Re: Star Frontiers: The Ethics of Needlers
5. One of the few published settings that isn't gritty or even post-apocalyptic. It's one of the more 'fun' settings available in any genre, in fact.
SF's game system problems to some extent are a logical consequence of the problems all sci-fi games have with respect to lethality and game balance. Even a modern-day setting, with fairly realistic combat, is going to be way too lethal to be much fun.* Especially since there is no magical healing to fall back on--even non impairing wounds will take months to recover from. In the future, weapons will be even more lethal, so how do you arrange things so that the PCs have a prayer of surviving? And how do you reconcile that with a setting full of unarmored, squishy civilians?
*I once played a modern-day Hero campaign that lasted until about phase 4. Uzis were involved.