Spelljammer Considering alternative space-faring D&D setting to Spelljammer (astronomy/physics majors welcome)

[Benjamin Pass]

That is a positively marvelous idea!

 

[Acr0ssTh3P0nd]

You played Destiny? The video game?

If not, look up Destiny. Yeah, the plot of the game was cruddy, but the universe is incredibly evocative. Think "D&D with guns and spaceships, and all the monsters and races are mostly original but with hints of traditional fantasy stuff".

Instead of humans, elves, and dwarves, you have humans, awoken (space elf-not-humans), and exos (sentient machines) fighting to reclaim a post-post-apocalyptic Earth and the ruins of the old colonies in the solar system from alien forces of all types - scavengers, pirates, military empire scouts, etc. You got space magic, you got class-based co-op stuff, you got swords and guns - it's really cool.

 

[gamerprinter]

I once had some Spelljammer materials, but it never sat right with me. I prefer enclosed starships, like what you'd see in a standard sci-fi movie or TV series to be incorporated into a D&Desque setting rather than the open decked sailing ships inside an atmospheric bubble. The gravity plane, atmospheric bubble and the Ptolmeic system while certainly justifying the mechanics of Spelljammer is just too nonsensible to me. I'd rather rely on realworld physics with the inclusion of some magical aspects. I, myself, have been musing on the idea of a sci-fi-fantasy based game using Pathfinder RPG.

I've also been dabbling with a couple of sci-fi based class conversions and a new class design using PF rules for Technologist (an alternate wizard class) and Starship Pilot (a new class loosely based off ranger)

You can find several starship designs, 2 beetle spelljammer like ships, a starsystem map, a mountaintop research facility, and a near-future undersea science station all in the last 3 pages of my Map Emporeum thread in the Misc. Forums.

You might borrow ideas from many recent published settings for D&D/Space game, since many seem to be cropping up:

EN Publishing Santiago setting and AP
Paizo Publishing Iron Gods AP - and the soon to be published plug-ins for that AP from Legendary Games (I already created all the maps for one plug-in adventure, and will be doing one for a Nick Logue contribution soon as well.)

 

[gamerprinter]

Error - delete this post, please...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Do you have any ideas about races?

 

[Sadrik]

Rules additions:
Radiation counts as fire damage but it deals 1d6 per minute. You can have higher levels that deal +1d6. To remove it you need to cast a restoration spell.
Vacuum counts as 1d6 bludgeoning damage per round, and 1d6 cold damage per round. Partial vacuum as in a decompressing ship would be no damage until completely decompressed.

Ideas for ships on the easy. Rope trick in a rocket. Potable hole. Magnificent mansion fashioned as a ship. Control weather to create a breathable atmosphere. Find the path to navigate precise coordinates. Teleportation circle for FTL travel and communications. Plane shift to another plane, then plane shift back to the location you want to be on this plane. Teleportation in general.

D&D has the problem that they created for the new star trek movies. If they have a personal device that can teleport you anywhere. Why are their still ships. Answer that question for your game. In D&D you have scrying/find the path too. So you can just see the galaxy and then teleport there. Why take a sow ship? What purpose does a ship have? If there are established teleportation circles, there is really none.

 

[gamerprinter]

Ideas for ships on the easy. Rope trick in a rocket. Potable hole. Magnificent mansion fashioned as a ship. Control weather to create a breathable atmosphere. Find the path to navigate precise coordinates. Teleportation circle for FTL travel and communications. Plane shift to another plane, then plane shift back to the location you want to be on this plane. Teleportation in general.

D&D has the problem that they created for the new star trek movies. If they have a personal device that can teleport you anywhere. Why are their still ships. Answer that question for your game. In D&D you have scrying/find the path too. So you can just see the galaxy and then teleport there. Why take a sow ship? What purpose does a ship have? If there are established teleportation circles, there is really none.

Personally, I like the way EN Publishing Santiago setting approached it. Technology is magic, formulas or procedures are spells, spellcasters (wizards/sorcerers) are scientists or computer programmers. A magic effect is a result of using technological devices and applying programmed codes to activate the effects. So for all intents and purposes, magic as we know it in the D&D sense doesn't exist. I'm more in favor of creating air-tight ships with air tanks, air filtration systems, temperature controls - fully designed and realistic starships, and not rockets with rope trick cast on it.

Whenever I create a thematic setting, I often remove spells that don't fit the setting, essentially saying given spells do not function in the setting. For example in my published Kaidan setting of Japanese horror (PFRPG), the PC death mechanic is extremely unique and spells like resurrection, reincarnation, and raise dead do not function all. Due to that settings unique cursed and closed planar system, plane shift doesn't function. So in a Space Fantasy D&D setting, I'd have no problems with eliminating Teleport (perhaps making it a rare and unknown power that some unique, advanced interstellar race might still possess the ability, but for most of the populated galaxy teleport just doesn't work. If you need to get from point A to point B, you need a starship with a fixed speed to get you there.

In any possible Space Fantasy D&Desque game, I wouldn't run it like StarTrek at all. I'd much rather frame it around Dune, Star Wars or Firefly.

 

[MadScientistVaping]

I'm currently playing in a 5E Spelljammer game. The DM didn't have much trouble converting the setting's rules to 5E after he got his hands on the AD&D SJ books. There are plenty of places to get them, he found a lot of physical copies at a local used book store chain and eBay while PDFs can be found on DriveThruRPG or other less legal places...

 

[Benjamin Pass]

Rules additions:
Radiation counts as fire damage but it deals 1d6 per minute. You can have higher levels that deal +1d6. To remove it you need to cast a restoration spell.
Vacuum counts as 1d6 bludgeoning damage per round, and 1d6 cold damage per round. Partial vacuum as in a decompressing ship would be no damage until completely decompressed.

Ideas for ships on the easy. Rope trick in a rocket. Potable hole. Magnificent mansion fashioned as a ship. Control weather to create a breathable atmosphere. Find the path to navigate precise coordinates. Teleportation circle for FTL travel and communications. Plane shift to another plane, then plane shift back to the location you want to be on this plane. Teleportation in general.

D&D has the problem that they created for the new star trek movies. If they have a personal device that can teleport you anywhere. Why are their still ships. Answer that question for your game. In D&D you have scrying/find the path too. So you can just see the galaxy and then teleport there. Why take a sow ship? What purpose does a ship have? If there are established teleportation circles, there is really none.

I like the ideas of low doses of radiation and doing fire damage, but why restoration to restore it? Ordinary cure spells should work. Now, when you're being bombarded with elementary particles as well as high energy photons, specifically those in the X-Ray and Gamma ray end of the spectrum, I would go with the Immortals Handbook on that one where it does ability score damage to all three physical ability scores and then restoration would be required. The actual ability score damage could vary based on proximity to the source of intense radiation, anywhere from a single point, to multiple dice. Also, I'm not sure if you're familiar, but shouldn't extended vacuum exposure also do dessication damage? See Sandstorm if you're not familiar, but basically it's dehydration damage.

Onto your next point about teleportation. In order to be able to teleport anywhere via the spell or any effect that replicates the spell you have to have been there yourself or at least have a vivid description of the place in question. In a universe that is tens of billions of light-years across with hundreds of billions of galaxies, simply looking up at the motes of light in the night sky is not sufficient to say you could teleport there. You would have to use powerful divination magic to scope out a given teleportation destination before you could go there, else the spell will not function. Furthermore, unless you can be in two places at once, you'd essentially have to scope out a given stellar neighborhood one at a time. This works perfectly for my campaign that I'm working on because each time the PCs go to scope out a previously and presumably unexplored stellar neighborhood, I as the DM get to describe what they encounter, either by determining the encounter beforehand or rolling it up randomly. In most cases, given their level, if I want any combat to be involved it would be wise of me to roll up some stat-blocks beforehand, but as far as just role-playing is concerned, there is usually little need for stat-blocks.

The ship itself is in the physical plane impressive, to be sure, but many of its' decks contain dozens of extra-dimensional spaces and the real purpose of the ship isn't really for the immortals whom will be serving as the PCs for this adventure, but rather to serve as a vessel for their mortal retinue, some of whom may be rolled up as PCs in lower level (and by extension easier to manage as a DM) sub-adventures which take place simultaneously. Adventures within adventures! The ship itself was made to be very accommodating to mortals and the magical and psionic support provided by it is limitless. Almost anything a mortal could want can be taken care of easily enough, anything except that is, for satisfying their sense of adventure which is the whole point of voyaging among the stars in the first place.

 

[Sadrik]

Teleport, Greater
Conjuration (Teleportation)
Level: Sor/Wiz 7, Travel 7

This spell functions like teleport, except that there is no range limit and there is no chance you arrive off target. In addition, you need not have seen the destination, but in that case you must have at least a reliable description of the place to which you are teleporting. If you attempt to teleport with insufficient information (or with misleading information), you disappear and simply reappear in your original location. Interplanar travel is not possible.

Just have a reliable description. I agree with your point though, with billions if not trillions of locales it is like finding a needle in 1,000 haystacks. Though I think that they could look at a star and simply teleport there. Where there is may be entirely inhospitable though... in vacuum, in intense gravity, in an intense radiation zone etc. Perhaps develop a "mishap table" for this with the most common result being simply in vacuum.

Are there star charts, is this like star trek the last frontier? or is this like star wars, dune, and firefly where everywhere is mapped out? I think you have this set up as more exploratory, so more like star trek.