D&D 4E Sci-fi 4e Reskin

[Cwheeler]

This fork has grown out of a discussion in this thread: http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan-creations-house-rules/258704-mad-science-idea-needs-help.html .

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Looking at the 4e classes and power-sources, it shouldn't be too hard to create a functioning sci-fi reskin of the game.

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Classes

Martial:
Fighter - Soldier
Ranger - Scout
Rogue - Scoundrel
Warlord - Commander

Arcane:
tech-based. They could be based around coplex gadgetry, high-tech weapons, or even nano-machines.

Divine:
Cosmic. These characters have had their powers granted to them by vast, highly evolved intelligences (Similar to the Ultimate Intligence of the Hyperion books)

Primal:
Bio-Tech. The primal characters come from the wild corners of space, and from societies that try to adapt to existing environments, rather than terraform them. They use natural and bio-engineered sybiotes to alter their physical makeup and exert controll over their surroundings.

Psionic:
Ummm, do I really need to explain this one?


A couple of the classes will proabably need some revisions to some class features, and a few may need a new build (ranged builds for the martial classes, specifically)

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Races

This should be an easy job - either reskin the existing races, or create a new set of core ones.

A few ideas:
Devas: Creatures created by the Ultimate Intlegences, with the ability to tap into their limitless intelect.
Eladrin: Creatures that have become masters of physical space: able to warp the world around them (Much like the warpsmiths from Alan Moore's Miricalman)
Warforged: Robots! Either independantly created androids, or members of the techno-core.

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Equipment

Mele weapons can remain, and it shouldn't be too hard to create some basic ranged weapons (there have been a few attempts on this forum already)

Magical weapons and armor can easily be converted into high-quality technology, and warforged components would make a good basis for cybernetic grafts & implants.


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Combat

Some basic rules for high and low gravity situations, as well as rules for 3d movement and combat for Zero G situations.

Existing vehicle rules may be convertable for spaceship battles.

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If anyone has any ideas or thoughts, please share them!

 

[Warrior147]

Arcane Power Source: Technological. Technological characters rely on knowledge of technology, science, machinery, and the workings of the universe.

Artificer - Engineer: This class requires the least changes. Perhaps a few alterations to make it seen more technological and less magical.
Bard - Navigator: I got the idea for this class from another thread. Someone who navigates through reality to aid his allies' powers.
Sorcerer - Scientist: The scientist uses science to his advantage, creating blasts of gas, rocking the ground, sucking the heat from the air, and other things.
Swordmage - Cyborg: The cyborg is a humanoid with various attachments to increase his durability and let him teleport or add energy to his attacks.
Warlock - Scourge: A scientist who has made pacts with vile alien beings which grant him power - in return for carrying out their often evil plots.
Wizard - Technologist:

Martial Power Source: Martial. Martial characters rely on their own strength and skill to survive in combat.

Fighter - Soldier: The soldier's purpose in life is to fight. He is hardened and tough, has mastered many weapons, and knows how to survive a fight.
Ranger - Scout: The scout is trained to explore new territory, strike quickly, and escape.
Rogue - Rogue: From the lowly thief, struggling to make a living in the dregs of society, to the noble in exile, fighting against an evil ruler, rouges are skilled assassins, thieves, and murderers.
Warlord - Commander: The commander is trained to lead troops in battle. He can always come up with a master plan, and knows how to inspire his troops.

Deva: Otherworldly beings infused with a fragment of the vast energy of the cosmos.

 

[Meatboy]

Cool idea but any class that relies on melee attacks might have need some new powers or at least some big tweaks to use ranged weapons more effectively. I know that if I played a fighter that no matter how cool a super high tech sword is that blaster is probably more effective.

 

[Garthanos]

Cool idea but any class that relies on melee attacks might have need some new powers or at least some big tweaks to use ranged weapons more effectively. I know that if I played a fighter that no matter how cool a super high tech sword is that blaster is probably more effective.

Depends on your flavor of tech... in star wars universe... blasters are pretty un reliable at targeting and common soldier armor rather effective against them.
hight tech melee weapons usually take lots of skill to avoid hurting yourself with.... where as the blasters dont... and the eraticnesss of blaster fire. can be rationalized as the trade off they made for it nearly never runs out of power but the surging... results in it being harder to target than the lower damage slug throwing equipment (guns). which do... run out of amo.

 

[Meatboy]

@ garathanos

True but in star wars IMO the melee weapons (lightsabers) were effective more for the fact that super powered jedis wielded them. Plus if energy based blaster are so inaccurate I'd see if I could stick with conventional guns which may not shot plasma or what have you but rifles seem to do just fine at being accurate and powerful over large distances.

 

[drothgery]

@ garathanos

True but in star wars IMO the melee weapons (lightsabers) were effective more for the fact that super powered jedis wielded them. Plus if energy based blaster are so inaccurate I'd see if I could stick with conventional guns which may not shot plasma or what have you but rifles seem to do just fine at being accurate and powerful over large distances.

Probably worth noting is that in every version of the Star Wars RPG, it's at the very least not straightforward to make a non-force using melee guy (and prior to Saga, pretty much impossible to do so effectively). The expectation is that Jedi will use lightsabers and everyone else will use blasters. Certainly Saga reflects this; there are lots of options for characters that use pistols, rilfes, or lightsabers; some for characters that use advanced melee weapons (vibroweapons) -- most in expansion books; and a handful for characters that use simple weapons, exotic weapons, or go unarmed.

 

[Garthanos]

@ garathanos

True but in star wars IMO the melee weapons (lightsabers) were effective more for the fact that super powered jedis wielded them.

right ala swordmages ... ;-)
so the melee classes need to be super-powered...mystical or cyber or bio engeneered or superarmor suit paladins.

Plus if energy based blaster are so inaccurate I'd see if I could stick with conventional guns which may not shot plasma or what have you but rifles seem to do just fine at being accurate and powerful over large distances.

Slug throwers run out of bullets... don't forget that (D&D magic weapons already are like energy projecting weapons), and the armor of the time might even work better against bullets than the super blades or energy weapons... even if the blasters have targeting issues there is a balancing point. There is already armor that works great on bullets but not too well against a bayonet.

I do think we need to give ranged weapons a bit more oomph in general ... something like a reaping strike move for ranged attacks might be a cybernetic controlled projectile.

Energy projecting weapons target reflex and a sorceror with acid orb and reapers touch can be a soldier with a disintigrating ray he projects from some nasty glove equipment, his ability to use various other effects are because he is a technological genius who can jury rig up a storm...or I can ditch the repears touch and (the dagger is a universal wrench with a small welding torch).

There is no "one" answer on what things are skinned as I think...

 

[Fragsie]

I know what you are wanting to do is just a reskin, I assume this is for the ease of it, because it's a lot of work to start from scratch. I'm adopting a half and half approach with my own setting; reskining most stuff, but creating from scratch certain aspects of my setting that give it it's flavour (the navigator class being a big part of that). But a lot of my workload was alleviated by dedicating some time to trawling through the backlogs in these forums and the WotC forums, there are a lot of homebrew classes out there that either slot straight into a scifi setting, or require a minimum amount of tweaking.

One in particular that i have adapted for my setting in Lumovanis' Tinker.
Also, some guys have done a fair bit of conversion work trying to create showrun in 4E Here, there haven't been any update in quite a while, but there are some really interesting ideas there.

 

[Garthanos]

Shadowrun is mildly cheating..
For some reason Dune and Starwars and other science fiction appeals more than...well the scifi designed for a game?

 

[Fragsie]

I probably agree, Dune in particular is such an immense universe; i love it. I was merely linking the shadowrun conversion for the game mechanics and ideas that the homebrewers came up with to modify the existing d&d classes into a modern/sci-fi game.