Compare the "clones"

[Finarvyn]

There are three OD&D-style "clone" scifi games which seem to get most of the attention on these boards.

• Terminal Space
• X-Plorers
• Stars Without Number

I think I've downloaded all three at one point but haven't spent a lot of time looking at any and haven't had a chance to play any for any sort of an extended campaign.

Can someone with experience do a little "compare and contrast" for me?

[Falconer]

There isn’t much to distinguish them mechanically, I think, so it really comes down to setting, ultimately. My favorite “OD&D in space” is Starships & Spacemen because I like near-future, and I like when setting is immediately accessible to the DM and players. Meaning, everyone groks the basics of “beam me up,” phasers, Vulcans & Klingons, saucers exploring brave new worlds, etc. All the other rulesets I’m going to talk about have their homebrew setting that may or may not be similar to what the DM is going for. S&S is also not TOO lite — meaning, there’s enough material in the core book to generate lots and lots of adventures.

Whereas most other “OD&D in space” rulesets are so lite, they basically amount to a PC-generation structure and combat mechanics and not much else. In other words, perfectly serviceable for one-shots, but not sustainable for a larger campaign — you’d have to design so much that you could/should just as well start from scratch. I would put X-Plorers, Terminal Space, and Humanspace Empires in that category. Terminal Space stands apart as the only one that’s actually an OD&D supplement rather than a D&D-like game, which is cool, but on the other hand you have to accept OD&D races, classes, and monsters and rationalize them in a space context, which you may or may not like. Humanspace Empires of course is a little more “EPT in space” (it’s supposed to be the galaxy before Tekumel was thrown off into its own dimension, or whatever) and therefore is distinguished by an EPT feel.

Finally, there’s Stars Without Number, which is not in the “too lite” category. I really don’t care about it from what I’ve seen (it’s very “far future,” a bit of punk, lots of skills), but it seems to have lots of fans.

That’s my impression, though admittedly I don’t invest much time in non-Trek-like games, so take it with a grain of salt!

[barrataria]

I've only read SWN and X-Plorers. I'm with falconer on X-P, I think you're working from scratch on a lot of things to put a campaign together. In which case if I were you I'd use d6 SW and make up what you needed.

I think SWN is pretty cool, there's a ton of books for it if you need things, and I think the basic mechanics are close enough to Traveller that you could pretty easily adapt stuff from that too. I like some of the setting stuff, but even if you hate it it's easy enough to ignore. That's one nice side effect of the skill aspect; the class-based games mean you've got to re-invent those to ditch setting (getting back to falconer's point).

[crusssdaddy]

Terminal Space is probably the quickest/easiest to jump into, if your point of origin is OD&D. It adds a "Tech Level" stat(3= Neanderthal, 18= StarChild), has a small bestiary but assumes many original monsters will be used, nice ship rules, and I think adds some additional psionics material that essentially re-skins magic use for a hi-tech setting. It generally lacks setting material, but I view this as a plus.

[dizzysaxophone]

I have Stars Without Number on my bookshelf and I like it. I can see why many people would like it and play it. Personally if I were going to play a scifi game, I think I'd just go with WEG d6 Star Wars/ d6 Space. That is what I've been planning to do lately though, but haven't been able to talk my players into it.

[Ynas Midgard]

Terminal Space is an OD&D sourcebook (although its content is re-used in Bandits & Battlecruisers, the author's own sci-fi game).

X-Plorers is a rules-light game, probably compatible with OD&D; it introduces a class-based skill system which is a central part in identifying and protection the different classes' niche. The game uses only d20s and d6s.

Stars Without Number is a complete game most similar to OD&D with Greyhawk; it introduces a 2d6-based (and very Traveller-esque) skill system, although character generation is still quite simple (roll stats, choose a class, background and training package, buy equipment). The main attraction of SWN is, however, its support for sci-fi sandbox games, both theoretically (well-thought-out essays) and practically (lots of useful tables and add-ons).