malcolm_n
Adventurer
When I was approached with the opportunity to work on a new adventure path, I was quite excited. I was just finishing the updates to adventure 10 for War of the Burning Sky in March of last year and Morrus asked if I’d be interested in tackling the difficult project of fitting a D&D 4E shaped square into a sci-fi shaped circle.
Of course, I accepted without hesitation. My passion in life is writing, and to be given the chance to honor another author’s work by bringing it to the paper and pen world of roleplaying games is, to me, as good as getting my own writing off the ground.
Things turned out to be not as hard as we first expected. We decided to use the concept of existing D&D classes as a basis for our new, futuristic classes, which is why you’ll find several similarities throughout the player’s guide. We also came up with an interesting new race, the Alien, which can be found in the recent preview of the player’s guide.
We were able to reskin many of the D&D player’s handbook items as well as the rituals to become tech enhanced items and technical processes, respectively. By doing so, they work well in a far future setting. After everything was said and done, I made sure to brush over everything with relevant information related to the novel so it was flavored nicely throughout the book.
The campaign guide proved just as interesting. We had to look at the world from a storyteller’s perspective. Thankfully, I had by that time read through Santiago at least seven times, so I started looking at other sources of information to include. I found a wealth of useful tidbits related to the Birthright Universe by looking around both online and in other books that are now a part of my library. I took anything I could that wasn’t timestamped and included it to flesh out the planets and their inhabitants.
So, here I am, almost a year later, and we’re wrapping up the first adventure for the Myths of the Far Future campaign for both 4E and Pathfinder, with much thanks to Thurston on his collaboration with the latter. It’s been a good, if very busy year, and I can’t wait to finally see my representation of Mike Resnick’s universe out there for others to enjoy.
With that in mind, here’s a player-friendly sneak peak at the Campaign Guide. The guide itself is DM focused, but this is an option that any DM can choose to include in their game that will add a measure of aid to the heroes in their adventure.
[sblock=Myths of the Far Future - Ships]
There are several varieties of ships that travel throughout the galaxy, from planet hoppers to galactic convoys. As explained above, space travel in Myths of the Far Future will generally be glossed over as a means of getting from one planet to the next. However, there are some special options you can provide your heroes with when they do get their hands on their own interstellar ship.
In the player’s companion, the ship is offered as a basic transport that can carry one or more travellers with some cargo room. For those adventurers who wish to use something a little more tangible than empty space, we offer three variations of the same ship. Each of these is priced the same as a typical ship, but provides more bang for the credit. They can also be combined in the same way, so a party of 5 characters could have a ship with medical beds, two military uplinks, and a research station for Tech and Engineering.
Medical Ship – The medical ship provides its passengers with a comfortable place to rest and recover after a nasty confrontation. When the party takes a short rest, they regain 3 extra hit points per healing surge spent. This increases to 5 extra hit points at 11th level and 8 extra hit points at 21st level. They receive this bonus as long as their last extended rest was taken on the ship.
Military Ship – A military ship offers the latest in defensive technology, ready to be uploaded directly into a character’s equipment. After an extended rest on the ship, a character receives a +1 item bonus to one defense, whether AC, Fortitude, Reflex, or Will. This bonus increases to +2 at 11th level and +3 at 21st level.
Research Ship – Research ships come preprogrammed with a communicator system much like the personal communicators some engineers use. When a character purchases a research ship, he chooses Tech, Engineering, or Heal. The ship can learn and perform technical processes up to the character’s level with the chosen key skill. The ship gets a +15 bonus to skill checks, which increases to 22 at 11th level and 30 at 21st level. Any character with Technical Artisan who is on the ship during the process can aid the check or substitute their own.[/sblock]
Of course, I accepted without hesitation. My passion in life is writing, and to be given the chance to honor another author’s work by bringing it to the paper and pen world of roleplaying games is, to me, as good as getting my own writing off the ground.
Things turned out to be not as hard as we first expected. We decided to use the concept of existing D&D classes as a basis for our new, futuristic classes, which is why you’ll find several similarities throughout the player’s guide. We also came up with an interesting new race, the Alien, which can be found in the recent preview of the player’s guide.
We were able to reskin many of the D&D player’s handbook items as well as the rituals to become tech enhanced items and technical processes, respectively. By doing so, they work well in a far future setting. After everything was said and done, I made sure to brush over everything with relevant information related to the novel so it was flavored nicely throughout the book.
The campaign guide proved just as interesting. We had to look at the world from a storyteller’s perspective. Thankfully, I had by that time read through Santiago at least seven times, so I started looking at other sources of information to include. I found a wealth of useful tidbits related to the Birthright Universe by looking around both online and in other books that are now a part of my library. I took anything I could that wasn’t timestamped and included it to flesh out the planets and their inhabitants.
So, here I am, almost a year later, and we’re wrapping up the first adventure for the Myths of the Far Future campaign for both 4E and Pathfinder, with much thanks to Thurston on his collaboration with the latter. It’s been a good, if very busy year, and I can’t wait to finally see my representation of Mike Resnick’s universe out there for others to enjoy.
With that in mind, here’s a player-friendly sneak peak at the Campaign Guide. The guide itself is DM focused, but this is an option that any DM can choose to include in their game that will add a measure of aid to the heroes in their adventure.
[sblock=Myths of the Far Future - Ships]
There are several varieties of ships that travel throughout the galaxy, from planet hoppers to galactic convoys. As explained above, space travel in Myths of the Far Future will generally be glossed over as a means of getting from one planet to the next. However, there are some special options you can provide your heroes with when they do get their hands on their own interstellar ship.
In the player’s companion, the ship is offered as a basic transport that can carry one or more travellers with some cargo room. For those adventurers who wish to use something a little more tangible than empty space, we offer three variations of the same ship. Each of these is priced the same as a typical ship, but provides more bang for the credit. They can also be combined in the same way, so a party of 5 characters could have a ship with medical beds, two military uplinks, and a research station for Tech and Engineering.
Medical Ship – The medical ship provides its passengers with a comfortable place to rest and recover after a nasty confrontation. When the party takes a short rest, they regain 3 extra hit points per healing surge spent. This increases to 5 extra hit points at 11th level and 8 extra hit points at 21st level. They receive this bonus as long as their last extended rest was taken on the ship.
Military Ship – A military ship offers the latest in defensive technology, ready to be uploaded directly into a character’s equipment. After an extended rest on the ship, a character receives a +1 item bonus to one defense, whether AC, Fortitude, Reflex, or Will. This bonus increases to +2 at 11th level and +3 at 21st level.
Research Ship – Research ships come preprogrammed with a communicator system much like the personal communicators some engineers use. When a character purchases a research ship, he chooses Tech, Engineering, or Heal. The ship can learn and perform technical processes up to the character’s level with the chosen key skill. The ship gets a +15 bonus to skill checks, which increases to 22 at 11th level and 30 at 21st level. Any character with Technical Artisan who is on the ship during the process can aid the check or substitute their own.[/sblock]
