I'd appreciate a little advice. I've been DM'ing a 3.5 campaign for a while. I've been enjoying it for the most part, though getting stats for NPC's, trying to balance ECL's to CR's to my PC's, and keeping track of all those feats is spinning my head around.
After this I wanted to try a Sci-Fi campaign. Along the lines of "Blake's 7": future prisoners and victims of a totalitarian government, escape from a prison ship and find an advanced alien warship. With a little BSG/Firefly/Cyberpunk flavor thrown in.
The problem though is that I'm stuck on what system to use:
Traveler T20 and D20 Future are both good bets. They're familiar systems, have my favorite aliens from Alternity, and can easily insert rules for weapons, ships, etc. Although I was hoping to get away from the complexity of D20. And Traveler seems very specific in some cases. (Doesn't have many entries for exotic alien items)
I'm also considering returning to Alternity. The system was kind of cool and versatile. Although that also seemed limiting. One of the ship deckplans they made, had only room for one fighter?
I've just recently bought StarSiege (by the same people who made Castles & Crusades) And that is definitely more streamlined and versatile. One of it's selling points is that you can create any Trapping you can think of. Although it might also be too open. A lot of emphasis seems to be on ad hoc solutions. Putting a lot of responsibility on the GM to create... well everything.
So what would your take on this be?

Mongoose's version of Traveller ain't half bad.
Positives.... Combat is simple and streamlined... very simplified
The universe is huge and you can insert anything you like.
Character creation is a blast. You'll have a wealth of ideas bubbling through your head by the time your done generating your character.
They have a few books devoted to different ships...traders and gunboats....fighters.... though most of the material is human centric.

I hate complicated rules however I almost wished Traveller had more options. There is not much in the way of character advancement. You don't gain levels. No prestige classes. Its lacking a little on equipment and gear stats though I believe they are remedying that shortly.

I enjoy alternity too. Love the Klicks and hey if the ship's deck plan only has one fighter bay slap a few more on there. The game creator's aren't gonna send you a cease and desist order. :)

Firefly has its own RPG put out by MWP....who also does BSG. Not sure if they share the same rules or not.

Rogue Trader is coming out in August or September and that looks impressive at least from the previews. I like Dark Heresy but it lacks any fancy ship rules to my knowledge.

For Alternity, the Warships PDF by Rich Baker for capital ships could more than address your concern about handling large ships, as well as some of the specific technologies for a Blake's 7 game - and have a look around the official fan site for more stuff you might be able to use. If you still have the books, no sense not to use them.

I'll endorse Mongoose Traveller as well.

I believe Serenity and BSG both use the Cortex system, yes, though I don't know either one in detail.

There are a couple of SF offerings with different flavours for the Spirit of the Century system, Limitless Horizons and Starblazer (including the new Mindjammer stuff that seems to sit somewhere between them), if you like the ability to add any sort of trait or ability easily.

I'll endorse Mongoose Traveller as well.

Dark Heresy is fun fun fun!

I must say I have tried several SF systems and always returned to Alternity. I never had any problem with tweaking the Ship design rules for larger ships, although I found the warships netbook incredible helpful when I discovered it. Be sure to check out the alternity website where you can find additional rules, ships, aliens an a helpful guide for d20 conversions.

I generally use Shadowrun 4E for SciFi games. I have to wing the spaceships and space travel rules, but for most of the other technology (like guns) the rules work well, and the magic system allows the integration of psionic or even magic (like in Outlaw Star) really well.

I generally use Shadowrun 4E for SciFi games. I have to wing the spaceships and space travel rules, but for most of the other technology (like guns) the rules work well, and the magic system allows the integration of psionic or even magic (like in Outlaw Star) really well.

Also, has anyone tried d20 future? Steal ship rules from elswhere, maybe? Or does anyone know d20 future ship rules that are decent?

Thanks everyone! I actually got Firefly. Uses the Cortex rules, I haven't had a chance to look them over. Although the setting seems very PL 6 oriented. Does anyone have any take on the Star Wars Saga system?

How about Fantasy Flight's Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader? Or Catalyst Lab's Cthulhutech?

I'm pretty excited about the new Eclipse Phase RPG that Catalyst Labs will be releasing later this summer!

I'm going to second Alternity. I would also recomend the old Star Frontiers RPG, if you can get ahold of it.

Thanks everyone! I actually got Firefly. Uses the Cortex rules, I haven't had a chance to look them over. Although the setting seems very PL 6 oriented. Does anyone have any take on the Star Wars Saga system?

I'm going to second Alternity. I would also recomend the old Star Frontiers RPG, if you can get ahold of it.

While we're talking about old-school systems, I've always liked 2300AD for PC-scale rules, though (as for other suggestions, it seems) handling of starships works a bit differently than the OP might want for this campaign.

How about Gamma World? It's an oldie but a goodie. You could probably dig it up on Amazon, used.

So what would your take on this be?

Newer systems you might try are Savage Worlds by Pinnacle or True20 from Green Ronin.

I always liked the Alternity system too :) Never really looked at starship creation though.. I only ran Dark*Matter games with it.

Trent

You know, the more people keep bringing it up, the more nostalgia I get for Alternity. It like that it was skill based (precursor to D&D 3.0, planet load of feats deluging everything) So it might be a good middle ground between D20 Future and Starsiege. The other plus is that it has plenty of equipment, starships, and aliens already created.

Thousand Suns by Rogue Games. Very Travelleresk.
All Flesh Must Be Eaten + All Tomorrow's Zombies. Fairly rules lite and easy to pick up. You can always ditch the zombies.

When you are ready for more crunch, Star Hero. It may be a bit intimidating to begin with, but once you grasp the rules you can easily port in any alien, gadget, power you want. Not to mention you can seamlessly crash your Star Hero into Fantasy Hero without skipping a beat. Rebel Alliance Psi Corp take on the Wizards of Overlord Evil.

Well, it takes some work; but I love SpaceMaster; the sci fi version of Rolemaster rpg

Where is Erik Mona when we need him? ;P

I recommend Starblazer Adventures which uses the FATE system as seen in Spirit of the Century. It is a very simple system and easy on the GM, for example here are some stats that I would use for some Storm Troopers:

Stormtrooper
Fair (+2) Minion
Blaster Carbine +3 Stress Damage, 2 Zone range (based on SMG stats)
Stormtrooper Armour -2 Stress, can take 1 Minor and 1 Major
consequence. Effective against both Energy and Physical weapons

Don't be put off by the size of the book, a lot of it is optional and or supplementary material that you can skip.

Check out the preview available here:
http://www.cubicle-7.com/acrobat/starblazer_preview.pdf

True20 Revised edition in someways is what I would call Alternity for the 21st century. Same open "do what you want" with setting system - using a very streamlined d20 mechanic. Still has skills/feats etc so characters have lots of things to make them different. Combat is closer to Traveller (classic) than other d20 games however. Guns hurt - as they should.

S.

I'd appreciate a little advice. I've been DM'ing a 3.5 campaign for a while. I've been enjoying it for the most part, though getting stats for NPC's, trying to balance ECL's to CR's to my PC's, and keeping track of all those feats is spinning my head around.
After this I wanted to try a Sci-Fi campaign. Along the lines of "Blake's 7": future prisoners and victims of a totalitarian government, escape from a prison ship and find an advanced alien warship. With a little BSG/Firefly/Cyberpunk flavor thrown in.
The problem though is that I'm stuck on what system to use:
Traveler T20 and D20 Future are both good bets. They're familiar systems, have my favorite aliens from Alternity, and can easily insert rules for weapons, ships, etc. ?

The STAR WARS has a more straight foreward system with the Jedi being used as psychic powers.

I have considered running a Firefly campaign using the Star Wars rules. I like the d20 system, they have space ship rules and rules for energy and slug weapons, why learn how someone else reinvented the wheel. Drop the force powers (or keep them for rare cases)and you have a ready to go system. I have also looked at the True20 system and they have some interesting stuff going on, but why create new stuff when you can just cahnge a few names and be ready to go? YT1300=Firefly.

I'm playing in a very fun Serenity game, but we don't do a lot of ship-to-ship interaction, and it seems like that's what you want.

I don't have familiarity with Traveller, but the old West End Games d6 Star Wars system had a good ship-to-ship system that I like.

If you want something newer, I've heard very good things about Savage Worlds vehicle combat of all stripes. With all their available settings, it would surprise me if there weren't spaceship options already published.

In the past I've enjoyed:
>Dr Who RPG
>Star Trek RPG
>Battletech (i think that's what it was, back in FASA days)
>Shadowrun
>Twilight 2000
and for some crazy reason.... I loved:
>Gamma World

These days, I am currently looking into:
>CORPORATION RPG
and
>Mutant Future

I think Macho Women with Guns had a good set of rules for vehicles.. I seem to remember it being called Renegade Nuns on Wheels. I don't immagine it would really be all that beneficial..but I have been so wanting an excuse to post it.

wasgreg :)

( PS T20 rules for ship to ship were sadly insuficient imo, too bad since I was a HUGE Traveler fan )

So ALTERNITY is pretty good then? I bought the books ten years ago but have never gotten round to running a game. I was thinking of running a STARCRAFT campaign with them.

I'm biased of course, but I recommend the book Star Hero, the HERO System's science fiction genre book. It's extremely informative and inclusive. Other books in the line include Post-Apocalyptic Hero, Scourges of the Galaxy, Terran Empire, Worlds of Empire, Alien Wars, and the Spacer's Toolkit.

-Jason Walters, Hero Games

We should really introduce you to CourtFool.

I'll throw my vote in with Trent Slabaugh and WelbyBumpus for Savage Worlds. It's a sound system with a faster progression than D20. There is a series of "toolkit" PDFs for sci-fi that should work for you.

I'll endorse Mongoose Traveller as well.