I'm on a quest to find a grimdark cyberpunk ttrpg that takes place mainly in space. I love worlds that are unpleasant to live in, cyberware and body modifications that are not pleasant to the eye, societies on the brink of collapse, hacking machines/people, dangerous space travel, stagnant technology that probably makes the world worse. Examples of fiction in this style are:
- Neuromancer (book, love it)
- Blindsight (book)
- Quasimorph (video game)
- The Gap Cycle (interesting setting wasted on a weak series of books)
- Mothership
- Death in Space
I own both Mothership and Death in Space and they are good games, but they are a bit too thin setting wise and rules wise. I would love to run a longer sandbox campaign in the style of Quasimorph - a group of mercenaries on their own big ship traveling through a star system and completing contracts from shady corporations and gangsters. But longer campaigns IMHO require a robust advancement system for PCs, which neither game has. What I mean by that: some special abilities, rules for hacking and cyberware, weapon modification, upgrading your ship, some talents or feats etc. Some random tables for generating worlds, ships, encounters, npcs also would be nice.
Is there a ttrpg with a setting like this that has a lot of "meat" on its bones mechanically speaking?
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This is mostly Eclipse Phase.
Stars Without Number can definitely be played this way. At it's core, it's more of a gritty sandbox game, but grimdark and cyberpunk would take like no effort to include. There are rules for Cyberpunk tech in the core rulebook, and the default setting is that humanity had a massive empire that was connected by a network of psionics, but, after a calamity called The Scream, nearly every psionic went insane, isolating each of the separate pockets of humanity with no way to communicate or travel to each other. Also, c ombat at low levels is fucking brutal since low level characters can have like 8 HP at most and most weapons do around 8-10 points of damage. Finally, you can get a slightly pared down version of the core rulebook for free at drivethrurpg!
I second Eclipse Phase, make sure to get the second edition.
Perhaps, HOSTILE (Cepheus Engine) by Zozer Games?
I'd use Bite the Hand.
Eclipse Phase: a fantastic RPG, but a cumbersome rule system. Very deep, fascinating lore, great possibilities for creative players and GMs. Even when not playing it I would recommend it together with the Transhuman expansion, simply for lore, flair and fluff. It is just that good!
The original Cyberpunk 2020 with the Deep Space expansion. Great lore, setting, easy and fast rule system, techwise a bit out of date. 80s nostalgia, great flair, easy recommendation.
What I mean by that: some special abilities, rules for hacking and cyberware, weapon modification, upgrading your ship, some talents or feats etc.
Both systems have that en passe, expect for your ship. Deep space ships are the stuff of nation states and megacorps, and way above the paygrade of player characters. Players can own a small shuttle perhaps, and that can be upgraded with normal vehicle rules, but it is under the level of the Rocinante
Adding some more stuff: Eclipse Phase is on Creative Commons license, and the devs are all Anarchists, so the books are available for free to download. Eclipse Phase has a rule system that exist and the lore goes to ''that very interesting'' to ''most boring and nonsensical stuff imaginable''. I would recommend the Panopticon and X-Risk books of First Edition, Panopticon because it gives tons of information about surveillance, law enforcement and criminal activity on a ''total transparency'' society where everyone is connect, plus how is the day to day struggles of living in space on (mostly) hard sci setting, like having no digital presence whatsoever is itself a red flag, or how hard is to take a bath in a micro-gravity setting. X-risk is all about threats that the PC's could find, to ''world ending asteroids collisions'' to ''nanoplagues that transforms you into horrors beyond your compression'' and ''a data meme that rewrites your brain if you see/listen to it''
GURPS does Cyberpunk well. Ultra-Tech book has rules for Cybernetics, medical equipment and TONS of cool spy gadgets. Beware that the guns of the book are terrible balanced. Bio-tech has more and more rules about surgery, medical gear, drugs and the science of genetic engineering (outdated since the books was published in 2008)
In doubt, just use Ultra-Tech for gear and cybernetics and use the basic set Firearms and armor. If you want ''cyberpunk fireamrs'' High-tech would be better, since it weapons are actually balanced, has TONS of ammunition types and weapons accessories. To make then feel more sci-fi, just add things like ''Smart Guns electronics'' of Ultra-tech and other stuff, who is very easy to do.
GURPS also has the Transhuman Space setting. It's not a cyberpunk nighter a grim dark setting, but has alot of focus on Space Exploration (only the solar system) and other interesting stuff. Broken Dreams is a book all about the people left behind the biotech revolution, with tons of good information of future crime and mafias. In the Well is about the Mars, Venus and Mercury colonies, how they work and daily life. Has tons of information about the Mafias operating in space. Finally, Deep Beyond is most about the Outer Planets colonies and the deranged people (anarcho capitalist, christian hyperevolutionist cults, IA rights groups) living on the edge of the solar system.
GURPS Space is a setting book, good if you want advices in how to run Sci-fi campaigns, (the rules off planet and system creation will drive you insane). GURPS Cyberpunk 3ed is also a good source of advice and inspiration
Mothership just sucessfully kickstarted a massive expansion to its space station sandbox setting A Pound of Flesh. Could be something to look out for.
If you're willing to do some homebrew on setting Starfinder might be a good option for mechanical heft.
If OP is going for a mercenary sandbox, they also just delivered their crime and bounty hunting supplement Wages of Sin. It's absolutely massive with 100 bounty scenarios across dozens of worlds and stations in a mini campaign setting (all tied together with additional content). There is a ton of easily usable game ideas in there. I don't personally run mothership but Wages is great for any sort of gritty sci-fi game.
RIFTS with the Phase World books. Seedy, inter-dimensional factions of all different stripes for you to choose from.
I second GURPS--in my opinion, GURPS is perfect for cyberpunk because you can build any cyberware you want by using the advantages and disadvantages and some of the limitations for advantages. GURPS also has quite satisfying and complex tactical combat, in part because it uses 1 second rounds for combat, which means you really get into the moment. Granted, GURPS is a toolbox more than a system that you simply pick up and play, so it requires a bit more front-loading prep-wise. Savage Worlds could fit your needs. Savage Worlds is setting agnostic and, like GURPS, builds characters from advantages (Edges) and disadvantages. It's a simpler system than GURPS, however I think it is a bit less tactical. Also, some people find it swingy or don't like how combat is built around the shaken condition. That said, with a supplement like Interface Zero 3.0 you would easily be able to do starfaring cyberpunk. Cepheus (Traveller) can do what you want as well. Cepheus has tactical combat, cyberware, plenty of tables for generating random stuff to fill out star systems, and the like. I am least familiar with Cepheus of the recommendations I'm making, so I'll let someone else hype it up more. I'll also continue recommending Fragged Empire 2e for rules heavier scifi. The core system is highly tactical and supports cyberware (as traits), weapon customization, and complex, cover-based tactical combat. It's very good for games where shooting is presumed to be the main form of combat. You might need to jettison the core setting, though, as it's arguably more optimistic than what you're looking for. That said, you could play the core setting darker/grittier without much work.
There was old d20 setting Abandon All Hope about massive prison ship which jumped to hell iirc. Influenced by Event Horizon and Pandorum. https://minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=19590.0 Then there is SLA Industries, which is more like 2000AD ttrpg. https://nightfall.games/sla-industries
If you’re looking for crunchier, more satisfying character advancement, you might want to check out TraVerse. Has the solid mechanical RPG core you are looking for, and many of the creatures and settings in its harder sci-fi universe can get pretty brutal and dark if you make them the focus.
Definitely Eclipse Phase
Quite allot of Warhammer 40k RPGs fit these categories. Most recently Imperium Maledictum but wrath and glory and the older Dark Heresy.