Most active scifi games right now?

[Chet]

For adapting science fiction to a roleplaying game, you'd need to combine the technological issues with plot device levers. So, if you want a roleplaying game featuring the introduction of power armor (EXO Squad), you need the armored suits to occupy a significant portion of the theme. Beyond that, it would be the question of the suit's effect on man, in the way you write the theme and interaction. Claustrophobic themes, for example, or fear of homelessness for the theme of space exploration, for something involving the 'jumpsuit' power armor suit you see on occasion in fiction. Warhammer 40K performs both of these themes well, in its depiction of human culture in the Space Marines, since the selling point of the theme is the power armor itself.

Take a cool idea, not necessarily something futuristic (Dr. Strangelove, directed by Kubrick, covered nuclear weaponry), then for each idea, analyze that way you'd feel using it, both consciously and subconsciously. The rest is art.

[Aria]

@Chet ....blood for the blood god. Skulls for the skull throne. >.>

[Ominous]

An actual differentiation of science fiction and fantasy is likely impossible as they all come from the same origin as all speculative fiction. My go-to, which isn't accurate, is figuring out which way the theme leans, enlightenment or romanticism. Enlightenment is science fiction and romanticism is fantasy. Star Trek looks boldly for a utopian future where humanity solves it's problems with diplomacy and thought and there are no absolute goods or evils, so it's science fiction. Star Wars (the original trilogy) takes place in a ruined society that looks back on it's better years and solutions come from a mythic, predestined hero using space magic and sword skills, and there are absolute goods and evils, so it's fantasy. Now this system falls apart with things like Cyberpunk, which few argue is fantasy, but definitely isn't a rosy picture.

Anyways, instead of just saying you are looking for a sci-fi game, be a bit more descriptive of what you're looking for, as one person's science fiction might be another's science fantasy or outright fantasy.

[Salty Secrets]

@Ominous Space opera is a sub-genre of science fiction. Star Wars is firmly science fiction. While it might include elements of fantasy such as knighthood, magic by any other name and a grander than life save the world beat, the plot and the universe it happens in couldn't exist without the fictional science on display. I won't disagree with you that Star Wars borrows more from fantasy tropes than science fiction ones but if what you're saying is that it isn't science fiction as a result I'm going to have to stop you there and point out it's widely recognized as not just being science fiction but being where a lot of our science fiction afterwards drew inspiration from.

If you cut the films apart, you also quickly notice that of the original three films, two were about a super-weapon born of science threatening all freedom with a small sub-plot about knights and magic that didn't really change the threat at play and even that sub-plot introduces what would become a staple of science fiction weapons, the light-saber.

It's not until the prequel trilogy and various spin-offs that we would start seeing Star Wars address the fantasy tropes more heavily than it did the science fiction ones.

[Misadventure]

Anteres wants its light sabers back. Or Isaac Asimov does, if you insist on popular consumption being how you "introduce" anything.

[Ominous]

@Salty-Secrets And I disagree. There is nothing different between a giant doom laser and a ritual that will summon the God of Nothingness to consume the world. They are both long processes that will destroy the world but give enough time for the hero to swoop in and save the day in the nick of time. That's my point, though, few people are going to agree perfectly on what constitutes a fantasy work and what constitutes a science fiction work. I have had people argue Babylon 5, BSG, and Star Trek are fantasy, because, if you go faster than light in any way and if you have psychic stuff, it's too unrealistic to be science fiction.

EDIT: I decided to give some links to people who argue that Star Wars is fantasy not science fiction, not to "prove" that it is fantasy, but to demonstrate how people have very different ideas of what constitutes fantasy and science fiction.

https://simondillonbooks.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/why-star-wars-is-not-science-fiction-and-related-matters/

https://www.google.com/amp/io9.com/5799837/10-works-of-science-fiction-that-are-really-fantasy/amp
(To further drive home the point, the first two can't agree on whether DUNE is sci-fi or fantasy.)

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/2hawhz/can_star_wars_be_considered_fantasy/

https://www.google.com/amp/www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/amp32507/george-lucas-sundance-quotes/
(A quote of George Lucas saying it is fantasy.)

Anyways, my point is don't ask 'are there any sci-fi games?' Instead give a quick rundown of what you mean by sci-fi, because people have very different views on what is and isn't science fiction. Does anything set in space count? Because you might get pointed to Spelljammer.

[Misadventure]

@Ominous So this definition uses only what is known to be possible, or what has a reasonable chance of being possible?

[Ominous]

@Misadventure Yes. You get people who, if it's not on the diamond end of Mohs Scale of Sci-Fi Hardness (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness), say it isn't sci-fi.

[Misadventure]

It was meant as an either/or question, but the explanation answered my question. I wonder where Greg Egan falls.

[Ominous]

@Misadventure I haven't read any of his work, but this site puts it at an 8/10: https://omni.media/the-scale-of-hardness-in-science-fiction. So I would think it would be pretty safe to say it is sci-fi.

[Thenomain]

I wrote a long-ish post explaining an earth-devouring demon in hard sci-fi terms.

I deleted it because I realized at the end of it that I thought the concern was silly.

By @Ominous' definition, the most popular sci-fi game is (this user cannot remember the name of the Mud/Mush index, let alone sort it by 'popularity' for you, because if fantasy is no different than sci-fi then sarcastically pick the most popular game and hand-wave the rest).

Like I said, silly.

[Jennkryst]

@Thenomain I was going more for 'we live in the shadowrun dystopia already, we are only missing magic', but yeah. Magic is a good source of some of the dystopia therein.

[Ominous]

@Thenomain No, my definition, as I outlined above is that Science Fiction is Enlightenment oriented. Setting doesn't define science fiction or fantasy for me. It's the themes and tropes used. However my definition doesn't matter. What matters is the OP's definition, so we know what it is they are really looking for. If they want space stuff, a lot of Cyberpunk, Borderlands, Trigun, Gears of War, etc. are all ruled out, because they all take place on one planet.

[Thenomain]

@Thenomain said in Most active scifi games right now?:

I thought the concern was silly.

@Ominous said in Most active scifi games right now?:

What matters is the OP's definition,

It's good to agree.

[Misadventure]

What is the functional difference between takes place on one planet, and many? Or takes place on one ship/gathering of ships (like BSG)?

Is it travel time? The ability to do stupid shit on one place and to outspeed and anonymize out of it at the next setting?

Sounds like Firefly is right out, that's all in one system, even if they the life zone is so large it contains ten planets and if one goes completely dead silent for a few years no one will notice.

[Salty Secrets]

@Misadventure Where the action can take place. A game centering on a single planet won't have spaceship role-play, battles or otherwise, nor will it have planetary exploration like you'd expect from say Star Trek where every episode is a new planet full of mysteries and wonders so as science fiction goes it might not be what everyone is looking for.

@Ominous I guess we can agree to disagree then. To me Star Wars is science fiction with fantasy tropes in some of its works but not all. The original trilogy and Rogue One will always feel more like science fiction to me, where the prequels and most spin-offs are indeed more fantasy or space opera. At the end of the day if I want science fiction role-play I can have it on a Star Wars game, the fantasy tropes don't make science fiction play impossible.

[Misadventure]

Sounds like you want exploration. In theory any well done setting could provide you with a regional scale exploration as well as continental or planetary. It sounds like a real pain coming up with not only a new situation, but a new detailed planet.

Have you ever looked at Blue Planet? Its just one planet more or less, but they put a ton of solid sci-fi detail into it.

[Salty Secrets]

@Misadventure I'm not the one looking for a new sci-fi game, just explaining what a single-planet setting means in terms of limitations within the science fiction genre. I agree you can have exploration and all kinds of diverse role-play on a single planet just fine but I also see why someone might seek a more space-oriented game. Star Trek isn't Star Trek if you can't go out and explore space.

[Misadventure]

No no, now you HAVE to play a sci-fi game with planetary exploration. And post here about it.

[Ominous]

@Misadventure A setting based on space-travel, which Firefly does have so would be included, tends to put the focus on adventure. It's the D&D or Traveller of narratives, focusing on resource management, exploration, more interactions with NPCs as antagonists, a faster pace in changes to setting. A setting based on just one planet is more the Ars Magica or Vampire of narratives, focusing on intrigue and politics, more interactions with other PCs as antagonists, with a much tighter focus. Additionally space-travel adds some mechanics to the MU*, such as ship building and ownership, travel times, and multiple grids for the different planets, which has the OOC issue of potentially fragmenting the playerbase and spreading them too thin.

@Salty-Secrets I was agreeing to disagree from the beginning. As I said, what makes something sci-fi or fantasy is very subjective. I am not going to convince everyone that my method for determining whether a work is one or the other is the one, true way, and it is highly unlikely anyone is going to convince me that they have a one, true way for it either.