Zardnaar
Legend
A few people have posted thoughts and conversions for a RPG based off Sci Fi. And there are thigs like Firefly, Star Wars (3 main versions), Traveller etc that exist. Well I am thinking of one based off Stellaris. What is Stellaris? Its a 4X type game with grand strategy elements made by Paradox Interactive. Who is Paradox Interactive? They are a Swedish based designer who Publishes Pillars of Eternity and their most famous games are probably Crusader Kings, Europa Unversalis and Hearts of Iron 4. They are generally grand strategy sandbox games with a lot of freedom to do various things in them often a historical such as fascist USA, Byzantium survives in 1453 or Ireland forms the UK or the Pagan Vikings over run western Europe. Sunset Invasion is also fun (Aztecs invade western Europe).
http://www.stellariswiki.com/Stellaris_Wiki
So why Stellaris? Well it is inherently a sandbox game. One could take any of the D&D races and set it in space and draw on elements of Spelljammer, Star Wars, Dune, Transformers or whatever the hell you like. More races the better or alternatively you could design a point by racial system so you pick a Yuan Ti for example in appearance and select various traits and drawbacks. For example you might pick talented, lucky and educated and take weakness )from the game). IN RPG terms.
Talented. Bonus feat
Lucky (halfling reroll)
Educated +2 intelligence (or 2 skills IDK)
Weak -2 strength and constitution.
If you don't want to be weak you might drop say lucky. Something like talented would cost 2 points, lucky would be 1 point, all races get 3 points. This is just for example BTW so you get the idea I have put no thought into what talented, lucky and educated would actually cost.
Classes. Stellaris doesn't have classes but I owuld probably have 3-6 depending on how much designing you want to do. Soldier, Expert, Psion/Biotic come to mind along with the 6 classes from Mass Effect. In any event you want a less is more approach IMHO. Soldier is more or less a fighter, Expert is a Rogue, Psion/Biotic might be something like the Warlock or Mystic. You don't need a healer, combat should be dangerous (you have the DMG advanced weapons) and you do nopt need the expected 6-8 encounters/2 short rest assumptions.
A major them of Stellaris is fleet battles and exploration. Fleet battles could be hard but there are plenty of ship based RPGs you could borrow from or you could even tweak Spelljammers rules and cut out the fiddly bits. Or tweak Star Wars Saga rules. Exploration would be the major theme as well over combat.
The NPCs.
Every good game needs villains even if it is basic as orcs and chromatic dragons. The Stellaris game has rival empires with various traits combined with governments (Despotic Empires, Moral Democracies, Ideological Crusaders etc). They also have galactic ruins left over from previous ages, fallen empires and late game crisis to deal with. Ruins such as the Cybrex are easy enough to add to the game and you can out right lift ruins from D&D such as the Barrier Peaks adsventure along with things like B The Hidden City and you could land a Spaceship on The Isle of Dread.
Fallen Empires.
Fallen Empires are very small very powerful empires possessing late game technology. If humans have just discovered Warp Drive and can build the Starship Enterprise these beings can fold space and build Dyson Spheres and Ringworlds. If you have watched Babylon 5 they have 2 fallen Empires in that as major drivers of the plot. They are leftover from the ancient past and are generally reclusive and do not interact with the younger races much short of attacking them if you do silly things like push into their interests. IN game they can become awakened however which means they want to do things like expand.
End Game crisis (roll a 1d3)
There are 3 things in Stellaris that can ruin your day. They are.
AI Rebellion.
A fairly common theme in sci f. The droids become self aware and decide to become conquerors and are hostile to the organics. At least they just want to rule you though (not like the following 2) so its not like Terminator 2.
Unbidden. In game if you invent a certain type of jumpdrive the unbidden come along. They open a extra dimensional portal and invade the galaxy with massive fleets that snowball in numbers. Good to trash a 3rd of the galaxy and wreck the largest empires the AI has. A player might survive along with the Fallen Empires. Think incorporeal wraiths armed with some of the best weapons in the game whose only goal is extinction. They can purge a 12 billion population world very quickly.
Prethoryn Scourge
These are basically your aberrations from the extra galactic regions that want to eat everything in the galaxy. They have hive queens and bio engineered ships. If you cross Beholders from Spelljammers with Yuuzhan Vong from the old Star War EU you get the idea. Like the Unbidden they just kill everyone and infest various worlds.
And that is the universe of Stellaris. If you excuse me I have to go play now, I deliberately unleashed the Unbidden to cleanse the galaxy. I have built 2 Ringworlds, are building a Dyson sphere and an Awakened Falling Empire won a war against me because they are mad about unleashing the Unbidden (whom I defeated). Not sure if I willdesign it as an RPG or just have my D&D world encounter various elements toned down to Spelljammer levels of tech.
http://www.stellariswiki.com/Stellaris_Wiki
So why Stellaris? Well it is inherently a sandbox game. One could take any of the D&D races and set it in space and draw on elements of Spelljammer, Star Wars, Dune, Transformers or whatever the hell you like. More races the better or alternatively you could design a point by racial system so you pick a Yuan Ti for example in appearance and select various traits and drawbacks. For example you might pick talented, lucky and educated and take weakness )from the game). IN RPG terms.
Talented. Bonus feat
Lucky (halfling reroll)
Educated +2 intelligence (or 2 skills IDK)
Weak -2 strength and constitution.
If you don't want to be weak you might drop say lucky. Something like talented would cost 2 points, lucky would be 1 point, all races get 3 points. This is just for example BTW so you get the idea I have put no thought into what talented, lucky and educated would actually cost.
Classes. Stellaris doesn't have classes but I owuld probably have 3-6 depending on how much designing you want to do. Soldier, Expert, Psion/Biotic come to mind along with the 6 classes from Mass Effect. In any event you want a less is more approach IMHO. Soldier is more or less a fighter, Expert is a Rogue, Psion/Biotic might be something like the Warlock or Mystic. You don't need a healer, combat should be dangerous (you have the DMG advanced weapons) and you do nopt need the expected 6-8 encounters/2 short rest assumptions.
A major them of Stellaris is fleet battles and exploration. Fleet battles could be hard but there are plenty of ship based RPGs you could borrow from or you could even tweak Spelljammers rules and cut out the fiddly bits. Or tweak Star Wars Saga rules. Exploration would be the major theme as well over combat.
The NPCs.
Every good game needs villains even if it is basic as orcs and chromatic dragons. The Stellaris game has rival empires with various traits combined with governments (Despotic Empires, Moral Democracies, Ideological Crusaders etc). They also have galactic ruins left over from previous ages, fallen empires and late game crisis to deal with. Ruins such as the Cybrex are easy enough to add to the game and you can out right lift ruins from D&D such as the Barrier Peaks adsventure along with things like B The Hidden City and you could land a Spaceship on The Isle of Dread.
Fallen Empires.
Fallen Empires are very small very powerful empires possessing late game technology. If humans have just discovered Warp Drive and can build the Starship Enterprise these beings can fold space and build Dyson Spheres and Ringworlds. If you have watched Babylon 5 they have 2 fallen Empires in that as major drivers of the plot. They are leftover from the ancient past and are generally reclusive and do not interact with the younger races much short of attacking them if you do silly things like push into their interests. IN game they can become awakened however which means they want to do things like expand.
End Game crisis (roll a 1d3)
There are 3 things in Stellaris that can ruin your day. They are.
AI Rebellion.
A fairly common theme in sci f. The droids become self aware and decide to become conquerors and are hostile to the organics. At least they just want to rule you though (not like the following 2) so its not like Terminator 2.
Unbidden. In game if you invent a certain type of jumpdrive the unbidden come along. They open a extra dimensional portal and invade the galaxy with massive fleets that snowball in numbers. Good to trash a 3rd of the galaxy and wreck the largest empires the AI has. A player might survive along with the Fallen Empires. Think incorporeal wraiths armed with some of the best weapons in the game whose only goal is extinction. They can purge a 12 billion population world very quickly.
Prethoryn Scourge
These are basically your aberrations from the extra galactic regions that want to eat everything in the galaxy. They have hive queens and bio engineered ships. If you cross Beholders from Spelljammers with Yuuzhan Vong from the old Star War EU you get the idea. Like the Unbidden they just kill everyone and infest various worlds.
And that is the universe of Stellaris. If you excuse me I have to go play now, I deliberately unleashed the Unbidden to cleanse the galaxy. I have built 2 Ringworlds, are building a Dyson sphere and an Awakened Falling Empire won a war against me because they are mad about unleashing the Unbidden (whom I defeated). Not sure if I willdesign it as an RPG or just have my D&D world encounter various elements toned down to Spelljammer levels of tech.
