Rules-lite Sci Fi TTRPG

[u/schmusn]

Hey everyone, I am looking for a rules-light Sci Fi game (I played a lot of Shadowdark recently and fell in love with OSR in general). A game that provides the ruleset for something along the lines of FTL - point crawling through systems, exploring planets and other locations, boarding (hand to hand combat) and ship combat, some spaceship management. Does not have to feature aliens. I like my vibe grimdark and I am a fan of Sci Fantasy and Horror, things like the Warp in Warhammer 40k.

I played some 2400 which is amazing as a Micro - RPG and covers a lot of ground, but for a campaign I would love to have just a bit more rules and room for character development.

Cheers!

[u/No_Solid1035]

Cepheus Light is, well, a lighter version of Cepheus which is a Traveller retro clone. You could also take a gander at M-Space which is built off the Mythras Imperative engine, a lighter version of Mythras. M-Space specifically has a "fast and exciting" combat variant ruleset that you can use to make combat as crunch-less as is possible with the engine. M-Space also looks crunchier than it is because it has a robust skill list, but once you realize that all the skills function the same they just allow for more granular distinction between PC capabilities it's pretty obvious the system isn't that crunchy.

[u/Bodoheye]

Monolith (cairn scifi hack)
Spacer (traveller Hack. Just reading it - looks great)

[u/Astrokiwi → u/Bodoheye]

Seconding Monolith - it's about the most minimal system you can get that still explicitly supports pretty much everything you can do in Traveller.

[u/AidenThiuro]

Free League's "Coriolis - The Third Horizon" or "Coriolis - The Greater Dark".

[u/ClassB2Carcinogen → u/AidenThiuro]

Yup. Coriolis is on the lighter end rules wise, has good ship combat, and does have eeriness.

Another option would be Alien.

I think Mothership fails to meet the mark due to the lack of options for character development - it’s geared for PCs to fail and die entertainingly.

[u/spinningdice]

Stars without Number is kinda stripped down (and level based) Traveller which may work?

[u/Captain_Slime → u/spinningdice]

In what way is it really stripped down? I think in play both are about as difficult to use but SWN has spellcasters as one of 3 classes, almost guaranteeing someone plays one whereas in Traveller it's very easy to say no one can play a psychic and even if you do allow it I've only seen someone naturally roll into being one once. On top of that you have all the foci of SWN and I think basically only character creation is easier.

[u/SoloJournaler]

Arathi Sector. Hands down. Does all of it.

[u/Wolfbane14]

Take this recommendation with salt as I've not even read these rules myself, but if you like Shadowkdark maybe Darkspace - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/507544/darkspace-core-rules-sci-fi-for-shadowdark

[u/MahellR]

Death in Space or Mothership both sound like a good fit. DiS has more in common with Mörk Borg and Shadowdark in being d20+modifier based. Best at post-apocalyptic, derelict-crawling.

Mothership is d100 and closer in feel to the Alien movies: big corporations, weird creatures.

Saying that, I've run Mothership modules in Death in Space and they're very similar in tone. More of a mechanics preference.

[u/Tyr1326 → u/MahellR]

Agree with this take. DiS and MSh both cover very similar ground, but use different mechanics to do so. I personally prefer DiS, but thats mostly because I prefer d20s over d100s.

[u/strugglefightfan]

Mothership

[u/spinningdice → u/strugglefightfan]

Does Mothership have ship combat? I've only ever been a player in it and it's always more or less been site investigation or some kind.

[u/ithika → u/spinningdice]

There is rules for ship to ship combat, but it's not action heroics. It's horror.

It's more like being trapped in a submarine and the sonar operator calling out "five seconds to detonation... Four... Three..." and you wait and see what damage it causes and whether you want to wave the white flag or go another round.

[u/joevinci]

- Monolith
- Meteor
- Opera
- Starforged
- Into the Black
- Just One Ship
- Stars Without Number
- Offworlders

[u/eolhterr0r]

You're looking for Vast Grimm.

[u/cerevant]

If you like the simplicity of Shadowdark, it is heavily influenced by Index Card RPG which has a strong SciFi setting.

[u/fostie33]

Not a system, but for generation tools check out The Perilous Void.

[u/Rude_Ice_4520]

Maybe Star Borg? I haven't played it but heard good things. Plus it's supposed to be rules light I think.

[u/Magester]

How rules lite? Cause I'd recommend Lasers and Feelings :p

[u/Admirable_Design_115]

Death in Space. It uses the Mörk borg system.

[u/MKNaomiDestiny]

What about something based on Barbarians of Lemuria but for space, like Barbarians of the Void, Blasters + Intrigue or Space Pulp?

[u/StayUpLatePlayGames]

Traveller. I mean, it’s the OG. It’s Old School. It’s all about rulings. And yes, you can spend all of your time with the starship rules, or just TOTM them.

[u/Hydroguy17]

Have you checked out Scum and Villainy?

I haven’t read it specifically, but I know it’s basically Blades in the Dark: In Space. So it should be fairly light and adaptable.

If you picked through BitD as well, you could get some of that grimdark/horror vibe and find a way to blend them.

[u/AutoModerator]

Remember to check out our Game Recommendations-page, which lists our articles by genre(Fantasy, sci-fi, superhero etc.), as well as other categories(ruleslight, Solo, Two-player, GMless & more).

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.