Mixing Genres: Sci-Fi Campaign using 5E Rules

[CleverNickName]

I would like a d20 Modern 2.0. but there are some problems about balance of power.

Yeah, I remember running a d20 Modern campaign once, I think it was around 2003? We didn't really have much to say about it. It was fun but forgettable: I remember thinking every character class felt pretty much the same, all the monsters seemed to be different variations on the same theme...it's funny you should mention Buffy, because one of my players used to joke about how d20 Modern was just Buffy the RPG.

...and then we discovered someone had already released the actual Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG. (We never played it.)

How should be the XP reward and the challenge rating when the monster is too hard, or easy?

I don't mind experience points, but the way they are assigned has always seemed silly to me., and slanted toward violence. Why do we get experience for combat, but not for anything else?

It's a little bit off-topic, but to answer your question: I plan to do milestone leveling in this campaign instead of handing out XP.

Have you seen the SRD of Starfinder?

It came up in a Google search; I haven't had a chance to really plunge in and look around yet. (I'm still checking out Esper-Genesis and giving myself writers' cramp from taking too many notes.) I've got it bookmarked, though.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I don't mind experience points, but the way they are assigned has always seemed silly to me., and slanted toward violence. Why do we get experience for combat, but not for anything else?

Experience Points are slanted toward violence, because levels primarily reflect your capacity for violence. Fighting is how you get better at taking a punch, which is the only stat that goes up with every level. If you're not going around and fighting everything, then it doesn't really matter what level you are.

 

[CleverNickName]

Experience Points are slanted toward violence, because levels primarily reflect your capacity for violence. Fighting is how you get better at taking a punch, which is the only stat that goes up with every level. If you're not going around and fighting everything, then it doesn't really matter what level you are.

That's certainly true for some games.

However, exploration scales with level just as combat does. With a higher level comes greater skill proficiency in things like Perception and Investigation, and better access to magic items (sorry, I mean "technology" and "computers"), vehicles, and other gear. You unlock class features and spells that let you move more easily, travel farther, carry more, and find things more quickly.

Same for the social interaction pillar, as well. The higher your level is, the more proficient you have become in things like Deception and Persuasion, you've acquired items that buff Charisma, you've unlocked class features and spells that let you charm or influence others. You've met more factions and made more contacts, and the quality and importance of those contacts are higher. And so on.

Anyway, this is off-topic...it has nothing to do with running a sci-fi campaign using 5E rules. I'll make this a different topic in the forum so that we can discuss it there.

EDIT: New thread can be found at this elegant and finely-crafted link.

 

[CleverNickName]

Esper Genesis is a 5e product.

Edit: I ought to include a link to the free, basic rules of Esper Genesis

I checked out the free basic rules, and it is just about perfect. The races and the lore won't work for the story I want to tell, but the rest of the rules mechanics are excellent. I just purchased the full version of the Core Rules for less than $20. Thank you SO MUCH for the tip!

 

[Satyrn]

I checked out the free basic rules, and it is just about perfect. The races and the lore won't work for the story I want to tell, but the rest of the rules mechanics are excellent. I just purchased the full version of the Core Rules for less than $20. Thank you SO MUCH for the tip!

You're welcome.

You should still check out the Dark Matter kickstarter, too. It actually uses the D&D classes, adding new subclasses to them. The preview shows off about 3 or 4 of them.

 

[CleverNickName]

For anyone who might still be wondering: Esper Genesis was exactly the product we wanted. It uses the 5th Edition D&D rules (which we were already familiar with), and the Compendium is now available on Roll20 (which we were already using for VTT gaming.) If you haven't checked it out yet, you really should.