Why have most attempts at creating a science fiction RPG failed (commercially or artistically)... and what would a hypothetical SFRPG need to catch on the way fantasy has?
MB: It's easy to say, "I flip the switch and the light turns on." It can be a lot harder to explain exactly why the switch works the way it does. That "switch working" is the premise of science fiction, even if there's some steps conveniently assumed along the way. Fantasy does not require the same level of detail or explanation.
Fantasy:
"I cast light."
The switch works in fantasy because the somatic ingredient (the "flipping motion") has been fulfilled, and thus "light" is cast.Science Fiction
"I hook the battery power lead to the... I've got a large cable connector [rolls for supplies] and the pins connect to..." (Just a clear example of a car light-switch.)
It also relates to my question regarding why we have so many rules for combat, and so little for anything else (unless you have a system specifically designed around, say birthright politics) ... where-in you have to decide what you want to express. Cyberpunk systems (I consider those "science-fiction") were fairly popular for a while... but unless net-running was a combat action, it was hard to keep peoples' attention.
One other aspect of the science-fiction versus fantasy dichotomy may be simply "scale." One might see that while epic, cross-continent fantasy can be done, science fiction is still on a totally different scale. Between space war, interplanetary conventions, and technological issues, the idea is almost too diffuse.
LK: I don't know if it can be done, but I think the question is a little bit skewed. RPGs are dominated by fantasy and horror because those are more fluid, descriptive fields, which RPG-players tend to prefer. Science fiction is harder, more numerically-oriented...and heavily dominates the wargaming market. An SFRPG is caught in the middle - most of the people who really want the science aspect already have a strong genre for it, and likewise the people who want to focus on the fiction. The end result seems to be that people actually interested in role-playing in a more futuristic but still essentially fantasy universe...are a limited subclass.
I don't think it's a failure of SFRPGs. I think it's just more of a niche market than people realize.