Elves. In. Spaaace.
December 2, 2013 8:57 AM   Subscribe

My D&D 3.5 campaign is going to space! Help it get there.

I'm DMing a custom setting that is early-industrial with experimental machinery powered by magic, but still has people fighting with swords and crossbows and so one. So there's construction cranes and automatons, but not cars or guns. A janky, completely experimental rocketship would fit right in.

I want to take it into space -- most likely the moon, which will basically be like our moon -- but I don't to take the "a wizard did it" route. However, I'm not great at the actual mechanics of D&D so I'm not confident in my ability to come up with balanced technology rules from whole cloth. I'm looking for D20-compatible or easily adaptable rulesets, guides, and tips for things like:

-Gernsback-y technology
-Mech suit/space suit/giant robot combat rules
-Rocket piloting
-Low/zero gravity combat rules
-Adaptations of popular SF stuff (e.g. the Aliens power-lifter). I already gave them a very nerfed version of the Portal gun and they like it.

Stuff like the Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is great.
posted by griphus to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (9 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
You might look at the core rulebook for Star Wars: Saga Edition. (Available used and online in various places too.)

It's a d20-based system that's incredibly compatible with D&D 3.E since it was designed by the same company and used as a testing ground for future D&D developments. It contains simple, balanced, rules for gravity, vacuum, space suits, droids, etc. It also contains a pretty simple spaceship/vehicle combat system. Although some people have criticized it for being too simple, it sounds like it would work for your purposes.

Alternatively, I don't know if you're familiar with the AD&D 2E setting Spelljammer, which is a really wacky version of D&D-in-space that sounds like it isn't fully what you have in mind. But there have been various attempts to convert its mechanics and equipment and creatures into 3.E, such as this website. You might still get some cool ideas from it.
posted by willbaude at 9:11 AM on December 2, 2013


FWIW, 3rd edition had a Spelljammer feature in one of the Dragon magazines. The article was called "Shadow of the Spider Moon" but I don't recall the Dragon issue.

I'm just assuming here that you know about the glorious madness that is Spelljammer. It may not be as sci-fi as what you're going for.
posted by Z. Aurelius Fraught at 9:11 AM on December 2, 2013


Response by poster: Oh, I should've mentioned that I'm quite familiar with Spelljammer, yeah.
posted by griphus at 9:12 AM on December 2, 2013


One other possibly relevant thing: the 3.5 seafaring adventure supplement Stormwrack has rules for dealing with ships and ship combat. At least some of that is probably transferable if spaceship action might ensue.
posted by Z. Aurelius Fraught at 9:30 AM on December 2, 2013


Take a look at the "Distant Worlds" Pathfinder Campaign Setting. It's probably got almost everything you want, and PF is nominally 100% backwards-compatible with 3.5e.
posted by hanov3r at 10:04 AM on December 2, 2013


Do you know how long-term you want the space stuff to be? If it's just a couple of adventure arcs, that's different from moving home base there permanently. Do you, for instance, want players to have to spend points on space-related skills/feats to be competent, or do you want to use their existing skills*? Do you want space items to be comparable in power to non-space items, or more powerful?

*In which case, like, the thief with high acrobatics may be competent in zero gravity right out of the gate.

In general, if you're shaky on the mechanical side of things, you should stick to
1) Recoloring existing stuff (the robot exoskeleton acts like a belt of giant strength, but takes up the cloak slot)
2) Adding one of a few standard bonuses and penalties that you've had some time to think about (The exoskeleton lets you breathe in space, which isn't a big deal because it'll break down underwater and doesn't block out poison gas, and multiple space items give that same benefit because otherwise characters can't go moon-walks)
3) Making items limited and/or unreliable (the exoskeleton breaks down and requires GM-defined repairs if the user rolls a 1; the exoskeleton is powered by lunar radiation and can't be taken on-planet)
4) Hand-waving and distraction ("Ok, Bob, you send the rocket screaming out of the skies towards the surface of the moon [do not make Bob roll to pilot the rocket, because you don't know what skill that is or how to balance it] .. as he's doing that, the rocket is jolted uncontrollably -- everyone fighting the space-orcs needs to roll acrobatics to avoid getting knocked around! [you know how to handle a trap or situation where people might be knocked down, or can flip to the grease spell and use those rules]"
posted by inkyz at 10:06 AM on December 2, 2013


Yeah, rip off Star Wars Saga. Invent some way that people can get skills quickly too, 3.5 is not kind to people trying to buckle their swash without the appropriate skills/stats.
posted by Sebmojo at 1:16 PM on December 2, 2013


I don't know what kind of fantasy world you've got, but as a point of inspiration, Discworld did space travel by pushing a wooden spacecraft off the edge of the flat, circular world...
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:57 AM on December 3, 2013


A week late, but if you can find any of the old DragonStar series, it's basically D&D in space:

http://www.amazon.com/Dragonstar-Starfarers-Fantasy-Flight-Games/dp/1589940563
posted by bigdamnnerd at 9:36 AM on December 10, 2013


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