In Cypher, a science fiction game can be anything with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced technology, space exploration, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, parallel universes, the possibility of extraterrestrial life, possible aftermaths of postapocalyptic annihilation, and much more. Within that broad category there are multiple subgenres, of which the two most popular are hard science fiction and space opera. Among the best-known sci-fi examples are Star Wars, Star Trek, Aliens, The Expanse, Blade Runner, and Battlestar Galactica.
Crafting a futuristic science fiction setting takes some work. You’ve got to think about technology levels, the history leading up to the setting, future society and government, communications, alien species, and more. Consider the following suggestions.
Don’t reinvent the wheel. If there’s a science fiction setting that does a lot of what you like, steal liberally from it. If it’s useful to your players, be upfront about the setting you’re borrowing from to give them context. You can say, “This isn’t an actual Star Trek game, but it’s kind of like that.” The players then know to expect faster-than-light (FTL) travel, exploration of planets that are often habitable by humans, very humanlike alien species, and maybe even teleportation. They won’t expect to get caught up in the finer points of real science, and they’ll know that tossing around science-y words like “wormholes” or “dark matter” will be just fine.
Don’t create more than you need to. Be ready to tell the PCs what they see and who they encounter when they set down on a new planet or station in the asteroid belt, but don’t design a lot of alien species, cultures, and worlds that they will probably never see.
Begin with broad strokes. Give each alien species, space station, and planet one or maybe two unique aspects. Don’t worry about creating a fully conceived culture or environment. More than likely, your PCs will hang around for only a session at most before they rocket off to someplace new.
Don’t explain more than you need to. Your setting has FTL travel? Great. Unless it’s integral to the story, don’t worry about detailing how it works—unless that’s fun for you, or it could prompt some fun encounters, such as FTL drives that usually mentally derange or kill people who are not unconscious while it runs.
Many of the suggestions for creating a science fiction setting also apply when running a game in it: compare to existing media so your players can quickly get the context, don’t overthink the science, and so on.
Obviously, the name “science fiction” suggests that science lies at the heart of the story. This is true to varying degrees depending on what you want out of it. If you want the players to explore exotic planets and encounter weird alien creatures, or stand against a tyrannical stellar empire in adventures filled with space battles, science is less important than the trappings of science. In fact, science might get in the way of such stories if you try to figure how spaceships really move and fight in a vacuum or how the real dangers on another planet might be alien bacteria, incompatible biologies, varying gravities, or radiation rather than a big tentacled alien that wants to eat human explorers for lunch.
Although we’re about to delve into hard science fiction (a realistic portrayal of science) and space opera (not a realistic portrayal), it’s best to think of it as a spectrum. Focus on science as much or as little as you want to. The challenge is to get the players on board with what you’re trying to do. If you’ve got a technology expert (or someone who believes themself to be an expert) as a player, you don’t want to butt heads with them over how things would “really” work. The players need to buy that the tech and science in the game work how you’ve described them. If you think about it, if you read a sci-fi story or watch a movie, you’re already doing that. The science fiction elements work just as the author or director say they do. That’s how we can enjoy a futuristic story written eighty years ago as much as one written today. Ultimately, in science fiction it’s the fiction that is more important than the science.
Most of the technology and physics in hard science fiction are based on our own modern understanding of such things (or extrapolations of that understanding). In a hard science fiction game, travel times between destinations are typically long, and it’s no small undertaking to go to another planet. We can imagine the PCs will spend time in vacuum suits and deal directly with technology, and the environment itself—either in space or on another planet or moon—will present major challenges.
Scope and Narrative: A hard science fiction game typically takes place in the relatively near future. We predict what will happen in the next hundred or two hundred years and work with that. Humans have probably spread out into the solar system, mining asteroids and setting up colonies on Mars, Io, Europa, and Titan. Large corporations very likely hold sway, and politics probably involves relations between Earth and its colonies. Exploration is key, and survival is the biggest challenge.
There might be intelligent aliens in the setting (although there might not, and that’s okay), but most of the time they are very alien and not just humans in rubber masks or makeup.
Technology: Most of the technology in a hard science fiction game seems like science, not magic. Probably no teleportation, no faster-than-light travel, and no antigravity. That said, introducing one element of seemingly impossible tech can make for an interesting but still grounded setting. In such a game, that one incredible technology is likely the cornerstone of the stories you’ll be creating. If a wormhole opens near Jupiter and allows travel throughout the galaxy but everything else works more or less like we’d expect, that sudden opportunity is likely the focus of the whole game.
When prepping a hard science fiction game, keep the following bits of advice in mind.
Getting There Is Half the “Fun”: Traveling in space is dangerous. A sudden bit of debris or a micrometeor can cause an unexpected emergency, as can some kind of system error. These things require repairs and possibly a spacewalk on the outside of the ship.
Long periods of time in near-weightless environments (like on a long space voyage) weaken a human body, requiring regular exercise and probably advanced medical techniques to cope with it.
Life in Space Is Hard: Nothing can be taken for granted on a spaceflight, a space station, or a planetary colony. One always has to consider important requirements like air, food, and water. Spare parts for repairs might be hard to come by. When any of these things is endangered, the stakes are high. Traders with fresh supplies from Earth (or elsewhere) might be a lifeline, but pirates likely threaten their ability to come and go.
War in space heightens all such considerations. Destroying a base’s air recycling system is as devastating as a nuclear bomb, and it only hurts the people, not the tech or the supplies that can be taken.
People Are Still People: Even out in space, people want the things they want in the modern day: safety, comfort, and a chance to succeed at their goals. Greedy business people, con artists, hardworking families, pickpockets, community activists, foodies, entitled rich folks, music fans, corrupt bureaucrats, disabled veterans, struggling musicians, philanthropists, lazy ne’er-do-wells, and unlucky street rats can and should all be part of a hard science fiction setting. These folks don’t have “space problems,” just “problems,” so you can take any character, any plot, and any situation from the modern day and use them on a colony on Mars, in a generation starship en route to Proxima Centauri, or in a skyscraper in a dystopian London.
The Red Queen Hypothesis: In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, the Red Queen says, "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.” This statement has been used in evolutionary theory to explain why species must constantly adapt and evolve to compete, but it applies to technological advances as well. In a hard science fiction setting, new devices, new pharmaceuticals, new materials, new space travel innovations, and so on should regularly make themselves known. Those with the best tech usually have the upper hand, so advancements never stop. PCs might find themselves working to protect a lab where new discoveries are being made, asked to test a new experimental device, or on the wrong end of a dangerous new weapon. The point is, things should be always moving forward.
Trouble in the Belt: There are many mining colonies throughout the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, filled with those who left Earth to seek their fortunes. But now the systems are breaking down. The habitats and stations are decades old and starting to fall apart. Finances dictate that resupply from Earth is difficult due to expense and travel times. The player characters are sent out to help keep order among the disaffected populace and help them overcome the difficulties they face. Pirates and criminals grow more bold each month, and rumors spread of a crazed warlord who is trying to unite them all and foment full rebellion. However, whispers also tell of a fantastic discovery made by scientists working in an isolated station out there that will enable almost instantaneous travel between the belt and Earth, a prize coveted by both the warlord and those who want to see life in the colonies become easier and more peaceful.
A Mysterious Find: Explorers on Europa find the remains of an unimaginably ancient structure not built by human hands. Although they encountered bizarre hazards when they tried to gain entrance, they learned enough to know that valuable technology and advanced scientific knowledge lay within. The PCs are called upon to explore this alien site to see if more information can be learned. Inside lie incredible dangers and amazing wonders, remnants of a difficult-to-understand but clearly advanced intelligence. Are any of the creators still alive within? Can we make use of what we find? Are there things humans weren’t meant to know? There’s only one way to find out.
Space opera can sometimes be called soft science fiction or even science fantasy, because unlike hard science fiction, it’s not based around science or technology. In many such settings, the technology could just as easily be magic and it wouldn’t make much difference.
Scope and Narrative: Space opera stories typically focus on a broad scope with high stakes, such as the fate of the planet or even the galaxy. The action is rarely confined to a single planet, and interstellar travel is usually a matter of a moment’s work at the controls of the starship. Distance is rarely an issue. Likewise, planetary environments are typically very Earthlike. Gravity, atmosphere, and other matters pose little or no danger, because that’s not what space opera is about. Space opera concerns itself with the trappings of futurism and science to give stories and locales a greater presence. In space opera, everything is big and awe-inspiring. Space stations are the size of planets, starships are miles in length, a villain’s home hangs on the side of a volcano’s caldera, and the capital of the galaxy is a planet entirely covered by a single city.
Technology: Technology in a space opera game is usually at a higher level than in a hard science fiction game simply because there’s nothing prohibiting it. We’re not worried about what’s possible; we’re only concerned with what would make a good story and an interesting setting. Teleportation, time travel, mind uploading, rapid life creation, and more are possible if you want them to be. Technology in space opera is akin to magic in a fantasy setting. Consider what’s available to PCs (and NPCs) but don’t worry overmuch about how it actually works.
You’ll want to have a number of planets in your space opera setting. Details on each planet are less important (at least at first) than how each world relates to the others. For example, if the substance that makes FTL engines possible is found only on one planet, clearly it is the subject of great concern—everyone wants to control it. There would be trade routes to and from this world, and likely whomever does control it has ample defenses and safeguards. Most of the time, it’s useful to have a central core of worlds and a number of outlying worlds. The central planets likely have larger populations and are more settled, more cosmopolitan, and probably safer. The outer planets offer less structure and law enforcement and more undiscovered sites. In other words, there are civilized areas and more wilderness areas, but in space opera, the “areas” are planets.
Consider how long the setting has existed in terms of planets being connected with one another. A planet might have a history going back tens of thousands of years, but only recently became part of the galactic federation. Mostly, you’ll want to know whether the interstellar civilization has recently been established—with a confederacy of worlds that perhaps teeters on the brink of collapse, except for the efforts of brave and capable starfarers that hold it together—or whether it’s ancient and the imperial galactic throne has been occupied by the same digital empress uploaded into a vast computer network. Or perhaps something in between.
Next, establish who, if anyone, controls the most powerful technologies. Is space travel a free-for-all, or is it tightly regulated? Not only does the political situation play a part in this, but so does the technology itself. If interstellar travel is difficult because it relies on the migratory patterns of space whales, that’s a strict control all its own.
Space opera stories typically focus on a broad scope with high stakes, such as the fate of the planet or even the galaxy.
When prepping a space opera game, keep the following bits of advice in mind.
Every Planet Is a Single Location: If you need an arctic setting, make it an ice planet far from its sun. If you need a desert locale, make it an entire desert world covered in dunes of sand. This is a mainstay of space opera, and it’s the key to having characters zooming off to other planets frequently.
Don’t Explain the Tech: In a space opera game, we don’t need to know how the hyperdrive works, only that it does. And if it breaks down, you can talk in terms of “necessary parts” to fix it or throw in mysterious-sounding terms like “Asheran crystals” or “antimatter granules” or some such. Likewise, if the villainous aliens have a mega-weapon that can snuff out a star, it’s not a matter of how it works, but rather that it must be stopped.
Not Magic, But…: Although space opera doesn’t have sorcerers slinging spells, similar aspects of the genre, such as telepaths, aliens with strange powers, or simply inexplicable mystical happenings are all quite possible. You can even tell a ghost story in space opera, though the “ghost” is not technically supernatural but an encoded personality trapped in a machine or an incorporeal alien.
The Stakes Are High: Often, the fate of a whole planet or even the entire galaxy is at stake. The villains develop the means to poison the atmosphere of an entire world, or a crystal at the heart of the galaxy is beginning to crack, and if it shatters, every star goes out. The imperial fleet blockades the Callypso system, cutting off the three inhabited planets and the dozens of artificial habitats there. Events in space opera carry weight, and when there is a threat, that threat is monumental.
Space opera is likely the broadest genre covered in Cypher. It can include “sword and planet” adventures like in Flash Gordon, galactic swashbuckling like in Star Wars, exploratory thrills like in Star Trek, political intrigue like in Dune, or interstellar war stories like in Battlestar Galactica.]
Telepath on the Run: During an unrelated mission, the PCs come upon a lone girl who has stowed away on their starship. At first, it seems like a case of someone looking for a literal free ride, but strange things begin happening on board—characters hear voices in their heads, objects move, and systems short out. It turns out the girl is a powerful psion with no control over her abilities. Worse, she has gained the notice of two different factions: a governmental agency that wants to study her, and a religious group that wants to train her and use her as a weapon, “the hand of god.” Even as the PCs deal with the girl’s powers, they must decide whether or not to help her against those who pursue her, and how.
Tainted Food: On Regis VI, vast factories work night and day to churn out sustenance bars (often called susbars), used as food rations for soldiers, deep space explorers, and impoverished folk dwelling in overcrowded hive cities. A citizen group has gathered enough funds to pay the PCs to go undercover on Regis VI because there are rumors that people across the galaxy are getting sick from the susbars and someone needs to investigate. The PCs encounter a wide variety of possible contamination sources, some deliberate and some not, but most serious is that of a strange, heretofore-unknown alien species replacing the susbars with their own parasitic young, looking for host bodies. The characters can attempt to deal with some or all of these issues, but they also find themselves with the opportunity to contaminate the supply going to the cruel troopers of their hated enemies. What will they do?
A Dark World: Following a distress call, the PCs land on an unnamed planet covered with towering trees so densely packed that no sunlight reaches the surface. The empty, dark forest floor is home to vicious but intelligent aliens that function in pure darkness and despise the light. The distress call comes from a crashed colony ship in danger of being attacked simply for bringing light to this dark world. The PCs can attempt to negotiate with the aliens to rescue the colonists or use force to defend against the frequent attacks of the vengeful horde.
In a postapocalypse setting, the story begins after everything ends. Nuclear conflict, environmental disaster, alien invasion, plague, or some other shocking event has occurred and brought an end to civilization.
Scope and Narrative: Although you might conceive of a way for the entire world to come to an end, the stories told in this genre are almost always small. The big story—the apocalypse itself—is over. What’s left are the stories that happen in the aftermath. The PCs might be simply interested in survival or in helping a small community to survive. Postapocalypse stories don’t involve the opportunity to undo the damage that’s been done. The world has already ended and there’s no going back.
Food and supplies are always on the line in this hardscrabble setting, and entire adventures can be made from scavenging through an old supermarket to find anything valuable left, and probably overcoming the challenges involved in obtaining it and bringing it back home. Other survivors are the PCs’ rivals in these kinds of scenarios, but environmental dangers present challenges too. The ruins of the “before times” can be unstable ,and a simple fall through the rotting floor into an unlit basement can spell doom.
Hanging onto one’s humanity is a key element of postapocalypse stories as well. Perhaps you can think of it as survival of the soul alongside survival of the body. The lengths people might go to in order to survive in an incredibly harsh world can be horrific, and even people who start out as ethical can work their way down the road to depravity one despicable act at a time. PCs might need to put down opponents who murder, steal, or worse in the lawless wasteland. Even the PCs themselves may face difficult ethical choices when their own survival is on the line.
Technology: Although they are science fiction, postapocalypse stories rarely focus on technology beyond what we have today. In fact, the tech we have today is the high technology of a postapocalyptic future. This makes it somewhat easier for you to craft the setting, because it’s filled with the leftovers of things you are already familiar with. Just keep in mind that what we take for granted today—fresh water, electricity, long distance communication, and so on—is likely hard to come by in the wasteland.
If you’re going to layer in disturbing elements like cannibalism or villains that engage in abuse, slavery, or other such things, ensure that the players consent to the kinds of stories that contain them, even obliquely.
Even the PCs themselves may face difficult ethical choices when their own survival is on the line.
The first thing to consider in your setting is what is now truly valuable. It’s not internet memes, celebrity culture, or popular music. In the aftermath of an apocalypse, other commodities are extremely valuable.
Keep the following other factors in mind when running a postapocalypse game.
When the World Is Running Down, You Take the Best of What’s Still Around: In some genres, the PCs might look for gold, jewels, or magic, but in a postapocalypse game, “treasure” means something quite different. Mundane objects from our own time, like a water purifier, a compass, warm clothing, matches, or a tape player with functioning batteries are worth far more than money. (In fact, money might very well be completely useless.) An old hardware store or a camping outfitters from before the apocalypse are the treasure hoards of the postapocalyptic future.
Objects Gain New Uses: Warriors in football helmets wielding lawnmower blade swords might be a common sight in a postapocalyptic setting. People repurpose items for their immediate needs. Feminine hygiene pads make excellent bandages, fireworks make great signal flares, and nails pounded into a board make a fine weapon. You can capitalize on the ingenuity of the people of this ruined world and have them create spring-loaded weapons that fling buzzsaw blades, use moving vans pulled by horses for transporting goods, or use vehicles that are multiple bicycles welded together and fitted with armored plates.
The Hoarder Aesthetic: It’s fun to use the scavenged trappings of the modern world as decor in the wasted future. Street signs, fiber optic cables, and computer keyboards have no use except as decoration on shacks and vehicles. Consider how valuable a pair of sturdy, comfortable running shoes would be, or how easily sunglasses might be fashioned from the bottoms of colored glass bottles.
Restoring a Bit of the Old World: A wind-powered generator that can power some electric lights or an elevator that makes the top floors of a skyscraper accessible would make for an interesting centerpiece of a postapocalyptic village. A pump system, even one that is human-powered, that could bring hot water where it’s needed would be an astonishing luxury. And a library of how-to books or those that can teach any “lost” skill would be an invaluable resource—assuming there are still people who can read.
Postapocalypse games are portrayed not only by the themes the PCs encounter but also by the things they can scavenge from the ruins. Fewer laser guns and beeping technology and more rusted hulks of old cars and hopefully still-comestible cans of dried meat. The genre also affects how quickly you bounce back from wounds—if you take a major wound, you might take a week to recover on your own. It’s all part and parcel of the gritty nature of the genre.
A character who successfully scavenges postapocalypse ruins could potentially find something on the following table.
| d100 | Item Found |
|---|---|
| 01–10 | Tools (asset for tasks related to repair, required for most repair and crafting tasks) |
| 11–20 | Medicine (asset for one treatment task) |
| 21–25 | Binoculars |
| 26–35 | Chocolate bar or similarly sought-after candy or snack |
| 36–45 | Textbook (asset for one kind of knowledge task) |
| 46–50 | Coffee or tea |
| 51–55 | Gun or rifle with ten ammunition |
| 56–60 | Flashlight |
| 61–65 | Gas mask |
| 66–70 | Stabilized gasoline (2d6 [ts] 10 gallons) |
| 71–75 | Batteries |
| 76–80 | Functioning vehicle (sedan, pickup truck, motorcycle, etc.) |
| 81–s85 | Generator |
| 86–90 | MRE cache (food and water for six people for 1d6 weeks) |
| 91–95 | Ammunition cache (100 shells or bullets for 1d6 different weapons) |
| 96–97 | Helpful stranger (level 1d6 + 2, stays with the PCs for a week or two) |
| 98–99 | Crowbar |
| 00 | Climbing gear |
Characters who find food and water also find lots of junk. They are free to ignore that junk, but some PCs might have a use for what they find. Characters gain up to three results on the Junk table each time they successfully scavenge for food or a safe place to stay. Sometimes junk can be fixed, but more often it can be disassembled and used as parts to create something else.
| d6 | Variety of Junk |
|---|---|
| 1 | Electronic junk (stereo, DVD/Blu-ray player, smartphone, electric fan, printer, router, etc.) |
| 2 | Plastic junk (lawn furniture, baby seat, simple toys, inflatable pool, etc.) |
| 3 | Dangerous junk (paint, rat poison, solvents, industrial chemicals, etc.) |
| 4 | Metallic junk (car bodies, old playsets, grills, empty barrels, frying pan, etc.) |
| 5 | Glass junk (vases, windows, bowls, decorative pieces, etc.) |
| 6 | Textile junk (coats, pants, shirts, bathing suits, blankets, rugs, paper currency, etc.) |
A Cow Is a Man’s Best Friend: Some enterprising survivors have gathered a herd of cattle in barns and pens. Their goal isn’t meat, but rather cow poop. This is because they have also gathered the necessary skills and equipment to create biofuel from it. Suddenly, word gets out that there are functioning vehicles of all types, generators powering lights and refrigeration, and more incredible luxuries on what used to be a fairgrounds outside the city. Sadly, a band of cruel bandits and raiders has taken control of the process for their own ends, and their plans are nothing less than dominating the entire region in an empire built on shit. The people who created the place now work as slave labor for the would-be imperialists, but they’re holding out hope that someone—the PCs?—will come to liberate them and run off the usurpers. Such heroes would be handsomely rewarded with rare treasures such as functioning motorbikes, a small biofuel-burning generator that powers an electric heater, and more.
Plague and Cannibalism: A disease once thought eradicated from the earth stages a comeback in the postapocalypse. The local community is in real danger, and knowledgeable folks know that pharmaceuticals can help. Unfortunately, the only place where they might still exist in quantities is a laboratory that was long ago overrun by degenerate cannibals who likely have no idea of the valuables in their home. They’ve turned the place in a grim, grisly fortress from which they stage raids on surrounding settlements for food. To save a great many lives—maybe even their own if they are or could be infected—the PCs must attack or infiltrate this horrific place and find the medicines they need.