Science Fiction

Science Fiction covers a wide range of genres and settings, even more so than fantasy, and the differences between space opera and hard science fiction can be considerable. Heroes battling the forces of darkness in a galaxy spanning empire are very different to survivors struggling to stay alive in a post apocalyptic world.

Yags provides the ability to model everything from futuristic hand weapons and computer intrusion to combat between starships and other vehicles. Yags does provide a generic science fiction background for its SF rules, but this can be ignored if desired. It assumes some form of galactic empire, spanning tens of thousands of worlds where humans are the norm, interstellar travel is common, and computer and medical technology is somewhat less advanced than it could be.

Other possibilities are of course available, and some of them are summarized below.

Near Future (TL 8)

Near future science fiction is often Hard SF, but it doesn't have to be. The Terminator, Gattaca and Snowcrash are all set in the very near future (or they were, when released), and often use a single gimmick as the focus of the story. Technology is generally not the focus of such campaigns anymore than it would be in a modern setting. Such games can generally be run with the standard Yags rules, with possibly a few extra options to flesh out the setting.

The Cyberpunk style can fit near future quite well, especially if it concentrates on the punk rather than the cyber. PCs are seeking freedom (or just plain old cash) from the powerful global megacorps which are replacing the world's governments.

Hard Future (TL 9-10)

Campaigns in a Hard SF setting will tend to be no more than a century or two into the future, with humanity populating the solar system perhaps, but with no star spanning empires or exotic aliens. Transhuman Space, Red/Green/Blue Mars and the I, Robot stories could fit into this genre.

Humans are what they've always been, but potentially with genetic enhancements and cybernetic integrations far beyond what is capable now. Mars may be in the process of being terraformed, and the asteroid belt a home to miners and colonists. Such a campaign often tends to be like Cyberpunk, but more advanced.

Such settings will tend to be quite similar in what is available, since there's only so many ways technology can obviously advance in the near future. Such technology will be covered in Yags Cyberpunk.

Far Future (TL 10-12)

Humanity has gone to the stars, and conquered everything that wasn't nailed down or defended by aliens. Such a setting pretty much assumes faster than light travel, with easy travel between worlds and lots of aliens to meet and upset. Traveller, Babylon 5 and Known Space are good examples of this type of setting. Despite being set hundreds (or thousands) of years into the future, and having some 'magical' technologies, much of the technology probably won't be as advanced as that found in a Hard Future (above). Computer and bio-tech for example are often limited to provide for a more human setting, so that the story can concentrate on the exploration side of things.

Such a setting will be covered in Yags SF, which describes a generic world spanning empire with jump drives, psionics and strange alien worlds.