D&D General If you could put D&D into any other non middle ages genre, what would it be?

Satyrn · Jun 15, 2019

What genre is the Borderlands video game?

That genre.

Satyrn · Jun 15, 2019

CleverNickName said:
I'm gearing up to run a 5E campaign in a sci-fi setting. I don't have many notes to share at the moment, but I can report back when I do. I've been borrowing heavily from "Stars Without Number," "Numenara," and "Starfinder" for ideas.

I'd totally recommend checking out Esper Genesis and Dark Matter, since they're both 5e in Spaaaace.

Azzy · Jun 15, 2019

Space opera sci-fi. Not psuedo-sci fi fantasy like Starfinder or what not with D&D monsters and magic (if there's going to be any powers, make it psionics and not ubiquitous), just good sci fi.

Immortal Sun · Jun 15, 2019

Azzy said:
Space opera sci-fi. Not psuedo-sci fi fantasy like Starfinder or what not with D&D monsters and magic (if there's going to be any powers, make it psionics and not ubiquitous), just good sci fi.

So, Mass Effect-like? There's a d20 for that. http://www.jpvsgames.com/masseffectd20/
(it's pretty good, but Krogan characters are OP)

I gotta agree that's one of my ideal genre's as well. Base D&D rules don't handle guns very well though.
Western's also a good one.

And while I don't think there's fundamentally a lot of difference to setting D&D in the Renaissance, I think thematically it would be good.

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@OP I've run all of these are variants in either 3.5/PF/d20 systems or in 5e. It's pretty doable. It's really interesting including the ease of information gathering via electronic devices though. I mean, a detect good/evil/etc... tricorder? A portable communication device? A lot of spells exist for simply easing the burden of being in the middle ages. I mean, "Message" is basically texting.

However, I think D&D needs some better rules for guns tho, MEd20 is the only system I've liked them in so far, but it also restricts HP gain.

Mercurius · Jun 15, 2019

If we're talking real world analogs, how about "Mythic Ancient World." The basic idea would be using creative license to combine various high points into Antiquity into one phase: Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Indus Valley, China, Norte Chico, all at a high point of civilization. Then you pepper in a mythic variety, so that demi-gods and heroes walk the land...so not as much Golden Age Greece as pre-Homeric "Age of Heroes" Greece.

Derren · Jun 16, 2019

Giltonio_Santos said:
I'd love to see Shadowrun with the D&D 5e rules. It would be an instant buy for me.

Imo that won't work very well.
D&D is much too inflexible to handle the full spectrum of SR gameplay and the combat system would create a completely different dynamic than what SR goes for.

Oofta · Jun 16, 2019

I like Eberron's take - what would a more advanced magical world be like. I integrate some of that into my own campaign, I don't quite go to the steam-punk level but my world is full of wonder and magic. Might even get to the Eberron level if I stopped blowing up the world every few centuries. :heh:

Other than that, I've toyed with the idea of more of a wild west setting, just because my dad loved westerns and we only had one big TV. Probably something like the old Wild Wild West TV series with a mix of supernatural horror and monsters. Kind of take all sorts of ideas from old 50s and 60s and throw them into a blender (like Valley of the Gwangi or Them!) and scale appropriately. I actually came up with a vague campaign idea, that portions of the old west were covered by "the veil", basically a largely impenetrable mist. Most people that went into it never came back out, but now and then some came back with tales of riches and adventure.

Sadly never got much past the planning stage, and I've never been one to get into rules-rewriting.

Tony Vargas · Jun 16, 2019

Derren said:
Imo that won't work very well.
D&D is much too inflexible to handle the full spectrum of SR gameplay and the combat system would create a completely different dynamic than what SR goes for.

The best game of SR I was ever in was run using M:tA (oWoD Storyteller), so, IDK, a very different dynamic from the native system may not be such a bad thing...

MarkB · Jun 16, 2019

Immortal Sun said:
Base D&D rules don't handle guns very well though.

They don't handle guns very well if they're bolted on top of existing medieval weapons, and treated as something different and special. But if you just take the stats of standard slings and crossbows and longbows, and change the names to phasers / blasters / whatever, then D&D handles guns just fine.

Immortal Sun · Jun 16, 2019

MarkB said:
They don't handle guns very well if they're bolted on top of existing medieval weapons, and treated as something different and special. But if you just take the stats of standard slings and crossbows and longbows, and change the names to phasers / blasters / whatever, then D&D handles guns just fine.

No. That's precisely what it doesn't handle well.

When you have one or two "shots" per turn at say 5th level that deal 1d6 or 1d8 you're not simulating guns. I don't know what you're simulating, but it isn't bullets. Even a "crit" with a gun is so minimal damage as to make a mockery out of the lethality of firearms.