Dragonstar

[The Furious Puffin]

Yeah, usally in the oversized mechanical mittens of the party's resident cyborg.

Player "Okay, I get my 4 HMGs and level the entire street"

DM *Attempts to lift the massive bucket of dice required to determine results - has hernia - dies"

Yeah been there, seen that, got the hospital bill

 

[UD]

My group played spell-jammer for a while and didn't like the very cartoony aspect of galleons floating through space. Does Dragonstar use *real* (Like with enclosed hulls, engines ETC) space ships or something else?

Yes it uses 'real' ships, althought the physics model isnt great, verchile comabt is considered to be one of the best systems for doing it out there.

Finally it seems to have a kinda cyberpunk equipment ethic

Guns = Guns

Soulmechs = Borgs

Spellware = Cyberware

How much else is cyberpunk-esque?

It can be, DS is all about how you make it. Set it on an oppressed highly industrialised world, overrun with ISPD and other nastys, or set it in the outlands exploring new frontiers, or set it as part of teh resistence agaisnt the Dragon EMpire batteling overwhelming forces...

Many different styes for many different games.

And finally the big one - how do gun fights are they very deadly or not very much so? Browse the sample charaters with the intro adventures guns do large damage amounts - does this render combat more grim and gritty? Finally have the modified the ranged combat system to include location hits, full auto, semi auto etc like cyberpunk - and if so what have they got?

Deadly - yes, especially at low levels.

They do have rules for autofire bursts and full suppresive fire.
Obviously nott qite as detailed as cyberpunk, but very d20 in there elegance. Combat is more grim and gritty. Fact. But ammuntition suddenly becomes a lot mroe importnat at high levels when you can burst fire an entire clip. I hope you've got that feat which allows you to change the clip as a free action....

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

We run one DragonStar session until now, and we did only use the rules, not the story (the story was based on Space Gothic).

It seems to be wise to do at least two of the following things:
a) Start at character level 3 or higher, to ensure that the first hit is no instantdeath. (The players will then fast learn to get cover)
b) Give, besides the standard equipment, a trauma symbionte to everyone (this spellware is described in a short essay on the Fantasy Flight Games Site)

Our master was not an experienced D&D master, only a player, so he probably didn`t know how to use the appropriate challenge rating, but at least in our first adventure no one died (or was near death).

Though it is D&D in Space, it is not D&D in Space - some tactics should better be changed. Spellcasters shouldn`t feel tempted to throw a fireball, if every soldier can throw a grenade for 6d6 points of damage. It is better to cast a Protection from Elements (Fire) against those laser rifles and so on.

The background is not deep enough involved to figure out if it is a "D&D cyberpunk in space", but I doubt so...

 

[Corinth]

Hey, man, that was an IDEA!!!! I was thinking about my next DS adventure and now you have show me the way, thanks!

You're welcome.

Dragonmacross: the adventure, coming soon to my gaming group!

Well, now if that isn't an inspiring way to think of Dragonstar then I am indeed running out of steam.

 

[Corinth]

Dragonstar vs. Other D20 Science Fiction RPGs

Would anyone care to compare Dragonstar to the other known D20 science fiction/science fantasy/space opera RPGs out there? (i.e. Traveller, Star Wars, Fading Suns, etc.)

 

[med stud]

Adventures

A good kind of space adventures is the free trader- genre; adventures range from the evil or lower neutral smuggling to the heroic blockade breaking, bringing food and medicine to the poor and oppressed.

And free traders are the right people to go to the pubs where mystical old men are giving them missions

 

[JordanBowridge]

DS

I am starting my PCs in the Realms and then having the Empire invade and destroy part of the Realms and give them the opportunity to play as the rebels.

 

[Horacio]

Re: DS

I am starting my PCs in the Realms and then having the Empire invade and destroy part of the Realms and give them the opportunity to play as the rebels.

Please, tell me the invaders will kill that two-scimitars wielder drow! Please!!!

 

[qstor]

Cornith - Its got a little of Traveller and Fading Suns and Shadowrun all mixed together. But it goes beyond these with the scope since you can use all the races and critters from the Monster Manual or Monsters of Faerun in it. Not to mention any D20 product like the Creature Collection.

Jordan - Check out the Dragonstar Yahoo! Groups list. Someone wrote a series of stories about an invasion of Toril. I just won the Spelljammer supplement Realms Space. I was going to adapt that for one of my planned Dragonstar games. I'll get rid of the crystal sphere and such and adapt the planet system to a more "straight" astronomy angle. I might Then have the PC's explore the system. I wonder when they'll release they are in Toril's system

Mike

 

[paqman]

Think of Metamorphosis Alpha in reverse: the characters board a generation ship that has been wandering off course for centuries.
- Mearls

That's funny, it is exactly how I started my game, but from the other way around. My players were aboard a Generation ship that as been travelling, offcourse, for millenias (It left well before the creation of the Dragon empire). The players were part of the only combatant type of the station, they were some kind of gladiators, they participated in Wrestling, martial arts, Paint ball games.... So once troubles started they were part of the small group that could act. (Since all was provided for by droids and the majority of the population had nothing special to do to get their needs attended to)

Ork Pirates found the ship and decided to loot it of its stuff. They attacked and it all started there, the players interfered and the adventure was started.

After the Ork pirate thing, that lasted for a single gaming session, the players escaped with a Corvette and activated the StarCaster. They got back right to the starting planet. Where the generation ship left from. The planet is now in an ice age and the only thing they found was a Derelict space station. When they approached they found out that it was not so derelict. It was functional and they decided to dock and explore.

They found out that the station was some kind of symbiosys between Rat men (From CC) And AI and Humanoids (Humans, elves, gnomes, dwarves and halflings). The Rat men were the group that managed the lower part of the station with the power generators. They maintain it to barely functional level. The humans produce the food, in gigantic Hydroponic farms and the humans and the rat men trades food for energy. Finaly the AI makes sure that the energy is distributed in all part of the station and it manages the single docking arm still functional. (The docking arm is about 4 miles long and could accomodate a fleet of small ships)

Ho yes, the AI as a small army of skeletons that has been equiped with Electronic brains. Through a magiteck interface, the electronic brain can operate the skeletons and, thus, the AI controls the Electronic Brains. So the players were surprised when they encountered the first group making maintenance in the docking arm.