Dragonstar :: what happened?

[frankthedm]

It had some good ideas, but IMHO Sci-fi weapons have to be in systems where someone survives attacks by avoiding them. Heroic HP need to go away after the Victorian / Steampunk era.

RL Modern rifles can drop bears in one shot. Sci fi weapons have to be Avoid or Die. Also autofire weapons are not "balanced for fairness", nor should they be.

 

[Wik]

I once ran a play-by-post Dragonstar game that seemed to go fairly well, until the usual suspects knocked the game out (it was my fault; stupid work got really hectic).

The thing I liked about dragonstar was the fact that with heavy energy weapons, wizards were no longer really assault casters; while we had a soulmech wizard who took out a spacefighter, as a general rule, casters weren't really so hot. I mean, sure, you can cast obscuring mist; *I* can throw a smoke grenade. You can cast a fireball? Great, I have a bunch of frag grenades. Oh, yeah. I've also got sleep grenades, nightvision goggles, drugs that speed me up, and a rifle that can blast through steel.

Suddenly, the wizard's main strength isn't in blasting.... it's in divination effects,charms, illusions.... and I really loved that shift. Some people probably hated it, but for us, it worked like a charm.

Never played the game in real life, though. It did seem fairly well-balanced, better than, say, Dawnforge (though, ultimately, probably not as fun).

 

[Agent Oracle]

Also autofire weapons are not "balanced for fairness", nor should they be.

C'mon frank. You should know, as a game master, that one unbalanced thing suddenly causes players to gravitate towards that thing... Look at the Vow of Poverty for comparison sake...

Besides: the feat "autofire" makes automatic weapons deadly enough.

Under normal dragonstar rules, if you beat a target's AC by 5 points, you get an extra hit on them with an automatic weapon, this is a cumulative effect, so beat their AC by 10 you get two more hits, beat it by 15 you get three... etc. effectively meaning a good fighter can open fire on a mook and hit them for critical amounts of damage without rolling anywhere near the weapons threat zone.

and the autofire feat reduces the target DC from 5 to 3, making it a must for players with automatic weapons.

Really, the only thing that balances autofiring weapons is their ammo consumption, which makes me make sure the players are keeping careful track of how many shots are fired.

My impression was that most FFE settings were designed to be short-term affairs (Dragonstar, Dawnforge, Fireborn), with Midnight being the one exception.

I think that's a fairly good way to do a setting myself.

Chuck

Dragonstar was not made by fast forward entertainment. It was made by Fantasy Flight Games.

 

[ScaredofScissors]

I thought Dragonstar was GREAT! I loved the possibilities - the evil dragons taking over the empire after the good (and the good -letting- them, all of which resonates with modern life if you're of a certain political persuasion), the idea of having a dungeon inside an asteroid ruled by illithid, etc. Sure, it was D&D in space, but it made a lot more sense to me than Spelljammer ever did. I also agree that having damage effects more readily available through tech changed the focus of spellcasters in fun ways. My own character was a paladin with glamered plate and lots of stun grenades (and my GM was kind enough to let me have a starship as a 'mount'). Unfortunately not many people besides the GM and myself loved the setting, so we didn't play it long.

 

[Chaldfont]

I never got to play Dragonstar but I would have loved to. I think it would make a great one-shot at a con.

I picked up Arsenal and Factory by Perpetrated Press (not official Dragonstar products but close enough) and I thought they were great! I'd love to use stuff from these books in a game!

 

[No Name]

I love that game. I'm a big fan of sci-fi, and ideas for all kinds of adventures popped into mind.

Since ships traveled through the Astral plane to get from star to star, I imagined there would be more than enough Githyanki pirates in waiting.

Or maybe some adventurous gnome who made a ship that would travel through the plane of Shadow hoping that it would shorten travel times (straight out of Event Horizon).

Almost any sci-fi movie would make a great adventure.

 

[cybernetic]

Good to see that there are still some DS fans around!

I was talking to one of the players the other day and he brought up how much he missed playing DS. I think I will be invading my GhostWalk campaign with the Dragon Empire soon.

In addition, I think I might start up a d20 Modern DS conversion as well (for future use).

 

[Vigilance]

Dragonstar was not made by fast forward entertainment. It was made by Fantasy Flight Games.

I thought it was Fantasy Flight Entertainment. But yes I knew that.

 

[cybernetic]

Any other resources any of you might know of?

 

[JustKim]

I thought it was Fantasy Flight Entertainment. But yes I knew that.

You had it backwards, Fast Forward are the ones who changed their name from Fast Forward Games to Fast Forward Entertainment. Fantasy Flight Games has been around a while.