As the title suggests I'm thinking about making a sci Fi campaign about a large starship from another dimension that crashes down on the ??? ( I'm not sure yet thinking of the forgotten realms) That the party explores and has robots and monsters in it. Eventually they will reach the bridge and meet a friendly robot that warns them of war and to go to the hangar. He gives them a key card. When they get to the hangar a fleet of starships come out from the portal. There are mechs in the hangar. The parties would hopefully engage the fleet after its ominous warning using the mechs. The final boss would be a large more powerful mech piloted by the leader of the invasion. Any tips would be nice. Ps this is my first campaign I'm working on and I am midway threw my first ever campaign as I'm a new dm
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If your eyes tell you what your seeing how do you know there not lying?
As far as piloted mechs, that’s not really something D&D does well. You can get at a sci-fi campaign through re-skinning: magic is tech, longbows are laser rifles, swords are light sabers, armor is power armor, or even just a force field. That can get you most of the way to a sci-fi game. Heck, laser guns found in a crashed spaceship goes all the way back to 1e, and I think they’re re-printing that adventure (expedition to the barrier peaks) in the upcoming Infinite Staircase book. Not a full campaign, but could be an adventure or two. But mechs, in particular are tough to re-create. The two RAW options (I can think of) are the Mighty Servant of Leuk-o and the Apparatus of Kwalish which are magic items that are basically mechs, or pretty close at least. You might check them out. Or maybe an armorer artificer.
Regarding some of the weapons, DDB already has laser pistols, laser rifles, and powered armor. I guess sun blades for light sabers.
Quests from the Infinite Staircase has the adventure, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. In this adventure you will find a number of sci-fi items, robots, and monsters.
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
Yeah yeah, nobody wants to hear "play a different game" as an answer to their D&D modding question, but I'm going to say it anyway. D&D's vehicle combat rules are very bad, the sci-fi weapons that exist in the rules are monstrously overpowered, and merely reskinning medieval weapons and armor as high-tech is usually deeply unsatisfying. You don't have to spend the time and effort building another game over top of D&D 5e to play a sci-fi campaign with mech combat; other TTRPGs already exist that are built from the ground up for that purpose. I recommend Lancer because I've played it and I feel it's very easy for experienced D&D players to understand. I also recommend it because there's a fully free PDF of the basic rules available here. If nothing else, at least look over those rules and see if there's anything you want to try to adapt for your campaign.
D&D 5e is pretty good at the thing it's designed for, which is a swords-and-sorcery dungeon-crawling light-survival experience. The further away from that you get, the harder you're going to have to work for no additional reward. I highly recommend not overworking yourself and simply picking up another game that suits your intended play experience out of the box.
As far as piloted mechs, that’s not really something D&D does well. You can get at a sci-fi campaign through re-skinning: magic is tech, longbows are laser rifles, swords are light sabers, armor is power armor, or even just a force field. That can get you most of the way to a sci-fi game. Heck, laser guns found in a crashed spaceship goes all the way back to 1e, and I think they’re re-printing that adventure (expedition to the barrier peaks) in the upcoming Infinite Staircase book. Not a full campaign, but could be an adventure or two. But mechs, in particular are tough to re-create. The two RAW options (I can think of) are the Mighty Servant of Leuk-o and the Apparatus of Kwalish which are magic items that are basically mechs, or pretty close at least. You might check them out. Or maybe an armorer artificer.
I've already homebrewed the mech if you want to see it go to the thread I made so people can use it. It's in the homebrew section of forums. I turned an Iron Golem into it and it's barely recognizable. For the good
Regarding some of the weapons, DDB already has laser pistols, laser rifles, and powered armor. I guess sun blades for light sabers.
Quests from the Infinite Staircase has the adventure, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. In this adventure you will find a number of sci-fi items, robots, and monsters.
Yeh while I am thankfully for the advice I don't have the staircase sadly. edit: left an r by accident
Dmge Resistances: slashing ,bludgeoning, pearcing, force
Dmge Immunities: poison, cold, necrotic, psychic
Attacks: slam, +5 to hit. One target 2d8 bludgeoning damage., charge, 1d6 recharge 5. Move up to double your speed in a straight line that is 10ft wide. If you hit a medium or smaller creature the creature must make a dc19 dex saving throw taking 2d10 bludgeoning damage, gets knocked prone and launched10ft away on a failed save or half as much damage on a successful save., incendiary breath, the mech exhales /launches fire in a 30ft line or a 15ft cone. Any creature in that area must make a dc20 dex saving throw taking 10 d8 fire damage or half as much on a successful one., Throw, make a grapple attempt at an object ore creature of medium or smaller. If it succeeds you may throw the target up to 50ft away. If the creature/object you threw hits a creature that creature must make a DC 17 dex saving throw taking 2d6 bludgeoning damage and getting knocked prone on a failed save or half as much on a successful save and not getting knocked prone. If you threw a creature the creature takes 2d8 bludgeoning damage and gets knocked prone., (optional) assault rifle, range 100/200ft one target. Roll a d10 then roll a number of of d8s equal to the result of the d10. The total of the d8s is the amount of piercing damage the target takes.
Traits: mech, a creature can spend 10 ft of movement to enter an empty mech. A creature inside a mech has full cover and enough oxygen to survive for 24 hours. While inside a mech the creature (henthforth referred to as the pilot) can can only take actions that the mech canand gains complete control over the mech., immutable form: the mech is immune to any effect that would alter its form., constructed resilience, the mech does not need to eat, sleep, breath or drink., magic resistance, the mech has an advantage on saving throws against magic., magic attacks, the mechs attacks are magical.
Edit: please don't take credit for this your barrowing this after all
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If your eyes tell you what your seeing how do you know there not lying?
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, an adventure from the new Quests from the Infinite Staircase book, is a sci-fi heavy adventure you might want to look into.
Now I really don't want to play a different system so please stop telling me to. Also I will homebrew alot and while I'm new I'm very good at homebrewing. Now if anyone as any idea on something to reskin/edit to make the final boss/robots it would be deeply appreciated l.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If your eyes tell you what your seeing how do you know there not lying?
A piece of advice I can give which I am using for one of my oneshots (similar concept to mechs but magic not science) is that the reason people want these sorts of things is because they want to be more powerful, and the simples way to achieve that (which I found) was to make the colossi (mechs) manifest the appearance and abilities of their users.
So rather than making a mech with a railgun on their shoulder that does X damage and a big sword that does Y damage, which the rogue or cleric would be basically not playing their own character to pilot, the mech would be generic until occupied, whereupon it would manifest all the player character's abilities, but multiplied by an amount based on the power/size of the mech. pilot a large one, the damage of weapons is x2. Huge is x3, gargantuan is x5. Roll more dice! Then you can add magic-chanelling mechs which have "magic guns" which if you cast a firebolt down it, it multiplies the damage. Now you have a sci-fi reskin of the characters as mechs, whilst retaining all of their decisions in the beginning. Let them use their imaginations. "I use my bonus action to dash". "Ok, how does that look in your mech suit?" "Oooh, these boosters emerge from my ankles and I skim across the battlefield!".
Then you can add some mech abilities which they also gain, like ejector seats and jetpacks and whatnot, which different mechs have, and which adds to their abilities.
A piece of advice I can give which I am using for one of my oneshots (similar concept to mechs but magic not science) is that the reason people want these sorts of things is because they want to be more powerful, and the simples way to achieve that (which I found) was to make the colossi (mechs) manifest the appearance and abilities of their users.
So rather than making a mech with a railgun on their shoulder that does X damage and a big sword that does Y damage, which the rogue or cleric would be basically not playing their own character to pilot, the mech would be generic until occupied, whereupon it would manifest all the player character's abilities, but multiplied by an amount based on the power/size of the mech. pilot a large one, the damage of weapons is x2. Huge is x3, gargantuan is x5. Roll more dice! Then you can add magic-chanelling mechs which have "magic guns" which if you cast a firebolt down it, it multiplies the damage. Now you have a sci-fi reskin of the characters as mechs, whilst retaining all of their decisions in the beginning. Let them use their imaginations. "I use my bonus action to dash". "Ok, how does that look in your mech suit?" "Oooh, these boosters emerge from my ankles and I skim across the battlefield!".
Then you can add some mech abilities which they also gain, like ejector seats and jetpacks and whatnot, which different mechs have, and which adds to their abilities.
This is probably the best way to fit this concept into D&D; the critical thing is that your players' character build choices be reflected in the abilities of the mechs they pilot. You don't want to run your players through a whole campaign only to functionally replace their characters with pre-mades at the climax. I would also recommend against introducing too many new game mechanics at the last moment, but if you gave all mechs the options to, say, Eject and Self-Destruct, that could potentially lead to some interesting gameplay choices.
I might add some unique features per person, but this fight is meant to be mech v mech style so I don't no about ejector seats/selfdestruct
Okay, in that case I would keep those unique features limited to one unique weapon or system per mech; basically on the scale of Rare magic items. You want the mechs to compliment what the characters already do, not overshadow or replace them. Giant robots are cool, but reaching the end of a campaign and discovering your character build doesn't matter in the final battle is not cool.
I might add some unique features per person, but this fight is meant to be mech v mech style so I don't no about ejector seats/selfdestruct
Okay, in that case I would keep those unique features limited to one unique weapon or system per mech; basically on the scale of Rare magic items. You want the mechs to compliment what the characters already do, not overshadow or replace them. Giant robots are cool, but reaching the end of a campaign and discovering your character build doesn't matter in the final battle is not cool.
Yah, makes sense l. I think I'll give the fighter the ability to deal extra damage the cleric the ability to passively repair allies the rogues the ability to cloak.
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If your eyes tell you what your seeing how do you know there not lying?
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As the title suggests I'm thinking about making a sci Fi campaign about a large starship from another dimension that crashes down on the ??? ( I'm not sure yet thinking of the forgotten realms) That the party explores and has robots and monsters in it. Eventually they will reach the bridge and meet a friendly robot that warns them of war and to go to the hangar. He gives them a key card. When they get to the hangar a fleet of starships come out from the portal. There are mechs in the hangar. The parties would hopefully engage the fleet after its ominous warning using the mechs. The final boss would be a large more powerful mech piloted by the leader of the invasion. Any tips would be nice. Ps this is my first campaign I'm working on and I am midway threw my first ever campaign as I'm a new dm
If your eyes tell you what your seeing how do you know there not lying?
As far as piloted mechs, that’s not really something D&D does well.
You can get at a sci-fi campaign through re-skinning: magic is tech, longbows are laser rifles, swords are light sabers, armor is power armor, or even just a force field. That can get you most of the way to a sci-fi game. Heck, laser guns found in a crashed spaceship goes all the way back to 1e, and I think they’re re-printing that adventure (expedition to the barrier peaks) in the upcoming Infinite Staircase book. Not a full campaign, but could be an adventure or two.
But mechs, in particular are tough to re-create. The two RAW options (I can think of) are the Mighty Servant of Leuk-o and the Apparatus of Kwalish which are magic items that are basically mechs, or pretty close at least. You might check them out. Or maybe an armorer artificer.
Regarding some of the weapons, DDB already has laser pistols, laser rifles, and powered armor. I guess sun blades for light sabers.
Quests from the Infinite Staircase has the adventure, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. In this adventure you will find a number of sci-fi items, robots, and monsters.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Play Lancer instead.
Yeah yeah, nobody wants to hear "play a different game" as an answer to their D&D modding question, but I'm going to say it anyway. D&D's vehicle combat rules are very bad, the sci-fi weapons that exist in the rules are monstrously overpowered, and merely reskinning medieval weapons and armor as high-tech is usually deeply unsatisfying. You don't have to spend the time and effort building another game over top of D&D 5e to play a sci-fi campaign with mech combat; other TTRPGs already exist that are built from the ground up for that purpose. I recommend Lancer because I've played it and I feel it's very easy for experienced D&D players to understand. I also recommend it because there's a fully free PDF of the basic rules available here. If nothing else, at least look over those rules and see if there's anything you want to try to adapt for your campaign.
D&D 5e is pretty good at the thing it's designed for, which is a swords-and-sorcery dungeon-crawling light-survival experience. The further away from that you get, the harder you're going to have to work for no additional reward. I highly recommend not overworking yourself and simply picking up another game that suits your intended play experience out of the box.
Ha! I wanted to go there and always get slammed for it. Bravo my friend. I support your proposition!
There is also Shadowrun, Starfinder, Mechwarrior, Mechanoids, Gamma World, ....RIFTS...all kinds of stuff. Dark Matter!
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
I've already homebrewed the mech if you want to see it go to the thread I made so people can use it. It's in the homebrew section of forums. I turned an Iron Golem into it and it's barely recognizable. For the good
Yeh while I am thankfully for the advice I don't have the staircase sadly. edit: left an r by accident
If your eyes tell you what your seeing how do you know there not lying?
Hers the mechs stats for your ease
HP: 250 speed:40 ft Ac:23 size: large type: construct
Str: 27 dex: 14 con:20 into: pilots wis: pilots cha: pilots
Condition immunities: exhaustion, poisoned, petrified, paralyzed, charmed, dazed, stunned.
Dmge Resistances: slashing ,bludgeoning, pearcing, force
Dmge Immunities: poison, cold, necrotic, psychic
Attacks: slam, +5 to hit. One target 2d8 bludgeoning damage., charge, 1d6 recharge 5. Move up to double your speed in a straight line that is 10ft wide. If you hit a medium or smaller creature the creature must make a dc19 dex saving throw taking 2d10 bludgeoning damage, gets knocked prone and launched10ft away on a failed save or half as much damage on a successful save., incendiary breath, the mech exhales /launches fire in a 30ft line or a 15ft cone. Any creature in that area must make a dc20 dex saving throw taking 10 d8 fire damage or half as much on a successful one., Throw, make a grapple attempt at an object ore creature of medium or smaller. If it succeeds you may throw the target up to 50ft away. If the creature/object you threw hits a creature that creature must make a DC 17 dex saving throw taking 2d6 bludgeoning damage and getting knocked prone on a failed save or half as much on a successful save and not getting knocked prone. If you threw a creature the creature takes 2d8 bludgeoning damage and gets knocked prone., (optional) assault rifle, range 100/200ft one target. Roll a d10 then roll a number of of d8s equal to the result of the d10. The total of the d8s is the amount of piercing damage the target takes.
Traits: mech, a creature can spend 10 ft of movement to enter an empty mech. A creature inside a mech has full cover and enough oxygen to survive for 24 hours. While inside a mech the creature (henthforth referred to as the pilot) can can only take actions that the mech canand gains complete control over the mech., immutable form: the mech is immune to any effect that would alter its form., constructed resilience, the mech does not need to eat, sleep, breath or drink., magic resistance, the mech has an advantage on saving throws against magic., magic attacks, the mechs attacks are magical.
Edit: please don't take credit for this your barrowing this after all
If your eyes tell you what your seeing how do you know there not lying?
I agree with everyone else that you should play a different system if you wanna to this properly.
That being said, Spelljammer is a great tool for getting to the sci fi side of DND. I'd suggest looking there if you're locked into this plan.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, an adventure from the new Quests from the Infinite Staircase book, is a sci-fi heavy adventure you might want to look into.
Now I really don't want to play a different system so please stop telling me to. Also I will homebrew alot and while I'm new I'm very good at homebrewing. Now if anyone as any idea on something to reskin/edit to make the final boss/robots it would be deeply appreciated l.
If your eyes tell you what your seeing how do you know there not lying?
This thread has a list of free DDB resources. Some are already sci-fi but others can be modified.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/general-discussion/193995-free-adventures
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
A piece of advice I can give which I am using for one of my oneshots (similar concept to mechs but magic not science) is that the reason people want these sorts of things is because they want to be more powerful, and the simples way to achieve that (which I found) was to make the colossi (mechs) manifest the appearance and abilities of their users.
So rather than making a mech with a railgun on their shoulder that does X damage and a big sword that does Y damage, which the rogue or cleric would be basically not playing their own character to pilot, the mech would be generic until occupied, whereupon it would manifest all the player character's abilities, but multiplied by an amount based on the power/size of the mech. pilot a large one, the damage of weapons is x2. Huge is x3, gargantuan is x5. Roll more dice! Then you can add magic-chanelling mechs which have "magic guns" which if you cast a firebolt down it, it multiplies the damage. Now you have a sci-fi reskin of the characters as mechs, whilst retaining all of their decisions in the beginning. Let them use their imaginations. "I use my bonus action to dash". "Ok, how does that look in your mech suit?" "Oooh, these boosters emerge from my ankles and I skim across the battlefield!".
Then you can add some mech abilities which they also gain, like ejector seats and jetpacks and whatnot, which different mechs have, and which adds to their abilities.
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This is probably the best way to fit this concept into D&D; the critical thing is that your players' character build choices be reflected in the abilities of the mechs they pilot. You don't want to run your players through a whole campaign only to functionally replace their characters with pre-mades at the climax. I would also recommend against introducing too many new game mechanics at the last moment, but if you gave all mechs the options to, say, Eject and Self-Destruct, that could potentially lead to some interesting gameplay choices.
I might add some unique features per person, but this fight is meant to be mech v mech style so I don't no about ejector seats/selfdestruct
If your eyes tell you what your seeing how do you know there not lying?
Okay, in that case I would keep those unique features limited to one unique weapon or system per mech; basically on the scale of Rare magic items. You want the mechs to compliment what the characters already do, not overshadow or replace them. Giant robots are cool, but reaching the end of a campaign and discovering your character build doesn't matter in the final battle is not cool.
Yah, makes sense l. I think I'll give the fighter the ability to deal extra damage the cleric the ability to passively repair allies the rogues the ability to cloak.
If your eyes tell you what your seeing how do you know there not lying?