Ok, again as a respectful complimentary post to another one, what do you like in your SF?

I like science in my SF, consistent tech, aliens that are believable as intelligent creatured that evolved on another world and of course a frakking freighter load of cool gadgets, weapons and other neat stuff, so long as it is at least pontentially plausible.

But then again i try to keep an open mind on SF. Seriously, some people talk about some weapons being "impossible" or "too powerful".

Well, step back in time with me about 200 years, sparky. Look at the weapons available in 1807. Flintlocks and black powder muzzleloading cannon, for hell's sake. Try telling those guys about an M-16 with underslung grenade launcher, laser targeter and nightscope, or a modern artillery piece. Yeah, right.

So  can be fairly open minded re weapons of, say, 200 years from now, keeping in mind the progression weapons have made in the last 200 years and extrapolating it forward.

Other things I can be tolerant of too. I mean, 200 years ago what sort of computational devices existed? Ever hear of an abacus? How about data storage? Pen and paper. Communication? The heliograph, if the sky was clear, a guy on a pony otherwise. Medicine? A bag of leeches. Transportation? A boat or a horse.

Now imagine what we could have 200 years from now if the [progress just keeps along the same rate. I can accept a lot of things, like handheld MRI scanners, nanotech medical devices, AI that can do at least some basic reasoning and logic, etc.

Will everyone call me a wise-ass if I say that I'll be surprised if the list we generate in this thread is any different from the one in the SF-hate thread? :haw:

On to the love, though.  Me?  I love mankind -- us -- overcoming adversity.  Not pie-in-the-sky utopianism, but recognisable, ordinary people wrestling with monumental situations and bettering ourselves thereby.  Optimism in the face of mounting odds.

This one's a no-brainer.  Consistent technology, which is to say, representing a consistent evolution from our current day, without magic hoodi-hoos falling out of the sky to give us an artificial boost.  The technology represents a logical and recognisable progression.

!i!

Quote from: Dominus NoxOk, again as a respectful complimentary post to another one, what do you like in your SF?

Optimism.

Naval battles in space.

QuoteWill everyone call me a wise-ass if I say that I'll be surprised if the list we generate in this thread is any different from the one in the SF-hate thread?

My first thought, honestly, is essentially the converse of what I posted in that thread:  An emphasis on people.

Tech geekery and gearheadism has it's place, and can be fun, but I most like my stories to be about people, not technology.  Even if the focus of a story or a setting is on a piece of technology, then the actual story itself should be all about the people who're affected by it.

All my favorite SF spends more time on it's characters than it does on it's technology.  Planetes, DS9, Cowboy Bebop, Hitchhiker's Guide.  

That said, I'm not immune to gearheadism myself, and I like stuff like big spaceships with lots of guns, or space fighters, or mobile armor suits.  but I tend to be more interested in the action side, the actual fighting with them, than geeking out over weapon loadouts and hull thicknesses.

I like wildly implausible, even impossible, stuff that looks cool, allows for cool stuff to happen or is cool.

I like the Inazuma Kick and Viper fighters and the Warhound Titan.  I like combat suits that talk like schoolgirls mainlining Sugar Crisp.  I like Space Marines who drop into battle from low earth orbit.  I like swords; be they lightsabers, chainswords, vibroblades or barely-contained plasma-steel forged in the heart of a star.

I like big nasties; the meaner and gooier the better.  I like them to be as inhuman as possible so I can cheer at their inevitable genocide at the hands of hard-bitten, wisecracking boys and girls in cartoonish power armor.

I also like Vasquez.  And car chases.  And kung fu fighting.

I like anything that defies you to take it too seriously and then pantses you if you try to anyway.

Optimism, Humanity (warts and all), lasers, robots, explosions, Sense of Wonder, exotic locales and Syd Mead.

Spider tanks, missile swarms, and the soft blue 'kiiiiii-rak!' of a 30mm anti-armor coil gun. Powersuits that deploy directly out of orbital craft, ortillery, aerospace fighters, and starships so large they can't even breach a planetary system without ruining the gravity of worlds they pass.

Garbled transmissions from deep space, 'abandoned' space stations, and mind-controlling alien insects. Asking just what humanity is, how much you're willing to sacrifice for it, and why it deserves that kind of loyalty. Nuking the place from orbit. Terran Marines raising a sun-and-earth flag on the bridge of an alien flagship jutting from their capital building, showing the compound-eyed bastards just what this young primate race from the Orion Arm can do. Doing it just like we do in the movies, but bigger, faster, and with more fusion engines. Cryptic techno-ninjae known only as 'the Librarians', masters of the forgotten knowledge of humanity's past. Colossal ancient beings that hang between the stars, Dyson spheres, and nanocloud AIs contemplating eternity as a small section of a nebula.

So kind of like my fantasy, but with lots of angled metal and silver-blue plasma explosions and gravity-related technobabble.

I was gonna try to find a way to say something really cool, but Doc R sums up my tastes pretty damn well. I do want to throw in that optimism is definitely a big deal to me, because I think the first thing that will go out the window the day humanity conquers space is the angst that the near infinity of space can cause.

No fear, only wonder.

I think I'm with the Doc as well.
I like those things, I like wonder, exploration, the triumph of humanity--but notably as humanity. I know Transhuman Space and such is fun and cool, but it isn't my ideal SF game. I don't buy into "posthumanity" so much.


 I also really want hand lasers because seriously its an extrapolation of real world tech we have now, unlike FTL and Gravity aboard ships without spinning, its a pet peeve of mine to discount SF without lasers, or a really good excuse.

Giant Robots, Laser Swords, Bio Mechanics, Hard wires.

I still feel weird about the whole "Wireless Matrix" in SR4.

One thing I like is giving players advanced tools and seeing if they can figure out how to use them right, or at least use them wrong in amusing ways.

For example, you've got an assembler that can assemble atoms into nearly anything, if you have a template to program the nano effectors with.

So if you can scan something at molecular level detail, you can duplicate it. Now, what PC group worth it's dice couldn't come up with endless ways to ceate either clever solutions to problems or at least total chaos?

BTW, nanotech in most of my universes can't handle highly radioactive matter as the particle emissions frag the naonmachines. So no plutonium, uranium, etc.

Quote from: Dominus NoxOne thing I like is giving players advanced tools and seeing if they can figure out how to use them right, or at least use them wrong in amusing ways.

What did you think of the 1st edition Gamma World Artifact Use flow charts? :haw:

!i!

Quote from: Ian AbsentiaWhat did you think of the 1st edition Gamma World Artifact Use flow charts? :haw:

!i!

How would I know? I never played gamma world.

I like classic science fiction in my Sci-Fi.  I want dyson spheres, ring worlds, exotic modern science theories, black hole diving, and other similar concepts.  Too many games present a generic science fiction universe but fail to introduce any of the trappings of science fiction that makes it an eye opening genre filled with wonder.

A good science fiction book makes me look up at the stars and imagine.  I want an RPG to do that.