D&D 5E D&D Space Opera!

[doctorbadwolf]

Well, my group has had its first couple test sessions in our group-built Fantasy Space Opera setting for 5e D&D ! So far, it’s been a lot of fun, and since a few posters showed interest in the basic ideas of the campaign, I’m making this thread to talk about it.

Spoiler: The Parameters:

We agreed early on to a few basic parameters.

• A proper campaign can’t start until another campaign has wrapped up, even if only temporarily
• It has to be compatible with using the Dndbeyond program to build characters, with as little change to the system as possible.
• When someone builds soemthing, another participant cannot invalidate that. If the Old Federation was Good and Just and Had No Cops, that will always be true. Another DM can’t pull a “well actually they were bad” retcon
• No tech that just invalidates a broad type of challenge from the game, without majority consent. So, FTL travel is limited, long range communication is also limited, and there are no replicators

Having set those, we came up with the basic pitch.

Spoiler: A thousand years ago, the Known Worlds were in an age of peace. The Human Conclave of Worlds and the Federation of Free Worlds had ended their decades long war and become allies. The Arkhosian Kingdoms were prosperous and eager for trade. The Vy Shaar nomads had formed the galaxy’s first truly galactic Interstellar Navigators’ Guild, and the various independent worlds and guilds were thriving. And then the Starlanes collapsed, and the galaxy went dark. Over a thousand years of development, trade, cultural exchange, all of it was stopped dead in the course of a year, as every single Starlane, enigmatic FTL highways that were the backbone of galactic civilization, simply disappeared. Recently, some of the Starlanes have reappeared, and in the same generation a new FTL technology known as Aether Slipstream Drives have emerged. ASD travel is slower than travel via the Starlanes, but isn’t restricted to the specific routes of the Starlanes. [/spoiler

In the Baernian Cluster about 100 years ago, a region of space nestled into the center of a formation of three Starlanes, an alliance of free worlds, and then a Commonwealth of Free Worlds, comprised of worlds of many races, including many ancient human worlds arose on the backs of these Aether ships. Unfortunately, one of these Starlanes leads to a region formerly controlled by colonial “nobles” of the old Human Conclave. In the 1000 years of “darkness”, these self styled Lords (think all the bastard rich people from Firefly) formed petty kingdoms and recently formed a new Oligarch also empire of their own, known as The Authority.

Now, scouts seek out new worlds and new routes, trade moves along Starlanes, and a Cold War is waged in the border space along the single Starlane that connects Authority and Commonwealth space.
Meanwhile, the Illithid Collective and their governing Elder Council seek trade and alliance with both sides of the war from their distant corner of the galaxy as Rakma rebels lead by Gith seek to warn the other powers of the danger of the Illithid and are hunted for it.


More on the current state of things, how we are handling tech and stuff, tomorrow and the next day!

UPDATE:

The State of Things.

Aether ships sail a lot like Treasure Planet (see The launch scene), with a couple exceptions.

First, the sails collect solar energy as well as syphoning concentrated aether from the Aether clouds. That concentrated Aether is distilled in the engine room and ionized with power from the solar collection. Propulsion is a combination of sails and ion impulse thrusters.
THe main purpose of the Aether though is to power the Aether Slipstream Drive, which allows for FTL travel via "slipstream". It isn't near as fast as using a Starlane, but you can go anywhere.

MECHANICS

Ships just work like standard 5e ships, except that the Rigger and Engineer can optimize speed, and can work together to increase maneuverability. Basically the speed and turning of the standard ship is treated as the baseline, and checks can improve on it.

Weapons are just phb weapons, often reflavored, with an additional 1d6 damage of the character's choice when they aquire the weapon. So, if they decide their sword is an energy blade, it might deal radiant, fire, or lightning damage, if it's magical it can do nearly any damage, etc. Ship weapons deal an extra 1d8 instead.

Ships Roles are modified pretty heavily. We don't have a captain role, instead we have a Sgt At Arms, who overseas battle readiness and makes tactics checks using proficiency with Dragonchess, Smith's Tools, History, or Intimidation. Each role has 2 skills and two tool proficiency that can be added to rolls related to combat, preparation, journeys, or anything else related to their role on the ship.

Spoiler: ship crew roles

Spoiler

Now, we also have been testing some journey rules. We are working on a d20 table that has two spots for each role, and for each Complication in a journey, you roll on the table to see which role is most relevant to the Complication, and thus which character is the "lead character" of the scene in which we resolve that complication.

We are also using the Preliminary Rolls from The One Ring, wherein the whole team makes a check before the journey starts to basically do their job ahead of time. We use a DC ladder for this and award temporary luck points for levels of success, with DCs 10, 15, and 20. Below 10 is failure (DM gets a Bad Luck Die to use against the party), 10-14 is basic success (no Luck Points either way, but you are prepared for the journey), 15-19 is great success (1 Luck Points), and 20+ is incredible success (2 Luck Points). Luck Points are removed at the end of the journey, and can only be used as part of the journey. You can use them to help another member of the crew, however.

In a Complication Scene, the crew member who is leading the scene directs crew on how to resolve the scene, and essentially is the "captain" for that scene.

The Galaxy Itself

Aether is a gas that collects around celestial objects like suns and planets, and flows through Starlanes. Nearly all creatures can breath Aether gas, though concentrated Aether is dangerous to breath for long. It can also be used as a fuel both for ships and for weapons, and as a crafting material similar to residuum. Because most solar systems have an aether cloud, you can just stand upon the deck of a ship in space.

Most solar systems are otherwise normal, with planets orbiting a sun. Other systems are weird as hell, with stuff like dnd cosmology or even stranger stuff.

Most other planes in dnd are instead regions of space. Planeshift would essentially be a specialised teleportation spell. The Border Ethereal exists as in normal dnd, however. So, if you serve an Archfey, your liege is out there in space. The Devil is in the same galaxy as you. There is a physical frontline in the Blood War, if someone decides they want to bother with that story.

I'll post about specific places we've come up with in the galaxy later. Enjoy!

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Okay probably won’t get to post more today. Tomorrow I am off work though!

 

[Bitbrain]

Looks cool!

 

[Horacio]

The pitch is really interesting, looking forward to read more

OK, I am a self assumed old timer, but what about a Story Hour on it?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

UPDATEd the OP with more info!

 

[Eyes of Nine]

The State of Things.

Aether ships sail a lot like Treasure Planet (see The launch scene), with a couple exceptions.

First, the sails collect solar energy as well as syphoning concentrated aether from the Aether clouds. That concentrated Aether is distilled in the engine room and ionized with power from the solar collection. Propulsion is a combination of sails and ion impulse thrusters.
THe main purpose of the Aether though is to power the Aether Slipstream Drive, which allows for FTL travel via "slipstream". It isn't near as fast as using a Starlane, but you can go anywhere.

MECHANICS

Ships just work like standard 5e ships, except that the Rigger and Engineer can optimize speed, and can work together to increase maneuverability. Basically the speed and turning of the standard ship is treated as the baseline, and checks can improve on it.

Weapons are just phb weapons, often reflavored, with an additional 1d6 damage of the character's choice when they aquire the weapon. So, if they decide their sword is an energy blade, it might deal radiant, fire, or lightning damage, if it's magical it can do nearly any damage, etc. Ship weapons deal an extra 1d8 instead.

Ships Roles are modified pretty heavily. We don't have a captain role, instead we have a Sgt At Arms, who overseas battle readiness and makes tactics checks using proficiency with Dragonchess, Smith's Tools, History, or Intimidation. Each role has 2 skills and two tool proficiency that can be added to rolls related to combat, preparation, journeys, or anything else related to their role on the ship.



Now, we also have been testing some journey rules. We are working on a d20 table that has two spots for each role, and for each Complication in a journey, you roll on the table to see which role is most relevant to the Complication, and thus which character is the "lead character" of the scene in which we resolve that complication.

I loved the Treasure Planet movie idea. So Spelljammer. I also like what you have done with the roles.

Also when you say "most space is normal", how long would it take for a crew to travel from one planet to another?

Aaaaand - how are you handling the default 5e cosmology? (Sorry, had to ask)

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I loved the Treasure Planet movie idea. So Spelljammer. I also like what you have done with the roles.

Also when you say "most space is normal", how long would it take for a crew to travel from one planet to another?

Aaaaand - how are you handling the default 5e cosmology? (Sorry, had to ask)

The default 5e cosmology just isn't in play, basically. Whole regions of the galaxy can be a "plane" like the shadowfell or feywild or the hells, and there is theorised a spiral in the very center of the galaxy where the Abyss and Celestia orbit eachother. But there are also feywild style systems in "regular" space, and demons in asteriods between stars.

The Starlanes serve a purpose somewhat similar, I guess, to the cosmic rivers of the great wheel, in that they are the main long distance travel and the main way you get from one plane to another.

But as to travel times, it depends on the needs of the story and what feels right, which translates to "how far apart are the star systems"? Weeks or months, often enough, sometimes days or even hours. If a trip takes a week in an Aether ship, it takes a day or two by starlane. Slipstream travel is faster than light, but Starlanes are incredibly fast even within that context, connecting sometimes distant quadrants of the galaxy. The problem is they can't be made. They pop up, and they are just...there. And you hope they never go away. Meanwhile, Aether Slipstream Drives work on repeatable principles, and are an improving tech. The downside to them is that they can't really move large vessels, yet. Much like real life ion impulse propulsion, it can be pretty fast in a light vessel, but the more mass you try to move, the slower that acceleration is. You just cannot get anything larger than a frigate to move via slipstream. Just doesn't work, with current tech.

The Baernian cluster is a dense region of space where many stars can be reached with modern aether ships in only a few hours. From far enough away, the Cluster looks like a single point of light, often called the Spiral or the triangular spiral formed of the three starlanes that surround the Cluster.

Other regions are spread out more, and it can take months to get to your nearest neighbor.


Also, there are dragons the size of moons, and kobolds live on them and keep their scales clean and eat the weird space stuff that ends up on them.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Did a write-up yesterday on how we are gonna run combat involving ships in this campaign.

The tl;dr is, in combat the cook and quartermaster are replaced by marines and gunners, and PCs can use their abilities via ship systems. Also, marines can crew pilot-vessels (think starfighters) and armor suits (think gundam, or iron man?), both of which act like heavy armor with flight and built in magic weapons and THP, rather than using ship stats.