Whats your favorite Sci-Fi setting?

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**Cheese Elemental**

Sidstyler wrote:Halo before Dune? You probably just broke the needle on the HERESY! meter with that.

Dune is cool, but I like my sci-fi with some action. Dune is more about politics and the books that aren't by Frank Herbert are painful to read...

**BigJon**

Firefly, the whole western in space is great for a sci-fi background, who knows what direction that show could of gone in and what could of been done with it, pretty endless.

**Wehrkind**

I thinkspace western has become my new favorite with Firefly and Coyboy Bebop, from a character piece aspect. The mix of space and reasonably low tech/low power settings really bring it home for me.
John Scalzi writes a good universe for a war setting, with modified humans fighting various aliens with different political goals and the like. Old Man's War is definitely worth picking up.
I like 40k for the extreme used future aspects, as well as the sheer variety available for story telling. You can work in post apocalyptic with grand scale crusades, which is a fantastic amount of flexibility.

**Platuan4th**

Vladsimpaler wrote: It's as if the Battle of Endor wasn't even important on a grand scale

It really wasn't, though. All it did was kill 1(of several) of the Emperor's bodies(the "secret of immortality" he mentions to Anakin is how to transfer a consciousness to a new body) and destroy the second Death Star. Imperial Intelligence kept Coruscant in control and turned the Emperor's death into a martyr's death by claiming HE destroyed a Rebellion built Death Star when he went to beg them to cease building it for the safety of his people.

As for why there are so many Stormtroopers, it's now been established that Stormtroopers are clones, so whoever controls the cloning facilities has as many Stormies as they have resources to grow.

**Delephont**

I thought Stormtroopers came from the Imperial Academy (or something) the Clones were systematically replaced following the even'ts of the Order 66.....although there did survive a few specimens, as they died in combat they were replaced with regular humans.....

**Cheese Elemental**

Delephont wrote:I thought Stormtroopers came from the Imperial Academy (or something) the Clones were systematically replaced following the even'ts of the Order 66.....although there did survive a few specimens, as they died in combat they were replaced with regular humans.....

Grand Admiral Thrawn discovered cloning vats in the Emperor's storage facility on Wayland.

**Noble713**

Cheese Elemental wrote:
Delephont wrote:I thought Stormtroopers came from the Imperial Academy (or something) the Clones were systematically replaced following the even'ts of the Order 66.....although there did survive a few specimens, as they died in combat they were replaced with regular humans.....

Grand Admiral Thrawn discovered cloning vats in the Emperor's storage facility on Wayland.

Yes, but the Wayland facility was a secret storehouse, largely unused since the Clone Wars. It was also full of Spaarti cloning technology, which was considered unreliable and dangerous. Kamino clones were supplemented with other (non-Jango) clone patterns, and then with large numbers of "natural" troops. Keep in mind that the clones were only good for about 15 years of actual service (10 year growth period = 20yo body, 15 years of service = 50yo body). With Ep4 being ~20yrs after Ep3, that would put most of the clones 5 years past their prime (and 50 is being generous, should probably be retiring at 40). It's not like the galaxy had a shortage of available manpower, and even a totalitarian dictatorship like the Galactic Empire would require fewer garrison forces than what was probably needed at the height of the clone wars, so there would be both an incentive to downsize as well as an incentive to not breed new batches of clones.

**paulguise**

The Babylon 5 universe is pretty awsome. That and the 40k universe would be most welcome should I ever find myself dimensionally shifted to them.
The Firefly 'verse is a very close second though.

Cheers

**anticitizen013**

I keep remembering other ones I like. The Chronicles of Riddick universe interests me. Plus I liked the movies & games

**Fafnir**

Delephont wrote:
1. What is your favorite Sci-Fi setting? It could be anything, no limited to current wargames....so WH40K, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica...whatever.....

Ghost in the Shell. The realistic feeling of technology, combined with the intelligent use of networking, hacking, and technology help create a very realistic atmosphere that relates to our world today.

2. What makes your chosen setting work for you? Characters, hard-ware, utopic view of the future....

The fact that it hits so close to home, with the use of the internet, the importance of computers and AI, and how people are becoming more and more in tune with technology. It just hits so hard and fits together so well.

3. If it isn't already a table top wargame, would it be successful as one? and which compnay do you think would handle its creation in a way you'd like?

No tabletop game, although it could be done. However, it would have to be very different from the conventional wargame or RPG, focusing less on up-front combat, and more on stealth, espionage, and network hacking. It would be more about outthinking then overpowering.

**chromedog**

Noble713 wrote:
Yes, but the Wayland facility was a secret storehouse, largely unused since the Clone Wars. It was also full of Spaarti cloning technology, which was considered unreliable and dangerous. Kamino clones were supplemented with other (non-Jango) clone patterns, and then with large numbers of "natural" troops. Keep in mind that the clones were only good for about 15 years of actual service (10 year growth period = 20yo body, 15 years of service = 50yo body). With Ep4 being ~20yrs after Ep3, that would put most of the clones 5 years past their prime (and 50 is being generous, should probably be retiring at 40). It's not like the galaxy had a shortage of available manpower, and even a totalitarian dictatorship like the Galactic Empire would require fewer garrison forces than what was probably needed at the height of the clone wars, so there would be both an incentive to downsize as well as an incentive to not breed new batches of clones.

Not to mention that the Old Republic clone budget did not include medical or repatriation facilities - clones were considered as disposable as the Separatists' droids (except by the jedi who commanded them).

Most of the Storm Troopers from A New Hope onwards are supposed to be recruits and draftees from Imperial citizens (the clones being well past their best). The Imperial Academy was for the Navy.

Star Wars (I'm in the 501st, I can't NOT say this).
Dune
Farscape (also worked on this show, so bias is soooo showing. Peacekeepers make the empire seem quite utopian.)
40k itself is a melange of so many different tropes from different books.

**Lagduf**

Delephont wrote:Hi Peeps

Taking this thread basis from another, ongoing, thread....but I thought this might deserve a discussion all of its own.

Right now, there seems to be alot of new companies coming out with their own range of multi-use miniatures....however, on the flip side, theres not many companies coming out with new and innovative gaming ideas! Could it be that this is because the future settings have all been covered by ongoing Sci-Fi settings?

So my questions:

1. What is your favorite Sci-Fi setting? It could be anything, no limited to current wargames....so WH40K, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica...whatever.....

2. What makes your chosen setting work for you? Characters, hard-ware, utopic view of the future....

3. If it isn't already a table top wargame, would it be successful as one? and which compnay do you think would handle its creation in a way you'd like?

To kick things off here's mine:

1. Star Wars, Dune, Infinity, Mass Effect

2. All of the above have strong characters and races, with strong history and compelling aspects. All of the above have adult themes that transend the need for mindless killing, but all share a strong political sub-plot which defines the violence and gives it a subtle but deeper meaning. The various settings have a relatively bright and optomistic view of humanities future, but you never forget that if the wrong choices are made that future could turn dark.....the storylines are cohesive and becauseof this they entice and continually evolve the charcters and their surroundings!

3. So far as I know, only Dune and Mass Effect have not been made into a TTWG (Table Top War Game), I never played the Star Wars game, because the miniatures were so bad, and Infinity is great as it is.....in fact I'm so impressed with CB handling of Infinity, that I'd put those guys forward for handling the other three settings.

1. Star Trek

2. Gene Roddenberry's vision for a universe based on reason, hope, and doing the right thing, instead of the easy thing, are why I like Star Trek. Trek, sadly, died with Rodenberry in my opinion. I enjoy some of the new stuff, but it's just not the same.

3. Star Trek has been made in to various BOARD games, but you can play Starfleet Battles as a tabletop miniature game, as well as ADB's newer game FEDERATION COMMANDER. Fed Commander is great. It's basically a streamlined, less cumbersome, and more approachable Starfleet Battles.

The starline miniatures they produce for both games are pretty great. I love Fed Commander. It also happens to be set in the alternate "Starfleet Universe" which was created after TOS but before the return of Trek to the silver screen with Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Basically ADB has rights to all things trek, except specific named characters and ships. So there is no "Enterprise" instead you just fly the heavy cruiser (or whatever class it is, i forget, lolz)

**Cilithan**

Firefly
Dune
Bladerunner
40k
Appleseed/Ghost in the Shell (The Comics especially - although the animated renderings are great too)

Cilithan

**Wolfstan**

Gears of War. Awesome potential

**Frenzied Potato**

Fifty wrote:BSG, obviously. The whole "band of survivors" thing always massively appeals to me.

Blade Runner. I love the whole depressed atmosphere of it.

I agree with these bits.

The other atmosphere I like would be

1. Vampire Hunter D (Medieval Goth Horror meets modern day technology) Why stake through the heart when you can fire a 50 calibur rifle into the bloodsucker?

2. Dawn of the Dead / Left4Dead / Zombie / Resident evil aka survivor Horror shares alot with #1

3. Star Wars as done by the cartoon clone wars (The Samurai Jack cartoonists not that borderline CG crap) Only because that was the power of Jedi.

4. Dune / Desert Punk What is worth more water or hope?

As for table top game...The idea of a ghost in the shell table top game would be entertaining but the reasoning and logic behind each mission would make my brain bleed. (Deep cyber jargon).

**Platuan4th**

chromedog wrote:
Most of the Storm Troopers from A New Hope onwards are supposed to be recruits and draftees from Imperial citizens (the clones being well past their best).

# In the commentary for Episode II, George Lucas says that the Imperial stormtroopers were "always meant to be clones," and that children's mistake of thinking they were actually robots was the primary motivation for a specific scene within Episode II
# In a 2005 Q&A session Lucas says that some stormtroopers are clones and others are conscripts

**assultmarine**

meteroid prime setting epic win there

**Bran Dawri**

I've just got a thing for Niven's Known Space. It's a bit like 40K in that it's rather over the top, but it's less of a one trick pony, and Niven's scientific background makes a lot of stuff slightly easier to swallow.

B5 is the winner though. Can't be beat.

**Caffran9**

BSG, Mass Effect, Dune, 40k, Star Wars. Those are my top 5.

**greenskin lynn**

i really enjoy the nightside books, and thing it would make an interesting pen and paper game (though the party would probably die every game)
the deathstalker universe was interesting, though i stopped reading after the original characters were gone.
dune
sten-can't remember the book series name, but it was a cool universe, had a semi-immortal emperer that maintained control by being the only person that could control the system for delivering the dark matter used to power spaceships