Over on the Trilemma Blog, Michael Prescott has a post about the dearth of science fiction games on Roll20. Yesterday’s Five Minute Friday on the Thoughteater podcast by Frothsof touched on the topic. I also called in, so it might get shared on the next Thougheater episode.

Goblin’s Henchman mentioned on the Audio Dungeon Discord channel that with all the science fiction TV series and movies that he wasn’t sure where to begin a science fiction campaign.

This got me to thinking so naturally, I came up with some ideas.

My Science Fiction Background

First, a bit of my science fiction RPG background. Back in the day, as a teenager and even through my college years, I was more into reading science fiction than fantasy. I even considered Science Fiction my “thing.” However, there was just something about AD&D [Affiliate Link] that captured my imagination and we always gravitated back to D&D after taking a break to play something else.

I started in RPGs back when TSR was putting out all kinds of RPGs. We tended to gravitate to all the TSR RPGs. We tried others, but they were either too complicated, or the person trying to run the game loved it, but didn’t explain things well, so we determined the game wasn’t good. That was my experience with Traveller.

Back in the day, I bought Metamorphosis Alpha [Affiliate Link] and was the GM for that. I was not very good as a GM back then, so we’d never play more than a game or two before the others were ready to try something else or go back to AD&D [Affiliate Link]. I also bought Gamma World [Affiliate Link], and we took turns playing that, but never played a lot. Star Frontiers [Affiliate Link] grabbed our imagination for while.

But what really got us was the science fiction game we made from a mish-mash of rules, ideas, and equipment from all the other science fiction games. We called it “Scout” and I don’t recall there being formal rules. We just sort of knew the rules. I think the biggest reason for the success was my brother Robert. He kept wanting to play other games so he didn’t have to DM. But he was our best DM. He ran the games for Scout. He also wrote short stories in study hall and passed them around. Everyone was like, “This is great! We want more!”

Since then I have played and ran science fiction games at conventions. I was in a couple of playtest games for Mutant Crawl Classics [Affiliate Link] at different conventions. I’ve ran Metamorphosis Alpha, Gamma World [Affiliate Link], and Stars Without Number [Affiliate Link] at different conventions and always had a full table, sometimes overflowing.

I backed the Stars Without Number 2nd edition [Affiliate Link] and like a lot of the ideas. I played in a Roll20 campaign that lasted a couple of years.

I’ve also run a couple of Metamorphosis Alpha games on Roll20.

Yet, I still go back to D&D. I wonder if it is the magic, yet Arthur C. Clarke said that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

I’ve even played in D&D that had the occasional high tech item. Or in the case of the Wednesday night Roll20 AD&D [Affiliate Link] campaign I’ve often written about, it had evil space dwarves as the main bad guys. We had all kinds of laser weapons and high tech gizmos, until we destroyed the power source….

Ideas For Launching A Science Fiction Campaign

• Pick a genre – Hard or Soft SF, Post Apocalyptic, Cyberpunk, etc.
• Pick the tropes or hooks
  • To me Post Apocalyptic like Metamorphosis Alpha or Gamma World [Affiliate Link] evoke a hex crawl and dungeon crawl vibe.
  • Star Trek is a “planet (or problem) of the week” interstellar exploration & combat focus. It leans a bit towards Hard SF.
  • Star Wars is a mish-mash of rescue mission & defeat the evil space NAZIs with magic tossed in. It is definitely Soft SF.
  • Seek out the leftovers and remnants of ancient civilizations.
  • Humanity’s expansion to the rest of the solar system.
  • Only humans, or just a few, or lots of different intelligent species.
• Use an existing setting or roll your own.
  • Some systems have a backed in setting, like Stars Without Number [Affiliate Link], but one can easily make your own.
  • Some are daunted by creating their own setting.
    • For me, the trick is to create something manageable. There are tools online for creating planets, systems, and sectors. If you are comfortable with a planet of the week style, go for it. If you are more comfortable with a limited amount of places, go that route.
• What rules to use?
  • White Star [Affiliate Link]
  • Stars Without Number [Affiliate Link]
  • Traveller
  • Star Frontiers [Affiliate Link]
  • Metamorphosis Alpha
  • Gamma World [Affiliate Link]
  • One of the many others I’ve never played

Why Is It So Rare/Difficult To Have A Science Fiction Campaign?

For me it is the scope of Science Fiction. If you are out among the stars you have to come up with a lot more information than a fantasy setting which typically focuses on a continent on one planet.

I do better with bottom-up worldbuilding than top-down. But for some reason, science fiction world building feels like it MUST be done top-down. Top-down is a LOT more work as you have to make EVERYTHING!

The trick is to come up with a scenario, like a one-shot for a convention, then build off of that.

The two Metamorphosis Alpha [Affiliate Link] campaigns I ran were playtesting my first convention game and the players wanted more.

Pick the type of science fiction game you want to run. It can be different from the one you want to play. It has to be something that sparks your interest. It can be a limited campaign of say ten sessions, or it could be open ended and go until you and the players are ready for something else. It can even be set aside while you play instead of run a game.

Finding players is hard. However, Roll20 and other table top programs allow you to find players from all over. I started with Roll20 as I couldn’t find a local group. If I were to advertise that I was starting a new campaign of a certain game, I’m sure I’d get lots of interest. The trick is to find players that are the right match for you.

So Why Don’t I Run More Science Fiction Games?

Time and energy. I have lots of ideas for games I want to run. I want to run a Western campaign, a science fiction campaign . . . . However, I only have time and energy to run one campaign. I play in another. I have plans to start a Friday night AD&D [Affiliate Link] campaign, but I never have time to put the finishing touches on it. Plus, I want to stay regular with my podcast, my PDFs [Affiliate Link], my YouTube, and publish my card game.

Plus, I have this blog. It took an hour to do the first draft and will take another 20-30 minutes to add all the links and indicate that they are Affiliate Links.

I’m not independently wealthy, so I have a day job that eats up most of my waking hours during the week. So all the other things I need to do, like housecleaning, cooking, mowing or snow removal, laundry, exercising, etc. all take away from my time for games and talking about games.

This is the reason I try to run the other game genres at conventions. That seems to feed the itch others have to play something else. The hard part is the initial idea for a one shot. Once I have that, the rest is easy.

What’s The Solution?

As with most things in RPGs if you really want to play a certain RPG or a certain genre, you have to run it. Often showing others how fun it can be encourages them to think outside the box. The RPG one starts with is probably the one you most identify with and will play and run the most. Sort of like the first Doctor Who episode you watch determines the “real” or “only” Doctor to you – Tom Baker.

You run the risk of being THE GM for that RPG.

If you only want to play, then look on the looking for players on Roll20 or other online table top.

Other Ideas?

If anyone has any other ideas to get more science fiction or other genres being actively played, please comment below.