Help Needed with Space Campaign

[FlourescentKing]

After playing 3.5 for a while, my friends and I got bored and switched to 5e. We think we've got the hand of it, and one player asked for a space-age campaign (think Star Wars/Star Trek). I thought it was an awesome idea and agreed to DM it. Unfortunately, I've come across some problems:

1: Firearms. Because this is space age, the players will be expecting guns of some sort. I'm planning to keep the technological advancement to a minimum, possibly with the explanation that space travel was achieved through advances in magic (think magical hyperdrives) and/or the invention of a field that renders most guns useless, in order to keep combat mostly to swords and sorcery. For the guns that DO exist, however, I'm thinking of ruling them kind of like crossbows but with multiple shots before reloading and a chance to misfire. Thoughts?

2: Technology as a whole. Tying back to the idea of ships running on magical energy, I thought about "EMP"s (maybe grenades that release a burst of temporary Dispel Magic?). What other cool, futuristic, space-techy stuff could I fluff by having devices that produce magical effects etc.?

As this is planned to be a mid-high level campaign, I also need some ideas for BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guys). I was thinking about a plot line where the PCs are hired by a scientist to defend his lab and research against paladins and clerics fearing the loss of their god/religion by advances in technology (their deity being proven to not exist, creating a power greater than a god, etc.). Possibly standard dungeon crawling on some abandoned planet, but in a race against rival parties to defeat the mega-boss. Suggestions/thoughts?

[JackPhoenix]

Check out Spelljammer if you want D&D with spaceships, magic and generally still low tech. Most stuff is magic based, there are firearms, but mostly reneissance muskets and pistols. The setting is little quirky, but pretty neat from what I've seen. Never got a chance to play it, it was discontinued in 3e, so you may want to check homebrew and old 2e books before porting stuff in 5e ruleset.

Pick some other system if you want to run "proper" sci-fi campaign.

[Townopolis]

A friend of mine had a similar idea, and his plan for all things tech was to just find the closest thing in the PHB and say "it's that." For example, blasters with automatic or semi-automatic fire used the rules for shortbows and longbows. There were also blasters that needed to be reloaded/cocked between shots... you know, because something needed to use crossbow rules.

Power armor? The stuff in this universe just happens to be as effective against blasters as plate was against arrows. Energy shield? Of course! All combat armor incorporates energy shields, or you can get them by themselves. There's the standard energy shield, which sets your AC to 11+dex; the mil-spec shield, which sets your AC to 12+dex; and the civilian personal protection field, which is the same as the standard except it emits bright blue "protection alertness" lights that impose disadvantage on stealth rolls.

[xanderh]

For weapons, check out the DMG. It has rules for firearms from different periods, including renaissance, modern, and futuristic.

[SharkForce]

i wouldn't use spelljammer for a realistic space setting. it's a good setting if you just want what is essentially high seas fantasy, but in space instead of on water. i wouldn't go too far beyond that, though.

[JoeJ]

Check out Spelljammer if you want D&D with spaceships, magic and generally still low tech. Most stuff is magic based, there are firearms, but mostly reneissance muskets and pistols. The setting is little quirky, but pretty neat from what I've seen. Never got a chance to play it, it was discontinued in 3e, so you may want to check homebrew and old 2e books before porting stuff in 5e ruleset.

Pick some other system if you want to run "proper" sci-fi campaign.

Spelljammer also keeps guns from taking over everything because you can't use them in the phlogiston or they'll explode.

[darkrose50]

Check out Star Frontiers for some ideas . . . it was a TSR product.

This comic makes fun of D&D in space, and is fun to boot.
http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0001.html

Stars Without Number: Free Edition is basically OD&D in space.
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/86467/Stars-Without-Number-Free-Edition

All should be somewhat useful for ideas.

[SharkForce]

Spelljammer also keeps guns from taking over everything because you can't use them in the phlogiston or they'll explode.

spelljammer keeps guns from taking everything over because they are worse than using a bow. and frankly probably worse than lobbing pointy sticks at people.

if guns were good, there are ways to make them not go horribly wrong in the phlogiston. heck, someone should've invented a phlo-cannon that uses the properties of phlogiston instead of smokepowder.

[JoeJ]

spelljammer keeps guns from taking everything over because they are worse than using a bow. and frankly probably worse than lobbing pointy sticks at people.

if guns were good, there are ways to make them not go horribly wrong in the phlogiston. heck, someone should've invented a phlo-cannon that uses the properties of phlogiston instead of smokepowder.

Guns had some drawbacks, but the potential for infinite damage made up for them IMO.

The phlo-cannon sounds like something a gnome would invent.

[SharkForce]

Guns had some drawbacks, but the potential for infinite damage made up for them IMO.

The phlo-cannon sounds like something a gnome would invent.

the potential for infinite damage was practically speaking irrelevant. assuming you even got the ridiculous damage, it was far more likely to happen when you didn't need it than when you did.

[JoeJ]

the potential for infinite damage was practically speaking irrelevant. assuming you even got the ridiculous damage, it was far more likely to happen when you didn't need it than when you did.

So, clearly not to your taste.

To get back to the OP's question, though, Spelljammer is still an example of how to allow firearms without making other weapons obsolete. Since they can't be used in the phlogiston, and may not work in some star systems, it makes sense that a starfaring society won't put very much effort into developing the technology.

Also, space travel is magical, and the overall level of technology is roughly renaissance/early enlightenment, so having guns be somewhat primitive is not as jarring as it would be if they had computers and fusion reactors.

[snowman87]

My very first time playing a D&D campaign was 5E and the DM set us in a homebrew world that was similar in respects to Eberron but sometimes more advanced. I was a sorcerer so I flavored my character's spells as being produced by gadgets he invented. Chromatic Orb? Custom handgun. Web? Sticky grenade. Shocking Grasp? Taser gauntlets. So on and so on. We had zombie robots we fought made from dead soldiers with zombie stats but were vulnerable to lightning damage, as well. We communicated over short distances with walkie-talkies imbued with the Message cantrip. There's really no limit to how you can flavor stuff. You just have to think of the practical side-effects. If my guy was captured and had his stuff confiscated? No spell casting until he got it back.

[Goober4473]

Boy have I got a Campaign Setting For You (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R7q_ZOABIATBD3aukbofH7GKl1tm-Hug063BOnR7ToY).