Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psychic Warrior" data-source="post: 1450887" data-attributes="member: 17733">I've ran a Dragonstar campaign (now with many elements borrowed from Classic and d20 Traveller) for over 2 years off and on so here are my feelings.Each class is given some space in the Starfarer's Handbook - mainly new class skills and how certain things (like a Ranger's 2-weapon fighting feats and familiars) are treated in the DS universe.  All in all this is fairly comprehensive but remember that you have all the same character classes you do in regular D&D so there really isn't a heck of a lot here.  The 2 new classes, the Mechanist and the Pilot are OK but could probably be simulated by other classes just as easily.  Not much in the 'flavour' department goes into this though.Races also get the 'once over' as far as mechanics go (most remain unchanged) and in addition 4 races are detailed.  The Drow, Orc, Half-Dragon and Soulmech.  ELs are provided.  At first glance the Half Dragon seems way over powered for only a +3 EL.  It gets +8 Str, a breath weapon, natural armour and several other boosts and perks.  However in a game where range weapons are king (even a pistol can do over 20pts of damage without modfications) a +8 Str character, in my game at least, hasn't unbalanced things in the slightest.  If anything he is one of the weakest characters and has difficulty in 'pulling his weight' in combat.  The Drow and ORc are pretty standard stuff - no surprises there.  The Soulmech is an android with a real person's soul trapped within it.  They have several advantages and nearly as many disadvantages.  A very well designed mechanical race and probably one of the shining points of Dragonstar.A decent sized equipment list is provided with most anything you could think of for a sci-fi game (at least my group has never needed me to come up with addtional equipment).  Really 'out there' or super high tech stuff is kept to a minimum.  The DS universe is a blend of science and technology remember.  Things that can be accomplished by magic rather than science generally are sicne magic is invariable cheaper than science.  Spellware takes the place of cybernetic enchanments.  These are essentially the magic devices you will encounter the most.  Ability boosts, HP boosts and a variety of othr things are provided.  My only complaint is that the list of avaialble spellware could have been bigger.  The weapon list is pretty extensive and provides the type of damage the laser and blaster guns to in addition to how many dice of damage they inflict (this became quite the problem when my group, armed with blaster rifles (electrical damage) ran up against some bio-engineered critters that had DR 10/fire - lasers, while generally rolling less dice fo damage than a blaster weapon, inflict fire damage).  There are even sonic weapons, several types of gernades, missles, and ship based weapons (although more on that below)I only own the Starfarer's Handbook and the Guide to the Galaxy.  Unfortunately essential rules (like zero-G, radiation and Spellware) are split across both books.  Also Guide has most of the pre-history of the Empire and a lot of details about the current political situation, powerful organizations within the Empire and more details about the 12 gods of the Dragon Empire.I have found I reference both of these books equally.  All in all I am happy with the layout, artwork and information contained within each.  Guide also has a ready made adventure and a complete star sytem for new players to explore.As I said I have ran my game, on and off, for 2 years.  I adopted early on a very freeform style for this game as it was orginally a pick up game to run when some of out out-of-town gamers couldn't show up.  Sicne then it has grown and the players have as much fun with it as with the regular D&D games.  Combat is fast and intense.  With gernades, blaster fire and spells flying back and forth combat rarely lasts more than a few rounds and i have found that this is a very nice fit for a swashbuckling space opera type game.  My group consists of the followingHalf-Dragon Paragon (we made up a 6 level Half-Dragon racial class)Human Space Ranger (a non-spell casting varient of the Ranger)Soulmech Mechanist/FighterHuman Cleric/FighterDrow Sorceress/Pilot (we also made up a Drow racial class in which this character has 1 level)All of the players seem to have a lot of fun with Dragonstar and we play a fast loose sytem inregards to scientific fact vs fiction.  I have pretty much equal love of fantasy and sci-fi.  I have played in 'hard' sci-fi games as well as the space opera type I'm running with DS.  I can't say I have a bias either way - both types (fantasy/sci-fi and hard sci-fi & space opera) have different appeals to me and I like tham on their own merits.  I hate comparing one style of gaming to another.  It just can't be done in any meaningful way IMO.  Overall DS has a decent blending of fantasy and science fiction.  There are still some problems with the game system overall - most notably the terrible spaceship combat rules (what few rules are actually devoted to them) and I have some issues with the skills introduced (I didn't feel that a single 'Use Device' skill should allow anyone to use any piece of equipment they came across - this is where I borrowed most from Traveller d20 - skills in various parts of technology).I hope this has helped somewhat.</blockquote>

Verification