A little while back me and my party were discussing possibly doing a Sci-Fi campaign, but we didn't want to learn a whole new set of tabletop rules for a Sci-Fi focused game. So, we were discussing whether or not D&D works well with other genres, and I thought I'd get you guy's opinions on it.
I wouldn't say D&D lends itself well to fantasy in general. It basically defined/created a very particular, idiosynchratic version of fantasy gaming, and it lends itself well to...itself.
It can work for any other genre, as long as you can make said genre work with it --- that's where the real work is, mapping the genre onto D&D's eccentricities.
I think there are enough changes you would need to make and keep track of that you are doing at least as much work as it would take to learn a different system that was designed for sci-fi.
There are some pretty interesting systems out there, and learning how they handle issues differently than D&D can inform your future D&D games.
Starfinder is really Pathfinder 1 in space, and Pathfinder 1 is really D&D 3rd edition advanced, so... sure? I liked D20 Modern back in the day too, and there are games like Mutants and Masterminds that use the D20 ruleset as well. A ruleset is just that, a bunch of rules. Every one of them has upsides and downsides.
As for adjusting the current D& rules towards sci-fi yourself though, that's really a different question. All those examples I gave took a ton of work by experienced design teams, even if they had a basic set op rules and mechanics to start from. Even if you aimed for a more minimalist approach, you'd still be looking at some substantial amount of work. In comparison, learning another system that's already balanced, ready and complete is a lot easier.
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
I agree that there are probably better systems... but there are probably some d20 style systems (which are 3/3.5e-based) that you could look at which would not be too much of a leap from D&D 5e.
In terms of existing SF systems, Stars Without Number and Traveler are fairly well known. There's also Star Adventurer, which is an OSR style SF game.
If you want to get into IPs, there are always Star Wars, Star Trek Adventures, and Alien.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
If the IP doesn’t scare you away the Star Wars RPG by Fantasy Flight might just be the best game I’ve ever played. (And no, I don’t think D&D does sci-fi very well, unfortunately.)
The Truth is DnD does dnd style fantasy well and pretty much nothing else. You could probably get away with reskinning it for Post Apocalypse by turning the magic items into tech items and racial groups and monsters into mutants. If you don't want to do that you will spend way less effort learning a new system.
This is why I like a narrative, genre agnostic, rule set, but I guess that's neither here nor there.
Most rulesets are genre agnostic at heart. It's their implementation that gears them towards a genre. D&D is not a high fantasy RPG because it has classes and skills and saves, it's high fantasy because of the specific classes, skills and saves it has. Something like FFG's Genesys is not a ruleset, it's a system. It only becomes a full ruleset when a setting is applied to that system and it becomes apparent which careers, archetypes, skills, talents etc are appropriate - but in doing that, you're also making it genre specific. You can't really play with just a system.
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
This is why I like a narrative, genre agnostic, rule set, but I guess that's neither here nor there.
There are plenty to choose from if that's what you want... Savage Worlds, GURPS, the Hero System, Mythic...
But D&D is definitely NOT one of them.
Heck as Mehrkat said, D&D doesn't even generically do fantasy well... it just does D&D style fantasy well. Bog-standard D&D would be horrible at trying to replicate LOTR -- you need multiple hardbound supplements to do that (Adventures in Middle Earth or something similar). At one point I considered trying to adapt it to the Land from the Thomas Covenant series but you'd have to re-write nearly every spell and homebrew every race... it would not be worth it.
All of this is a long way of saying, to the OP, no, D&D would not be a good system to use to try and do science fiction. You're better off either with a sci-fi game, or with a genre-agnostic game like Savage Worlds or GURPS and then a sci-fi supplement for that ruleset.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I wouldn't peg 5e d&d in its entirety to be the best rules set for sci fi as a whole. But the d&d Spell jammer books are supposedly a big hit to mash-up everything, not sure if there are any conversions printed though
It REALLY is going to depend on getting more feedback from you to figure out exactly what you and your group wants to accomplish in a Sci Fi game? Or what is appealing about Sci Fi that you'd wanna do at a table together? Explore space anamoly especially in a science based mission? Starship combat? Gritty alien landscapes, eeking out a living? Space station politics? A lot of different Sci Fi settings will lend themselves to very different rules mechanics to highlight the best features/interests of a genre.
There's tons of sci fi games that could be a fun fit to take a short break from Fantasy. I've been enjoying both Star Wars and Star Trek Adventures more, plus other non D&D games this past year. It's refreshing. But, like you mentioned, not fun to learn wholesale new sets of rules.
Browse around some titles / google for what's called "rules light" sci fi games that are smaller in scope, everyone should be able to pick up rules much quicker that way
A little while back me and my party were discussing possibly doing a Sci-Fi campaign, but we didn't want to learn a whole new set of tabletop rules for a Sci-Fi focused game. So, we were discussing whether or not D&D works well with other genres, and I thought I'd get you guy's opinions on it.
Sure. It just depends on what type of sci-fi you want. Eberron is "sci-fi" in the sense that it uses magic as its science. Spelljammer is "sci-fi" in the sense that it is an outer-space campaign setting where you can fly around in space ships and shoot others with muskets and laser pistols. Dark Sun is "sci-fi" in the sense that psionics is a major part of the world, and psionics originates from sci-fi sources (maybe it would be more accurate to call Dark Sun "psi-fi").
The DMG has rules for Using Alien Technology and Sci-Fi Firearms. Explorer's Guide to Wildemount has magic items and spells related to time and gravity warping. Dungeon of the Mad Mage and Rime of the Frostmaiden have rules for space-travel and time-travel. Eberron (and now Tasha's Cauldron of Everything) has the Artificer subclass, which is by far the most "sci-fi" class in the game.
If you want to do "pure sci-fi" in the sense that it doesn't have any magic in it, just disallow most of the magic classes. Of the 13 official classes in 5e, only the Bard, Cleric, Paladin, Warlock, and Wizard classes must be magical in flavor. Druids could be like the shape-shifters in the comic-books, Rangers can be easily reflavored as just using skills they learned as a hunter/bounty hunter (the Horizon Walker, Swarmkeeper, and Gloom Stalker subclasses fit well as sci-fi/superpowered subclasses), Sorcerers can fit a lot of classic superpowered characters, like Ice-Man, Storm, Susan Storm, and Dark Phoenix. A sci-fi world with a party composed of a high-tech tinker with a [Tooltip Not Found], a laser-pistolslingingsharpshooter, a futuristic detective, and a force-field generating hero that fights against Telepathic Space Squids would be just as valid of a campaign as the classic D&D campaigns.
So, go for it. If you, or anyone else reading this thread, wants to play a sci-fi themed campaign, nothing's stopping you. I encourage playing D&D in non-standard ways. It opens up the hobby even more, which is a good thing.
Outside maybe the scifi/fantasy meld world you see in something like the French animated Heavy Metal, I wouldn't shoe horn any Sci Fi genre into D&D unless my players really didn't want to learn a new rules system. D&D 5e is not a generic system, d20 was though needed supporting rules for its varying genres IIRC. There are generic systems for those who want to hop among genres without having to learn new rules, and those are fun to play with; but so aren't games with mechanics written around the genre. An easy and almost too cute example of the latter being In Nomine where 3d6 results of 111 or 666 had different results depending on whether you were an Angel or Demon ... ironically In Nomine after being adapted by Steve Jackson into English, had a GURPS conversion). The best TTRPG version of Star Wars, WEG's d6 system's "Wild Die" is great for Star Wars ... not for Star Trek, The Expanse, Robotech or The Southern Reach trilogy (now why hasn't someone done a game for that series? ). Sometimes specific game foundation mechanics are better for specific tropes than others, and leaving behind that aspect is the trade off you get when you go generic mechanic or "narrative" rules (as if narratives don't have rules or games that lead to different play amongst themselves).
Anyway don't try to reskin D&D to render The Matrix.
Over the Edge, a William S. Burroughsesque sci fi TTRPG, needed it's own rule set.
I would also recommend Spaceships and Starwyrms as a fun sci-fi game for 5e and Carbon 2185 as a good cyberpunk one. Both tweak the rules and classes just enough to fit their genre while still being very much a 5e core, and those two are just off the top of my head. I don't think 5e is really inherently a fantasy system more than it is any other high action system for heroes. If you're prepared to do a bit of reskinning or picking up supplements then the magic systems works just as well for Psi powers, limited charge tech like powers in your favourite Sci-Fi computer RPG, or a bunch of other options. Nothing else about the attributes/HP/proficiences/saves/etc. is particularly grounded in the fantasy genre.
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A little while back me and my party were discussing possibly doing a Sci-Fi campaign, but we didn't want to learn a whole new set of tabletop rules for a Sci-Fi focused game. So, we were discussing whether or not D&D works well with other genres, and I thought I'd get you guy's opinions on it.
I wouldn't say D&D lends itself well to fantasy in general. It basically defined/created a very particular, idiosynchratic version of fantasy gaming, and it lends itself well to...itself.
It can work for any other genre, as long as you can make said genre work with it --- that's where the real work is, mapping the genre onto D&D's eccentricities.
I think there are enough changes you would need to make and keep track of that you are doing at least as much work as it would take to learn a different system that was designed for sci-fi.
There are some pretty interesting systems out there, and learning how they handle issues differently than D&D can inform your future D&D games.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Starfinder is really Pathfinder 1 in space, and Pathfinder 1 is really D&D 3rd edition advanced, so... sure? I liked D20 Modern back in the day too, and there are games like Mutants and Masterminds that use the D20 ruleset as well. A ruleset is just that, a bunch of rules. Every one of them has upsides and downsides.
As for adjusting the current D& rules towards sci-fi yourself though, that's really a different question. All those examples I gave took a ton of work by experienced design teams, even if they had a basic set op rules and mechanics to start from. Even if you aimed for a more minimalist approach, you'd still be looking at some substantial amount of work. In comparison, learning another system that's already balanced, ready and complete is a lot easier.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
I agree that there are probably better systems... but there are probably some d20 style systems (which are 3/3.5e-based) that you could look at which would not be too much of a leap from D&D 5e.
In terms of existing SF systems, Stars Without Number and Traveler are fairly well known. There's also Star Adventurer, which is an OSR style SF game.
If you want to get into IPs, there are always Star Wars, Star Trek Adventures, and Alien.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Stars Without Number is "old school" style so just be aware of that (at least, that is what I have heard... not played it myself).
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
If the IP doesn’t scare you away the Star Wars RPG by Fantasy Flight might just be the best game I’ve ever played. (And no, I don’t think D&D does sci-fi very well, unfortunately.)
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
The Truth is DnD does dnd style fantasy well and pretty much nothing else. You could probably get away with reskinning it for Post Apocalypse by turning the magic items into tech items and racial groups and monsters into mutants. If you don't want to do that you will spend way less effort learning a new system.
This is why I like a narrative, genre agnostic, rule set, but I guess that's neither here nor there.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Most rulesets are genre agnostic at heart. It's their implementation that gears them towards a genre. D&D is not a high fantasy RPG because it has classes and skills and saves, it's high fantasy because of the specific classes, skills and saves it has. Something like FFG's Genesys is not a ruleset, it's a system. It only becomes a full ruleset when a setting is applied to that system and it becomes apparent which careers, archetypes, skills, talents etc are appropriate - but in doing that, you're also making it genre specific. You can't really play with just a system.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
I don't agree with this, but I can see the room for subjectivity so I'm not willing to argue the point. It's not really on topic anyway.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
There are plenty to choose from if that's what you want... Savage Worlds, GURPS, the Hero System, Mythic...
But D&D is definitely NOT one of them.
Heck as Mehrkat said, D&D doesn't even generically do fantasy well... it just does D&D style fantasy well. Bog-standard D&D would be horrible at trying to replicate LOTR -- you need multiple hardbound supplements to do that (Adventures in Middle Earth or something similar). At one point I considered trying to adapt it to the Land from the Thomas Covenant series but you'd have to re-write nearly every spell and homebrew every race... it would not be worth it.
All of this is a long way of saying, to the OP, no, D&D would not be a good system to use to try and do science fiction. You're better off either with a sci-fi game, or with a genre-agnostic game like Savage Worlds or GURPS and then a sci-fi supplement for that ruleset.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I wouldn't peg 5e d&d in its entirety to be the best rules set for sci fi as a whole. But the d&d Spell jammer books are supposedly a big hit to mash-up everything, not sure if there are any conversions printed though
It REALLY is going to depend on getting more feedback from you to figure out exactly what you and your group wants to accomplish in a Sci Fi game? Or what is appealing about Sci Fi that you'd wanna do at a table together? Explore space anamoly especially in a science based mission? Starship combat? Gritty alien landscapes, eeking out a living? Space station politics? A lot of different Sci Fi settings will lend themselves to very different rules mechanics to highlight the best features/interests of a genre.
There's tons of sci fi games that could be a fun fit to take a short break from Fantasy. I've been enjoying both Star Wars and Star Trek Adventures more, plus other non D&D games this past year. It's refreshing. But, like you mentioned, not fun to learn wholesale new sets of rules.
Browse around some titles / google for what's called "rules light" sci fi games that are smaller in scope, everyone should be able to pick up rules much quicker that way
Boldly go
Sure. It just depends on what type of sci-fi you want. Eberron is "sci-fi" in the sense that it uses magic as its science. Spelljammer is "sci-fi" in the sense that it is an outer-space campaign setting where you can fly around in space ships and shoot others with muskets and laser pistols. Dark Sun is "sci-fi" in the sense that psionics is a major part of the world, and psionics originates from sci-fi sources (maybe it would be more accurate to call Dark Sun "psi-fi").
The DMG has rules for Using Alien Technology and Sci-Fi Firearms. Explorer's Guide to Wildemount has magic items and spells related to time and gravity warping. Dungeon of the Mad Mage and Rime of the Frostmaiden have rules for space-travel and time-travel. Eberron (and now Tasha's Cauldron of Everything) has the Artificer subclass, which is by far the most "sci-fi" class in the game.
If you want to do "pure sci-fi" in the sense that it doesn't have any magic in it, just disallow most of the magic classes. Of the 13 official classes in 5e, only the Bard, Cleric, Paladin, Warlock, and Wizard classes must be magical in flavor. Druids could be like the shape-shifters in the comic-books, Rangers can be easily reflavored as just using skills they learned as a hunter/bounty hunter (the Horizon Walker, Swarmkeeper, and Gloom Stalker subclasses fit well as sci-fi/superpowered subclasses), Sorcerers can fit a lot of classic superpowered characters, like Ice-Man, Storm, Susan Storm, and Dark Phoenix. A sci-fi world with a party composed of a high-tech tinker with a [Tooltip Not Found], a laser-pistol slinging sharpshooter, a futuristic detective, and a force-field generating hero that fights against Telepathic Space Squids would be just as valid of a campaign as the classic D&D campaigns.
So, go for it. If you, or anyone else reading this thread, wants to play a sci-fi themed campaign, nothing's stopping you. I encourage playing D&D in non-standard ways. It opens up the hobby even more, which is a good thing.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Stars Without Number has a free .pdf version of its first edition (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/86467/Stars-Without-Number-Free-Edition); Coriolis has a free .pdf with the quickstart rules (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/204702/Coriolis-The-Third-Horizon--Quickstart). If you would like to see what they're about without buying anything just yet, you can.
Esper Genesis (https://espergenesis.alligatoralleyentertainment.com) is a heroic sci-fi reskin of 5E. I've been told it's not a very good reskin, fair warning, but that shows it can be done at least.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Starfinder?
"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
Outside maybe the scifi/fantasy meld world you see in something like the French animated Heavy Metal, I wouldn't shoe horn any Sci Fi genre into D&D unless my players really didn't want to learn a new rules system. D&D 5e is not a generic system, d20 was though needed supporting rules for its varying genres IIRC. There are generic systems for those who want to hop among genres without having to learn new rules, and those are fun to play with; but so aren't games with mechanics written around the genre. An easy and almost too cute example of the latter being In Nomine where 3d6 results of 111 or 666 had different results depending on whether you were an Angel or Demon ... ironically In Nomine after being adapted by Steve Jackson into English, had a GURPS conversion). The best TTRPG version of Star Wars, WEG's d6 system's "Wild Die" is great for Star Wars ... not for Star Trek, The Expanse, Robotech or The Southern Reach trilogy (now why hasn't someone done a game for that series? ). Sometimes specific game foundation mechanics are better for specific tropes than others, and leaving behind that aspect is the trade off you get when you go generic mechanic or "narrative" rules (as if narratives don't have rules or games that lead to different play amongst themselves).
Anyway don't try to reskin D&D to render The Matrix.
Over the Edge, a William S. Burroughsesque sci fi TTRPG, needed it's own rule set.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I would also recommend Spaceships and Starwyrms as a fun sci-fi game for 5e and Carbon 2185 as a good cyberpunk one. Both tweak the rules and classes just enough to fit their genre while still being very much a 5e core, and those two are just off the top of my head. I don't think 5e is really inherently a fantasy system more than it is any other high action system for heroes. If you're prepared to do a bit of reskinning or picking up supplements then the magic systems works just as well for Psi powers, limited charge tech like powers in your favourite Sci-Fi computer RPG, or a bunch of other options. Nothing else about the attributes/HP/proficiences/saves/etc. is particularly grounded in the fantasy genre.