Esper Genesis: Sci-Fantasy for 5E

Are you in the market for a science fantasy role playing game that runs on the 5E engine (SRD)? Well Esper Genesis might be the easy port over from D&D that you and your group are looking for.

Are you in the market for a science fantasy role playing game that runs on the 5E engine (SRD)? Well Esper Genesis might be the easy port over from D&D that you and your group are looking for.



Esper Genesis is a science fantasy rpg from Alligator Alley Entertainment, with Rich Lescouflair as the lead designer. Certainly the team assembled to produce EG has experience and plenty to spare. What the team at AAE has created is a visually stunning and mechanically reliable game that would seem tailor made for moving players from fantasy towards more science fiction style of play. EG is not hard science fiction however, and the GM should be aware of the aesthetics presented. I would say EG is more akin to a space fantasy anime and absolutely very heroic. The characters are all espers (as the title suggests) and they live in an area of the galaxy known as the Silrayne Arc. Mysterious moon-sized Crucibles shadow the inhabited worlds and no two Crucibles are the same. Within the Crucibles is the powerful energy source known as Sorium. Exposure to Sorium is what triggers the esper genesis in the player characters, allowing characters to channel energies and affect their environment.
[h=3]A Heroic Universe[/h]Esper Genesis is a beautiful game. The art does a fantastic job of creating a great aesthetic and setting a tone for the kinds of adventures the game presents. The layout is easy to follow and explains how to play the game with a minimum of fuss. Each player is an esper thanks (or not) to the influence of the Crucibles and there is a definite connection to the sorium. This provides motivation and a sense of connection for the characters. The races seem alien though they are all bipeds and most are humanoids. The one that caught my eye was the Ashenforged; a race bio-engineered by another race (the Dendu) for the purpose of war. Although they are free now, their back story is fascinating. All the races are relatable and have some interesting bits that make them playable.

Classes in EG revolve around a character’s use of their esper abilities. All classes are esper classes although they do not work the same way. The esper abilities are a mix of 5E magic, both arcane and divine, and what seems like some AD&D2E psionics or maybe even 3E. At least that is my impression. It is as if psionics has become the normal mainstream power, replacing magic. As you can expect this makes the powers themselves more psion focused, although there is plenty of damage dealing. Several powers are clearly inspired by science fiction, though rooted in the 5E paradigm for what these powers should be used for.

Of course, EG has rules for FTL travel. I think these are actually are a strength of the game and dovetail nicely with starship combat and combat in other environments. I also like the game master screen as the information is very useful and notes some of the likely areas of confusion for new players.
[h=3]A Step Removed[/h]There is a theme that runs through the critique of Esper Genesis that pops up in several parts of the game. In essence, EG is a great use of the 5E rules that adds very little else to those rules. If you know how to play a 5E game already, then you will have zero issue playing EG. The alien species are interesting but they are all bipeds. The classes are excellent riffs off of the base classes, but don’t add much else. Certainly the psion powers are interesting, but space magic is still magic. EG is neither a Spelljammer that just transports fantasy characters into space or an Alternity that acts as a toolkit for various SF adventures. This may not be an issue for your group, but groups looking for a wide ranging SF game will likely not find Esper Genesis to their taste. What the game does, however, it does pretty well.

This article was contributed by Sean Hillman (SMHWorlds) as part of EN World's Columnist (ENWC) program. If you enjoy the daily news and articles from EN World, please consider contributing to our Patreon!
 

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MarkB

Legend
You have no idea, how many people really want to give the ruleset another try, if only it stopped presenting itself as a joke.
No, I don't. Do you?

This isn't a question of gritty realism. That's a strawman. It's a question of whether the heroic, non-debilitating injuries that you pick up as a result of being shot, even persist within the narrative beyond taking a nap. When Captain Picard gets shot in the arm, it doesn't really slow him down, but the wound is still there the next day.
Generally speaking, no it isn't. With Star Trek levels of healing, a wound that doesn't cripple a character's limb can almost certainly be fully treated in sickbay with a few minutes' work - maybe an hour if it's really bad. And even a crippled limb can be repaired or replaced with fully-functional cybernetics.
 

dave2008

Legend
I have statistical data, in that there are roughly a hundred players in our rough association, and none of them use variant healing.

That is really anecdotal data. I wouldn't think that sample size is large enough and I am also doubting you did a formal survey.

Now, my personal sample size is 12 and half of those use a variant. But the only reason any of that group know about variant healing is because of me. So I tend to agree with your assumption. I just didn't know if you had found an actual survey somewhere.
 
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dave2008

Legend
You have no idea, how many people really want to give the ruleset another try, if only it stopped presenting itself as a joke.

I don't know if it is intend, but that is insulting. Also, with the apparent success of the ruleset as is, it seems highly unlikely that WotC believes the group of people you are describing as being very large really is very large (statistically speaking). That doesn't make them correct, but I am guessing they access to more information on the subject than you are I.

This isn't a question of gritty realism. That's a strawman. It's a question of whether the heroic, non-debilitating injuries that you pick up as a result of being shot, even persist within the narrative beyond taking a nap. When Captain Picard gets shot in the arm, it doesn't really slow him down, but the wound is still there the next day.

Doesn't 5e have rules for slow healing and lingering injuries? How do those not fulfill the needs your looking for?
 
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Skywalker

Adventurer
How does it compare to Star Wars Saga edition?

... could it be used to run a star wars game?

Esper Genesis is based on D&D5e. As such, if you know D&D5e and Star Wars Saga Edition, you should be able to make that comparison.

Esper Genesis by default doesn't include all of Star Wars's setting conceits. Though Sentinels and Adepts may match some ideas of the Force, Esper Genesis is more gonzo space opera than Star Wars with Melders able to alter reality itself, Cybermancer able to hack reality, and Engineers capable of technical feats that are beyond what we see in Star Wars . As such, you will need to hack some of the system, especially around the Force and EG's magic using classes, to make it work.

On saying that, if you wanted to run a Star Wars like space opera game, without being an exact match, then I think EG works very well.

Mechanically, Star Wars Saga Edition suffered somewhat from not being tested enough and having clunky vestigial elements of D&D3e. If you have an issue with these, then this will likely make Esper Genesis an alternative that would be worth the conversion work.
 
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Generally speaking, no it isn't. With Star Trek levels of healing, a wound that doesn't cripple a character's limb can almost certainly be fully treated in sickbay with a few minutes' work - maybe an hour if it's really bad. And even a crippled limb can be repaired or replaced with fully-functional cybernetics.
The reason I went with that particular example is because I recently went through to watch the series again, and there's an early episode (season 2 or 3) where Picard catches an arrow to the arm, and the next day he's wearing a sling.

In Star Trek, they have advanced sci fi healing, so they don't usually need to wait around for anything to heal naturally; but in the absence of medical treatment, people heal normally. (Likewise in a fantasy setting with magical healing, there's no need to handwave the normal healing rate, because there's convenient magic to let you bypass that.) The only thing that fast healing does, in the presence of healing nanites and medical drones and whatnot, is to make the latter less impressive by comparison, and to force ambiguity into the combat narrative.
 

MarkB

Legend
The reason I went with that particular example is because I recently went through to watch the series again, and there's an early episode (season 2 or 3) where Picard catches an arrow to the arm, and the next day he's wearing a sling.
And that's why I said "generally speaking".

In Star Trek, they have advanced sci fi healing, so they don't usually need to wait around for anything to heal naturally; but in the absence of medical treatment, people heal normally. (Likewise in a fantasy setting with magical healing, there's no need to handwave the normal healing rate, because there's convenient magic to let you bypass that.) The only thing that fast healing does, in the presence of healing nanites and medical drones and whatnot, is to make the latter less impressive by comparison, and to force ambiguity into the combat narrative.
That's not the only thing it does. The main thing it does is to de-emphasise injury management in the game, in favour of allowing heroic characters to quickly return to full effectiveness. That's a bug for you, but a feature for others.
 

Umbran

Mod Squad
Staff member
Supporter
That doesn't account for potential players who gave up on playing because they couldn't reconcile basic actions into a narrative that made any sense.


Which really doesn't have anything to do with Esper Genesis, and should be in a separate thread if you want to talk about it.

As far as this system is concerned, your point is made - you don't like fast healing, and you feel a large number of players are "alienated" by the choice. We got it.

Going beyond this steps from critique into belaboring and badgering, and is getting in the way of other discussion and questions of the system. So, please let it go. Thanks.
 

fjw70

Adventurer
Speaking of EG, I backnthe Kickstarter but haven’t tried it yet. Is there any news on the threats and technician books release? I don’t think there has been a Kickstarter update in months.
 

Skywalker

Adventurer
The Threats Manual is due this month in PDF. Things got delayed due to the amount of art needed, but there have been teasers via G+ and Facebook and it looks very good.

The Master Technicians Guide is due early next year and there have been teasers on it yet.
 

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