Replication versus Storytelling

I suppose with science fiction, I am far more interested in storytelling than replication. I could go all-out with a Starfinder conversion, but what am I doing? My Star Frontiers conversion is closer to my heart, and Starfinder just feels like too huge an undertaking; it would be "just to have" rather than something I really want and need.

I would love to have a great Starfinder conversion, don't get me wrong.

Still, even Star Frontiers feels limiting to the stories I like to tell using science fiction. It is a great classic universe and sandbox, and simulating the universe would be a nostalgic throwback, but I have to ask myself, "Why am I playing science fiction?"

Many science fiction games can't even answer this question.

You will get this huge game, full of space monsters, starships, classes, gear, and starmaps, yet it will strangely feel empty, like there is nothing to do. The hook isn't strong, the obvious isn't as obvious, and there is no "why" answering the question of why you should live and adventure in this universe.

With some science fiction games, it is all about money, and that is a motivation, but not one that really drives me. Original Traveller and Space Opera fell into that category for us. Other games, especially Starfinder, are about levelling and "powering up" with better gear. Star Frontiers falls into the "pulp adventure" category, like Savage Worlds or Amazing Adventures, and those are the sort of self-driven motivations I like.

A great simulation can be a motivation for adventuring, too, especially a very well-done conversion with highly compelling GURPS templates. There is nothing like getting a great, blue-collar, GURPS template, like an astronaut, and taking that character through a crisis and a small adventure, especially in a universe where that sort of adventure would not normally "be a thing" like in Starfinder, where the game is mostly mixed combat and exploration, with light roleplay, and very sparse skill use (typically meant to overcome obstacles).

This is that "immersion factor" that GURPS can create.

Can you do a "chef adventure" in Starfinder? Sure, but I would bet 100cr that another group of space goblins is in there somewhere as a toss-in combat encounter, there is a map, and it breaks down into pawns moving around and trying to get to an end boss. In GURPS, you have the skills to do a really great chef adventure, with history, ingredient knowledge, cooking, and even social skills coming into play, along with various advantages and disadvantages.

GURPS throws the brakes on a typical "d20 experience" and forces you to slow down and enjoy the journey, and all the skill rolls, failed self-control rolls, and encounters along the way. With d20, it feels so streamlined and abstracted that I lose the smaller details, and I just want to clear the next room, search for treasure, and move on.

In GURPS, the small things matter more. Even my character, the advantages and disadvantages, my skills, and who I am with my history. My gear is part of my character build, and my loadout matters. Where gear is stored, and weight matters a great deal. A lot of games hand-wave off gear and encumbrance, and in GURPS, you aren't wearing armor you can't carry.

Plate mail isn't an AC entitlement; it is heavy! Some of these games ignore how heavy a suit of plate mail is, and you can walk around fully decked out in plate armor at a D&D STR of 10 and never suffer a movement or encumbrance penalty. The rules supersede reality and even common sense, and "because the numbers," we end up with a situation where character armor is maxed out because the rules would break if plate mail were casual clothing. Even a full suit of chain mail is heavy. I rarely have a GURPS fantasy character who can wear plate armor because the STR requirement to move is so high.

A lot of fantasy games "go silly" due to the math, and they drift off into unreality-land. Sure, a plate pauldron and chestplate count as "plate mail," and the rest of your fantasy outfit can be Hot Topic. "It's fantasy," they say, and there is a point where it is "too much fantasy," like how an abstract rules light game is "too simplistic" to the point where nothing means anything anymore. If everyone can wear suits of plate mail weighing 75 pounds and move around like they are in jogging shorts and a tank top, I check out.

Seeing a 5E player's face when I tell them their character in a suit of heavy plate has a move of 2 because they are heavily encumbered is priceless. Yeah, that armor you are wearing is as heavy as two of the boxes of Pathfinder books that I own. "But it's fantasy!" does not cut it anymore. Fantasy needs to be based in reality to even qualify as fantasy, or we fall into a kid's game of "nuh-uh" and "I am Godzilla, so it doesn't affect me."

I am honestly tired of the "it is fantasy" argument being used to ignore reality. Yes, fantasy is why we are here, even in science fiction, but fantasy is at its best when we have that contrast between the "grounded world" of reality, and then the fantasy of fantasy that makes everything seem so special and amazing. Using fantasy to say "reality does not exist here" makes everything meaningless and unrelatable. It devolves into "nuh-uh" -isms, and the argument comes up again and again, the next time to justify something more outrageous and often, game-breaking.

"I can wear plate mail with an average strength and move around normally!" No, sorry, you can't. Spend the points on a decent STR and give something else up, and you have "earned" that "fantasy." For many GURPS fantasy characters, just managing to wear DR 2 heavy leather is a major victory, and plate mail is an endgame goal.

I can carry around a heavy machine gun all the time!

Of course, they would let me into the bar with it!

This is a fantasy!

Again, our Car Wars experience was our wake-up call decades ago. No, they won't let you into the bar carrying heavy weapons or explosives, and if you think you can try because "this is fantasy," those running the place will likely unload on you. This is Car Wars. Life is cheap. Few care about your feelings. Please roll up a new character, and try to make them less stupid this time. Or they may have been smart, who knows? The world doesn't care, and I am not pulling punches.

In GURPS, your gear and loadout are half of your character build. Character power is not all contained in the rules and "oh my gosh" powers the book throws at you. Games that ignore the encumbrance rules are an instant red flag, and you will likely see the game bestow all sorts of kewl powerz on you to distract you.

This is also why some of these kewl powerz games are difficult to translate into GURPS, since they rely on a baseline of divorced reality that wildly differs from GURPS'.

The same applies in science fiction. A lot of games feel like they can treat armored battlesuits like casual jumpsuits, and I get it. Mass Effect does that (due to limitations in the character model and its simplification). Still, it breaks my immersion to have armored battlesuits as everyday clothing. I like those armored suits to feel special, to have to store them on a rack and put them on before a fight, and to be forced to fight without them when on shore leave or in social situations that go wrong. I feel the same way about heavy weapons, being forced to wear casual armor, and carrying screens in lower-threat situations.

Yes, you can ignore it all in GURPS and play "rules light," but I love the game's simulation aspects. They create new build options, gear loadouts, and being a character is more than a progression chart and powers. Part of my storytelling is gear and the character's equipment.

Many science fiction games get it wrong. Your high-level power armor becomes your everyday outfit. You haul around laser-heavy machine guns to bars, and have enough space explosives strapped to you that you could level a starport hangar. Despite an average STR, you can carry around an armory and a heavy weapon that weighs 50 pounds.

We had the same problem with Car Wars roleplay 40 years ago. The character is not the car, and the 3 DP "body armor" can't be worn everywhere. Pretty soon, you need to get out of the car, visit a bar in everyday clothing, and live your life without four wheels under you at all times.

Once we realized that, the world of Car Wars came alive. The world was a real place, and not just a map of quarter-inch squares, with a grid line every inch.

Immersion forces you to think about how your character equips themselves and how that affects their movement through the environment. It affects social reactions and can be forbidden in many places. You are forced to store your good gear, and you have to decide where in the game world to store it. You can't just throw expensive weapons and armor all in a cart and leave it parked on a street corner, and the "high-level game" in science fiction involves having your own ship, base, or secure vehicle to store gear in.

This is why medieval knights had bodyguards, squires, a trunk holding their plate mail, a few warhorses with horse armor, and an entourage. Just to support "full plate," they had a supply chain following them around, and the budget in gold to roll in big.

GURPS science fiction is really good and thinks about all this stuff, and it forces me to slow down and think about it, too. Other games? They fall into the rules-light trap and hand-wave away the complexity.

I don't want to simulate that.