Quote from: Bradford C. Walker;884909The videogame medium, despite being perfect for making spectacles of sight and sound, just doesn't work due to the completely different approach the audience has.

Mostly true, though I have to admit Doom 3 had a sequence with bloody footprints that gave me the creeps as good as any ghost story. That's about the only example I can remember, though.

Quote from: The Butcher;880809Without getting into Star Trek vs. Star Wars?

SF games are rare because SF as a genre has been dwindling in pop culture visibility for the last 10 years at least. Star Wars and Star Trek have been pressing on for decades, in one form or another, but none of their modern incarnations has had the sheer popular impact of the originals, and to the best of my knowledge no other IP has come close.

Meanwhile, on the fantasy front, we've had Tolkien movies, a runaway hit ASoIaF TV series and even Shannara is getting a live-action version. Four-color superheroics are a Big Thing in Hollywood. But very little "straight" SF.

With films like The Martian and Gravity (despite their flaws) this seems to be changing.

Quote from: JesterRaiin;884714No, it doesn't!

Nowadays it's "everyone pay attention to my 150 years old, chibi-looking, half-Drow half-draconic half-Kender and half-Siren, extravert, transgender, non aligned, Ranger/Assasin/Paladin/Cleric of Mangina special snowflake character, also here's my list of "no-no" for the game: the most important is that I have to win and can't be ever bothered with even an allusion of failed test".

Yep, that's what fantasy is all about nowadays.

...Ahem...

You're gaming with a weird crowd....

Quote from: camazotz;885305You're gaming with a weird crowd....

Tales I could tell... :boohoo:

Quote from: soltakss;885193She hates anything SciFi with a vengeance. I love SciFi. It makes going to the cinema interesting ...

She also hates RPGs as well ...

.......... ouch and why dos she have this random hate of sci fi

im honestly having trouble under standing this

Quote from: kosmos1214;885340.......... ouch and why dos she have this random hate of sci fi

Probably because I like it!

Quote from: kosmos1214;885340im honestly having trouble under standing this

You're not the only one.

Quote from: JesterRaiin;880752BTW, there's a more or less "hard" SF RPG titled Blue Planet. I recall a few people complaining that they skipped the game, because the initial description of space travel (and its conditions) was too much for them.

It's far easier to say bye-bye to "hard" aspect and become a laser katana wielding samurai-sorcerer who doesn't have to deal with the possibility of shitting your lungs out during a space flight. ;]

The typical BP game didn't feature space travel at all. It wasn't space opera - it was "firm" planetary science fiction.

And dolphins, when not operating underwater (on the waterworld...), were "riggers," to borrow a term from a particular cyberpunk game. They participated in the action via sophisticated (by 1997 sci-fi standards) RAVs. Given the technology, biological constraints weren't very important.

In hindsight, I think the biggest mistake we made with BP (which did, BTW, enjoy a measure of success for an independent game at the time) is that we created a really complex world, and then, instead of giving GMs and players published campaigns, we added even more setting material. We made it appealing to readers and collectors, but very hard to run and play a campaign.

Quote from: Greg Benage;885505In hindsight, I think the biggest mistake we made with BP (which did, BTW, enjoy a measure of success for an independent game at the time) is that we created a really complex world, and then, instead of giving GMs and players published campaigns, we added even more setting material. We made it appealing to readers and collectors, but very hard to run and play a campaign.

I loved the Blue Planet setting, but I never got a quorum of other gamers interested. I think some more clearly defined campaigns would have helped.

Even without published campaigns, at least have pregenerated characters and a sample adventure in the core book. (I have the first edition - maybe that was addressed in later editions?)

Quote from: Greg Benage;885505The typical BP game didn't feature space travel at all. It wasn't space opera - it was "firm" planetary science fiction.

And dolphins, when not operating underwater (on the waterworld...), were "riggers," to borrow a term from a particular cyberpunk game. They participated in the action via sophisticated (by 1997 sci-fi standards) RAVs. Given the technology, biological constraints weren't very important.

In hindsight, I think the biggest mistake we made with BP (which did, BTW, enjoy a measure of success for an independent game at the time) is that we created a really complex world, and then, instead of giving GMs and players published campaigns, we added even more setting material. We made it appealing to readers and collectors, but very hard to run and play a campaign.

Heavy Gear has a similar problem.

The problem was this: "If we're not doing shit with Gears, then why are we doing this game and not playing a real cop/military/etc. game?"

In other words, what matters in SF gaming is that the default paradigm for campaign play rests upon the SF element as the cornerstone around which everything else depends. Take that away, and you have the "Other Genre in SF Drag" issue.

A gaming setting has to be built with out-of-the-box play foremost in mind; that's the consistent message that failures and successes alike present in tabletop RPGs (and this carries over to PC and console RPGs). Games are tools, and tools with no obvious application get dumped for those that do.

Quote from: Greg Benage;885505The typical BP game didn't feature space travel at all. It wasn't space opera - it was "firm" planetary science fiction. (...)

It's not about what BP is, it's what made those certain people skip it - the moment they've read the description of a space travel, they were already "oh, it's not the game for me". :rolleyes:

Quote from: Bradford C. Walker;885528Heavy Gear has a similar problem.

The problem was this: "If we're not doing shit with Gears, then why are we doing this game and not playing a real cop/military/etc. game?"

In other words, what matters in SF gaming is that the default paradigm for campaign play rests upon the SF element as the cornerstone around which everything else depends. Take that away, and you have the "Other Genre in SF Drag" issue.

A gaming setting has to be built with out-of-the-box play foremost in mind; that's the consistent message that failures and successes alike present in tabletop RPGs (and this carries over to PC and console RPGs). Games are tools, and tools with no obvious application get dumped for those that do.

the old battletech rpgs have this problem to compounded by the fact that the they have some rolls made with a d10 but are trying to mate with a system that's all 2d6 to the point where you are ether playing battletech
the war game or battletech the rpg