D&D 5E Astral Wars: A New Hope

[Yaarel]

@Eltab your mention of the Plane of Air makes me think that I would like to somehow have all the Outer and Inner planes to be some sort of planet... not sure if this would mess too much with DnD cosmology, but do you think it would be possible?

In the 5e FR cosmology, it seems like the 4e-ish Elemental Chaos is more like a ring or sphere. It is a border between the Astral and the Elemental.

Since, these elements arent in the "Material Plane", they might not be actual matter. They are more like the concept of fire, a thought construct, rather than an actual fire. So this is a kind of fire that exists in the Astral Plane, which is a realm of thought (without matter).

These Astral elementals are like a blue print, a conceptual plan, for how to build the Material Plane out of elements. But in the Astral realm of the Elemental Chaos, these elements are still mind rather than matter.

 

[Delazar]

The way I'm envisioning this now would be that the Astral Sea is Space, and the only way to reach it is through some Astral Gates that connect the Astral Lanes, a bit like someone suggested above. So indeed I would have "blockades". These Astral Gates would still be relatively near to each planet, like, somewhere where an Airship (from the DMG) could fly to in a couple of hours or so.

And maybe the thing that ushered into this era of multi-planar activity would be this Empire who is the first to have created Astral Gates.

Or maybe these Astral Gates were built aeons ago by the gods, but only recently re-discovered by one specific civilization (githyanki, dragons, mind-flayer, etc), that is now invading other planets.

Like StarGates, but big enough to have Airship go through.

Somehow I want to this to be multi-planar, but still keep it "fantasy"

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I have a dnd in space setting, and what I do is treat the multiverse as a galaxy. There is a fey region of space, the abyss is a "system" near the galactic core that is part of what spins the galaxy and is an immense black hole, the nine hells are a "solar" system with Asmodeus's throne being the "sun", etc.

Space itself is a mix of an aether sea and spaces of vacuum, and there are Star Lanes that go around the galaxy in specific paths, while brave scout pilots and smugglers can seek out aether-stream pathways to avoid the Star Lanes or go places they don't. aether slipstream drives can only handle fairly small craft, though, so stuff like armies and large scale trade are stuck with the star lanes. This dynamic is nice because it creatures a place where a dragon can pass you in traffic while a halfling skiff is docked with your deck as the halfling makes you lunch for a reasonable rate, and where blockades stop most traffic but clever folks in small craft can try to get around them.

 

[Eltab]

@Eltab your mention of the Plane of Air makes me think that I would like to somehow have all the Outer and Inner planes to be some sort of planet... not sure if this would mess too much with DnD cosmology, but do you think it would be possible?

It could be possible for all the planes to be on a planet, but you lose something by putting confines or boundaries around many of them. We think of the Greek Gods living on Mt. Olympus and going for a walk to wander the world and meet mortals, but other planes (and inhabitants) need more space.

The Abyss and the Hells keep expanding, as the denizens thereof attack and destroy whatever is within reach, then claim the newly-emptied space for themselves. With infinite time, the whole world would be conquered.

Is the multiverse in a "Points of Light" condition? Points of Dark? In a balance - how is that balance maintained? To open up the most options for mortal adventurers, the immortal forces must each have vast resources but be unable to destroy each other because the others can match it all.

It seems better to me that going to a different plane should feel like taking a book off a bookshelf to read, rather than crossing a river / boundary. You (the PCs) will experience a cool bit, but there is so much more to explore "over the next hill", to do, to experience - a lifetime is not enough. And then you are called away to take care of something else...

 

[Ancalagon]

I read the thread title and thought, "Help me OB1-Githyani, you're my only hope."

See I thought the same, but even further...

I really like the SAGA edition of star wars, and I would love to see it receive a "5e treatment" - SAGA was simpler than 3.X but still could have used more refinement (the math at high level got... wonky)

 

[Steampunkette]

Three big conceits:
1) Star Trek's core conceit is Submarine life. No. Really. That was where Roddenberry got the idea. He just turned the Sea into Space and added weird islands to solve problems on. It expanded from that core, which is still super present in all other Star Trek Media.
2) Star Wars' core conceit is that it's not one thing. It's a War Movie, a Drama, a Romance, a Fantasy Epic, Etc. Star Wars took important elements from various types of media and boiled them in one pot.
3) Star Wars' central "Evil Empire" is great, that's why Star Trek had the Klingons for Kirk, Cardassians and Dominion for DS9, Romulans and Borg for TNG, Etc. But while Star Wars really only had the Empire as a real threat (Okay, there was some crime happening) Trek is better about juggling villainy.

So... here's my suggestions:

1) Space -is- the Astral Plane. Stars at night are other worlds out there, each one it's own Material Plane. No need for the Gates.
2) There's a Spelljammer in one of the D&D Adventures for 5e rules. So you could use that for your game if you want to make travel be Mage-Dependent.
3) Have a central Evil Empire made up of the same people in the Good Guy side, but add in secondary Empires for different themes. This helps create narrative parity and ground things in terms of "War"

So yeah. You've got your Heroic Rebellion lead by charismatic humans uniting an army of various species... maybe have the Evil Empire be Human-Centric, too. Possibly lead by an Elder Brain that is slowly converting members of the Evil Empire into illithid in a sneaky manner. And then on the side have your Klingons and Romulans and Borg and Dominion. The other empires that are alternately united with or against the Evil Empire based on what story you're hoping to tell.

You want Borg? Modrons making humanoid species into Warforged and Autognomes (Based exclusively on size of the original body)

You want a hive species with bug-spaceships? The Kitax Regnum which is lead by the "Voice of the Queen" (a Regent) and is a buncha Thri-Kreen and other insectoid creatures that fly around in living ships birthed by the Queen.

How about setting it during an Illithid/Gith war, where Gith basically fulfill the role of Wookies or Bothans next to the heroic party who takes the death star plans to blow up the illithid Star-Darkener (Many Gith died so we could use this information...)

Yeah. You read that right. Star-Darkener. The illithid want to BLOT OUT THE STARS and leave the universe a cold dead wasteland where only those who submit to Ceremorphosis get to enjoy the warmth of a spring day in star systems that bow to their demands for BRAINS and CONVERTS. Bonus points: Every star darkened increases the horror of reality by allowing horrible Lovecraftian entities more power by increasing the "Darkness between the stars" where they thrive. Soon, they may have enough power to overtake all the bonds the gods placed on them and snuff out all light in the galaxy, whether the illithid want it or not!

You wanna make your evil empire Dragons and Dragonborn? Far out, man, just have them fly through Astral Space without starships (The dragons, I mean). Give the Dragonborn enhancers that turn their natural breath weapons into long-ranged attacks or let them somehow use them more often. Imagine the Gunnery Deck where 20 Dragonborn get together and blast their breath weapons into a cannon that fires them all at an enemy ship in one big blast of energy. Heck, have the Dragons themselves act as living starships with elaborate "Backpacks" that give the Dragonborn crew somewhere to stand.

 

[Delazar]

@Steampunkette all great ideas! I'm thinking that my tyrant dragon empire will indeed be just one of the many threats to be found in the Astral.

Still not sure about the Spelljammer. I really don't like the idea of NEEDING a mage in order to fly a ship. So I'd prefer a fantasy ship that works like a movie-spaceship, meaning, hey, anyone can fly this, no problem!

The Gate-thing is mostly to "limit" inter-plane travel when I need it done.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The galaxy is a too big space to allow lots of secret societies as potential antagonists, or allies. Maybe there is a cult of cobra-dragons with yuan-ti agents. Maybe there are one main empire, or more, but everybody really are puppeters controlled by the same secret power.

The thoons, a new faction appeared in 3.5 Ed had got a lot of potential.

To conquer other world can be too hard if the naives go to secret underground bases while the surface suffers a zombie apocalypse, or a rebel supercomputer creating an army or soldier robots and infected mutants (Do you remember Resident Evil and Dead Space?).

 

[Steampunkette]

@Steampunkette all great ideas! I'm thinking that my tyrant dragon empire will indeed be just one of the many threats to be found in the Astral.

Still not sure about the Spelljammer. I really don't like the idea of NEEDING a mage in order to fly a ship. So I'd prefer a fantasy ship that works like a movie-spaceship, meaning, hey, anyone can fly this, no problem!

The Gate-thing is mostly to "limit" inter-plane travel when I need it done.

Glad you like it. I am -right- there with you on the Mage. I vastly prefer good old phlebotinum. Give me Dilithium or Liquid Schwartz or a Beryllium Sphere any day of the week.

Bonus Points if you never really know how much you have of the stuff. Like sometimes it lasts the whole adventure, sometimes you have to make a pitstop at a planet where phlebotinum is mined or harvested and get stuff that's got too many impurities in it but it gets you where you're going, or have to hit up a spaceport for a few hours, or get stranded on some desert planet with a hard wired distress beacon that may or may not be leading the enemy to your location...

 

[Stormonu]

@Steampunkette all great ideas! I'm thinking that my tyrant dragon empire will indeed be just one of the many threats to be found in the Astral.

Still not sure about the Spelljammer. I really don't like the idea of NEEDING a mage in order to fly a ship. So I'd prefer a fantasy ship that works like a movie-spaceship, meaning, hey, anyone can fly this, no problem!

The Gate-thing is mostly to "limit" inter-plane travel when I need it done.

Even Spelljammer had alternate means of pulprusion. In the novels, the main character had a ship fueled by feeding it magic items, and the dwarves, the dwarves had magical forges/foundaries they could use to move their fortresses around, the gnomes had technomagical "sidewheelers", the illithid had mindslaver arrays and a host of other methods could be used, I'm sure. I've never been fond of the rules for spelljamming helms myself, so just making the ships rare magical items piloted by whoever is at the helm is the one thing I've wanted to change about Spelljammer.