"Best SF Setting That Nobody Games?" Topic

What science-fiction novel or movie provides an ideal setting for wargaming, but nobody is gaming it?

The "John Carter: Warlord of Mars" setting.

Captain Kirk vs. the Moon-Princesses.

The Amtrak Wars by Patrick Tilley always struck me as an ideal setting.

S M Stirling wrote a series based on the life of Bellisarius, I think it's called The General ( cavalry who are riding dogs!).

William Forstchen's Lost Regiment series would be doable with humans in 10mm and the Bantag hordes in 15mm.

And honorable mention must go to the Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen series although people do game it. There's even a ruleset sadly out of print from FGU "Down Styphon!".

The "John Carter: Warlord of Mars" setting.

Sorry, doesn't qualify:
link

Need to qualify nobody –

Lotr – lots and lots of players

Conan – some, but not a huge number

ERB based world's – virtually no-one

I do find both Conan and ERB surprising and there are so many possibilities

What it needs is a really good supporter – Oz is quite popular now, because there are rules and figures

Space Vikings by H Beam Piper

"The Expanse" as far as I know has not game system

could be wrong

"Dune" has never really been realized, tho Rebel Minis makes some figures that resonate with the SciFi Channel miniseries. Their primary downside is no blade armed figures.

Old Man's War by John Scalzi

"Nobody" is as vague and meaningless as "underrated". 🤷

I remember at least 3 different ranges of John Carter on Mars minis, and as many sets of rules. At least. Why would they exist if "nobody" plays them?

If one wants to claim that "nobody I know" plays that era, I guess it qualifies.
But I'll wager that anything nominated has someone playing it.
My own nomination would be Ring World. And I would expect it to be shot down.

How about post-apocalyptic stories like:
Earth Abides
A Canticle for Leibowitz
I am Legend
I nominate them, because I can't imagine anyone playing or gaming them. 😄 Prove me wrong.

How about The Man in the High Castle?
Oh, wait. Someone in Denver probably plays it. 🤷

I would wager a Buffalo Nickel that anything nominated has someone playing it. And probably there exists a suitable range of figures. Maybe not designed specifically for it, but suitable.

Captain Kirk vs. the Moon-Princesses.

Or the green slave women of Orion?
I suspect that there some IP and copyright issues there.
Are there any specific miniatures for Star Trek? I'm sure Tango01 can supply recommendations for the dancing slave women…. 🙄

Cities in Flight, by James Blish. I'm particularly fond of the series because Scranton is a city that has gone rogue and turned Pirate.

The 1632 series, about a West Virginia town zapped into the 30 Years War is perfect for anyone who has always wanted to take on a pike block with a pickup truck mounted machine gun.
Has anyone tried that?
I'm particularly impressed with the idea of an RPG game dealing with trying to reconcile various Lutheran sects.
Not to mention United Mine Workers politics.

Does anyone game "The Handmaid's Tale"? 🙄

It would be pretty easy – Gilead seems to rock terrorist chic, whilst the usa is current equipment

The battle of Boston from the penultimate episode would work – with the handmaids as covert commando squads

Anyone with Belisarian Byzantine and Gothic armies could game Lest Darkness Fall, by L Sprague deCamp. The fun in a campaign woukd be to see what innovations Martinus Paduei could introduce á la A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court. There's another idea that could be done by anyone who has armies in whatever era you want to plunk King Arthur.

Ditto Pavane, by Keith Roberts.
Any "alternate universe' story would make an interesting game. Particularly if a time travel introduced… innovations.

I've seen John Carter figures on ebay for years, tho infrequently. They weren't even all that expensive.

They were, however, never more than a trickle. It'd take years to assemble enuf to try to do anything.

Thundarr the Barbarian

Land of the Lost

Flash Gordon

The armies of the Autarch and his enemies, from "The Book of the New Sun" by Gene Wolfe.

The Destroyermen Series: WW2 Navy (Two 4-stacker destroyers and a submarine) are sucked into a space-time vortex that drops them into an alternate Earth with intelligent carnivorous dinosaurs fighting intelligent human-sized lemurs… but it also drops off a massive experimental Japanese battleship commanded by a certifiable nutjob. The Navy sides with the lemurs, the Japs with the man-eating dinos, and the war continues.

Naval combat, land combat, aerial combat… it's got it all. Tailor made for a game, but as far as I can tell, nobody's done one.

Carter is definitely gamed. Parroom Station minis have long been available, with a bit of hiatus, back again via Ral Partha Legacy:
link

Quite a variety of Flash Gordon/Buck Rodgers retro sci-fi available.

Tusk does dino hunting across a wide spectrum of cross-time hunters, so easily covering Land of the Lost, if not specifically by brand name.

There is a well supported Conan minis game by Monolith, but it is more of a small party versus GM type game than a traditional minis game. The figs are amazing and there are plenty of them. I did both kickstarters for it and have enough to game for years now.

I'd love to see a Flash Gordon set of rules, and Thundarr would definitely intrigue me as I was definitely a fan.

Babylon 5 warrants a new run, as do many book series. Destrouermen was a fantastic series and interesting for gaming.

Still waiting on a good Robotech miniatures game after a few bad attempts that were dreadful.

The Kree-Skrull War.

There are figures for it scattered in the general Marvel Heroclix collections, but I've only seen them used in generic super-hero battles, not massed for the specific war.

Including the pile that I amassed and have not seen the table yet…