D&D General If you could put D&D into any other non middle ages genre, what would it be?
- Thread starter Sacrosanct
- Start date
Satyrn
First Post
I'd totally recommend checking out Esper Genesis and Dark Matter, since they're both 5e in Spaaaace.
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I
Immortal Sun
Guest
So, Mass Effect-like? There's a d20 for that. http://www.jpvsgames.com/masseffectd20/
(it's pretty good, but Krogan characters are OP)
I gotta agree that's one of my ideal genre's as well. Base D&D rules don't handle guns very well though.
Western's also a good one.
And while I don't think there's fundamentally a lot of difference to setting D&D in the Renaissance, I think thematically it would be good.
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@OP I've run all of these are variants in either 3.5/PF/d20 systems or in 5e. It's pretty doable. It's really interesting including the ease of information gathering via electronic devices though. I mean, a detect good/evil/etc... tricorder? A portable communication device? A lot of spells exist for simply easing the burden of being in the middle ages. I mean, "Message" is basically texting.
However, I think D&D needs some better rules for guns tho, MEd20 is the only system I've liked them in so far, but it also restricts HP gain.
Mercurius
Legend
If we're talking real world analogs, how about "Mythic Ancient World." The basic idea would be using creative license to combine various high points into Antiquity into one phase: Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Indus Valley, China, Norte Chico, all at a high point of civilization. Then you pepper in a mythic variety, so that demi-gods and heroes walk the land...so not as much Golden Age Greece as pre-Homeric "Age of Heroes" Greece.
Imo that won't work very well.
D&D is much too inflexible to handle the full spectrum of SR gameplay and the combat system would create a completely different dynamic than what SR goes for.
I like Eberron's take - what would a more advanced magical world be like. I integrate some of that into my own campaign, I don't quite go to the steam-punk level but my world is full of wonder and magic. Might even get to the Eberron level if I stopped blowing up the world every few centuries. 
Other than that, I've toyed with the idea of more of a wild west setting, just because my dad loved westerns and we only had one big TV. Probably something like the old Wild Wild West TV series with a mix of supernatural horror and monsters. Kind of take all sorts of ideas from old 50s and 60s and throw them into a blender (like Valley of the Gwangi or Them!) and scale appropriately. I actually came up with a vague campaign idea, that portions of the old west were covered by "the veil", basically a largely impenetrable mist. Most people that went into it never came back out, but now and then some came back with tales of riches and adventure.
Sadly never got much past the planning stage, and I've never been one to get into rules-rewriting.
Other than that, I've toyed with the idea of more of a wild west setting, just because my dad loved westerns and we only had one big TV. Probably something like the old Wild Wild West TV series with a mix of supernatural horror and monsters. Kind of take all sorts of ideas from old 50s and 60s and throw them into a blender (like Valley of the Gwangi or Them!) and scale appropriately. I actually came up with a vague campaign idea, that portions of the old west were covered by "the veil", basically a largely impenetrable mist. Most people that went into it never came back out, but now and then some came back with tales of riches and adventure.
Sadly never got much past the planning stage, and I've never been one to get into rules-rewriting.
Tony Vargas
Legend
The best game of SR I was ever in was run using M:tA (oWoD Storyteller), so, IDK, a very different dynamic from the native system may not be such a bad thing...
MarkB
Legend
They don't handle guns very well if they're bolted on top of existing medieval weapons, and treated as something different and special. But if you just take the stats of standard slings and crossbows and longbows, and change the names to phasers / blasters / whatever, then D&D handles guns just fine.
I
Immortal Sun
Guest
No. That's precisely what it doesn't handle well.
When you have one or two "shots" per turn at say 5th level that deal 1d6 or 1d8 you're not simulating guns. I don't know what you're simulating, but it isn't bullets. Even a "crit" with a gun is so minimal damage as to make a mockery out of the lethality of firearms.
