High frontier is a bucket list game for me. The probability of me ever finding a group to play with is 0%. But I love everything it’s about
Hard science fiction games
3 Likes
You might find something of use in the Fate Space Toolkit, which suggests that play groups set their game’s “plausibilometer” to the desired level and go from there.
3 Likes
I think there’s a version for Tabletop Simulator or somesuch so theoretically you could play it online, and the solo game is pretty good. (It also has open information so you could do the old solo multiplayer thing.)
1 Like
Gurps Transhuman Space is hard sci fi. But to what end? You can still have a “romp” or a romance or a tragedy in Hard sci fi, just like in a fantasy or space opera setting.
I bough Diaspora a while back. It generally tries to be hard sci-fi, with the notable exception of interstellar travel as mentioned above. For what it’s worth, it’s got the atomic rockets seal of approval, which is where I learned about it:
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/sealofapproval.php
If you’re more or less system agnostic and are just looking for a good setting, Zozer Games, on drivethrurpg has a couple of settings/background references for a near-future hard-sci-fi game, sans interstellar travel
1 Like
What, in your mind, would qualify a game as a “good hard science fiction” game? Do you need rules that simulate real physics with detailed descriptions of how the science works?
Or do you just want a storytelling system that could generate the kind of “plot beats” in the source material you’re citing (Gravity, The Martian)?
I think many systems are actually capable of the latter as long as the players understand enough of the science.
3 Likes
Mars Colony is a great two-player game. If you both know a few things about plausible Mars colonization, it will naturally make for a hard sci-fi story.
But the real reason I’m replying to this topic is to further boost the signal for High Frontier. The game is easily the best hard sci-fi story-telling engine I’ve encountered. It doesn’t tell stories at the individual scale, but at the crew/company/nation-state level. While that might sound a little difficult to engage with, I guarantee that if you like stories set in the solar system in the next couple hundred years, High Frontier will generate experiences that totally captivate you. Until an RPG-version of it exists, it is the closest I’ve come to a truly great hard sci-fi story game.
5 Likes
Ugh. We need to get an online high frontier game going or something.
2 Likes
I’m pretty sure that’s doable. There’s a version for it in Tabletop Simulator and probably elsewhere as well.
Parsec is easily one of my favorite hard sci-fi games.
It’s hard to be sure, but the company it was printed under folded (I think) and the game was dead - until I contacted the author about it and suggested he put it up on dtrpg! Now there it is in all its glory.
2 Likes
Parsec was one of the earliest kickstarters I backed and it was a shame that the game sort of disappeared afterwards as I really enjoyed it. Sadly the book has mostly just sat on my shelf, I hope the author is able to do something with it again in the future.
I’ve been told that the 2300 setting for Traveller is pretty hard sci-fi, and takes place before the advent of jump drives. Also, it probably wouldn’t be hard to reskin Scum and Villiany to the task. Just change the setting and remove/replace the jump drives with another ship module, and declare that Xenos either don’t exist or aren’t available for use as player characters.
1 Like
2300AD … Wow, that takes me back. There is interstellar travel and anti-grav, though. But a lot grittier than Traveller.
1 Like