"When is your future?" Topic

Bill commands and I obey--sometimes. There is a current poll on "style" which turns out to mostly be costume. But I find "when" a more interesting question. How about
1) Steampunk
2) Near future (100 years or less)
4) Far future with FTL drive
5) Post-Appoc, and maybe
6) Copyrighted: (Battletech and GW come immediately to mind. Please specify in comments.)
And my personal favorite
7) Classic SF: jungle Venus, dying dry Mars, Mercury with one face permanently toward the sun and humanoid interfertile life on each one. I know it's been superceded, but it's the ship I'm going down with.

Note that while my maps and troop builds work best with 7, Rixx' Cafe Aldaran is pretty clearly 4. There's already a classic Trek away team on shore leave, the Cantauri Ambassador and the Nagus are in the painting queue, and I just ordered a few pilots from a rag-tag fleet.

But what have I missed? and what's your favorite?

Note that

I think you need to drop (6), as it can combine with any of the others. Warhammer 40k, say, is surely both (4) and (6).

Recent forays into sf have been post-apo.

ETA: My most recent non-post-apo sf minis game was Star Wars, which is functionally far-future with FTL, but nominally set in the past. You may need a category for this.

Yeah, my future tends to be in some far away galaxy, doing things a long time ago. With that there are FTL drives and laser like or colored bolting type weapons. Even though I am setting up and playing in that galaxy, space type wizards and special spells and skills are more infrequent than what might be shown on screen

FTL drive is, in my opinion, fantasy. But nice try! 😄

Is Retro-SF part of the "Classic SF" giant canvas?
Gyro blastic vacuum tubes, plasma drives, or whatever and a trusty helmet that will just get Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, et al. to wherever the story needs them.

Twixt Steampunk and Near Future lie a lot of:

1.5) Alternate History SF/Used to be Near Future but now in the Past SF.

Just a few notables:
For All Mankind: 1969–2010s
Apollo Rising trilogy: 1979–1985
UFO: 1980
Terminator: 1997
Space 1999
2001 A Space Odyssey
Back to the Future II: 2015 (partly)
Blade Runner: 2019
Moon Zero Two: 2021

Or is "Near Future" like "Moderns" and includes a good chunk of the late 20th century?

4 and 5 for me!

My future is all behind me.

Wolfhag

Is the missing 3) Far Future without FTL Drive (or n/a, it's just ground combat)?

Far future with FTL (hey, 600 years ago no one thought they could cross the Atlantic)

2000AD

No 3. Yes, I'm sharp today! How about we designate miniMo's "Used to be Near Future but Now Past SF" as #3, but reserve it for actual changes, like 2001, Split Second and the future bits of "Back to the Future? This fills the gap, and it's about where such things should go. #2 then could be present day, as, say Robocop or the original Terminator. (As a miniature wargamer, I can't get too worked up about SF that works with the buildings I pass every day.)

OFM, I use the term "science fiction" without expressing any opinion about the actual science.

As for Star Wars, I think Lucas was suffering from a Force overdose when he wrote "a long time ago." Clearly it's so far in the future humans have spread far beyond Earth and lost track of their evolutionary origins. (As far as Battlestar Galactica goes, I'm holding out for a time warp. Astrogation was clearly not the Great Colonies' prime skill.)

All!

Where does Stargate fit? Ogre/GEV? The High Crusade?

Time can be very relative when it comes to Science Fiction.

I'm going with 7. I'm more attuned and familiar with the classic tropes anyway, and these are also the most "pulpy", which suits my inclinations fine.

Apart from that, I enjoy the classic Star Trek universe setting, but I'm not sure where that slates into the above list, or how I reconcile all the new spinoffs and reboots since I only recognize the first two series or movies as legit in my personal universe.

Put #1 Steampunk on top of any of these and you have my attention. FTL with corsets and top hats? Jolly good! Space Marines with cravats? Well dressed, my good sir!

6 – WH40k

Star Wars (Yes its future past) WH30K and Judge Dredd!

I'd say Stargate is 2 and Oger/GEV is 3 in general terms, but if you only play with SJE-approved, rules, terrain and troop types, it moves to 6.

Brooding over High Crusade--which is a favorite, too. Shall we make "Historical SF off-planet" 8, and place High Crusade, Destroyermen and Lost Regiment there?

Far future with FTL, stumbling around in a galaxy of uninhabited Forerunner alien ruins, per Andre Norton.

Nigerian Lead Minister — yes, everything can be steampunked! Take these Star Wars action figures for example:
link

I dislike the term "steampunk".
I prefer VSF. My only extensive sci-fi collection was GASLIGHT.

Not that there's anything inherently wrong with FTL. The first Star Wars movies were great. Throw in warrior wizards with magic swords…

My collection skews #1 and #4.

Criswell says it best:

youtu.be/bn2JISG3ZBE

All I'm easy. ;))

1 through 6 (although FTL or not don't enter into the tabletop games).

Nothing against 7, I just focus my Sol system games on alt-history Luna. I suppose my 54mm astronauts could fight dinosaurs in the jungles of Venus if I ever got an urge to make another batch of terrain that would be needing storage space. But don't realy see that in cards.

8) All of the above would be close enough.