The Campaign Builder's Guild

I was wondering why we always write Fantasy Campaign Settings? why not a Science Fiction one like the Star Wars Galaxy?

we don't always. Although the majority of them are...

True, but there is definitely a lot more fantasy RPGs then Sci Fi out there. At least, from the completely unresearched opinion of me.

Well parts of my Divergence setting are scifi-ish (near future with some paranormal stuff and a Space Opera section). Another one of my settings (Prismatic) has some science-fiction elements (spaceships and space battles).

I know however that I'm not a really big fan science fiction in general, technobabble stuff and Time Travel anger me, bad science bugs me. Pretty much I like only Hard Science Fiction, and I don't trust myself to be able to write a good Hard Science Fiction setting.

Too often Science Fiction will focus too much on the technology even when its bad science. A side effect is a neglect in other areas I find. The technology just demands too much attention, we all want to know how it works. With magic however we can come up with easy simple answers and just blame stuff on the Gods. Blaming stuff on the Gods is often frowned upon in Science Fiction.

Now and again I like a bit of Space Opera (Peter F Hamilton books, Fallen Dragon and his Commonwealth Saga are some of my favorite books, even though Fallen Dragon has dumb time travel stuff in it).

Another reason I think is because a lot of real-life can seem pretty science-fictiony (especially if you work in a technical field or follow tech news) so it isn't as much of an escape.

I'm doing a setting which probably has sci-fi elements.  It's not very hard sci-fi, but it's definitely not traditional fantasy.

Quote from: Gnome NachosTrue, but there is definitely a lot more fantasy RPGs then Sci Fi out there. At least, from the completely unresearched opinion of me.

Fantasy is the traditional RPG. The first RPGs were all Fantasy stuff.

Now a main reason for RPGs not being Science Fiction often is that with "advanced technology" melee combat is gone, you won't charge a guy with a sword if he has a rifle or something. This is a huge part of RPGs, now some games deal with this (Most final fantasy games just ignore it) or work around it (Light Sabers in Star Wars). But the lack of "melee" is a huge thing for RPGs.

I think in general fantasy settings are easier to create than sci-fi ones.  With fantasy you have a lot of freedom, especially with the presence of any kind of magic.  With sci-fi there's a tendency to create at least quasi-plausible explanations for things, even if they're pure psuedo-science.  With magic thrown into the mix it's easier to fiddle with things... you just modify your rules of magic to accommodate whatever phenomenon you want, and voila, whereas with sci-fi you have to modify real-world physics (or at least engage them in some way).  At least, that's the tendency.

Another good sci-fi setting on this site other than Silvercat's pulp dream is Cowd's Weird Sun, which is pretty freakin' cool...

Quote from: Steerpike'¦'¦'¦'¦'¦'¦other than Silvercat's pulp dream'¦'¦'¦

Actually I was referring to the multiverse setting.  It's not precisely sci-fi, but it tries to have it in there.  I'm really trying to see if I can have the sort of freedom of magic that Llum mentioned without it having to be "magic" exactly.

I'm kind of kooky that way: I prefer bad science to none at all.  But when I get down to it I'm not much more interested in the technobabble than Llum.  I'd just rather the author say "We don't want to explain it to you" rather than invoke the almighty "It Is Inexplicable".

well i am getting ready to upload my Technomancer setting. so tomorrow there will be another one.

I'm approaching my setting in the method of sci-fi.

Otherwise, I would really like to write a sci-fi setting utilizing the Starwars system (minus the force system; I have issues with it), treating the Jedi order like an order of Paladins. One thing, though, is that Star Wars is a fantasy story under the veneer of science fiction.

The nature of role-playing games fit the genre of Fantasy, since Fantasy is about the journey of the hero. Science Fiction, on the other hand, is largely about "how would X affect society?", where X is "the other", refering to something like aliens, robots, super technology, space travel, or even real technology. A true science fiction rpg would be difficult without utilizing fantasy storytelling.[/lit major]

I have a cyberpunk thing that I don't really plan on developing any further. In fact, it's been up for adoption from the get-go, so if you're interested in working on something sci-fi, but don't know where to start, this might be something that might interest you.

The think the problem with Sci-Fi is that, compared to fantasy, there isn't a 'stereotypical' Sci-Fi setting. Sci-Fi ranges from the future-plausible style of Star Trek to the Sci-Fantasy of Star Wars to the realism of Babylon 5 to the world altering Sci-Fi of Pastwatch to the plausible mecha of the Original Gundam to the Mecha-unrealistic in Outlaw Star.

Sci-Fi lacks the coherent tropes of that fantasy has and isn't bound to a coherent level of expectation that Fantasy possesses (whether that's good or bad, I'll leave up to you to decide).

Also, I have to agree with the above posters in that Fantasy more easily lends itself to D&D style RPGs because its all about the Heroes over coming adversity.

[blockquote=Elemental_Elf]Sci-Fi lacks the coherent tropes of that fantasy has and isn't bound to a coherent level of expectation that Fantasy possesses (whether that's good or bad, I'll leave up to you to decide).[/blockquote]This is what annoys me about some contemporary fantasy.  The prevalence of well-worn tropes at the expense of wilder creativity and envelope-pushing inventiveness (as sometimes exhibited in sci-fi) in common fantasy really bugs me, which is why although I don't dislike Tolkien I'm increasingly annoyed at Middle Earth because I constantly see its shallower, less developed, hackneyed bastard spawn every time I turn around in a bookshop or video game aisle...

I could post some of my additions and expansions of the GURPS Black Ops setting when I have them in coherent written form. That's kind of sci-fi.

Quote from: Kapn XeviatThe nature of role-playing games fit the genre of Fantasy, since Fantasy is about the journey of the hero. Science Fiction, on the other hand, is largely about "how would X affect society?", where X is "the other", refering to something like aliens, robots, super technology, space travel, or even real technology. A true science fiction rpg would be difficult without utilizing fantasy storytelling.

I have to agree here. Science Fiction has always tended to be alot more philosophical than classic fantasy. That's because it is an exploration of what ifs. Science fiction in a way seeks to study and examine the world. Fantasy on the other hand tends to present itself as an escape from the real world.