RPG Archive: Star*Drive for D&D and Traveller

The primary concept behind Lighthouse (unrelated to its secret) already exists in Traveller. Alternity: StarDrive's FTL assumptions mean larger can have much longer jump ranges than smaller ones, and the Lighthouse is less space station than it is (in Traveller terms) a gigantic jump tender that carries smaller vessels between the stars far more quickly than they could manage under their own power. Just build a million+ tonner with Jump-6 (or whatever the campaign setting's tech cap is at) and the bulk of its remaining payload dedicated to hanger and docking array space for rider craft (most of which will be civilian ships, normally). The Lighthouse itself is virtually unarmed for its size, but does have considerable excess life support capacity and a small town's worth of facilities for passengers and crews of the ships it transports.

Really easy to port into Traveller, although the difference in top and bottom jump distances is smaller than in StarDrive so the ultimate impact of having the Lighthouse around will be a bit less. Still, being able to pay for having your little J1 or J2 starship transported at X-boat speeds along the sector main(s) is still pretty game-changing - and you can spend your time in jump getting up to shenanigans aboard the Lighthouse and its other rider ships rather than being stuck in the confines of your own hull.

Warhulk probably doesn't need a full Traveller conversion when you can just use Azhanti High Lightning's maps and populate them with the parts of Warhulk that you want to use. Differences in tech assumptions mean you might want do some modifications, for ex most of the AHL crew quarters would become equipment spaces, robot storage and upkeep bays, etc. But mostly you could handwave stuff and just crib ideas more or less straight.

Played right, the whole "rogue AI warship that doubles as a megadungeon in space" could easily wind up feeling like 13th Age's Eyes of the Stone Thief, where the mobile "dungeon" holds a grudge and will start hunting the PCs. That's something that might fit TSR Spelljammer (won't dignify the 5e version by mentioning it) better than scifi perhaps using the maps of the Spelljammer itself and repopulating it so the whole situation on board is more of a dungeon, less of a community. If you're not using the Rock as itself that might work instead, with the town itself largely abandoned, partly ruined, and haunted by undead while the BBEG lurks in the palace, or perhaps deep in the rock's mini-Underdark. Good potential for a set piece in an "engine room" with dozens of helms occupied by kidnapped casters.

The StarDrive aliens are probably the easiest things to port over without needing much change. The Traveller setting is more than big enough to retain the unique cultural features that make them shine, too. Seshayans could just as easily be pursued by (say) a Vilani megacorporation who claims the whole species as contract slaves as their original nemesis. Weren fit almost anywhere, and t'sa would make a nice minor race either as a small interstellar polity just over the border or a pocket protectorate inside the Imperium or some other big player (Hivers?).

Star*Drove(1) is my favorite made-for-TTRPGs space opera setting. It is kitchen sink enough to include most things from Space Opera, but also anchors it in a recognizable Earth enough to not get lost in the details like a Dune or Imperium of Man.|

(1) This was a typo, but since the setting is dead, I think leaving it in past tense makes sense.

I wanted to like Alternity, I tried so hard. Bought and sold it about 3-4 times. There are a handful of things that didn't work for me, surprisingly it was NOT the roll low and the modifier dice. I really liked that feature.
It desperately needs a real 2nd edition, not the one we got from Sasquatch Studios though.

The Dark Matter setting is really good too, solid X-Files\Secret History\Conspiracy setting. Lots of great supplements for the Star*Drive line. As said above these supplements are easily ported into any other system, the lore alone is fantastic.

There were some issues with D&D people not getting the hint that that his is NOT D&D in space. It was its own game, a set of rules that could be plugged into any near future to far future settings. One could run a cyberpunk game with netrunning, an exploration game into the next solar system, a wasted apocalypse with mutations, far future space opera, secret psionic agents, etc.

It's a damn shame it never quite caught on. There was a lot to like there.

Ghost2020 said:

I wanted to like Alternity, I tried so hard. Bought and sold it about 3-4 times. There are a handful of things that didn't work for me, surprisingly it was NOT the roll low and the modifier dice. I really liked that feature.
It desperately needs a real 2nd edition, not the one we got from Sasquatch Studios though.

The Dark Matter setting is really good too, solid X-Files\Secret History\Conspiracy setting. Lots of great supplements for the Star*Drive line. As said above these supplements are easily ported into any other system, the lore alone is fantastic.

There were some issues with D&D people not getting the hint that that his is NOT D&D in space. It was its own game, a set of rules that could be plugged into any near future to far future settings. One could run a cyberpunk game with netrunning, an exploration game into the next solar system, a wasted apocalypse with mutations, far future space opera, secret psionic agents, etc.

It's a damn shame it never quite caught on. There was a lot to like there.

Click to expand...

If I recall correctly, the wound/damage system was a little overdesigned. But otherwise I really like the game.

And like you said, it is too bad that the Sasquatch game was not actually Alternity.

A while back I posted about using the Alternity species in LevelUp's Voidrunners Codex, using the Weren as a proof of concept...

This is a good example of how the sci-fi gets old very poorly. The new generations miss technology that is normal today but there wasn't decades ago, for example the tablets and the mobiles.

Today after buying my "Eclipse Phase" I can't imagine me in a sci-fi TTRPG without mind-upload and digital inmortality, and "surrogates" (remote-control androids). And some players would want to add the gadgets from their favorite videogame, for example exo-suits.

The alien species are relatively easy to be adapted to 5e but the high-tech breaks the power balance.

And "Alternity-Star*Driven" allowed psionic powers.

Ghost2020 said:

I wanted to like Alternity, I tried so hard. Bought and sold it about 3-4 times. There are a handful of things that didn't work for me, surprisingly it was NOT the roll low and the modifier dice. I really liked that feature.
It desperately needs a real 2nd edition, not the one we got from Sasquatch Studios though.

The Dark Matter setting is really good too, solid X-Files\Secret History\Conspiracy setting. Lots of great supplements for the Star*Drive line. As said above these supplements are easily ported into any other system, the lore alone is fantastic.

There were some issues with D&D people not getting the hint that that his is NOT D&D in space. It was its own game, a set of rules that could be plugged into any near future to far future settings. One could run a cyberpunk game with netrunning, an exploration game into the next solar system, a wasted apocalypse with mutations, far future space opera, secret psionic agents, etc.

It's a damn shame it never quite caught on. There was a lot to like there.

Click to expand...

Lol, I'm the same. The Star*Drive setting was super cool. Very different from Star Wars, Star Trek, and anything else popular at the time. The Alternity system itself was quite complex we found, and some of my players didn't catch on to the roll low mechanics that easily. I do remember the damage track system to be very punishing.

If I were to run Star* Drive again today, I would use Savage Worlds Adventure Edition with the Sci-Fi Companion (which I just received from the Kickstarter).

I liked the Paizo's Starfinder books I bought but I couldn't more because they weren't translated by Devir and I didn't like certain changes of the 2nd Ed.

I guess today WotC could to publish a space-fantasy with retro style, or a reboot of Star*Drive. But the players will want to play their homemade version of their favorite sci-fi franchise, even some space superhero like Guardians of the Galaxy or DC Legion of Superheroes.

Magic the Gathering soon will show a space-fantasy setting/plane, will it not?

LuisCarlos17f said:

I liked the Paizo's Starfinder books I bought but I couldn't more because they weren't translated by Devir and I didn't like certain changes of the 2nd Ed.

I guess today WotC could to publish a space-fantasy with retro style, or a reboot of Star*Drive. But the players will want to play their homemade version of their favorite sci-fi franchise, even some space superhero like Guardians of the Galaxy or DC Legion of Superheroes.

Magic the Gathering soon will show a space-fantasy setting/plane, will it not?

Click to expand...

I liked some of the stuff from Starfinder 1e as a setting, but the rpg itself never interested me. 2e is also def not my bag.

There are lots of sci-fi RPG's out there, some tied to various franchises like Aliens and Star Trek.

As for WotC, I think they are working on some RPG adaptation of a sci-fi video game that's coming out. But Star*Drive will likely continue to gather dust in the IP closet at WotC.