Dark Matter Campaign Suggestions

[FiddleForge]

I'm planning a 5e Dark Matter game (which I don't see talked about a lot here for some reason) with a Farscape spin. All the players would be from Earth, which exists in the setting, flung into space during a rare exposure to magic. They would start completely ignorant about anything and learn about the setting gradually through experiencing it.

What would you do with such a campaign? Where would you take it? Any ideas you think should be thrown in? I get hung up on singular mindtracks and I'd appreciate some outside influence.

[Sparky McDibben]

I would start in media res, with the players coming out of a portal into a dangerous situation (battle, hostage crisis, starship with a decaying orbit, etc.), then as they complete milestones (fighting a boss monster, rescuing a hostage, hacking a console) you flashback to a random character's moments pre-exposure. This gives you an immediate BANG! and then let's the Pcs learn about each other.

As far as where I would take it, my style is to leave that up to the PCs; I let them go wherever seems interesting and keep my prep flexible.

Can you tell me more about Dark Matter? Sounds neat.

[FiddleForge]

It's a very detailed space adaptation setting for 5e. Just imagine if all the races from Forgotten Realms evolved to have light speed travel one day and colonized different sectors of space, althought they actually all have different origins. Magic is still used just as often as technology but you get the lasers guns and lightsabers being used alongside fireball and fly spells. Ships can be practical or fantastic. They can travel via void jumps, which are dangerous, or via the maws, giant space stations made out of the skeletons of long dead colossal creatures with void gates in their mouths. Lots new monsters and races custom to the setting. Even a new class. It looks great.

[Sparky McDibben]

That sounds awesome!

I'm currently gearing up to run an Esper Genesis campaign, which is a similar (albeit less-fantastical) concept. One of the things that I'm really struggling with, though, is that they don't give you much in the way of DM tools. Like, in their version of the DMG (Master Technician's Guide), it gives you some tools for rolling up a star system. But that's like, "Great! This system has a binary star...what does that do?"

I'm basically using Stars Without Number to patch those holes, but your description has me interested - does Dark Matter have a better handle on DM's tools? I might have to pick it up, if so.

[FiddleForge]

Yeah, it's got the things you need, ships, planets, alien races, cultures, combat, lingo, gadgets, all that stuff.