Negflar2099
Explorer
I just wanted to share with you all that my Dragonstar campaign launched this weekend and it's off to a fantastic start. I'm using a combination of dozens of books (mainly Ultramodern 5e by Dias Ex Machina games). I've always wanted to run a session 0 where the players can create characters but I never managed to pull it off before. This time however not only was I able run a zero session but the random lifepath system introduced in the Ultramodern book made it a blast (almost like we were playing). Characters ended up with backstories that they never would have come up with on their own (one person ended up with a wasting disease and also a free rare magic item at first level). I ran a bit of a choose your own adventure style prelude (without dice) where the players just told me what they were attempting and it was total fun.
For the first adventure I started by dropping them on a prison planet during a riot and having them take over military units using the mass battle rules from the Unearthed Arcana article a while back (the 1st one with stands and units not the second with battle rating, which I didn't like). I modified the rules a bit to account for high tech gear and vehicles, so some of the players were controlling Imperial Soldiers armed with assault rifles while others were controlling robots, mobile weapons platforms, giant mechs and escaped prisoners armed with slughthrower rifles (I had to control the laser tanks since we were missing a player).
I divided the group into two sides and had them fight each other for a few rounds before introducing their characters on the other side of the planet. The players loved the mass battle rules and the battle turned out in a way that I couldn't have come up with on my own (which is why I prefer playing those battles out instead of just hand waving the outcome). While the battle was going on the PCs sneaked into the prison from the other side. When they stole a magical relic hidden in the depths of an ancient facility buried near the prison life on the jungle planet went wild erupting into the mass battle and killing all of the remaining units.
In the end the PCs escaped with the relic into space where they fought a short space battle before using their starcaster to jump 30 light years away.
Overall I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. The mass battle rules were fun and simple and let me pit hundreds of creatures against each other, while the space battle rules were equally easy and fun (and everyone got to participate which is not always a given in RPG space battles). In past Dragonstar games I've ran I could never even have space battles as one starcaster roll and the PCs were light years away. I came up with a system that fixed this (it now requires 1d6+2 rounds to make a jump and the navigator has to roll every round). That system worked great. I got my battle and the PCs still made the jump.
Here's the characters they came up with:
Desrick (sentient starship free diver): Perhaps the most unusual character, Desrick is a sentient starship and free diver (a type of computer hacker). I let him use the Virtuant "race" from the Neurospasta book to represent the slave surrogate robot that he remotely controls. This allows him to go on adventures with the characters while still having his real character be the starship. In practice this isn't all that different than him playing a robot while owning a ship (I got the idea from Mindjammer). It does make him a bit more powerful so I said he had to take on some obligation to own the ship (this is an idea I converted to 5e from the Edge of the Empire game by Fantasy Flight). This obligation represents the people that built him who are still hunting him.
Rax (changeling gunslinger): Very cool character. Like the love child of John Wick and Mystique. She's able to shapeshift at will and is a crack shot with a gun. Her roll on the lifepath charts indicated a gambling addiction that led to some prison time.
Tanya Blade (tabaxi monk): Tanya is a killer. As a tabaxi she's able to move far and fast and combined with her martial arts skills she can dish out the damage. Her roll on the life path tables had her end up losing both her legs but she ended up getting them replaced with cybernetic legs with embedded blades (like Gazelle from Kingsmen). She can attack with those as well as her claws or unarmed strikes. She worked as a hitman and has a rival hitman who is gunning for her.
X1 (soulmech fighter): Like Desrick, X1 is a soulmech (a robot with the soul of an organic creature). Unlike Desrick X1's a more traditional robot. X1 used to be a tabaxi named Diana (who was Tanya's girlfriend) before the Dragon Empire captured her and ripped out her soul turning her into an emotionless killing machine. As a soulmech she is tough and fast and hard to kill and as a fighter she is trained in assault rifles and heavy weapons. X1 is haunted by the fragmented memories she has of her past life and the horrors she has seen.
Adam Melkor (human cleric): Adam is a gearpriest (from Middle Finger of Vecna), a cleric who can control, command and repair machines. This allows him to work his spells to heal the more machine members of the party as well as the organic creatures (he can even turn machines as a normal cleric turns undead). He's a variant human with the observational feat giving him a passive perception of 22 (Sherlock Holmes aint got nothing on him). He has been a sailor in the Verse where he contracted a strange disease that still requires medication. On his deathbed the pirate captain gave Adam his magical eye patch that allows Adam to teleport.
I love this group and this game and I just wanted to share. Thank you for reading.
For the first adventure I started by dropping them on a prison planet during a riot and having them take over military units using the mass battle rules from the Unearthed Arcana article a while back (the 1st one with stands and units not the second with battle rating, which I didn't like). I modified the rules a bit to account for high tech gear and vehicles, so some of the players were controlling Imperial Soldiers armed with assault rifles while others were controlling robots, mobile weapons platforms, giant mechs and escaped prisoners armed with slughthrower rifles (I had to control the laser tanks since we were missing a player).
I divided the group into two sides and had them fight each other for a few rounds before introducing their characters on the other side of the planet. The players loved the mass battle rules and the battle turned out in a way that I couldn't have come up with on my own (which is why I prefer playing those battles out instead of just hand waving the outcome). While the battle was going on the PCs sneaked into the prison from the other side. When they stole a magical relic hidden in the depths of an ancient facility buried near the prison life on the jungle planet went wild erupting into the mass battle and killing all of the remaining units.
In the end the PCs escaped with the relic into space where they fought a short space battle before using their starcaster to jump 30 light years away.
Overall I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. The mass battle rules were fun and simple and let me pit hundreds of creatures against each other, while the space battle rules were equally easy and fun (and everyone got to participate which is not always a given in RPG space battles). In past Dragonstar games I've ran I could never even have space battles as one starcaster roll and the PCs were light years away. I came up with a system that fixed this (it now requires 1d6+2 rounds to make a jump and the navigator has to roll every round). That system worked great. I got my battle and the PCs still made the jump.
Here's the characters they came up with:
Desrick (sentient starship free diver): Perhaps the most unusual character, Desrick is a sentient starship and free diver (a type of computer hacker). I let him use the Virtuant "race" from the Neurospasta book to represent the slave surrogate robot that he remotely controls. This allows him to go on adventures with the characters while still having his real character be the starship. In practice this isn't all that different than him playing a robot while owning a ship (I got the idea from Mindjammer). It does make him a bit more powerful so I said he had to take on some obligation to own the ship (this is an idea I converted to 5e from the Edge of the Empire game by Fantasy Flight). This obligation represents the people that built him who are still hunting him.
Rax (changeling gunslinger): Very cool character. Like the love child of John Wick and Mystique. She's able to shapeshift at will and is a crack shot with a gun. Her roll on the lifepath charts indicated a gambling addiction that led to some prison time.
Tanya Blade (tabaxi monk): Tanya is a killer. As a tabaxi she's able to move far and fast and combined with her martial arts skills she can dish out the damage. Her roll on the life path tables had her end up losing both her legs but she ended up getting them replaced with cybernetic legs with embedded blades (like Gazelle from Kingsmen). She can attack with those as well as her claws or unarmed strikes. She worked as a hitman and has a rival hitman who is gunning for her.
X1 (soulmech fighter): Like Desrick, X1 is a soulmech (a robot with the soul of an organic creature). Unlike Desrick X1's a more traditional robot. X1 used to be a tabaxi named Diana (who was Tanya's girlfriend) before the Dragon Empire captured her and ripped out her soul turning her into an emotionless killing machine. As a soulmech she is tough and fast and hard to kill and as a fighter she is trained in assault rifles and heavy weapons. X1 is haunted by the fragmented memories she has of her past life and the horrors she has seen.
Adam Melkor (human cleric): Adam is a gearpriest (from Middle Finger of Vecna), a cleric who can control, command and repair machines. This allows him to work his spells to heal the more machine members of the party as well as the organic creatures (he can even turn machines as a normal cleric turns undead). He's a variant human with the observational feat giving him a passive perception of 22 (Sherlock Holmes aint got nothing on him). He has been a sailor in the Verse where he contracted a strange disease that still requires medication. On his deathbed the pirate captain gave Adam his magical eye patch that allows Adam to teleport.
I love this group and this game and I just wanted to share. Thank you for reading.
