Science Fiction Roleplaying Games

A popular sci-fi pc/console game now launches a new sequel Fallout 3 by Bethesda Softworks. The premise of this rpg is a post apocalyptic world where your player character grows into. You begin in a small town sized bunker and eventually move out into the world.

The backstory from the Fallout 3 site:
"Vault 101 - Jewel of the Wastes. For 200 years, Vault 101 has faithfully served the surviving residents of Washington DC and its environs, now known as the Capital Wasteland. Though the global atomic war of 2077 left the US all but destroyed, the residents of Vault 101 enjoy a life free from the constant stress of the outside world. Giant Insects, Raiders, Slavers, and yes, even Super Mutants are all no match for superior Vault-Tec engineering. Yet one fateful morning, you awake to find that your father has defied the Overseer and left the comfort and security afforded by Vault 101 for reasons unknown. Leaving the only home you've ever known, you emerge from the Vault into the harsh Wasteland sun to search for your father, and the truth."

A wealth of information can be found on the Gamma World wikipedia page. I enjoyed this synopsis of the world background.

"Gamma World is a chaotic, dangerous environment that little resembles pre-apocalyptic Earth. The weapons unleashed during the final war were strong enough to alter coastlines, level cities, and leave large areas of land lethally radioactive. These future weapons bathed the surviving life of Earth in unspecified forms of radiation and biochemical agents, producing widespread, permanent mutations among humans, animals, and plants. As a result, fantastic mutations such as multiple limbs, super strength, and psychic powers are relatively common. (Random tables of such improbable mutations are a hallmark of every edition of Gamma World.) Many animals and plants are sentient, semi-civilized species competing with surviving humans. Both humans and non-humans have lost most knowledge of the pre-war humans, whom Gamma World's inhabitants refer to as "the Ancients". The only group with significant knowledge of the Ancients are isolated robots and other artificial intelligences that survived the war-though these machines tend to be damaged, in ill-repair, or insanely hostile to organic beings."

The latest edition Gamma World Players Handbook (D20 Edition)

The MechWarrior universe places the characters in a futuristic world where the primary implement of war is a many ton, metal behemoth known simply as a mech. They vary in size, shape, and utility but are generally far more capable of crossing difficult terrain than modern combat vehicles.

To read more about the tabletop, rpg or video game see the wikipedia MechWarrior page

A new edition was released last year Robotech the RPG: Shadow Chronicles Deluxe Edition

From Robotech Returns to Palladium Books:
"Robotech® made its debut in 1985 as a blockbuster animated television series that attracted an audience of all ages, from children to adults. The cutting-edge saga of war, love, and the indomitable human spirit spanned three epic generations of heroes battling to keep Earth safe from alien invaders. Robotechnology is the synthesis of human science and alien technology to create robotic vehicles, power armor, aircraft, and spacecraft to defend the Earth. Among the most famous of these mecha are the transformable Cyclones, Veritech Fighters, and Shadow Fighters.

Robotech® then blasted into the new millennium with the highly-anticipated continuation of the saga through Robotech®: The Shadow Chronicles®"

From Robotech Wikipedia page:
"Robotech is a science fiction franchise that was launched by an 85-episode adaptation of three different anime television series. Within the combined and edited story, Robotechnology refers to the scientific advances discovered in an alien starship that crashed on a South Pacific island. With this technology, Earth developed giant robotic machines or mecha (many of which were capable of transforming into vehicles) to fight three successive extraterrestrial invasions."

"Star Frontiers takes place near the center of a spiral galaxy (the setting does not specify whether the galaxy is our own Milky Way). A previously undiscovered quirk of the laws of physics allows starships to jump to "The Void", a hyperspatial realm that greatly shortens the travel times between inhabited worlds, once they reach 1% of the speed of light (3,000 km/s).

The basic game setting was an area known as "The Frontier Sector" where four sentient races (Dralasite, Humans, Vrusk, and Yazirian) had met and formed the United Planetary Federation (UPF). The original homeworlds of the Dralasites, Humans, and Vrusk were never detailed in the setting and it is possible that they no longer existed. A large number of the star systems shown on the map of the Frontier sector in the basic rulebook were unexplored and undetailed, allowing the Gamemaster (called the "referee" in the game) to put whatever they wished there.

Players could take on any number of possible roles in the setting but the default was to act as hired agents of the Pan Galactic corporation in exploring the Frontier and fighting the aggressive incursions of the alien and mysterious worm-like race known as the Sathar. Most published modules for the game followed these themes."

Taken from Star Frontiers wikipedia page.