high a bar you set on "accurate science as we can predict the future really will look" for the show/fiction. Obviously, few shows are going to show rotating-spin gravity emulation spaceships unless it fits the esthetic of the show (such as Babylon 5, which was a space opera in all other regards), or being 99% fuel (or in the case of 2001, was moving very slowly, inside a single system), but we tend to accept that because reality is very boring.

Traveller is considered "hard science" despite having FTL drives, artificial gravity (both pulling you to the deck plate and for levitating "Luke's landspeeder"-esque craft. Mostly because those things are convenience conventions that don't change the basics of the universe. You still fly ships between stars at a slow pace that uses lots of fuel, and usually send down a landing craft, as opposed to the whole interstellar spaceship. You have to worry about stocking fuel and spare parts. Communication is with "radio" (meson radios, but in the 70s that seemed like something that would realistically eventually evolve) which can be detected and/or jammed. There aren't "space storms" and weird temporal anomalies every other week. Space combat involves huge distances, extended accelleration times, and balancing slow-to-catch-up missiles that can be shot down with sandcasters and energy weapons which decrease in energy at the square of the distance. Sure there are psionics, and the alien races are conveniently all using the same chirality of molecules as us and can exist in our atmosphere, but most of the ones that aren't Earth-originated are non-bipeds.

An alternative to Traveller is GURPS Space and related books, though if you don't already know GURPS, or feel like doing your own campaign design, or like details, then it's probably not for you. If those things _do_ sound appealing though, it's good at what it offers.

And if you want a super hard-core hard sci fi tactical space battle system, the extreme end of the scale might be to use the 3D wargame Attack Vector: Tactical for your space combat system. (grin) The publisher also offers a system for doing Traveller space combat.

Star Frontiers was actually fairly hard SF. There is no FTL, (ships hit a specific speed and drop into some sort of hyperspace) no anti gravity  (ships are towers). There are laser guns, and a few other exotic weapons. (But they stay fairly within plausible limits.) No psionics.

Then the so-called "fans" started fucking it up more than Zebs Guide did.

Albedo is even more hard SF. No FTL (An incredibly dangerous hyperspace), no anti-gravity, no lasers.

Quote from: NathanIW;854683Hard sci-fi is usually sci-fi where the technology itself is both part of the subject matter used to express the theme of a story as well as accurate or plausible science.  The tech and it's implications matter.  Softer sci-fi often has the tech just be a trapping or flavour or it matters, but is far less central.  People have started to strangely apply the hard scifi label to any sci-fi that is either militaristic or has comparatively familiar technology (as it is at least more likely that the science that's familiar to us will be more accurate) even if it's not a concern in a given piece of fiction, so people may also just mean that.  Usually a good test is whether or not the tech and its implications are central and accurate (hard) or secondary and relaxed (soft).

This^^^. I want a we have to deal with hydroponics issues and thrust fuel ratios and space walking to repair something feeling.

I have never played it, and don't know much about it.  But, one RPG advertises itself as "the ultimate in hard-science SF role-playing" - "Stellar Wind," which you can find here.  Sadly, there is no print edition.

Quote from: ChrisGunter;854811This^^^. I want a we have to deal with hydroponics issues and thrust fuel ratios and space walking to repair something feeling.

Remove the aliens (or make them more alien) and maybe remove the lasers and other energy weapons and Star Frontiers about covers it. Spacewalks to repair damage. Fuel issues, etc. There was even an article that added solar sail ships.

2300AD is fairly hard sci fi.

The one gap (for me) in Traveller as hard Sci-Fi is space movement. Movement should be in 3 dimensions, and to be appropriately hard science, you should need the Pythagorean formula to correctly compute movement in normal space.

Classic Traveller is one of my favorite RPGs ever. Its my go-to RPG for science fiction and my fav genre is space horror which is where I focus my games.

I've played Trav for 35 years with many different GMs. You can get very hard science if you want, and you can get cinematic if you like.

Trav is my default system for running Aliens campaigns. It's fast and deadly, which forces players to play smart or die easily. Guns, especially automatic weapons, are unforgiving.


BTW, if you are interested in sci-fi RPGs, I highly recommend checking out Stars Without Number which is free.
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/86467/Stars-Without-Number-Free-Edition

SWN is a mosh of D&D and Traveller rules.

Quote from: Willie the Duck;854692Firefly probably counts, although some might say that the tech is kinda window-dressing.

I wouldn't count the creation of a fellow who said -- in reference to the series -- that "science makes my head hurt."

Quote from: Bren;854863to be appropriately hard science, you should need the Pythagorean formula to correctly compute movement

I use whooshing sounds instead.  

Quote from: Spinachcat;854870I use whooshing sounds instead.  

I do to. For Star Wars. But SW is space opera. You can tell by William's leitmotifs.

Traveller, always and forever. My favorite game probably of all time.

One GURPS setting book I love, that you can probably find on eBay or something, was Terradyne - hard SF in the Solar System prior to FTL. I think it did a good job with "advanced but not super-advanced" space and all it's attendant challenges, without all that "transhuman" nonsense.

Quote from: Bren;854863The one gap (for me) in Traveller as hard Sci-Fi is space movement. Movement should be in 3 dimensions, and to be appropriately hard science, you should need the Pythagorean formula to correctly compute movement in normal space.

I was pretty sure Traveller did have a 3d system in there? Star Frontiers has some 3d rules as does Universe. Loved Universe's 3d star map.

If not you could probably plug in SPI's Delta-Vee system or any other 3d ones from board games.

Personally I dont see 3d combat as being much of a additive unless you are using fighters or the ships have defined weap tops and bottoms you want to get above or below. Like Star Blazers for example where positioning was important but at some of the massive ranges employed it became moot.

But I like having it in a game for those who want it and those times it becomes crucial.