D&D General Is D&D-powered sci-fi having a moment?

Going back as far as 1980's Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, science fiction and D&D have always had a connection. Barrier Peaks was a D&D adventure by Gary Gygax which featured a crashed spaceship, robots, and ray guns. The player characters were regular fantasy D&D characters, but the unusual situation they found themselves in was pure sci-fi. You can grab a 5E conversion guide for it over on DM's Guild, and Goodman Games put out a conversion back in 2019.

Earlier editions of D&D's d20 System even powered official Star Wars games from WotC. These days it feels like D&D sci-fi is having a moment! With Traveller 5e currently crowdfunding, let's take a quick look at some of the various 5E-powered science fiction games currently available:

• Esper Genesis
• Dark Matter
• Carbon 2025
• Voidrunner's Codex
• Exodus
• Traveller 5E
• Neon Odyssey

Esper Genesis from Alligator Alley Entertainment was one of the earliest 5E sci-fi games. It launched on Kickstarter in 2017, so it is positively venerable when it comes to this list. It is inspired by Star Wars, Mass Effect, Phantasy Star, and Ghost in the Shell, and features psionic characters called "Espers".

Dark Matter from Mage Hand Press came along in 2018 (and there's a new Mega Box version which just recently crowdfunded) as a campaign setting. It was followed by a full starter set in 2020. Like Esper Genesis, this is inspired by space opera with influences like Star Wars, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Expanse, and Doom.

In 2019, Dragon Turtle Games crowdfunded Carbon 2025. This one was more cyberpunk than space opera, set in a dystopian America. Like many cyberpunk games, it features cybernetics, hacking, and evil corporations.

The Voidrunner's Codex from EN Publishing (that's us!) was in 2024, and was a big slipcase containing three books, a GM screen, and a box full of maps, deckplans, and tokens. Again, space opera was its inspiration, with Star Trek, Star Wars and the like at the forefront.

Exodus is a sci-fi TTRPG originally developed by one of WotC's game studios, based on the upcoming video game, was shared with early adopters in 2025, and is due to be released via Renegade Game Studios later this year. It sounds like Renegade has plans to continue the line; the initial releases in August will be the Exodus Traveler's Handbook and the Creature Catalog.

Traveller 5e is the currently crowdfunding project from World's Largest RPGs. It's an adaption of the iconic Traveller game to the 5E ruleset, and is another with a big box full of tokens and maps and stuff.

​

Neon Odyssey from Legends of Avantris is coming soon to Kickstarter and with over 15,000 pre-launch followers looks like a strong contender for the million dollar TTRPG crowdfunder club. It, like most of the others, is BIG and, like most of the others, focuses on space opera.

There's also an unofficial community-built Star Wars 5E out there, and games like Stars Without Number or Starfinder are D&D-adjacent, while things like Spelljammer are more fantasy than sci-fi. And, of course, there are plenty of non-D&D sci-fi games out there--Alien, The Expanse, and so on.

So, as long as space opera is your jam, it looks like you're spoiled for choices! Most seem to come in boxes or slipcases and loaded with maps, tokens, and other goodies, and they generally cover similar things--psionics, starship building and combat, big equipment lists, vehicles, and so on. Since they're all 5E-powered, in theory they should all be cross-compatible so you can pilfer alien monsters from one game and use them in another, and select your choice of psionic systems. The props--deckplans, tokens, and so on--will be useful in any sci-fi game.

Now we have space opera well-covered, is it time for some gritty sci-fi? Mongoose has its new NASA-adjacent Pioneer game coming (which is very timely with today's Artemis II launch!) but that's powered by (non-5E) Traveller rather than the D&D ruleset. Perhaps 5E isn't the right ruleset for a gritty game, as the zero-to-hero trajectory is definitely designed with high fantasy in mind. Shattered Worlds from Siegebreaker Games is a post-apocalyptic game, and Scrapper: Powered by 5E is a sci-fi setting where you play salvage engineers in space.

What's your favourite 5E-powered game?

 

[TrippyHippy]

So I have exodus and I like it. I also fanatical play Traveller (its the only game I buy each new supplement for when it comes out). I just play 5e D&D more (Scheduling).

I love 5e. I love Traveller. But I cannot fathom why you would pound 5e into traveller when it already does what it does so well.

Traveller is not about leveling and combat can almost be a fail state in traveller. I just dont understand the benefit.

If I get enthusiastic on the Exodus video game I will probably DM that. But I asked if my players wanted to try and (due to work schedules) not one of them could see the benefit of using our game hours for sci fi over traveller. Exodus though plays with time dilation in interesting narrative ways. But I cant find what 5e could offer Traveller.

The enthusiasm for Traveller 5E is simply that there is a big market under the 5E brand to be tapped into. Personally, I am happy with the 2D6 version of the game, but it isn’t as if this line is ending or making way for 5e. It can still buy lots of stuff, and they are still actively making new stuff. A third party game company is operating under licence to tap into a new gaming community and, judging on the Kickstarter, already looks to be making money for all parties involved.

 

[Mournblade94]

The enthusiasm for Traveller 5E is simply that there is a big market under the 5E brand to be tapped into. Personally, I am happy with the 2D6 version of the game, but it isn’t as if this line is ending or making way for 5e. It can still buy lots of stuff, and they are still actively making new stuff. A third party game company is operating under licence to tap into a new gaming community and, judging on the Kickstarter, already looks to be making money for all parties involved.

I have no.problem with it, I just think its not optimal

 

[Parmandur]

The cinematic trailer for Neon Odyssey is pretty amazing, great Saxophone solo amongst the barrage of 80s/90s Sci-fi nostalgia:

 

[Dragonhelm]

I wanted to tell you about my old college group's use of Dark Matter. First, some backstory.

I began playing D&D when I was in college, back in the early 1990s. It was a homebrew science fantasy campaign setting that used the AD&D 2e rules, with inspiration from GURPS, Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon 5, and various other stuff. There was a lot of homebrewing too.

Over the years, the group drifted apart, as what often happens in life. Over a year ago, we decided to get back together again for a "Next Generation"-style game. We knew we wanted to use the D&D 5e rules, but what could we use for the sci-fi side of things?

Over the years, I had thought about what sci-fi rules would work in the unlikely event we would get back together again. So I was able to present the DM with three possibilities: Starfinder, Esper Genesis, or Dark Matter. Each one had something good to offer, but Dark Matter won out as it was the only one to be an add-on to D&D, which is how we handled tech back in the old days. It was just the best fit for the campaign.

We have played semi-monthly now for over a year. The rules have worked great. We have been able to adapt some of our old tech as well. We're looking forward to the fulfillment of the Kickstarter so we can adapt to 5.5.

The only sad part in all of this is that one of our group passed away suddenly, just a few months after we got back together. We all miss ya, Dave.

From all of us at Alliance Starbase 7 (aka High Orbit) orbiting a blue planet named Hyrkul, I wish you all well.

 

[Lalato]

If you search for the keyword "Sci-Fi"on my list here, you'll see all of the 5e compatible Sci-Fi settings and variants...

Campaign Settings – 5e D&D – Lalato.com

 

[Von Ether]

This is interesting as it seems lots of gamers are reluctant to do a peanut butter/chocolate thing with Sci-Fi/D&D - until they figure it out for themselves and then suddenly it's awesome.

Getting hype for a sci-fi game is also an uphill battle. I've talked to ttrpg journalists who were even confused as to why they would promote a sci-fi D&D game as D&D is obviously just for fantasy.

As a fan of Esper Genesis, I find the Traveller 5e a bit ironic as I met several GMs who literally said, "Now I can do the Traveller campaign I always wanted to do."

I found using a sci-fi setting that's not tied to a media setting really opened things up. No longer locked into fantasy, now an unpowered airlock became a puzzle. Do you use a crowbar? Find a way to supply power? Crack the security pad? A lot of fun.