Which ruleset for my SciFi campaign?

[Berndout]

Hi all,

I am preparing a SciFi campaign and want to play it on fantasygrounds.

Which ruleset/system do you suggest?

The challenge with my campaign is that it changes its tone. There are 4 different phases which have different gameplay elements. Also I am new to FG. A smooth fg integration would be nice.

Basic storyline: The earth is on the brink of extinction and humanity sends several arche like spaceships on a journey to find a new home.

Phase 1 (start): Players are professionals (scientists, engineers, military, politicans, etc) based on 21st century careers. Most tasks are based on these careers. Not much combat, maybe some fist brawls.

Phase 2 (horror): Technology failure, insanity, mutiny and survival are major elements in this phase. Tone similar to event horizon or pandorum. Some kind of morale system would be nice.

Phase 3 (exploration): Relatively common scifi exploration. Visit strange planets, meet (lower) alien forms, etc.

Phase 4 (high SciFi): Eventually the players will meet advanced alien forms and with it a huge cosmic imperium where they have to find a place for humanity among many other intelligent alien races. Similar to star trek or star wars, depending on players interests (technology scifi vs fantasy scifi)

What rulesets/systems would you suggest and why? Which works well on FG?

Thanks!

[LordEntrails]

*shrugs* I don't think the phases have much to do with picking a ruleset. Do you want something with lots of little bits? (rules heavy, lots of options, involved character creation) Or are you looking for something more cinematic? (Rolls don't have a modifier for everything, character creation is quicker and focused on story.)

I think that Traveller and Savage Worlds are the two sci-fi rulesets that have official FG rulesets, and therefore are probably the ones with the most integration. You can also look at Gurps and then of course you can run any game system with CoreRPG and MoreCore with just a bit more work and possibly less automation.

[stephan_]

If you are familiar with Pathfinder, Starfinder is pretty much Pathfinder in Space (with all advantages and disadvantages).

[Saagael]

If you want something rules-lite and easy to hack Index Card RPG has a sci-fi setting in the core rulebook (in addition to a fantasy setting, but you can ignore that).