D20 Modern/Future + Spelljammer...

[crazy_monkey1956]

Not sure if this should be here or in the D20 Modern forum...mods please move if this is in the wrong place.

Raven Crowking's ultra-nifty thread detailing the Star Trek races for D20 Modern got my juices flowing for an idea I'd set on a back burner ages ago. Taking some of the concepts behind Spelljammer and Star Trek and mingling them.

Using reality based physics and assuming a normal "real" Earth using the D20 Modern rules, advanced to a tech level able to start exploring space in earnest, what our intrepid explorers discover on inhabited worlds are the D&D races...one per planet, with sub-races representing variations in evolution or extreme variances in culture of the given race. Every living creature except Outsiders with an Intelligence of 3 or higher would have their own planet.

I'm not sure what level of magic to use in this model, however. Assuming that the Earthers are using tech based space exploration, what "level" of magic should I assume for the other races? Which ones would have the capacity and the desire to venture into space? Assuming reality based physics, instead of Spelljammer's paradigm, what would magic-based vessels look like? How would they work? Should I simply elimate magic and have each race pursue technological advances in their own ways?

I'm envisioning several "eras" of play, based loosely on the Star Trek model.

Another vital question: How close is what I've described above to Dragonstar, which I've only ever leafed through and don't have much familiarity with? Are there any other games or supplements out there that have a similar concept?

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

Another variation that might work with this is simply to use D&D as the base rules, but eliminate the basic asssumption of a multi-race world. Humans have one world, elves have one world...etc, etc. Using magic for space-flight, but still adhering to real world based physics, then using Star Trek as a model to base interactions between races as first contacts occur.

Which would be more interesting to play in? D20 Modern meets D&D races in space? Or D&D (humans only) Spelljammers meet D&D races in space?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

This might help for inspiration

CYRANO:
Ha, ha!—to know how I got up?
Hark, it was by a method all my own.

DE GUICHE (wearied):
He's mad!

CYRANO(contemptuously):
No! not for me the stupid eagle
Of Regiomontanus, nor the timid
Pigeon of Archytas—neither of those!

DE GUICHE:
Ay, 'tis a fool! But 'tis a learned fool!

CYRANO:
No imitator I of other men!
(De Guiche has succeeded in getting by, and goes toward Roxane's door. Cyrano
follows him, ready to stop him by force):
Six novel methods, all, this brain invented!

DE GUICHE (turning round):
Six?

CYRANO (volubly):
First, with body naked as your hand,
Festooned about with crystal flacons, full
O' th' tears the early morning dew distils;
My body to the sun's fierce rays exposed
To let it suck me up, as 't sucks the dew!

DE GUICHE (surprised, making one step toward Cyrano):
Ah! that makes one!

CYRANO (stepping back, and enticing him further away):
And then, the second way,
To generate wind—for my impetus—
To rarefy air, in a cedar case,
By mirrors placed icosahedron-wise.

DE GUICHE (making another step):
Two!

CYRANO (still stepping backward):
Or—for I have some mechanic skill—
To make a grasshopper, with springs of steel,
And launch myself by quick succeeding fires
Saltpeter-fed to the stars' pastures blue!

DE GUICHE (unconsciously following him and counting on his fingers):
Three!

CYRANO:
Or (since fumes have property to mount)—
To charge a globe with fumes, sufficiently
To carry me aloft!

DE GUICHE (same play, more and more astonished):
Well, that makes four!

CYRANO:
Or smear myself with marrow from a bull,
Since, at the lowest point of Zodiac,
Phoebus well loves to suck that marrow up!

DE GUICHE (amazed):
Five!

CYRANO (who, while speaking, had drawn him to the other side of the square
near a bench):
Sitting on an iron platform—thence
To throw a magnet in the air. This is
A method well conceived—the magnet flown,
Infallibly the iron will pursue:
Then quick! relaunch your magnet, and you thus
Can mount and mount unmeasured distances!

DE GUICHE:
Here are six excellent expedients!
Which of the six chose you?

CYRANO:
Why, none!—a seventh!

DE GUICHE:
Astonishing! What was it?

CYRANO:
I'll recount.
DE GUICHE:
This wild eccentric becomes interesting!
CYRANO (making a noise like the waves, with weird gestures):
Houuh! Houuh!

DE GUICHE:
Well.

CYRANO:
You have guessed?

DE GUICHE:
Not I!

CYRANO:
The tide!
I' th' witching hour when the moon woos the wave,
I laid me, fresh from a sea-bath, on the shore—
And, failing not to put head foremost—for
The hair holds the sea-water in its mesh—
I rose in air, straight! straight! like angel's flight,
And mounted, mounted, gently, effortless,. . .
When lo! a sudden shock! Then. . .

DE GUICHE (overcome by curiosity, sitting down on the bench):
Then?

CYRANO:
Oh! then. . .
(Suddenly returning to his natural voice):
The quarter's gone—I'll hinder you no more:
The marriage-vows are made.

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

Uh...I don't get it.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Uh...I don't get it.

The quote is from the play Cyrano de Bergerac and it concerns six methods of space travel. You probably got that. Taking your questions below....

Assuming reality based physics, instead of Spelljammer's paradigm, what would magic-based vessels look like? How would they work?

The reason I thought it was appropriate is because it's a pre-industrial look at space travel. If a society has magic and they want to get to the stars, these are sample ways their pre industrial minds might think to use magic to travel, with a basis in real-world physics.

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

Color me uneducated, but I couldn't fathom what was being talked about in the quote at all.

As for magical space-flight, I'm thinking in more literal terms of what one can do with the spells and magic items that exist in D&D. In terms of setting "theme", I'm going for as close to a "Fantasy Star Trek" as I can.