This post comes about due to my current tinkering with Blasters and Lasers, which is coming soon in its Zero Edition form. The big design problem, even with me limiting myself to the Space Opera sub-genre, is that space is big and has many choices of elements to include in the game. So to focus myself, I compared Cyberpunk (as seen in my recent Reboot the Future release) and the Space Opera setting that I envision for Blasters and Lasers.

Cyberpunk

As seen in Reboot the Future

• Humancentric
• Cyberware
• Artificial Intelligence
• Virtual Reality computing
• Modern Weapons with cyber enhancement
• No Faster than Light space travel (Deep sleep colonist ships/Space shuttles)

Sci-fi (Space Opera)

As seen in Blasters and Lasers.

• Mainly human, but lots of aliens
• Cutting-edge, almost fantastical, technological equipment,
• Robots
• Energy Weapons
• Warp Drive Space Ships (Large range from single-seat fighters to massive capital ships).
• Psychic powers.

I must admit I wondered where this came from, and then I remembered I ran a similar exercise while working out what made Swords and Sorcery different from standard Fantasy when I was writing Crypts and Things.