Good day to all,
My question is this, I am looking at the possbilities for a futuristic 4E, does anyone know of one that's already been done?
I was a big fan of Dragonstar and was considering just converting that setting to 4E but if something goods already been done I was hoping to avoid the extra work! I have got Star Wars Saga edition which is a great version of Star Wars but not D&D Futuristic.
Many thanks.
I ran (and am about to run again) a sci-fi based 4e game. I changed absolutely nothign at all in terms of rules, just reskinned everything to be a bit more hitech. worked perfectly. I even used the base rules and classes to represent ship to ship combat.
reskinning really is the best option ive found. No need to fiddle around with stuff then, and just concentrate on the game.
Just looked up Dragonstar - sounds like a cool space opera setting, which may be just the thing to wean my fiance off of EVE Online and back to PnP - so thanks for the heads-up.
You might be able to use some of the advice in this Enworld thread on giving 4E the space adventure treatment. The key issue seems to be how much you want ship-to-ship combat to be a part of the game, versus planetary adventures. Sounds like Dragonstar was more of a planetary empire, political/social-oriented setting, so some of the advice on building sci-fi skill challenges may be of some use. Hope that helps.
Ship-to-Ship has major potential as a Skill Challenge. I once tried to work on a 4E sci-fi setting but ran into problems generating a sci-fi equipment list. And there still isn't much out for 4E that is futuristic but there are a few good-looking products on the horizon.
Just looked up Dragonstar - sounds like a cool space opera setting, which may be just the thing to wean my fiance off of EVE Online and back to PnP - so thanks for the heads-up.
You might be able to use some of the advice in this Enworld thread on giving 4E the space adventure treatment. The key issue seems to be how much you want ship-to-ship combat to be a part of the game, versus planetary adventures. Sounds like Dragonstar was more of a planetary empire, political/social-oriented setting, so some of the advice on building sci-fi skill challenges may be of some use. Hope that helps.
Dragonstar is an excellent setting. I've got the Dragonstar books from 3rd ed and now gotten a PDF for Dragonstar.
The main difference is the armour bonus went higher in Dragonstar( more advanced armour and power armour which could give STR bonus) and the minus's to skills were lower, which better represented the more advanced armours, a number of the feats in DS are wasted because they apply to 3rd ed two weapon fighting etc but there are some good ones for ship based stuff.Gunfire was handled in three round bursts for Autofire where the attacker announced if they were using the burst fire, roll to hit and if the attack exceeded the AC by 5 then an additional hit occured, by 10 then two additional hits occured etc. Simple but effective.
Suppression fire in an area meant in an arc in front of the firer he was expending a lot of bullets but anyone in the arc of fire took a hit ( required a attack roll then the target rolled a Reflex save).
Ship to ship combat should work just as well with little adjustment or I do have Star Wars Saga edition to look at for inspiration if nothing else.
I have also got 'wraith recon' which gives you the option for an almost 'The Unit (tv series)' style game with unit equipment preset.
Dragonborn would be major players in the setting as half dragons in Dragonstar are very respected among the sentient races.
Ship-to-Ship has major potential as a Skill Challenge. I once tried to work on a 4E sci-fi setting but ran into problems generating a sci-fi equipment list. And there still isn't much out for 4E that is futuristic but there are a few good-looking products on the horizon.
Sci-Fi equipment list is very well handled with the Dragonstar book. Zip cuffs, Datapads, lowlight goggles, Darkvision goggles etc. Take a look if you can get a copy.
The DragonStar Starfarers Handbook is the mainbook, the Galaxy guide has cyberware in it but can be easily worked in with 4E.