The Phoenix II: Van of the Future!

 Found this groovy van online and it makes me think it make a great Gamma World or Star Frontiers "team vehicle".

Here's another cool one, but not a Phoenix, per se. Still has that Adventure People/Playmobil vibe to it:

Sci-fi Genre Mashup: Star W.T.F.

In my haze to get to work the other day my mind was wandering (as usual) and I though it might be cool to combine all the best parts of disparate sci-fi franchises into one. What would it entail? I got to thinking what it wold be like to combine Star Wars, Trek, and Frontiers into one big gumbo space opera.

Say for instance you took the Jedi from Star Wars and made them part of the crew of the Enterprise. (What would that equate to in Star Trek parlance? Spock + Worf maybe?) So you've got them exploring a galaxy far, far away, that's not too well charted. Think early days of the Old Republic era (well before the Empire). Throw in some wookies with wing flaps ala Star Frontiers, a wheeled-explorer vehicle for mixing it up on planetary excursions, and of course a corporate alliance to butt heads with the Federat--er, uh, Republic.

It's a big ol' race to discover galactic riches but you've got one force for privatization (Pan Galactic Corporation from SF) and the Federation/proto-Republic from Trek and Wars doing it for public good. There's three times the aliens, planets, and tech to choose from in a universe where Jedi-mind melds and Klingon's with lightsabers go together like chocolate and peanut butter. I feel strongly that one should be able to pick elements from any era of any of the settings--after all the entire galaxy is strange and new so you can get a healthy dose of super-advanced tech and backwater, primitive crapola planets.

What kind of fun could you have building scenarios? A Sith ambush where they just beam in and beatdown? What if Kirk and Kenobi stumble upon a cloning facility preparing to launch a coup? Artoo and Data instead of Threepio? Maybe the PGC is run by the Hutts!

Genre blending is nothing new, of course. I've heard of people using tech from one setting in another universe (mainly using Trek or Wars in Frontiers, which already has a healthy dose of both--sonic swords? Please!). But I'm wondering if anyone's done direct ports or just taken the settings and smashed them together like a couple of juiced up particles.

So let's mix it up in the comments. What do you think: Star FTW! or Star WTF?!

X-plorers vs. Star Frontiers

So here's a quick update on my search for a ruleset. I'm looking closely (exclusively) at two systems X-plorers and Star Frontiers. X-plorers, for those not familiar, is a recent "imagining" of 0E RPGs had they been sci-fi based instead of fantasy. Star Frontiers is more like a first cousin to D&D since it came directly from TSR. Most of this is on setting and character creation, I'm still working my way up to game mechanics on both sets (I'm reading them simultaneously so it's taking a bit longer).Click the images to visit each game's website.

First impressions about X-plorers...

Quick and easy character creation rules, so far better than Star Frontiers (see below). It's 3d6 based which is intuitive if you're a D&D person and the main attributes are boiled down to just four simple stats. I'm not too crazy about some of the setting stuff in X-plorers, but the book even says that everything is malleable. A big corporation acts as the sole organization for exploring, which kinda turns me off. Likewise for the heavily armored soldiers which seem like "kinghts in space". They're set up as kind of the default for the setting, and I don't see that panning out for a campaign I'd want to do. If I choose this one I'll likely discard some of those trappings. I could use a little more description in the way of equipment and aliens, but I can pick that up from other sources too I guess. I think sci-fi works much differently in that you want a certain degree of description. Magic is magic--it doesn't require explanation because...it's magical! Sci-fi needs that explanation of how stuff works--even if it's minimal.

First impressions about Star Frontiers...

I really dig the atmosphere (I think it's the artwork to be honest!), and maybe I just like that there are a few more details (not too many) in these manuals. There's still a big corporate influence in this one too, again, this can be mitigated or re-worked. The big discovery was that I'm not a fan of the PC creation rules which employs this weird re-scaling chart after rolling d10s. I don't mind d10s per se, but I'm confused why SF has players rolling d10s then using that number to determine an entirely different one on a 1-70 range to find an attribute score. It's all just too convoluted.

UPDATE: Here's an image of the weird chart in question:

WTF?

More to come, but feel free to share your observations as well. I'm learning about these two examples rules for the first time really, having played WEG Star Wars back in the day. I'd like to try something new, which is why I'm investing time with these two sets, but I'm also not opposed to borrow heavily from my roots.