My experience with sci-fi games in GURPS

My experience with sci-fi games in GURPS

Another rambly rant post! In this one, I will analyze why so few of my sci-fi games have been successful, and why so many of them fell apart very quickly. This is going to be yet another "stream of consciousness" post, as there's no plan - I will just write what I think. I just hope that this self-reflection will help me get better, and it might be helpful to you too.

I grew up in a household where bookshelves were always full, and there were never enough bookshelves. We've had hundreds of tomes of classical literature, many encyclopedias, technical literature, and, of course, fiction. I've been exposed to science fiction from my early childhood. My grandmother not only told me fairy tales, but also told me about Heinlein's "Farmer in the Sky", White's "Sector General", and Smith's Lensman series. Even these days I'm enjoying sci-fi literature - I picked up the "new" Heinlein novel - the Pursuit of the Pankera - not long ago, and my favorite book ever is Stranger in a Strange Land.

In video games, I prefer sci-fi over fantasy. I'd play Doom over Heretic (hell, I'm obsessed with Doom to this very day). I'd play Master of Orion over Master of Magic. There's is no sci-fi equivalent to Dominions 5 yet (Illwinter teased the potential sci-fi analog and I am still hoping for its release), but I'd probably enjoy that more than the former.

(This section is highly subjective; I've been told in the past that some people experience the opposite problem.) So, why am I mostly only hosting fantasy games? In my opinion, it is much easier to host a fantasy game. Despite the fact that the existence of magic and all other supernatural phenomena might make it feel that there should be a large variety of fantasy game types, I think that it's much easier have clear expectations when hosting or playing a generic fantasy game. Yes, you might host a TL 2 fantasy game opposed to TL 3 or TL 4, but the difference between them is not very pronounced. Generally, the world is defined by technology (and magic, in this case), and since magic is generally something vague that can accomplish a multitude of things, technology plays a more definitive role. It might be D&D's fault, but if you make a character for one fantasy game, you can probably use him in another with just a few alterations. However, defining "generic sci-fi" is a much more difficult thing to do, in my opinion.

Tech Level plays a much more important role in high-tech games. Scientific progress is exponential, and there's more and more options with each step. Intrinsic abilities of the character become less important, and gear plays the central role. ST, for example, mostly defines how much weight can a character carry on high TL. Generic fantasy games take a lot of inspiration in the historic past of the humankind, so even with the presence of magic and monsters you can generally understand what life would be like and make a believable character. Everyday life would be changed so drastically on high TL, that it would become difficult to imagine what a character would be concerned with, what skills are necessary and what skills are obsolete, etc. Imagine a post-scarcity society where you have access to everything and there's, for example, no need to work for a living. What do you even do? If VR is advanced, do people visit each other in person at all? If life-prolonging techniques have been perfected and you can never get old, what do you worry about? If volitional. sapient AI exists, why are people even required? These are difficult questions. Personally, I've been using two sources to read on all this - Orion's Arm and GURPS Transhuman Space (for the third edition). The latter, in my opinion, is an essential reading material for people who want to run any sci-fi game even if it's not set in the THS setting.

Try comparing Star Wars, Star Trek, Dune, Starcraft, Transhuman Space, Orion's Arm, Starman Jones, Lensman, etc. They are very different from each other. A character that made for Transhuman Space would probably not work well in Star Trek and vice versa. One other thing that I realized after some time is that sci-fi settings have much more potential for "weird things" and for being kitchen sinks than fantasy games. In a post-scarcity society, there would be many endeavors done "just because I wanted to." Imagine a moon being rebuilt to serve as a deathmatch arena for soldiers who are uploaded into a new body upon death or are rebuilt via nanotechnology while being streamed live for entertainment purposes? Honestly, if the technology allows that I can see this scenario as plausible, not silly. A religious movement based around a supernatural-seeming sighting in a VR environment? Why not? A philosophical movement devoted to uplifting every living being to sapience. I can see that happening. A character who is an AI being that used to play a role of a supervillain in a VR world and was uploaded into a living body now wreaking havoc on the planet. Sure, I find even that to be a believable concept. I found this counterintuitive at first, because you'd think that fantasy has more potential for weirdness of this sort. And because of this, I think that an advanced high TL post-scarcity society cannot not be a kitchen sink of the weirdest movements, religions, philosophies, genetically modified species, uplifts, etc. But that all depends on technology, and many settings limit it in some aspects.

I've run several sci-fi games in GURPS in the past. Most of them fell apart. This hit me hard, as I was very excited to run every one of them, and I failed to understand what I was doing wrong. In my opinion, mental inertia is to blame here. I was stuck in the fantasy adventuring game mindset that does not translate that well into sci-fi. It can be much more difficult to have a reason for the party not only to do something but also to stick together as a party. This is why I think that sci-fi works better for shorter games that have a definitive final goal. Characters being members of the same organization helps too. Keeping things open-ended doesn't work that well. Looking back, I remember that the only games that were successful were the following:

    - An explorer group hired by a scientific foundation to explore a barren planet that seemed to bear a scar of spacetime tearing.

    - A band of mercenary on Titan hired to infiltrate a bio-tech facility.

    The characters were together bound by the same mission that was clearly defined. Both of the games laster for about 4-5 sessions with some "sidequests", but overall had a definitive ending.

    I think that the most problems can be solved by reading How to be a GURPS GM and... GURPS Spaces that surprisingly provides a lot of useful information in regards to GMing high-TL games. And, of course, you have to use GURPS Ultra-Tech properly - not as a gear catalog, but as a worldbuilding book where you have to pick and choose what to allow. Every choice will affect the setting. And, for the love of god, enforce LC.