While most of my RPG-experience has been centered around fantasy RPGs, my love of science fiction predates my love of the fantasy genre and while basic D&D was my first RPG purchase, it was Star Frontiers that forever hooked me on tabletop role-playing games.
With my discovery of Savage Worlds, my interest in sci-fi RPGs was rekindled and with all of the various tools I’ve obtained this year (SFC, SPC2, Interface Zero, etc.) I’ve been looking to build a few sci-fi campaigns.
In my experience, one of the biggest challenges with SF gaming is that science fiction is so broad that it can mean many, many things to different people. In a cRPG or FPS videogame, the setting and role of the players is typically defined, allowing the developers to focus on a particular facet of the fictional universe or sub-genre of SF in general.
In tabletop RPGs, however, players come with different expectations – often FRPG-fueled expectations, that mishmash of roles/vocations – the cliché “you met in a tavern” style that doesn’t often translate well to SF gaming. The two most successful workarounds that I’ve found to this issue are the Theme & the Event.
The Theme is where every involved in the game is bought into the same campaign framework: the tramp freighter campaign of Traveller, the Federation starship crew, etc. – with the best depiction of this in recent RPGs is the approach taken by the Star Wars Edge of the Empire/Age of Rebellion. The Theme approach is the one used by most publishers, but I’ve found it to be the hardest to get long-term player buy-in. Even licensed settings familiar to the players doesn’t always help: everyone wants to be the captain, everyone wants to be the bounty hunter, everyone wants to be the Jedi, etc.
The Event lends itself to accommodating a wide mix of player types & backgrounds but sometimes trades long-term sustainability for that freedom. The starship crash, the outbreak, the invasion, etc. – they support scenarios where a diverse mix of people, races, and occupations intersect and have to work together.
While Savage Worlds can easily accommodate either style of campaign, since my current crop of players are new to SFRPGs and I haven’t figured out which Theme-style campaigns will work for them yet, I’ve been focusing my efforts on Event-style campaigns. The Event-style also seems to lend itself easily to the Plot-Point campaign structure. My first campaign is a zombie-style outbreak in space. However, I’m looking at options for a second campaign, and I’m looking at a New Colony framework.
My idea is that the initial plot-point campaign would be the establishment of the colony on a new world. Players would be colonists and the small population and limited resources would lend credibility to the idea that the players would need to work together despite being from different (perhaps very different) backgrounds/occupations. (Yes, Civilization: Beyond Earth is looking pretty good to me. :) )
So, with all of that said, I’m looking for RPG resources – Savage Worlds or otherwise, that could aid in this effort. Specifically:
Would Lost Colony lend itself to such a campaign style? Or is the Deadlands/weird magic element so ingrained that it’s difficult to remove or re-skin as alien tech rather than supernatural?
Is there any type of SF RPG that handles the establishment & running of a colony? Obviously, with the hope of adapting some/all of it to Savage Worlds I’m looking for something along the lines of Pathfinder’s Kingdom-building rules here. I recognize that this probably deviates from SW’s Fast, Furious, Fun focus but my players like the mini-game of developing resources like ships, bases, etc. and I’d like a framework other than GM fiat to run the campaign.
If no RPG resources spring to mind, any recommendations for books or games to mine for inspiration?
Okay, just to make sure you're aware, if you're looking at the currently available version of Lost Colony, I'm pretty sure that was the one built for classic Deadlands (i.e. not Savage Worlds) and d20 rulesets.
Pinnacle has said they want to do a Savage Worlds version, but as far as I know, they haven't done that yet.
In terms of actual content and themes, I can't really advise you there sorry, I only ever played Deadlands and Hell on Earth, I never got into the third setting.
Sorry just out of curiousity as well, what are SFC and SCP2? I couldn't find anything relevant to them as RPGs with some searching, can't figure out if my search fu is just weak or I'm missing something.
SFC is likely the Sci Fi Companion.
SCP2 is likely the second edition of the Super Powers Companion.
Ah that makes sense. I've got a Savage Worlds stuff on order but I'm not familiar enough with the system yet to have the initializations make sense straight away.
Have you looked at Traveller : Dynasty by Mongoose? I don't own a copy myself but I think it was geared toward supporting a colonize and govern themed sci-fi game.