Hard Science Fiction[Genres]
Hard Science FictionThe Fermi Paradox is the juxtaposition of high estimates for the existence of extraterrestrial life with the lack of any evidence for such life anywhere else in the universe.
hat distinguishes the genre of hard science fiction from regular science fiction? Mainly, hard science fiction includes the perception of scientific accuracy. This means that a lot of the wilder aspects of science fiction are out because our current theories indicate that things like faster than light travel, UFOs and time travel may simply be impossible or beyond our capabilities ever to discover (for example extraterrestrial life).
What does that leave for hard science fiction to cover? A surprising amount. For the purposes of this genre chapter, hard science fiction might also be described as near future, which means that games that include advances in biotechnology that might improve health, intelligence, and longevity are on the table, possibly even up to the creation of "post" humans. Advances in computer processing and networking speeds means that the emergence of truly artificial machine intelligence, in all the ways that such an event could both aid society and threaten it, is a possible avenue to explore in your games. And of course, hard science fiction often includes the colonization of the solar system, humanity's next "golden age" of exploration where we establish colonies on the Moon, Mars, and on dwarf planets in the asteroid belt, and possibly around the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. This serves as a fantastic game setting since it so greatly expands the canvas on which to create your narrative.
Fashioning a futuristic science fiction setting takes some forethought. As just suggested, however, merely "evolving" current scientific trends forward a hundred or so years until man has colonized the solar system is a good start, even if your adventure is going to take place mostly on Earth, since it broadens both your possibilities and that of your players.
Next, you'll want to figure out the central theme of your game. You could focus on a war between breakaway colonies-maybe Mars or a large corporation set up in the asteroid belt (the "Belt") decide they want independence. You could focus on the emergence of AI, incorporating the possibility of both wonderful uses of AI as well as "weaponized" uses for AI, not the least of which is the possibility of AI running amuck. A theme whose central story revolves around asteroid mining, deflecting an asteroid heading for Earth, or exploring an asteroid could be very interesting. Themes of more limited scope, such as attempting to get a malfunctioning spacecraft running again before it plunges into the sun or the atmosphere of Jupiter would also work well as one-shot adventures or short campaigns.
Many examples of hard science fiction are out there from to mine for concepts and ideas.
The novel and TV series called the Expanse by S. A. Corey is a prime example of human colonization of the solar system, but many other examples exist, including the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, Cold as Ice and Dark As Day by Charles Sheffield, Mars (and other novels) by Ben Bova, and many more.
A favorite movie and novel trope, examples can be found in the movies beginning with the classics 2001: A Space Odyssey based on the novel by Arthur C. Clarke. Other movie and TV examples of human AI emergence include Ex Machina, Terminator, Battlestar Galactica, A. I.. Artificial Intelligence, and more. Novels include Carnival by Elizabeth Bear, Accelerando by Charles Stross, Wake and other books in the WWW trilogy by Robert J. Sawyer, and more.
Like the previous categories, too many stories about advanced biotech exist to list them all, so here are just a few (that don't overtly stray into horror). The movies Gattaca, Elysium, and Blade Runner. The novels Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, Blood Music and Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear, and the Rifter series by Peter Watts.
Sometimes hard science fiction asks readers to accept one element of the impossible along with other more scientifically grounded speculative fiction.
Just as is the case with normal science fiction games, a game in a hard science fiction setting can bog down if players don't fully understand their options. If the PCs are the crew of an interplanetary vessel, the players don't know all the things that the ship can and can't do. They may feel constrained, especially if their vessel is using precisely determined orbital mechanics to get from one planet in the solar system to another.
On the other hand, it's not like the setting is so expansive that there are hundreds or thousands of alien worlds out there to explore. Characters don't suffer from choice overload as can happen in a space opera-style game.
One way to help players out is to start them with clearly defined goals. Missions handed down from a security company one or more of the PCs work for, or from a leader of one of the planetary coalitions, or from a science agency is a good idea to give the players clarity.
Another thing to keep in mind is that even though the setting is hard science fiction, allowing players to stretch their abilities using technical prowess helps with player agency. So be generous with players who want to extrapolate the science elements of the game. If someone wants to reconfigure the ship's sensor array to do something odd but useful, let them try.
The Hard Science Fiction Threats table provides more dangers you can throw at your PCs playing in a setting where physics trumps fantasy. The results are not meant to be the major story arc, though you could probably spin some of them out to serve that purpose. Most of these threats should be presented as GM Intrusions.
| 1 | Solar flare (level 3): A freak solar flare sends hard radiation sleeting through the character's vessel or location, affecting them and everyone nearby; inflicts 3 points of ambient radiation damage per minute each minute the character fails a difficulty 3 Might defense task; might lead to cancer if not treated later. |
| 2 | Belligerent asteroid miner: Four space-suited asteroid miners ambush one or more of the PCs at an unexpected location or time. |
| 3 | Spacesuit issue: One PC's spacesuit has a control malfunction, requiring a difficulty Intellect task to repair it before the malfunction leads to a lethal outcome. |
| 4 | Unexpected shake (level 5): The spacecraft, station, vacuum habitat, or similar structure, convulses for not immediately obvious reasons, inflicting 5 points of damage on a failed difficulty 5 Speed defense roll and possibly leading to additional repercussions. |
| 5 | Malevolent official: A security officer, inspection official, habitat governor, or some other authority figure takes an interest in the character(s) and begins to work against them. |
| 6 | Take them to the brig: False charges (or real charges, if the PCs have conducted any illegal activities) means brig time for one or more of the characters if they submit to being led off by guards. |
| 7 | Diplomatic event: Is the diplomatic event the PCs have been invited to on the station a reason to celebrate, or an opportunity for an assassin hidden among the delegation to strike? |
| 8 | Tunnel collapse (level 6): The tunnel connecting two craft, subsurface moon tunnel, or spacecraft corridor collapses. Characters suffer 6 points of damage and on a failed difficulty 6 Speed task are either set adrift in the vacuum of space or are buried under sparking rubble until they can find some resolution, or die. |
| 9 | Toxic reaction: One PC suffers from a reaction to a solvent, food additive, or gas leak and must succeed on a difficulty 4 Might defense task or be treated as dazed for several hours, during this time the difficulty of all tasks attempted by the character increases by one step. |
| 10 | Micrometeorite: A tiny meteorite holes the craft, station, or habitat, with a chance to hit one character who fails a difficulty 7 Speed defense task and inflict 10 points of damage. If in a vacuum, repairing the punctures requires two difficulty 3 Intellect tasks plus something to block the punctures. |
| 11 | Unexpected delay: Before the PCs can proceed, they are stopped by a habitat lockdown, a summons from station leadership, a malfunctioning AI, or some similar slowdown. The unexpected delay could turn out to be due to yet another, more serious threat, such as an attack of space pirates, a robotic uprising, or even the appearance of a fleet of warships. |
| 12 | Ant infestation: Through some monumental screw-up, crazy ants–the kind of ants that swarm inside electrical devices causing them to short-circuit and preventing them from turning on-have infested a critical component or device, such as a cryogenic sleep pod where crew hibernate in long-haul missions out to the Oort Cloud. |
| 13 | Genetic mistake: One PC (or an NPC ally) was the product of selective genetic tailoring, like many others. Normally a plus, the PC sometimes suffers from a "Berg syndrome" which causes palsied shaking for several hours on a failed difficulty 4 Might task. |
| 14 | Space debris: A falling satellite, space station, or other craft threatens to impact the moon, planet, or craft of interest. PCs might need to board the failing relic or otherwise try to change its trajectory to avoid impact. |
| 15 | Asteroid warning: Some observation stations have put out a warning that an asteroid of immense size is heading toward a widely inhabited planet or moon. It might be a false alarm, but PCs need to determine that or if disaster is heading their way. |
| 16 | Fuel leak: Reaction mass is leaking somewhere in the system, and PCs have to figure out where, and how to repair it, if they want their craft to continue to move. |
| 17 | Solar array damaged: Environmental subsystems that depend on solar energy are damaged through malfunction (or sabotage). PCs must venture out to the arrays and replace a power modulator by succeeding on a difficulty 6 Intellect task. |
| 18 | Breakaway activists: People are people, even when spread through the solar system. Violent protests (level 3) get in the way of the PCs and precipitate a riot in a habitat or station. If on a spacecraft, an NPC turns out to be a saboteur. |
| 19 | Contract nullified: PCs are supposed to deliver cargo or do some other kind of job for a paying client. The paying client refuses to pay the balance due or cancels the contract midway through the job. |
| 20 | AI malfunction: The artificial intelligence, so charming and helpful, secretly decides to kill the crew, the habitat population, or something even more dire. |
Humans evolved to live and act under 1 G, Earth's gravity. Acting in other environments can be challenging.
People new to low gravity might get space sickness. Newcomers must succeed on a difficulty 3 Might task or suffer mild nausea for about two to four days, during which time one step increases the difficulty of all tasks attempted. A few unlucky travelers (those who roll a 1 or who otherwise gain a GM Intrusion, usually) are almost completely incapacitated, and find the difficulty of all tasks increased by three steps during this period.
Weapons that rely on weight, such as all heavy weapons, inflict 2 fewer points of damage (dealing a minimum of 1 point of damage). Weapons with short range can reach to long range, and long-range weapons can reach to about 200 feet (61 m) instead of 100 feet (30 m). Characters trained in low gravity maneuvering ignore the damage penalty.
It's hard to make effective attacks when the pull of gravity is very strong. The difficulty of attacks (and all physical actions) made in high gravity is increased by one step. Ranges in high gravity are reduced by one category (long-range weapons reach only to short range, and short-range weapons reach only to immediate range). Characters trained in high gravity maneuvering ignore the change in difficulty but not the range decreases.
It's hard to maneuver in an environment without gravity. The difficulty of attacks (and all physical actions) made in zero gravity is increased by one step. Short-range weapons can reach to long range, and long-range weapons can reach to about 200 feet (61 m) instead of 100 feet (30 m). Characters trained in zero gravity maneuvering ignore the change in difficulty.
Long-term exposure to microgravity environments degrades health without medical interventions. How long one spends in such conditions is directly relevant. The GM may assign long-term penalties to PCs, if the situation warrants it, though space medicine advanced with human travel into the weightless void, and those able to exercise and take the recommended steroids and other hormones can avoid these complications.
In a hard science fiction setting, PCs getting their hands on an advanced interplanetary spacecraft that presumably costs some small fraction of a nation's net worth doesn't seem especially plausible, at least immediately. During the game, of course, that could change. PCs might capture a craft, find one mysteriously abandoned, or otherwise gain access to a ship, perhaps as part of a larger mission. Either way, deciding what kind of craft PCs have means spending a little time sketching out the deck plan, even after you've assigned a general "type" to the ship.
In a hard science fiction setting, you might be interested in evoking the reality of travel times between colonies on planets and moons located in the solar system. Currently, the limitation of space travel with a conventional rocket is that the rocket must use nearly its entire fuel supply at once in a single, controlled explosion to reach Earth orbit. If orbits line up, it'll still take at least seven months to reach Mars, the nearest planet of interest.
Thankfully, nuclear plasma rockets have come on the scene. They can change velocity and sustain thrust for days at a time (this reduces bone loss, muscle atrophy, and other long-term effects of low gravity).
Origin Destination Earth/Moon Mars Mars Asteroid Belt Asteroid Belt Jupiter and its moons Jupiter Saturn and its moons Saturn Uranus
Still, plotting a course between locations in the solar system isn't simple, because everything is always moving with respect to everything else. You could exactly determine how long a trip would take with some internet research.
Or you could just evoke the effect of orbital mechanics and varying accelerations on interplanetary travel. Use the following chart to do so. For a trip between locations not directly compared, add up the destinations in between. The travel times assume a nuclear plasma engine of a kind already being tested today, but better, and a steady thrust toward the destination and an equally long and steady braking thrust over the last half of the trip before orbit insertion.
Regardless, the travel times between distant locations brings home one thing: Space is big and lonely.
| Origin | Destination | Travel Time Using Nuclear Plasma Engine |
|---|---|---|
| Earth/Moon | Mars | 20 +1d20 days |
| Mars | Asteroid Belt | 30 + 1d20 days |
| Asteroid Belt | Jupiter and its moons | 30 + 1d20 days |
| Jupiter | Saturn and its moons | 60 + 1d20 days |
| Saturn | Uranus | 90 + 1d20 days |
The extreme environment in space-hard radiation, lack of air and pressure, wild temperature variations, and lack of gravity- tends to magnify small issues into much more significant issues. While Murphy's Law, that everything that can go wrong will go wrong, is a useful reminder to keep an eye out for trouble even under regular circumstances, in space Finagle's Law reigns, which is that anything that can go wrong, will-at the worst possible moment. Not to mention O'Toole's Corollary of Finagle's Law, which is that the perversity of the Universe tends toward a maximum.
To take advantage of this aspect of activities in space, GMs can implement Void Rules. The idea is to create a feeling of increased repercussions by changing one die roll mechanic. In the game, activities on a planet's surface-or within a functioning air-filled spacecraft or habitat-remain normal. The PCs interact with each other and the NPCs, investigate, research, travel, and so on. But when they suit up and head out into the
vacuum and weightlessness of space (or their spacecraft or station ceases to function), things change. At this time, the GM announces that the game has instituted Void Rules.
This is a key for the PCs to recognize that events can play in a far more lethal manner in space. Dropping a tool, a broken tether, or even missing a handhold could send a character spiraling out into the nothingness, lost forever. While using Void Rules, GM intrusions governed by die rolls change. Normally this happens only on a roll of 1, but when Void Rules apply, it becomes a roll of 1 or a 2. Void Rules are similar in many ways to Horror Mode, though the threat range doesn’t normally continue to escalate, although it could if the PCs are clinging to the exterior of a rapidly rotating spacecraft while trying to repair a laser communication array or get thrusters working properly.
Before choosing a type, create your core character, which (as a quick reminder) grants the following.
Refer to the Science Fiction Skills table for a list of skills you can choose from when creating and advancing your character. Your choice of background skill, and possibly the extra skill you might get if you also choose a meaningful inability, also come from the same list of genre skills.
| Astronomy | Athletics | Attacking † | Biology |
| Chemistry | Crafting | Cybernetics | Deception |
| Defending † | Disguise | Driving | Engineering |
| Escaping | Forensics | Gathering information | Geology |
| Gunnery † | Gymnastics | Hacking | Healing |
| Heavy equipment operation | History | Identifying | Initiative |
| Intimidation | Lockpicking | Magic lore | Mathematics |
| Mining | Navigation | Outdoor survival | Perception |
| Performance | Persuasion | Philosophy | Physics |
| Pickpocketing | Piloting | Piloting spacecraft | Plumbing |
| Psychology | Publishing | Recognizing motive | Religious lore |
| Riding | Scavenging | Stealth | Systems operation |
| Tracking | Zero-G fluency |
Hard science fiction settings usually center on Humans (in the absence of any real-world evidence of aliens), whether or not your GM is using the optional species rules.
| Diplomat |
| Engineer |
| Medic |
| Noble |
| Operative |
| Pilot |
| Soldier |
The list of suggested hard science fiction foci is more restricted than the larger list of space opera foci because some technologies (and many environments) commonly portrayed in space opera are not likely to ever be developed or found. Perhaps other foci are available in your game, but possibly only after the discovery of some previously unknown alien supertech.
| Builds Robots | Carries a Gun | Calculates the Incalculable | Conducts Weird Science | Conducts Rocket Science | Controls Beasts |
| Doesn't Do Much | Entertains | Explores | Fights Dirty | Fights Unarmed | Fights With Panache |
| Fuses Flesh and Steel | Fuses Mind and Machine | Hacks Networks | Hunts | Infiltrates | Interprets the Law |
| Is Idolized by Millions | Leads | Loves the Void | Looks for Trouble | Masters Defense | Masters Weaponry |
| Moves Like a Cat | Murders | Needs No Weapon | Negotiates Matters of Life and Death | Never Says Die | Operates Undercover |
| Performs Feats of Strength | Pilots Starcraft | Resides in Silicon | Serves in an Elite Military Squad | Sneaks Through the Shadows | Solves Mysteries |
| Stands Like A Bastion | Talks to Machines | Tends to the Wounded | Transcends Humanity | Wears Power Armor | Works the Back Alleys |
| Works For a Living | Works the System | Would Rather Be Reading |
Refer to your type's suggested equipment bundle or the Science Fiction Equipment table for equipment you can choose from when creating your character and for options that might be available to your character when you have more currency to spend.
These cyphers are available only in settings where weird prototypes or mysterious alien tech exist.
Hard science fiction tends to be a realistic genre. Using treatment to remove a wound takes ten minutes for a minor wound, one hour for a moderate wound, and one week for a major wound.
The currency underlying price categories in a science fiction setting usually are nonphysical credits controlled by a hidden financial network, accessible by a variety of different machines, including your character's smart device.
Each type includes suggestions for your character's background. Choose one or create your own.
At tier 3, your character gains a mid-tier ability from the list of Science Fiction Genre Abilities, and at tier 6 you gain a high-tier ability from the same list. In addition, at tier 6, you can replace one of your mid-tier genre abilities with a different mid-tier ability. See that section for additional stipulations that might affect your science fiction genre ability choice.
EXPENSIVE ITEMS
Weapons Notes Syringer Light weapon, short range, inflicts drugs, poisons, and radio transponders in target Grapple gun Light weapon, long range, inflicts 1 point of damage, tip adheres to foe and connects via slender cable back to gun wielder Armor Notes Paint-on impact armor Not armor, offers +1 to Armor, applied by spraying nanosolution over clothing, lasts ten minutes. 1d20 applications Other Items Notes Drone and wrist controller Microdrone (no larger than a fly) with range of 10,000 feet (3,048 m) EVA pack In low or zero gravity environments, allows normal maneuverability Fusion battery Provides power to nearly any device short of a spacecraft for variable period depending on power requirements Fusion torch Cuts through substances of up to level 9 after a few rounds of application High-rad prophylactic One month dose protects from negative effects of prolonged high radiation exposure Low-grav prophylactic One month dose protects from negative effects of prolonged low gravity exposure Molecular bonder One dose of glue that provides a level 6 bond between two touching objects after application Sensor bit Wrist mounted instrument provides data on surrounding conditions, energy sources, atmospheric contaminants, and similar information Smartacs Augmented reality display contacts with advanced smartphone functionality Spacesuit Provides three days of breathable air and protection from average conditions found in the vacuum of space Trauma kit Pack with 1d6 doses of drugs that countermand effects of shock and injury, allowing patient to function normally even if down one or two steps on the damage track and stops bleeding EXORBITANT ITEMS
Weapons Notes Rail gun Long-barreled rifle with computer sight assistance that inflicts 8 points of damage; range is 10,000 feet (3,048 m) Armor Notes Holobit Projects offset hologram of wearer, provides asset to Speed defense tasks Paint-on military armor Not armor, offers +3 to Armor, applied by spraying nanosolution over clothing, lasts ten minutes. 1d20 applications Other items Notes Prosthetic arm, advanced Replaces normal arm, provides asset to one preprogrammed noncombat physical task Prosthetic organ, Artificial organ provides asset on all Might defense tasks to resist poison, cleansing disease, and the negative effect of stimulants, depressants, and other drugs Prosthetic organ, military Flushes blood with battle hormones that grant an asset to all attacks and defense for one minute, after which the target becomes helpless for three rounds Data archive Brain chip implant that provides asset to all knowledge-based tasks.