D&D 5E Fifth Age: A hard science fiction 5e conversion

Warren Ellis said:

Yeah it was a really neat idea for hard scifi space fighters and considering the issues the Synthetics would have with AI developed for fighters, understandable I would say, this is the next viable option for such a thing in my opinion.

Might be a nasty shock to the Hegemony as well.

Actually I do wonder something, in your setting it's noted that genetic engineering isn't really a thing for most humans so they still live to about 100 or so. However wouldn't even cheap gene-engineering, to fix birth defects, and more advanced medicine and such have increased the human lifespan some?

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Yeah, synthetics uploading themselves into expendable propulsion buses loaded with missiles is pretty good. I kind of want to build an ace that clones himself into all of his munitions.

As for lifespans, the assumption is that most humans encountered are not from earth. Life is hard out there. Even with the best medical care, space is an awful place for human life. Radiation, low gravity, stress, lack of trace elements.... And that is before toxins and alien infections.

Take the "about a century" statistic with a grain of salt, this is averaging in belt miners that die at forty-five in with citizens of earth benefitting from gene therapies and cloned replacement organs and seeing their second century come to a close.

A lot of the conceits of the setting exist to maintain a believable, familiar version of humanity that "works" from a story telling standpoint.

Instead of entrenched transhuman groups, we have"new kids on the block" dealing with discrimination and fighting for their rights, with the players picking where they want to be with developing history.

An ongoing theme at my table is progress and development, with the game world changing around the characters with time dilation leaving them out of place and time, moving on to the next world and trying to maintain their relevancy.

A lot of the setting details are left intentionally vague so it works however a DM wants it to. Initially I wrote the setting purely as an example of what a setting might look like, but at my table more and more lore got built up and I came to like it more and more, and I had a dozen players becoming invested, so it spiralled from there.

Capn Charlie said:

Yeah, synthetics uploading themselves into expendable propulsion buses loaded with missiles is pretty good. I kind of want to build an ace that clones himself into all of his munitions.

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Neat thing is that with a powerful enough comm laser, the pilots in that setting "eject" by reuploading themselves back to their bodies on the ship and then uploading again into a another propulsion bus. And since the expendable buses are small, big ships can carry hundreds of these little fighter analogues. Normally after a battle is over, the ship that wins will go and attempt to retrieve the expendable buses to reload them again, well those that are left.

In-setting, for most system defence forces, they use bigger crewed gunships that are mostly only useful for like in orbit of planets as the equivalent due to societal restrictions on mind uploading (specifically those who mind upload are considered a nobility of sorts so you have to earn that privilege.)

Stefen Swanner said:

On another note, in the class section of the book, there are no saving throw proficiencies listed. Do we not include proficiency in the saving throws in 5th Age, or can I base saving throw proficiencies depending on which class is most alike to 5th Ed.?

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Sorry to bug people about this, but has yet to be answered.

Stefen Swanner said:

Sorry to bug people about this, but has yet to be answered.

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It is intentional that only the Savage receives profincies with saving throws.

There are so few effects that require saves, and they are so narrow, that it was easiest to just leave them out of the design.

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I know i might be coming across as questionable. I feel like the bonds, flaws, ideals andmthe other one are not in each background as in the original 5e backgrounds. Now I dont personally mind this because it leaves it open to the player. Was this intentional as well?

Stefen Swanner said:

I know i might be coming across as questionable. I feel like the bonds, flaws, ideals andmthe other one are not in each background as in the original 5e backgrounds. Now I dont personally mind this because it leaves it open to the player. Was this intentional as well?

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It was just a lot of writing that I did not do at the time. When I went back to do it later I found it to be particularly setting specific and I felt I was already tying too much story to mechanics and took a pass.

However, it is on my to do list.

Sent from my MT2L03 using EN World mobile app

Oh thats fine, no rush. I actually find it as a relief because characters arent bound by 8 choices per field. They are happy with filling it in on their own.

Stumbled across this two months ago and after having a blast on our test run through your welcome to Indra storyline, it has completely replaced our traditional D&D nights. Fantastic work Capn Charlie. The unforgiving nature of space travel and future weaponry really shine here. Makes other sci-fi conversions like Hyperlanes seem silly.

Cerin said:

Stumbled across this two months ago and after having a blast on our test run through your welcome to Indra storyline, it has completely replaced our traditional D&D nights. Fantastic work Capn Charlie. The unforgiving nature of space travel and future weaponry really shine here. Makes other sci-fi conversions like Hyperlanes seem silly.

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Is that because Hyperlanes is more cinematic? I've heard great things about it, is the reason I ask.

I love the work Capn Charlie has done here. I'm looking for an engine to run FFG's Dragonstar. I'm not sure 'Hard Sci-fi' would be appropriate.

unnatural 20 said:

Is that because Hyperlanes is more cinematic? I've heard great things about it, is the reason I ask.

I love the work Capn Charlie has done here. I'm looking for an engine to run FFG's Dragonstar. I'm not sure 'Hard Sci-fi' would be appropriate.

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I'll admit I've not actually played Hyperlanes as my group looked over the players book and passed. So this is just my opinion based on reading the handbook.

My biggest beef with Hyperlanes is its' gambit(spell) system. It makes things that should simply be player decisions or actions into spells. The best example I can think of is the Sun Blind gambit:

"Move your speed positioning yourself between your target and the sun in your star system. So long as you remain between the sun and your target, you are invisible to the target."

That burns a spell slot. Other gambits seem too much like magic for my taste.

Beyond that, when I first looked at the Fifth Age I felt it needed more weapons, armor and items, but it has significantly more options than Hyperlanes. To make it worse, the weapons and items it does have are also very blah. The most powerful weapon in Hyperlanes is a 2d6 great sword.

Overall it's more a sci-fi skin than a full conversion in my opinion. Fifth age isn't perfect and I've needed to modify a bit for my campaign but it's a phenomenal starting point. Feels like a full conversion not just wizards in spacesuits.