Hi guys, sorry I am just getting back to this, I have been super swamped lately, and haven't had time for anything.
Hello the Zip folder comes with a 2 hour adventure taking you levels one through three. I was wondering are more going to be made or are me and some friends going to have to continue onwards on our own. Which isn't a problem with us being massive Sci-fi geeks but i was just wondering.
I have intentions to do so, but the formatting is bothering me more than the content generation. Adventures are a lot more time consuming to write than rules.
You said earlier that you planned on continueing the "Welcome to Indra" supplement adventure until level 10. Plus all the class skill trees stop at level 10. Im just curious, but is there a specific reason why the class trees end at 10 instead of 20? Is it supposed to be harder to level or is it more story-based so its not priority here? I just want to try and understand it before my players bombard me with a salvo of questions.
Archetypes are where they are for a few reasons. By default, I wanted multiclassing to be "on" with this game, and if a class let you get its archetype abilities too early (an early revision had all classes run a lot like cleric and let you pick archetype at level 1) then it was exploitable for multiclass. Additionally, I wanted the archetypes to feel like a mini capstone for your class. I imagine play as existing in four tiers:
Early Game (levels 1-3): Low level, where the characters discover themselves, figure out their place in the group, etc. This would be the origin movie in a trilogy, for instance. All members of a class are very similar mechanically, and can substitute for any role. Any technician can heal if they have medkit proficiency, any soldier can fight, and so forth. At first level characters get a defining trait or ability that sets them apart from other classes, but clearly defines them as members within their own class. (All soldiers can.... All Technicians can...)
Second level lets a character show improvement, picking up a new knack that showcases their growth and increasing capability. This is, again, a generic acquisition for their class, but one that further differentiates them from other classes.
This period ends at level 3 when a character matures and improves, and applies what they have learned. This is best represented by a feat and ASI. With an ASI, characters get to grow numerically, shoring up weaknesses or doubling down on strengths. The "early game" capstone is acquiring their first feat, and this is when characters truly become unique. (Any soldier can use second wind, but I am so tough that I get DR while wearing heavy armor!)
Mid Game (levels 4-6): DUring the midgame, players should be confident in their characters, and feel well locked into their role in the group. This is the time for a character to make it big, and truly shine as an individual. The first thing that happens when a character enters the mid game is that they get their archetype, this mirrors first level all over again, and lets a character differentiate themselves from other members of their class. (No longer are you simply a technician, you are a Medic!) Characters that attain fourth level are now officially "in" this tier of play, and it is like being first level all over again as you realize your character concept more fully.
Fifth level is the "half-capstone" level, and is generic to the class, but game defining. Everyone has a great 5th level ability, and get to feel like hardened veterans at this point. (Additionally, multiclass characters will never get a level 10 capstone, but can get two half-caps, which combine wonderfully to give them very unique playstyles, feel, and capabilities.)
At sixth level, we again reach a milestone as the tier of play comes to a close, with the characters growing again, becoming stronger, faster, wiser, etc, and becoming further unique with a second feat. This is also the first time that powerful "level 5+" feats come into play, and can be defining for the characters that took these paths. A Bounty Hunter and a Scoundrel feel very different at this level, and with two differentiating feats. Even with the same class and ability score loadout, these characters can be worlds apart.
Late Game (levels 7-9): Late Game characters are near the pinnacle of their power, and should be able to fully realize their character concept, and have the experience, contacts, and money to feel powerful and influential. Once again this tier of play starts off with a new archetype ability, allowing you to further differentiate yourself from your class. Level 7 abilities are usually pretty good, so this is a big time for growth.
Level 8 gets you back to your core class features with something powerful but generic to your class. If a character wanted to multiclass, this is the last chance to do so without losing a feat, taking their 8th level as the 1st in another class, but foregoing their capstone.
9th level again closes out the tier of play with personal growth and personalization, through a feat and ASI. With their third and final feat, this is as customized as a character gets, and even two characters of the same archetype might feel vastly different.
End Game (Level 10, and beyond): This tier sees characters reach their pinnacles of personal power as they gain their last level. A particularly good time to gain their final level is halfway through a major story or campaign arc, to represent becoming their very best to overcome the odds.
After level 10, the game does not neccesarily end. Given the open ended nature of a sci-fi game, there are always new powerful threats to meet, new mysteries to unravel, and new worlds to explore. With a robust wealth system, there might be a half dozen more adventures left just for the characters to get all the fancy toys they want (MK III modded weapons and armor, prototypes, relics, ships, or even fleets).
For savvy DMs that want to tell a long story, this is where the game can go "epic" and with no further mechanical character growth, the characters become iconic heroes with established capabilities.
Alternatively, a DM could award bonus feat selections as milestones, continuing the adventures of these characters indefinitely.
Well, I think that explains my reasoning for the level layout that I used, and is a pretty massive wall of text.
As for character creation: Ability scores are one of the least interesting parts of DnD to me, and there are avenues for characters to get very high numbers. Partially, this is to represent the "best and brightest" aspect of characters in space being elite, "heroic" almost, like astronauts. Some character concepts also just seem to require big numbers to realize. Brilliant cyborgs, inhumanly strong alien brawlers, and so forth. You will notice that humans keep their 20 ability score limits, while aliens exceed them. This is intentional design, to let aliens be, well, truly alien, and weird. The core system assumes point buy, but can easily accomodate other methods of ability score generation, and can create some weird results if the ability scores are too high. The best way to look at the game is by ignoring the ability scores for the most part, and just letting them power the characters feats and exploits quietly in the background. A character with massive athletics checks that tosses around low-g belters like ragdolls? He must be pretty strong! (who cares if it is a 16 or an 18?)
1. I've been reading and enjoying this setting and I'm wondering, will we ever get to see a sort of general setting thing? Something that doesn't really focus on rules or crunch but more purely on fluff?
Because I wouldn't mind seeing stuff about the politics of the setting like who makes up the League of Stellar Nations, or the Galactic Hegemony.
2. Since you've mentioned before that you intend for the technology in this setting to be hard with FTL being the
One Big Lie, what type of reactors and engines do spacecraft in Fifth Age use? I read mention of "nuclear drives" but is there any particular nuclear drive you're thinking of? Are they all like
Orion drives or are they some sort of specific nuclear thermal rocket (
solid core,
open-cycle nuclear gas core, or
closed-cycle nuclear gas core)?
Since all artificial gravity here is either spin gravity or gravity created under thrust, I imagine there is no anti-gravity ala Star Wars/Star Trek and that any "hover vehicles" are air-cushion vehicles right?
3. Also I've been wondering but is space warfare here akin to say the Expanse or the Aliens setting, in that combat starships don't really have much armor per-se, because armoring against kinetic slugs is pretty much impossible so most armor deals with using composites and aerogels to protect against lasers, particle beams, or micrometeorites? And that big ships are protected more through compartmentalization in that, unless you hit the reactor or destroy the engines, a ship can fight on even when holed?
To give an example of what I mean:
And since humans were the ones to introduce particle and lasers as viable energy weapons for space combat, are missiles generally the long range weapon used first with railguns, particle beams, and lasers used as ships get closer or evade/shoot down missiles?
4. One thing I find interesting is that the Galactic Hegemony standard rifle is a gyrojet weapon and I noticed humans don't have that weapon listed among the weapons in the main source file. Is there a particular reason for that?
Glad you are enjoying it! This is the campaign setting I run weekly, and there are a lot of flavorful bits hidden in it that barely shine through in the documents.
1. Once I am happy with the core book (nearly done!) and wrap up the Hazard Handbook and Advanced Spaceships books (still pending), all that is left is adventures and a setting book. A quick tour of League worlds would turn up all manner of new content, like technologies, feats, subraces, and backgrounds. (The Hoshi Imperial Shogunate would yield variants of tube born, and a series of new melee weapons, monofilament blades). I will get there.
2. Older human ships, and some newer military ships, use variations of the orion drive, but the gold standard for humanity is the Zubrin Salt Water Engine. It's just splendid, and while seeming realistically feasible, does everything I wanted narratively for the setting. Hegemony ships have diverse engine designs, but are mostly having to mimic human nuclear drives to keep pace with the evolving state of warfare.
And yes, there are no antigravity systems or hover vehicles, except for the occasional air cushion. Energy density allows for some interesting toys, but I left most of that unexplored in the documents, until I get around to dropping comprehensive vehicle rules. Expect "hover bikes" and a few similar pieces of tech. (Picture the bastard son of a dirt bike, and a rotor drone).
3. There are a variety of armoring solutions, but yeah, basically ships just slug it out until the biggest remaining pieces of the loser stop firing their weapons. Military ships switch to skinsuits during combat maneuvers, and holing is fairly commonplace, even with whipple shielding.
Hegemony warships relied on a mixture of railguns and complacency, operating mostly at what the system considers to be medium and short range. Hegemony ships use some missiles, but as supplemental long range weapons, and not primary weapons systems. The Trade Guild ships use missiles almost exclusively, due to their edge in manufacturing and preference to avoid personal harm.
Humans being able to shoot down missiles at the speed of light is not a pleasant thought to military strategists around the cluster.
4. Lacking the energy density of human technology, the Hegemony uses a variety of chemically powered weapons, such as the gyrojet (which is a pretty good idea in low g, and vacuum), and have developed it extensively. Despite other weapons systems being possible, the humans stick mostly to the shiny new toys, and while there certainly ARE arms manufacturers building almost anything we can think of somewhere out there in human space, these weapons are niche enough as to not be common place, and found on regular equipment lists.
Hegemony tactics involve hand to hand fighting, and have since before their space age, since gyrojets are ineffectual at the closest of ranges. This preference to charge into melee is the genesis of the Shredder, used as area denial in a squad weapon role. This is also one of the biggest reasons I have as many melee weapons on the list as I do.
.”
