In the beginning there was Dungeons and Dragons.

From this humble three-book rule set a whole aspect of gaming has grown.

Role Playing Games.

This is a look at the Science Fiction aspect of that part of the hobby.

The first science fiction rule set which I can remember using were 'Traveller' supported by 15mm scale miniatures made by the pre-GW Citadel. Somewhere along the way I touched on Shadowrun, Cyberpunk, Alernity, Spacemaster through to Serenity. For every one tried there were probably half a dozen rulesets considered and not bought. Herein lies a problem. Too many rules!

Some years ago whilst in a AD&D campaign being run by another member of the York Club, he made the comment that the 'most dangerous beast in the Galaxy walks on two legs and originates from Planet Earth'. This crystalized my sf rpg thinking. No more aliens. A human-only Galaxy where mankinds greatest threat was mankind itself!

With maybe the odd mutant from a planet which was not quite up to Earth standard!

Miniatures became a problem. In a thinking-man's rpg the overwhelming number of 'big-gun' and 'bikini babe' figures were of little use. Here we wanted miniatures with the equivalent of being armed with a sonic screwdriver to get inside equipment etc.

And then Harlequin released Babylon 5!

There are a few basic scenarios. In what follows we have a search for a Lost Earth a la Tubb's Dumarest or Azimov's later additions to the Foundation Trillogy.