D&D 5E Redsky - A No-Magic Full Conversion for 5e

[Brandon | Redsky]

Hey all,
Me and my team at Solar Studios have spent 18 months crafting Redsky, a full conversion for 5e. Casters are stripped out of the game entirely, combat has been made more complex, healing is more rare, and exploration and social interaction have been expanded into complete systems. Alignment is replaced by Elemental Dualism, which helps determine your character's personality rather than charting good vs. evil. Our book also includes a complete science-fantasy setting with 130+ pages of lore!

I've posted the full changelog here as an image so you can get the idea of the setting and changes to 5e. You can learn more at our website or find us on DriveThruRPG!

 

[DND_Reborn]

So... you replaced magic with science...?

 

[Brandon | Redsky]

In some places, yes. Magic Items still exist in the form of Eldertech, which are advanced artifacts left behind by mysterious beings called the Overseers.

But classes like the Wizard simply don't exist anymore. There are no spells to cast or gods to call upon. This fixed a lot of balance issues with the game but also exposed the more dull aspects of 5e such as the repetitiveness of martial combat, the lack of social and exploration mechanics, and other things. Add some tweaking to those systems to make them more interesting (for example: reintroducing Touch AC, making equipment matter more, making combat less about damage sponge enemies) and you've got Redsky!

 

[Stormonu]

Certainly sounds interesting!

Are you planning to have a POD version of the book (preferably hard cover)? I tend to use PDFs at the table, but I love to have hardcovers for the shelf and reference when I'm building material (and several of my players prefer paper copies).

 

[Brandon | Redsky]

Certainly sounds interesting!

Are you planning to have a POD version of the book (preferably hard cover)? I tend to use PDFs at the table, but I love to have hardcovers for the shelf and reference when I'm building material (and several of my players prefer paper copies).

We do have hardcovers! They're available through our store here! They're on the way from the printer now, we expect to ship to customers in January. The hardcover also comes with a free download of the PDF.
EDIT: Showing off my preview copy of the hardcover.

 

[Nefermandias]

In some places, yes. Magic Items still exist in the form of Eldertech, which are advanced artifacts left behind by mysterious beings called the Overseers.

But classes like the Wizard simply don't exist anymore. There are no spells to cast or gods to call upon. This fixed a lot of balance issues with the game but also exposed the more dull aspects of 5e such as the repetitiveness of martial combat, the lack of social and exploration mechanics, and other things. Add some tweaking to those systems to make them more interesting (for example: reintroducing Touch AC, making equipment matter more, making combat less about damage sponge enemies) and you've got Redsky!

Some serious Numenera vibes here.

 

[Dausuul]

This looks very interesting! How well do you think the social and exploration mechanics would port over to regular 5E? (Assuming that the DM is willing to ban spells and magic items that cause problems.)

 

[Baron Opal II]

Is there an Eldertech / technologist / artificer style class? Something where the character has or can gain schematics and then kitbash new or recharge Eldertech devices?