The Holy Grail
I’ve been searching for a roleplaying game for about a decade. Every time I go into a game store, I check the shelves. Every time reviews show up on rpg.net, I desperately hope they’re talking about the game I want. I was always alone in my hunt because I was never sure exactly what it was that I was chasing, but I was certain I’d know it when I found it.
The other day while I was listening to Isildur talk about EVE Online, I wondered, “Why aren’t there any tabletop RPGs like this?” and then something I hadn’t been able to see for ten years became clear.
I want a science fiction game on the talkative or bookish side of the action scale. I’m not interested in cinematic heroics or gunfights. I’ve played those games, and now I want to play A Deepness in the Sky instead of Star Wars. A nerd game.
I want strong character differentiation with slow or limited advancement, suitable for campaigns spanning decades or having multiple generations of characters.
I don’t care about psionics or nanomagic or mysterious alien powers. That’s a different type of game.
I want a modern resolution system with features like assigned task difficulties and autosuccess on trivial actions, built on a good probability base that provides appropriate odds in all the common situations. I don’t want to use a calculator for anything other than figuring sales tax.
I want a somewhat fiddly tech and vehicle system that isn’t overwhelming if I try out an idea without my spreadsheet handy, with hooks directly into the dice mechanics. I want equipment to matter, but not to overwhelm personal ability. Minor optimizations and upgrades should be both possible and interesting. Ideally, the tech process will be as setting-neutral as possible. Again, I don’t really want to use a calculator, and I’d like to be able to encourage my players to tinker with the tech system.
I don’t need a setting. I need a game to express a number of different settings with a similar hard science fiction flavor.
What I’m looking for is the SF version of Ars Magica.
For the record, this game isn’t Traveller, though it breaks my heart to say so. Trav was always so close and also always so far from what I want. It also isn’t Blue Planet or Heavy Gear, but it took me a while to be sure in both of these cases. It isn’t Fading Suns, and it isn’t Alternity, and it isn’t GURPS and it really isn’t anything with a D20 system logo. My bookcase groans under the weight of all these games that aren’t the one I want.