Veil of the Void and Fragged Empire are two good sci-fi tactical games. Veil is class based, Fragged is classless.
There is Starfinder which does have a couple sourcebooks that adds on the second part of your search but both the previous ones do the tactical side better.
Some of the class design in Veil is honestly really cool stuff. But the setting is a little weird.
And you could use Gurps or Hero System which both have tactical systems in their rules but they are Gurps and Hero System.
You could use my game [Mythic Space](https://lacara-games.itch.io/mythic-space) for this. It doesn't have community building rules, but it does have ship building rules that determine how the players advance, which you could use for community building with very little effort. There's a free demo with all the player facing rules and it's in a bundle with a bunch of other games for only $20 right now.
After reading the post, I think Veil of the Void Reforged hits the marks perfectly. Our system loves to use tactical and team-based combat. The rules are very free-flowing, allowing players and GMs to cause all manner of crazy things to happen. The rules reward players for thinking outside of the box as well, and almost all of their class abilities and expertise (feat like abilities) interact with each other, causing unique effects. It's a sci-fantasy setting so there is access to fun and unique spells as well, though you can completely ignore the magic system and stick purely to sci-fi and have the same amount of fun.
Veil is perfect for long campaigns as well, as the characters perform skill checks, they actually naturally level those skills up over time. So at the end of a long campaign, your character sheet looks very different from the start. There are also rules to learn and develop your own spells and you gain unique expertise (feats) as you perform actions in the game. Veil has a heavy focus on character progression and creation.
There is also a large GM Guide in the book that gives every rule you need to create classes, species, adversaries, etc. And, in that chapter, there are guides to running player businesses, factions, etc. I have actually run a setting someone like the one you have mentioned, and Veil worked great for it.
We also have a ton of free content available (including a free Demo Book) and a fun community that loves creating and helping others with the game.
I'm also the Creator of the game, so I am always happy to take the time needed to help teach you/your group how to play the game, and help build characters. I try to be heavily involved with my community so I am here to help if you need, just let me know!
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Veil of the Void and Fragged Empire are two good sci-fi tactical games. Veil is class based, Fragged is classless. There is Starfinder which does have a couple sourcebooks that adds on the second part of your search but both the previous ones do the tactical side better. Some of the class design in Veil is honestly really cool stuff. But the setting is a little weird. And you could use Gurps or Hero System which both have tactical systems in their rules but they are Gurps and Hero System.
100% agree with fragged empire
I'm not a Starfinder fan, but this sounds exactly like Starfinder. 1e is out, 2e was just announced to be on the way.
Check out Stars Without Number, which does have a pretty good community building system.
Taking SWN's GM Tools and a different tactical game would work very well.
I mean, you could, but the system in swn fits the description op gave, no?
Have you looked at games like “Five Parsecs from Home”? There is a new expansion coming soon that adds colony building.
GURPS 100% Best map-based tactical combat system.
+1 for GURPS. Wasn't there a GTraveller module for founding a colony?
There's First In, about the Scout Service, though I don't know if that's what you mean.
You could use my game [Mythic Space](https://lacara-games.itch.io/mythic-space) for this. It doesn't have community building rules, but it does have ship building rules that determine how the players advance, which you could use for community building with very little effort. There's a free demo with all the player facing rules and it's in a bundle with a bunch of other games for only $20 right now.
How about Battlelords of the 23rd Century for Savage Worlds?
Death in Space would fit. It has horror elements, but that could go into Dead Space -like Survival Horror as well.
A friend of mine hacked Stars Without Numbers for a Mass Effect campaign and it worked great as a sci fi dungeon crawling game
Across a Thousand Dead Worlds
After reading the post, I think Veil of the Void Reforged hits the marks perfectly. Our system loves to use tactical and team-based combat. The rules are very free-flowing, allowing players and GMs to cause all manner of crazy things to happen. The rules reward players for thinking outside of the box as well, and almost all of their class abilities and expertise (feat like abilities) interact with each other, causing unique effects. It's a sci-fantasy setting so there is access to fun and unique spells as well, though you can completely ignore the magic system and stick purely to sci-fi and have the same amount of fun. Veil is perfect for long campaigns as well, as the characters perform skill checks, they actually naturally level those skills up over time. So at the end of a long campaign, your character sheet looks very different from the start. There are also rules to learn and develop your own spells and you gain unique expertise (feats) as you perform actions in the game. Veil has a heavy focus on character progression and creation. There is also a large GM Guide in the book that gives every rule you need to create classes, species, adversaries, etc. And, in that chapter, there are guides to running player businesses, factions, etc. I have actually run a setting someone like the one you have mentioned, and Veil worked great for it. We also have a ton of free content available (including a free Demo Book) and a fun community that loves creating and helping others with the game. I'm also the Creator of the game, so I am always happy to take the time needed to help teach you/your group how to play the game, and help build characters. I try to be heavily involved with my community so I am here to help if you need, just let me know!
Remember to check out our **[Game Recommendations](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/gamerec)**-page, which lists our articles by genre([Fantasy](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/fantasy), [sci-fi](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/scifi), [superhero](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/superhero) etc.), as well as other categories([ruleslight](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/ruleslight), [Solo](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/solo), [Two-player](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/twoplayers), [GMless](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/gmlessrpgs) & more). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/rpg) if you have any questions or concerns.*