Looking to recreate the feel of Firefly, The Outer Worlds, The Expanse, or similar, in a ttrpg that is somewhat leaning to the hard sci fi side. Any thoughts?
I’ve been poking Traveller but it’s hard to tell what the definitive versions are. Also Stars Without Number looks interesting.
I’m particularly looking for ship based stuff – where the ship is statted and you can have ship to ship combat.
I am that guy that recommends GURPS, which I’m actually using right now to run a sci-fi campaign. 3d6 is a great system, there are tons of sci-fi skills baked right in, Ultra Tech is a great resource for laser guns and robots and all sorts of fun tech, and there are like half a dozen supplements full of ship stat blocks. Yeah the crunch can be a lot, if you want it to. You can also ignore most of it if you want, or slow-drip it to your players.
I think the broad nature of sci-fi means that, when it comes to systems, your choices are to either find a system that fits the exact universe you’re running, or build it piece by piece.