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

[Capn Charlie]

Yes actually, this is still in development, I went back for rounds of extensive playtesting, and have added several new things, including a Robomancer specialization for Technician, an entire new class with two specializations, The Savage, and a background for primitives, and a new challenge resolution mechanic. Some items have been tweaked a little, and much to my everlasting sadness I am giving up on the starship creation system as virtually every player I have presented it to has hated it, even with a fully automated spreadsheet. People just don't seem to want to go in depth to build spaceships, leading me to have to embrace more fully the 5e 'less is more' aesthetic, and resign starships to more of a plotpoint role.

I will update the documents here since there is still some interest.

 

[MostlyDm]

Definitely, I'm a big fan.

 

[Capn Charlie]

Alright here you go. I am in the process of a major edit for structure, as without the whole chapter of starship rules the thing sings lopsided now.

View attachment Fifth Age (oct).pdf

Alternate Download site on Mediafire:
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/b92nwlwcu98wm/Fifth_Age

From previous version this edition contains:


Savage Class (with specializations)
Robomancer Specialization for Technician
Bounty Hunter Specialization for Operative
Primitive Background
FEATS!
Robots (essentially just for Robomancer)
Archaic Weapons and Armor (for primitive worlds, and their residents)

 

[Capn Charlie]

Unfortunately my group challenge rules didn't quite make it into the document I just uploaded, so here they are as well.

View attachment Group Challenges.pdf

 

[robus]

This looks very cool - but a couple of comments off the bat.

Introduce the environment before diving into ability scores. Give us the big picture of the world we're entering. What's the year? What's the major status? Humans have slipped the bonds of the solar system? How do people get across the huge distances etc. etc. What are the major races? This will give lots of context for readers that is currently spread across the breadth of the document. For example I was surprised to find Savages? They didn't seem to fit any of the races established earlier...

(And I'd kill the section of Ability Score distribution - it seems redundant with the guides in the PHB?)

But definitely cool!

 

[Thomson]

Consider the acceleration of technology. (See Kurzweil, etcetera). It is literally impossible to imagine what the ‘far’ future might be like.

By about year 2025, something comparable to our laptop will be as intelligent as a human. At this time, supercomputers will be even more intelligent. In our century, the 2000s, computers will become vastly more intelligent than our entire human species put together. The only way for humans to keep up, is for humans to use technology to enhance our brain, whether by implanting hardware, wetware, or genetic modification. In sum, by the end of this century, by the 2100s, a single human then will be more intelligent than our entire human species today put together.

Well, when I started to study Computer Science people said pretty similar things. They said "In 10 years computers will be as intelligent as a human". I had a good biology teacher at school and just thought "guys you have no idea how the human brain works"

Well this was 1990. Then came 2000 and people uttered the same "in 10 years", then came 2010. And now its 2015.

Computers got faster a lot, they have a lot more memory. But also our knowledge about the human brain has improved, and we now know that this thing is several orders of magnitude more complex than we thought it was in 1990.

You have no idea how crazy that stuff between your ears is.

And IMO there was far less progress during the last 10 years than say from 1995 to 2005. Basically after the Car Phone and the Sega Gamegear was merged into something we call "Smartphone" today not much interesting stuff has happened. The first thing is a technology from 1946 and the second one from 1990.

And if you would have asked a person from 1970 or 1980 how our future would look like in 2015, they would have imagined something much more advanced than what we have to day.

Well, I think "Back To the Future" is a pretty nice example.

We as human beings always think the time we live in is the most interesting (or the most depraved, or the most dangerous whatever). This is a trick our brain plays to us.

We always think how the people dressed during other times is weird, their culture is weird and everything about them is weird, or we think the olden times where much better because morality and stuff.

The truth IMO is, that basically all times are pretty similar, since humans stayed the same. We may have different toys than our ancestors have, and we may live a little longer (also the rise of life expectancy is also not a linear thing) but in the end there is nothing new.

Bottom line: You can make up anything about the future as you want it too be. It is just a matter of suspension of disbelief for your audience.

 

[robus]

Bottom line: You can make up anything about the future as you want it too be. It is just a matter of suspension of disbelief for your audience.

Absolutely. As long as the future you create has some internal consistency and is appealing it should be good to go. There's no need to debate about whose future vision is the correct/most likely one. That's a pointless exercise. Don't like the one outlined here? Create one of your own.

And, really, there's plenty of useful critiques to offer to this vision without questioning the entire thing.

 

[Thomson]

I am currently working a project to convert the 5e experience to a hard science fiction setting. I am nearly done, and two sessions into playtest on the ruleset, but would like some additional eyes on the project. If anyone would be interested in getting a copy of my work in progress pdf to give me some feedback it would be very helpful.

Just skimmed through it, mainly looking at what you did with the rules.

Here are my first thoughts:

1. WOW! As Darth Vader would say "Impressive, most impressive"
2. I totally like your approach with archaic armor! I had so many headaches thinking about this and your solution is IMO brilliant, because it is so super simple. I just would drop the AC of heavy archaic armor to 14. I hope you won't mind if I would steal your solution for my campaigns... this should be made official.
3. Races/Classes/Backgrounds: I totally like your selection and what you did. IMO you tinkered with the system more than necessary. I would have left things basically as they are. IMO you don't need to change anything most of the time, renaming will do. Also I think your backgrounds are not well balanced. I would stick pretty narrow to the guidelines in the PHB/DMG when creating them.
4. Skills: I think Navigation, Computer Use etc. is better done with tool proficiencies than with skills. I would just rename Religion into Culture. Then you're done with skills.
5. Weapons: Great work.

Thank you very much for sharing this!

 

[MoonSong]

Well, when I started to study Computer Science people said pretty similar things. They said "In 10 years computers will be as intelligent as a human". I had a good biology teacher at school and just thought "guys you have no idea how the human brain works"

Well this was 1990. Then came 2000 and people uttered the same "in 10 years", then came 2010. And now its 2015.

Computers got faster a lot, they have a lot more memory. But also our knowledge about the human brain has improved, and we now know that this thing is several orders of magnitude more complex than we thought it was in 1990.

You have no idea how crazy that stuff between your ears is.

And IMO there was far less progress during the last 10 years than say from 1995 to 2005. Basically after the Car Phone and the Sega Gamegear was merged into something we call "Smartphone" today not much interesting stuff has happened. The first thing is a technology from 1946 and the second one from 1990.

And if you would have asked a person from 1970 or 1980 how our future would look like in 2015, they would have imagined something much more advanced than what we have to day.

Well, I think "Back To the Future" is a pretty nice example.

We as human beings always think the time we live in is the most interesting (or the most depraved, or the most dangerous whatever). This is a trick our brain plays to us.

We always think how the people dressed during other times is weird, their culture is weird and everything about them is weird, or we think the olden times where much better because morality and stuff.

The truth IMO is, that basically all times are pretty similar, since humans stayed the same. We may have different toys than our ancestors have, and we may live a little longer (also the rise of life expectancy is also not a linear thing) but in the end there is nothing new.

Bottom line: You can make up anything about the future as you want it too be. It is just a matter of suspension of disbelief for your audience.

I believe that in 100 years everything will be wired and wireless communications will be limited to short wave radio. Because the atmosfere will be covered by a layer of space debris that will make it impossible to have satellites. There will be less people too...

 

[Syntallah]

Great work! I've been following this closely since I discovered it this summer, and have borrowed concepts and elements heavily for my upcoming 5E based RIFTS campaign...