[Dragonstar] How Lethal Is It?

[Chaldfont]

I am thinking of running a campaign using Dragonstar but bringing in cool stuff from Spycraft (action dice, chase rules) and maybe D20 Modern. I'd like to use the massive damage threshhold rules from D20 Modern but I have not played Dragonstar yet.

Would this be too lethal?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

If you use the Dragonstwar weapon damages, yes, it will be to lethal. (A Blaster will make what? 3d6?, approximately half of the hits will make your characters make massive damage threshold check)

If you want to make it as easy as possible, use the D20 Modern weapon damages for all weapons, with the following changes:
It is possible to buy laser and blaster equivalances for all standard weapons.
Blaster weapon deals the listed amount as electricity damage.
Laser weapons deal the listed amount as fire damage.

Optional changes:
Up Blaster damage by 1 size category (d6 becoming d8 and so on), increase price.
Up Laser Range by 50% (or another amount), increase price.

I think everything else can be kept the old way. If you do not want to have a headache, do not try to mix D20 Modern Classes with the D&D classes. Use only the set of one of the classes.
Dragonstar probably works best with D&D standard classes considering the typical monsters in Dragonstar. (It is D&D in Space, remember?)

You might consider using the follwing D20 Modern or Spycraft Rules in addition:
Action Dice. I think it is one of the best things of D20 Modern and Spycraft, it reminds me from Karma Dice in Shadowrun. It really helps everybody. (Don`t forget to give the NPCs them as well)

For making skill choices easier, consider using some of the D20 Modern skill sets, especially Knowledge (better defined this way), and recombine the skills as made their (now Use Rope or Innuendo Skill and so on)

Mustrum Ridcully

 

[Eye Tyrant]

Well I have ran the first two missions from Raw Recruits and haven't had a PC death yet. If you run these missions it kind of "baby-steps" the party through the first couple of levels. I will begin mission 3 tonight and it should prove to be much more dangerous as the firearm fights will be more balanced (the first two had limited badguys with firearms).

But I do expect to use my own PC (a Medic type Expert) quite a bit more from here on out ...

 

[Brutorz Bill]

Whatever version of Dragonstar that you run, (D20 modern or D&D) I highly recommend you using the cool stuff from the Arsenal book by Perpetrated Press.
There are even d20 Modern conversion notes for it on the company's site.

http://www.perpetrated.com/index.html

Here are some more goodies that might help you with your Dragonstar Campaign.

http://www.angelfire.com/games/Alterniverse/dragonstar/dstar1.htm

Regards,
Brutorz Bill

 

[Eye Tyrant]

Anyone know where I can find some starship layouts/maps? Specifcally I'm looking for a small (Explorer class) ship for starters. The only thing I've found are the ones in the SHB and Raw Recruits.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I don`t know any sources so far, but you might check Starwars or Startrek fan sites.

I don`t think that you really need deck plans for ships of this small size, you can simply come up with some on your own.

Maybe if I find some time, I could scan my own deckplan for an orc corvette (same size as the explorer ships), but this might take some weeks.

Mustrum Ridcully

 

[Chaldfont]

Thanks folks. I think massive damage from D20 Modern might be a little much. I am definitely going to use action dice from Spycraft though. Its an elegant way to smooth out those times when the dice don't really agree with what the players and the DM want.

I am definitely going to check out Arsenal. I had my FLGS get a copy so I can take a look at it. I like the idea of sending the PCs up against something really over their heads, but arming them temporarily with some serious firepower.

If you have any other advice for DMing a Dragonstar campaign, let me know.

 

[Yeoman]

I just wanted to say that I've played and run a few dragonstar games and so far I've learned that cover is really important, and that we'll be using hong's vp/wp system from now on for dragonstar. We've tested it and the quicker healing provides a more cinematic feel for our games, but we aren't using clerical magic in our version. So YMMV.

 

[drnuncheon]

I don`t know any sources so far, but you might check Starwars or Startrek fan sites.

I don`t think that you really need deck plans for ships of this small size, you can simply come up with some on your own.

If you plan on using & reusing it a lot, SJG has put out some poster-style deckplans for use with GURPS Traveller, printed with both 1" grids and hexes. Maybe one of those would suit your needs.

J