My Top 5 Sci-fi Tabletop Roleplaying Games 

I cannot believe that Traveller wasn't even mentioned. It's the granddaddy of all science fiction RPGs and it's stood the test of time - even 45 years later it's still in production and actively played.

Traveller has been my go to sci-fi game since it came out and I was in highschool ('77)

Across a Thousand Dead Worlds is now the king of sci-fi rpg gaming. This game has taken the D20 system and refreshed it and created a single book that gives you everything you need forever to run exciting adventures. It's genius!

Stars without Number is my absolute favorite.

5 - Gamma World, 4 - Traveller, 3 - Star Wars RPG (fantasy flight), 2 - Starfinder, 1 - Alien

Loved this commentary! Thanks!

Traveller (especially Classic) and Mothership would definitely be way up on my list, but Star Wars d6 is on there too!

Been out of print forever, but my group has been playing Alternity for over 20 years. Such an amazing system.

Showing up for Corvus Belli’s infinity rpg. The setting is freaking amazing!

TSR's Alternity (retired when WOTC bought that so had only a two year run) was really good but never given a chance.

Great list. I have started learning about Starfinder. I have played ALIEN and it's a lot of fun. One I want to play with others is MechWarrior Destiny. I love BladeRunner and would like to try that system, too. Since it's also made by the same company as the ALIEN TTRPG, it will probably feel very similar.

Across a thousand dead worlds of Alex T. From blackoath entretainment

My list is a little different. I get why Coriolis is on your Honorable Mentions list. Alien is just that well done! I would have Traveller on my list - and Fasa’s Star Trek, Star Frontiers, and ICE’s SpaceMaster get “sentimental mention” from me. Had lots of fun with them, but they’re nearly unplayable by my standards now. I pray that The Icons bless your adventures given your attention to them. 🙏 You are of course correct about D6 Star Wars, though!

My favorite Space Sci-fi RPG for one-offs would be Free Leagues Alien RPG. But for campaign play, my favorite space Sci-fi RPG, hands down, would be Traveller RPG. I grew up with it, and I really love the richness of the universe that has come out of it. I also really enjoy the character creation process. It's a game in itself.

Another great video! Thoughts on the Firefly RPG or Tales from the Loop? The latter isn’t exactly space based but certainly has all of the science fiction elements.

Sweet list!

Alien RPG is one of the best IP based rpgs I’ve ever seen, in my opinion. Thanks again for convincing me to buy it 🙏🏻 It’s amaaaazing.

Cool video! You said we'd see more about why Coriolis wasn't in the top 5 but nothing concrete stood out. I'm looking at it for a medium crunch game as a step up for new players currently using a rules-lite game. Do you can any specific pros/cons that kept it out of the top 5?

The Dune rpg is absolutely my favorite sci fi rpg, and my second favorite rpg overall. The concept of Drives is so interesting to me, especially since they affect each and every skill check: it’s not just “what are you doing” but “why are you doing it”. We just hit the halfway mark for our Dune campaign (though slightly home brewed to fit a different setting) and it’s been a massive hit. Close second in terms of sci fi though is the Alien rpg. Stress is an awesome mechanic and the rules are super easy to pick up. Just wish I had more chances to play it: I only got to do, like, five or so sessions with it in the 3 years since I bought it.

Lately I've been real fond of of TinyD6 Frontiers/ Mecha & Monsters. There's just a simple elegance to the system

Stars Without Number is great. Star Wars by Fantasy Flight Games is pretty amazing. Another really good one is Frontier Space by DWD Games.

Some of the Sci-fi's i'll recomend: Alien Star Trek Adventures Starwars (West End D6) Dune Adventures in the Imperium Coriolis Death in Space Tales From the Loop Things From the Flood Not in any specific order.

There is an actual 5e sci-fi/sci-fantasy system called Esper Genesis (i.e., Starfinder is to Pathfinder what Esper Genesis is to D&D 5e).

GURPS, Cyberpunk 2020, Classic Traveller. I have an awesome group with a regular Fri night GURPS game- best system ever.

How do the FF Star wars rpg's (Edge of the Empire, etc) compare to the original rpg one?

Hmm 5 : Cyberpunk:2020 - one of my favourite games I played in rather than ran. Brilliant, simple system. 4 : Death In Space *or* Vast Grimm (both of which have Mork Borg DNA and I'm a sucker for a good dystopia) 3 : Traveller (any version except TNE, and probably mostly Mongoose these days ... my first RPG, way back in 1980/81) 2 : Mothership (because it's _the_ Sci Fi horror system, bar none - beats Traveller only because I've played so much Traveller I'm a little weary of it now lol) 1 : 2300AD (original, not Mongoose, as the Mongoose one is just Traveller really - it's just so well done, from the national divisions in humanity, the actually "alien" aliens, the hard sci-fi basis and the NSL, the works)

100% Star Wars D6 RPG - excellent game with a fantastic system, and I still use the first edition book. It's fast, easy and so much fun.

Free Spacer and The 13th Fleet are a couple by Canadian designed games that I highly recommend. Of course I am pretty biased, as I carry them both on the Compose Dream Games Marketplace -- I've also run both, which I can't say about all the titles we carry.

Good call on Dune. I haven't gotten to play it yet. But the system seems elegant and the source book is full of awesome info on the Dune universe. I'm not sure how the house roles and various scales of play work in practice, but I'd love to give it a try. Alien has got to be my favourite though. As you pointed out, the rulebook an awesome source of info on the Alien canon. And the cinematic scenarios have obviously been crafted with so much care and come with awesome goodies. Those campaigns wow the players and are so tense. As sci fi is not my most played genre, that's the list for me. Though I'm also intrigued by "Those Dark Places" by Osprey Publishing. Seems like it should also scratch that space horror list.

I'm curious, any feelings on Stars Without Number?

Being a Star Trek fan, I have become a big fan of Star Trek Adventures and running been running a campaign(es) for just under 3 years. In that time I have managed to dabble in the Alien RPG and the current Star Wars system which where both fun.

Mine would be GURPS Space, FASA Trek, WEG Star Wars, 2300 and old school Traveller, all ancient classics, although I never actually ran Traveller, unless you consider GS a complete ripoff, which some people do. I have been tempted by Stars Without Number, but it ties psionics into the setting too heavily. The Force was always something I avoided when I ran generic D6 Space (later Cortex/Firefly). Starfinder has straight up magic plus I hate class and level

What's your thoughts on the new Stargate RPG?

No Stars without Number? Mothership?

I'd like to see a video where you discuss why you prefer the West End Star Wars RPG over the Fantasy Flight Edition.

Starfinder's great. I ran the Attack of the Swarm module for some friends...honestly wasn't a fan of the module, but the system itself was great. Also played in the Starsong living setting for a while and had a blast. Lost my character day one, full dead, and the GM had a backup plan because it was a new player friendly run XD great memories on that one. Death in Space is very firmly near the top of my list for RPGs to get ASAP, right next to Mork Borg and a couple others. Half because it looks fun and half because the book is pretty. Dune is at the very top of my list, because my local game shop has a bunch of the books for it. They're very pretty and everything I've got from Modiphius has been great quality. Keep seeing the Alien rpg but for some reason it doesn't pop for me, if that makes sense. Local game shop has it and I like the Alien movies/books etc, but it just hasn't made its way to my list yet. I've heard good things about the West End Star Wars game but never looked into it. I ended up buying a whole collection of the d20 Star Wars books when I was in the army, this massive pile of books I had to keep packed away in my barracks room. Lately though I've gotten really tired of the Star Wars IP. When they dropped Legends as cannon it kind of took the wind out of my sails. Personal top five, in no particular order (because I don't like ranking them): Traveller, Starfinder, Savage Worlds Adventurer's Edition Rifts, Five Parsecs from Home, and Lancer. Always wanted to try Coreolis and the original Rifts alongside a couple others, and for perfect clarity I've never actually played Traveller but I love their character creation and all the tools included in one book.

I also really like the babylon 5 rpg and ofcourse cyberpunk red

Free League shill. 😆 "Classic" Traveller for the win.

WEG Star Wars brings back so many great memories from high school. Truly bizarre for Traveller not to even get a mention… honorable or not.

Mothership should be on this list.

I really need to play Dune. I have it, but haven't read it yet. Agreed on Star Wars. The second edition revised is great. My top 5...in no order: Fading Suns (The system is meh. I think I'll use BRP when I run it again, but the setting is amazing) Alien Tales from the Loop Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Ed. I've only just started playing it over the last year, in spite of knowing about it since I was a kid in the 80s. It's really good though. I like that it's a system that is as crunchy as you want it to be. Basic rules are actually really simple.) Cyberpunk 2020

I hit the like button.

Star Frontiers. Mothership.

mothership is dope but i see all that super robot tech in the background, whats up with LANCER

LANCER ALL THE WAYYYYY 🎉

My Top Five of all time: #1 Ironsworn Starforged - I am mostly a solo player now, and this is an unbelievably well-designed and enjoyable system. I've gotten a lot of enjoyable play over the last couple of years. #2: Traveller - I'm most partial to the old-school GDW 2d6 system, especially its evolution into the Cepheus engine. But even 1st Edition Mongoose is good IMO. I'm not interested in GURPS, New Era, or T4/T5. #3: Battlelords of the 23rd Century - I've been playing this since the very beginning, but it's become crunchier with each new edition. But the new Savage Battlelords has revitalized my interest in the setting. #4: Star Wars - specifically the d6 system from West End Games. I've got a lot of fond memories of sessions and I ported my tabletop character into the Star Wars Galaxies MMO #5 Star Frontiers - back in the early '80s in the 9th grade, we had a gaming club that met in the library after school, and this was our RPG of choice. It's not a great system from a design perspective, but it was fun and memorable.

FrontierSpace, Galactic Odyssey, Galaxy Prime. World's Beyond, Traveller. All D00 except Traveller and apart from Traveller all pretty obscure. Only FrontierSpace is really supported.

Shout out to WEG!!!

Wow…. Mothership?!?!

Yeah WEG Star Wars was what we played masses of along with AD&D but also, Spacemaster, you gotta love ICE critical hits charts 😂 No love for Eclipse Phase or Numenera eh 🤷🏻‍♂️

I'm shamelessly promoting my game, Infinite Galaxies.

WEG Star Wars is the _best_ Star Wars game. Hands down. End of. And they introduced so many things that are still used in other rpgs to this day. And even things that made it into Star Wars cannon.

Always been a fan of Heavy Gear.

list starts at about 3:25

The FFG(now Edge Studios) Star Wars rpg system (Genesys) is far superior to West End D6 version.

Traveller? Mothership?

WEG Star Wars just fits the Star Wars universe in a way that no other version has. Though, Star Wars is not sci-fi by definition. *evil grin*

My favorite? I have the unpublished Mass Effect rpg for Fate Core. My short lived game starred a Krogan Spectre and his failed Spectre handler.

Struggling with short attention span possible reason why I found myself getting board by you repeatedly saying top 5 games but not getting around to mentioning them. I didn't come here for honourable mentions ...edit your waffle

Stars Wars d6 is not just the best Sci-fi RPG, it's the best RPG period. The game is really the beginning of the EU. When Timothy Zahn was commissioned to write the Heir to the Empire trilogy, Lucasfilm sent him the complete set of the RPG to use as reference material. The game never covered the prequel era because West End lost the license before it those movies were released. You can find fan created Galaxy Guides for Episode One and Two in PDF online. The game did cover the Old Republic Era, the New Republic Era and the Dark Empire. It also had rules for playing a freighter captain/smuggler campaign as well as a bounty hunter campaign and a scout campaign. All in all, the game could be played in so many ways just from the published material, but it was such an adaptable system that a creative and enterprising GM could easily use it to play in any genre or setting. I once used it for a Star Trek campaign and a Western campaign; as long as you had reference material for those settings, it was an easy job to convert. Thanks for the video, mate, and happy gaming.

lol, no traveller? And you want to be taken seriously? Much nerd cred lost