GURPS: Space Opera

Okay, first up, why?

Space Opera in itself is generic enough science fiction; the early FGU attempt at "D&D in space" was inspired by classic science fiction novels, TV shows, and movies. Why would we even need to play a GURPS: Space Opera when we have much more solid and compelling settings such as Star Frontiers, Star Trek, Star Wars, or even Traveller?

Because with GURPS, we can.

First up, what is Space Opera? What can we even call this? Generic science fiction in space? Even the cover is strange enough. Goggles Guy, space southpaw with a bad haircut, Buck Rogers girl from the NBC Studio Lot, Raptor Man, Badger Wookie, green bald psionic guy with the high collar, not a furry lion guy, and Robbie the Robot. The Death Moon and starships that look like women's razors. Is that a pink space castle back there?

Okay, we are on some serious drugs here.

This is going to be good.

What is Space Opera? Let's check out the introduction.

"The original concept was to create a game that would not need the usually innumerable supplements to its rules but that would be a complete science fiction role playing game. Thus, we wanted a game that would allow players to role play all of the most popular roles for characters in the entire genre of science fiction literature. This called for a game to handle the future warrior and mercenary, the free-trader, the asteroid miner, the planetary explorer and first contact man, and the member of the diplomatic corps/spy service. We needed science and the possibility of scientist characters with medicine playing a major role.

As if this were not enough, the decision was made to base the game on the grand tradition of Space Opera, in the vein of E. Doc Smith and most recently Star Wars from George Lucas. This meant that we would also have to allow for the psionic powers so prevalent in the Lensman series and in Star Wars with 'the force.'" - Space Opera, FGU, page 6

So we have: Lensman, Foundation, Starship Troopers, and other classic science fiction books. We cross that with the Star Trek original TV show, Star Wars, the Buck Rogers TV show, the original Battlestar Galactica TV show, 2001, Flash Gordon, Logan's Run, Alien, Dune, Westworld, and a few other influences, and we have Space Opera.

My MS Paint Art, not Space Opera -Hak

Psionic powers are our "magic."

These inspirations are the "science fiction AD&D" we have always been looking for. They blend a chaotic mix of pop-culture influences, stir them together, and create a generic science fiction universe that should be capable of anything.

And this is not "Mass Effect" since that in itself has become something of a trope for generic science fiction these days, and endlessly copied when nobody has a better idea. The new 5E science fiction game Wizards, which was quietly released to be drilled full of lasers by Starfinder 2, is a prime example.

You see, D&D got in early, so they could mix Greek, Egyptian, Norse, Celtic, Arthurian, and all sorts of other fantasy influences and create a genre. Science Fiction was late to the party, and the franchise players split up science fiction and movies between themselves. We never really got a great "universal science fiction" genre like we had in fantasy. Star Wars took its piece of the pie, Star Trek had theirs, and everyone else was left to scrounge for scraps of the audience.

If we ever had "generic science fiction," Space Opera would be the first known combination of all science fiction genres and the unified universe where it all takes place.

Or, simply put, GURPS Space.

Wait! There is more to this than just saying GURPS Space is your thing. While GURPS Space and GURPS: Ultra Tech will be beneficial, they are not the primary reasons for this mod and conversion.

Or, simply put, GURPS Traveller.

No! Not again! Traveller did indeed beat GURPS out in the early 1980s, then Star Frontiers came and went like a flash, and only Traveller survived. What is even the point of a GURPS: Space Opera? This is just "generic science fiction," right?

Okay, let's check out the back cover of the game. Hey, that is a cool starship, too. We have a couple more clues here.

"For you, as a player, Space Opera offers a selection of species for your character. From a basis of randomly determined characteristics (slanted to favor your character) you take him through his career up to the point when his adventures start. This development system results in a complete and rounded character with skills chosen in a non-random fashion to suit his or her needs.

For you as StarMaster, SPACE OPERA offers rules covering a wide variety of topics from which you may pick and choose those that will best suit the universe in which you wish to play. In this way you can simulate situations from virtually any part of science fiction literature. SPACE OPERA gives you a framework within which to set and develop the adventures which you conceive for the characters. The only limit is your imagination." - Space Opera, FGU, page 2.

We have OSR-like language here. Pick and choose rules? Simulate situations from any part of science fiction literature? A framework to develop adventures for the characters? Okay, we have a few more clues. Still, why play this? And why simulate this with GURPS?

One, I love the world-building in this game. They describe it as a "generic space game," but they actually create their own world. Beyond that, this is a new universe with its own organizations, factions, worlds, and aliens. Granted, very few people even know about this universe and care about it, but it is here and an interesting place.

Our character classes are: Armsman, Technician, Scientist: Research, Scientist: Medical, Scientist: Engineering, and Astronaut. They are an interesting mix, mirroring Star Trek, but not really. I like that Astronauts are the pilots and commanders, while Techs are the higher skill-level technicians, navigators, med-techs, and other non-science specialists. Armsman is a classic 1950s science fiction throwback, like a Starship Troopers-style space soldier. There are lots of scientists, too, which means a lot of science is happening in adventures.

My MS Paint Art, not Space Opera's -Hak

This is like Star Trek if Kirk wore a spacesuit all the time and flew the ship, Scott sat in the engine room in a radiation suit, Bones, Spock, and some new Engineering scientist researched in the lab all day, and another new Armsman character named Carter manned his powered armored suit with a nuclear rocket launcher on the shoulder and a Blaster HMG to use as a personal weapon, along with a flame unit and defensive grenade launcher tubes on the back. One of them, a green trans-human named Jar'Jeel, has psionic powers and acts as the ship's precognition expert.

What a strange crew.

It is like Starship Troopers Trek Wars.

I would use the species here, since that matches the strange mix on the front cover. I would also use the random home world generation in Book 1, and then skip to the careers. And this is where the next significant bit of world-building is done with all the organizations in this universe. We have:

• Star Force
• Marines
• Commandos
• BOSS (external intelligence agency, civilian)
• BRINT (internal state security, military)
• IPA (interstellar police)
• Survey (space)
• Scout (planetary)
• Explorer (independent, corporate)
• Contact (government civilian)
• Merchant
• PDF (planetary defense)
• Police (planetary)
• Mercenary (independent, corporate)

That is a lot of world-building! This surpasses the achievements of both Star Wars and Star Trek, forming an interesting mix of agencies and organizations that can interact and undertake missions across the galaxy. And this is just the Terran faction! There are more human factions than just the Terran one, as well as alien factions. This universe is enormous. The factions and organizations are very deep.

The split between Survey, which focuses on space exploration, Scouts, which specialize in planetary survival and exploration, and Contacts, which deals with alien cultures and linguistics, is a fascinating division among the scout factions. Having independent scouts is also a cool division.

And this book has a lot of fun expansion books. One of the ones we loved was the Ground and Air Equipment book, which gave you all sorts of tanks, planes, star fighters, rocket launchers, heavy blast cannons, and other toys to play with. This one even features WW2-era old-tech vehicles, making it a fun guide across a few tech levels for the heavy metal gear in the universe, all the way up to 500-ton Continental Siege Unit tanks like something out of Ogre.

This is a book packed full of toys. 

There is an Orc-like race of space baddies, space Soviets, bug armies, a human supremacist empire, space Roman merchants, Hisser snake people, Mekpurr tech-cats, space China aliens, Transhuman knights, and all sorts of strange factions in the universe with room to make your own.

Also, if you ever wanted to use Space Opera ship combat, the game's skill levels from 0 to 10 map easily to GURPS skill levels by subtracting 10 from your GURPS skill, so a 18- skill in GURPS becomes a level 8 skill in Space Opera. So the whole ship combat system is open to you if you want to break out the d100 and do things with this game's naval-war game-like space combat tables. For personal gear and armor, use GURPS Ultra Tech.

This is all of a sudden looking less and less like a generic space game and more like its own setting. 

Okay, still not enough. Sure, you can break down the universe into all these groups, give me a bunch of aliens, stat out a few armored vehicles, and even give me a dozen stellar guides, but why? It is not Traveller, it is not Star Frontiers, it is not Star Trek or Star Wars, it is not Dune, and it was never compelling enough back in the day to really catch on and endure. The system is so obscure and complicated that we need to replace it with GURPS. So, why play this?

One, the concept of a universe that pits a Star Trek-like Federation against a Star Wars-like Empire is a fun one; just a little reskinning, and you have the ultimate fan-fiction universe. You have a group of Space Romans that could easily sub in for a Dune-like faction. You have space bugs, similar to those in Starship Troopers and the Marines. There are places to put Battlestar Galactica's Cylons and Buck Rogers in here, or even Ming from Flash Gordon. If you're looking for the ultimate "clash of the fan fiction" science fiction universe, this is it.

My silly art, not Space Opera's - Hak

If you wanted to play it straight, this is an entirely new universe to explore, with plenty of the work already done for you! This is far more than you get in many GURPS source books, and having a whole science fiction setting that has nothing to do with anyone's movie or TV show is a remarkable thing. It has similarities, but this is a ready-made universe with plenty of factions, aliens, worlds, and adventures to use as a great GURPS setting.

The thing is, with Star Wars and Star Trek, and even Traveller, new players will want to play the "official game" before a GURPS conversion, and that is understandable. With Space Opera, you can come in with GURPS players and have a ready-made setting with plenty of lore, planets, aliens, and work done for you. You can tweak most of this to whatever you want.

Plus, the character types are cool and different. I like the concept of an astronaut being a space pilot and eventually a fleet commander. I love that there is such a heavy focus on science. I really like the focus on the armsman and having a dedicated soldier class that can fill many roles. I even like that technicians are anything from engineers to doctors, all with a non-science focus, but highly capable.

Space Opera, Star Sector Atlas 2, page 49

Downsides? The setting is extraordinary. There is an incoherence to it. Nothing feels connected, and the planet descriptions feel disjointed. The organizations lack identity; they are merely names without history or personality. The setting lacks a cohesive flow or history. The universe thinks like B-movie science fiction, making it hard to relate to or grasp what it's genuinely about. The setting hinges on a false feeling of self-importance. Players will sit there saying, "I don't know what this is or how to act."

In trying to be "all science fiction," the game comes out feeling like "none of it."

I could say the same thing about D&D and fantasy. 

And Traveller is a far more complete and well-laid-out universe. Star Frontiers is a tighter and more focused sandbox. Any "IP science fiction" is easily relatable and instantly playable.

Space Opera, Star Sector Atlas One, page 45

On the plus side, the game features some of the most interesting early 1980s science fiction line art by classic fantasy artists. These are rare and fascinating works from some of the greats we know elsewhere, doing a science fiction flex and doing some fantastic work. This art reminds me of early D&D, and these are rarely seen pieces. They offer amazing glimpses into the hobby back then and the "what could have been" if science fiction had not been dominated by a few big movies and instead been embraced by gaming.

This universe of open, engaging, and speculative science fiction in gaming is entirely owned by Traveller these days. Flipping through the sub-sector guides that Mongoose puts out regularly, I see so many ideas and concepts being expressed, interesting planets and factions crafted, and a universe of possibilities expressed and delivered to an ever-expanding setting.

I like the strong psionic focus for the setting's "magic." Rarely do you get such a strong focus on the psionic part of the setting, and even in Traveller, the power feels muted and pushed to the back. FGU was never fearful of leaning into psionic powers, and they even have an entire game (Psi-World) on the subject. Psionic individuals are this setting's "magic users" and a significant part of the action. In Star Wars and Star Trek, they are pushed to the back or pigeon-holed into a few roles (in Star Wars, forced to be Jedi or Sith). In Traveller, they are infrequent and the exception.

Space Opera, page 24

In Space Opera, by the rules, 5% of the population are potentially potent psionic users. They can be "awakened" by psionic attack or exposure to psionic power sources (during the game). The awakening process only happens in-game and can never be started with, so this entire system is built into the role-playing and is a pivotal character moment. This is a very cool system and mirrors the science fiction of the day, where a Star Force astronaut goes on a mission to an ancient temple, meets a dying alien master psionic, "unlocks their secret potential," and "everything changes!"

If you love classic heroic science fiction novels from the 1950s to 1980s, with stories of heroism, awakening, and transformation, then Space Opera will resonate with you. Many of today's "class-based games" lack surprises, with every power planned out 20 levels in advance, and there is no mystery or alteration to your character's path or future. You look at Starfinder, and your technician has 20 levels of power planned out for them, and there is no mystery or discovery to the character. Even in Traveller, you are set in stone. Star Frontiers is the same thing; you spend XP to go up boring skill trees.

Only in GURPS and point-based systems do you have that "open character sheet" to freely develop your character. The only "open character sheet" game in d20-land is original B/X, where you can freely add powers to your sheet, such as Old School Essentials. The minute you go to AD&D, those level-based charts start to take over the game, and you lose your open character sheet. By the time you get to 3.5E, the open character sheet is gone completely. Modern games like 5E or Pathfinder? Forget it, your character is centrally planned by a committee.

Today's over-designed, over-planned, go up the pre-programmed level chart games have no mystery or discovery in them. They are tedious and often impossible to balance. They control your character's story. All you are doing is going up the planned power chart and checking boxes. Nothing unexpected or extraordinary can happen to you because of the story.

More of my silly art, enjoy. -Hak

In GURPS? Even in fantasy, my bard can become a mage. My fighter can become a druid. My thief can become a paladin. My cleric can learn archery. Whatever happens in the story is reflected on my character sheet, no clunky multi-classing required. My Star Force medic needs to learn how to fly a ship? I can do that. In class and level systems? Forget it, the designers know better than you.

The different branches and divisions of space forces in Space Opera are not only very cool but also instant inspiration for your own science fiction universes. What if there were independent explorers and they hired mercenary forces? What would a space police force do, especially with their own ships to fight space pirates and work alongside local navies and Starfleet vessels? Even if you do not use the setting, there is enough here to give you a wealth of world-building ideas on your own.

Just drop in GURPS, let me run an open character sheet, and go.