D&D 5E The Call is Out: D&D SciFi Should Be The Next Campaign Setting / Expansion

[Paul Farquhar]

No thanks, I'll stick to Traveller for Sci-Fi.

Whist technically Space Opera, Traveller has hard SF pretensions, making it rather po-faced. I think what people are after is something a bit more fun.

It boils down to "do you prefer The Expanse or The Mandalorian?"

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I could get behind an actual SF game built on the 5e chassis, but not "D&D in Spaaaaaace!" unlike Starfinder (such a disappointment to me).

Me too. I was really looking forward to Starfinder, then when it came out it was a bloated overcomplicated mechanics-heavy mess.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

1. 5 ft square grids are not helpful for blaster-based combat. When you need to know where peoplke are who are 300 feet away, 5 feet is not a helpful increment.

How many spaceships have 300 foot corridors?

I'd still want something that has the mechanical precision of the grids (ie not too much but enough that I don't need to ask the dm where I can move at the beginning of each turn) while working at longer ranges.

I'm not sure Roll20 can handle logarithmic maps...

The grid's supposed to be optional, so a second option would be nice.

Original Traveller used range bands. Which is fine - until you want to add terrain.

2. Don't make piloting spaceships an optional skill. You either need everyone to commit to picking a specific set of options, or you have some players weaker in some encounters just so they can have fun options in others. Basically, if you didn't pick the piloting skill and a bunch of piloting feats1, you'd be relegated to just making basic attacks in space battles. But if you did pick those options, you got fewer non-spaceship stuff. Given how 5e didn't fall into this trap too hard with mounted combat I'd expect this to be handled well, but it was a major drag in the game.

Not every PC has to pilot the ship. The best space combat I have played was FASA Star Trek RPG, in which each player had a bridge crew specialty.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I would bet Hasbro wants a d20 system right for all the genres, but to create a d20 sci-fi 100% compatible with D&D 5th Ed is a serious challenge for the game designers because modern arms break easily the power balance. A dinosaur could be a menace for Conan the barbarian or Tarzan, but Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers only would need one shot with his ray gun. Of course you can play Star Wars d20, but d20 Street Fighters can't face d20 Overwatch or d20 doom slayer/marine is too hard for d20 Mortal Kombat. Have you play Resident Evil or Evil Within? You can imagine what happens when the PC has got enough weapons and ammo. Other example is Sylvester Stallone's movie "Cobra". Bridgitte Nielsen only could hide and run away when the night-slasher appeared, but the cop Cobretti could face all the cult of the new dawn. Other example is when Buffy the vampire slayer only neede a shot (with a RPG, I mean Rocket Propelled Grenade) against the Judge (season 2 episode 14)

Let's imagine a goblin in a Gamma World game. With only a spear and a shield is easy to be killed, but when he has got a sniper rifle from the top of a tree or in a window then the things are different. Now let's imagine with a exosuit (Battlefield: Advance Warfared), a powered armor (Fallout or Anthem videogames), a Mecha (Titanfall or Pretty Boy within Jackopt, the final DLC of a Borderlands DLC).

With modern technology you can drive a truck to run over a horde of zombies, or use homemade explosive traps.

What if a player asks biotechnology for her druid PC? Technically they aren't metallic armours. And the new materials, for example graphene, to craft modern armours? The classic metal becomes obsolete.

We know there is a future new-IP sci-fi videogame using d20 system. I guess they are discovering a lot of things with the playtesting.

I dare to say Hasbro is the first one who wants a d20 sci-fi to publish adaptations of famous IPs (Fortnite: Save the World, Star-Craft, Overwatch, Resident Evil) but trying being 100% retrocompatible with D&D is different.

* Gamma World with the antropomorphic animals are perfect to sell toys. (Do you remember the battle beasts?)

Badder or digger-folk, one of the humanoid races from Gamma World.

 

[jmartkdr2]

How many spaceships have 300 foot corridors?

I'm not sure Roll20 can handle logarithmic maps...

Original Traveller used range bands. Which is fine - until you want to add terrain.

Not every PC has to pilot the ship. The best space combat I have played was FASA Star Trek RPG, in which each player had a bridge crew specialty.

Sometimes, you're not in a spaceship. Or you're in one and the target is in another.

Range bands could work. I've seen a few variations - enough to make me think it's possible to do it that way. But not without some work.

We frequently had everyone in their own starfighter, because it's Star wars and that's a thing you do. But even when we didn't, I've found that if not everyone is piloting, then not everyone is getting a full turn, or even necessarily a turn at all depending on what the pilot does or other people's rolls.

The gunner just shoots at whatever's in range: no choice, just a roll. The engineer and medic don't do anything until someone hits you, and then: just a roll, no choice. Only the captain is making decisions - so they're the only one playing a game.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The gunner just shoots at whatever's in range: no choice, just a roll. The engineer and medic don't do anything until someone hits you, and then: just a roll, no choice. Only the captain is making decisions - so they're the only one playing a game.

Which game? We found there was plenty for everyone to be doing in FASA Trek. For example there was power allocation to the various systems involved. The engineer decided how much power to assign to the various systems, the Helmsman (or Gunnery officer with more players) decided which weapon's systems to power/overpower etc. etc.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Whist technically Space Opera, Traveller has hard SF pretensions, making it rather po-faced. I think what people are after is something a bit more fun.

It boils down to "do you prefer The Expanse or The Mandalorian?"

Or split the difference and you get Mass Effect.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Which game? We found there was plenty for everyone to be doing in FASA Trek. For example there was power allocation to the various systems involved. The engineer decided how much power to assign to the various systems, the Helmsman (or Gunnery officer with more players) decided which weapon's systems to power/overpower etc. etc.

Star Wars d20, which is the game I was talking about originally. The problems I had were with that game specifically, not sci-fi in general, as I had stated.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Star Wars d20, which is the game I was talking about originally. The problems I had were with that game specifically, not sci-fi in general, as I had stated.

Only played Star Wars D6, and then not much. FASA Trek had the best starship combat by a mile. It was fairly rubbish at ground combat though, even if it did have an official description of the Kirk Roll.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Dark*Matter, a setting for d20 Modern and Alternity had got sci-fi and aliens in the end of XX century.

And we can't forget now after Altered Carbone and Eclipse Phase RPG some players want mind-uploading and digital inmortality.