Dragonstar: Any opinions?

[Eye Tyrant]

Links are broken...

 

[Shran]

DS No... Exodus Yes

I use the SFHB, GttG and IS in my campaign, but none of the setting material. I suppose I could have just as easily used Star Wars or T20, but Dragonstar had the right feel. My setting book is nearing 100 pages, with a new planetary generation system, 15 human variants, 20 races, 2 new classes, 10 PrCs, 8 interstellar nations, a good chunk of history (50,000 years or so...) and 2 hidden races... and no Dragons... 4 months of Exodus so far, and no Dragons... I run 2 arcs, one on Saturday and one on Monday. Dfferent ships, different crews and the same players. It really works.

Not that I don't like the DS setting... but I just find writing my own material to be more satisfying than using prepublished settings. (That said, I did run FR for over a year...)

 

[Eye Tyrant]

Hey Shran, any chance you'd share some of your homebrew stuff? I would interested in seeing the races, classes, and prestige classes.

 

[Shran]

Why... Yes....

I'm planning to release all of it at one time... It will be huge...

Basically... here's the plot:

A darn long time ago, the Galaxy formed. This perhaps is the whole problem, had this not occured, none of the current trouble would be in evidence.

Fifty thousand years ago Dragons were the greatest race in the Galaxy, but they came to an untimely end when one of their slave races brought the smackdown on 'em.

That slave race (the Dharzooni) went on to build their own empire, which collapsed in short order. Chaos ensued.

Cut off from their technology, a few of these ultra-powerful (erm... Epic) Dharzooni guys set themselves up as rulers of one particular planet; Caleon. They caused all manner of trouble with their petty bickering... and kept the technological level of Caleon down to levels that could not threaten their power. They also saw to it that no one else became as magically powerful as they. Thus it took forever for technology to creep up to a usable level.

Several thousand years later, Caleon was destroyed by a chance encounter with a Chaos Rift. Before the planet died, Caleon's own space fleet (this world had only developed FTL 50 years prior to the Rift encounter), small and understaffed as it was, managed to save nearly a million people. Those million called themselves the Exodites.

That was five hundred years ago.

Now a culture of 5 billion, the Exodites have their hands full with two science-based nations, the Terran Empire and the Auroran Stars (no magic due their position in the Galaxy, but some cool Psionic stuff) Galactic Gypsies (The Remnants, the former merchant fleet of Caleon), Evil Slavers (Beholders), a small empire run by goblins (GOBLINS!?) and some android fellows who want to "Impose Order on the Chaotic Galaxy by any means necessary."

Add to this the 15 survivors of a war from a billion years ago who've become gods... the Ilzar...

Sounds complex, and it is... I've broken it down by culture, Exodite culture is magical, and consists of every fantasy race that lived on Caleon before the Exodus. Terran culture is largely xenophobic, currently controlled by Emperor Hamilton and his vast fleet. Terrans employ bioroids, Dedicated (Human brains grafted to robotic bodies or vehicles) and really large starships. Aurorans are insular and lack a need for a Galactic empire, and they try to stay out of everyone's business. How goblins achieved spaceflight is unknown.... but they are a potent force... The strangest culture is perhaps the Zo... imagine a melange of Irish Fianna and Klingons. They control a wormhole that leads to the Large Magellanic Cloud and their own pocket empire.

There are a large number of races... too many to go into here...

Classes
Armsman - a variant, high-tech fighter
Mechanic - Magical technicians not unlike the Machinist of DS
Medical Op - A doctor class that uses feat-like Specializations for optimum customizability.
Noble - The one from Mongoose...

Exodite Prestige Classes:
Storm Crows - a sort of spy
Scouts - um... a scout.
Storm Catchers - Special Ops troopers
Kyeen - Women who can fling starships in to Fold Space
Quan - Assassins
Uni Chodathe - Bardic Killers
Cybermancers - Computer wizards
HiPER Racer - High Performace Electromagnetic Racing pilots, they have a racing league and do mercenary work in the Off Season... ever play Wipeout Fusion on yer PS2? Like that. Those guys are a campaign in and of themselves... Goblins and Terrans are also free to take levels in HiPER, its the biggest sport in the whole of the Orion Spur.

Terran PrCs
Hell Flowers - Death Dancers
Protean Upgrades - Prestige classes based on retroviruses
Processors - Human Computers
CyberHeads - Human brains, robotic bodies... big guns.

Zo PrCs
Dagaa - A beneficial necromancer of sorts...
Rasha - Berserkers

I could go on... but I hope you get the idea... it's gonna be huge.
I admit, I've not developed the Goblins, the Dharume (yet another race...) or the Beholders to any great extent... anybody wanna take those on, you let me know... I'll send you my notes.

I use all four current DS books, Blood and Space and my own thoughts on how the universe is supposed to work.

The campaign area is yet to extend beyond a 50ly cube centered (roughly) on Earth.

I'm gonna get back to writing it now...

 

[Listlurker]

So what do you enjoy and dislike about Dragonstar?

Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

Cedric,

I bought the Players book and stopped there. There's nothing terribly wrong with the setting (it's a clever concept), it's just that it has a very specific flavour to it. If you're into a game setting which mixes D&D fantasy with space SF, then you'll dig it. If not, then you're probably better off buying d20 Traveller and/or Blood & Space, as they will help you to run your own strictly space SF d20 games.

Dragonstar is like anchovies on pizza -- you either dig the strong flavour or you don't. The game just wasn't the right taste for me, I guess.

LL

 

[Shran]

Exodus URL

Here's the URL for Exodus.


Signal 7:
It's empty. There's a cute little graphic, and some introductory text about FFG, but not much else. If you click on the links, you get this cute little Geocities page telling you are all wet.

Soon...
Exodus:
Sorrow and Starlight


Note: Signal 7 is Exodite for "Warning"