Help on a sci-fi campaign

[superninja109]

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[Rule-Of-Three]

I have some experience running a similar-themed campaign, also with lingering injuries and high lethality. I think mine was probably tuned up from what you're thinking (tech vorpal swords were standard for elite boarding parties) and discovered that as lethality increases, the emphasis moves towards planning. Stealth and detection become your real weapon systems, and planning is what determines whether you're rerolling between sessions or not. It has a very OSR feel (which I like) and my players did as well. If your troupe is like mine, be prepared for sessions to involve a lot of meticulous divination-equivalent and countermeasures, and if the players get it right, they get a short, brutal victory. If not, a short, brutal TPK.

As for names, maybe druids could be Biomancers, or splicers? Now that I think about it, both those names came from Rifts, but bio-tech priests that seek to spread life across the cosmos adapted to new worlds is a workable faction.

[Rule-Of-Three]

Thanks for the response!

I like the idea of calling druids biomancers and the fluff that goes with that.

Also, from what you said, I should probably have a lot of information that they can scout/research/gain ahead of encounters. So, I'll probably have to focus a lot on having it feel a bit sandboxy where they are rarely rushed into an encounter before they can plan (except from wandering ones they can expect). Does that sound about right?

Thanks again.

You're on point. In fact, I found a pleasant knock-on effect in that as lethality rose, the player's preparation rose to match mine as DM. Having the information available for them to find if they are looking and clever is key to maintaining the "fair play" feel, and there's a lot of satisfaction when they execute well. If you're also using XP rather than gated leveling, a well-planned ambush of a powerful target can be a thrilling encounter with a big payoff.

[Ettina]

I feel like D&D sci-fi should lean heavily towards the science fantasy end rather than the hard sci-fi end, in which case being obviously magical isn't a big deal. Maybe rename magic to "Force" or something.

I'd honestly be more concerned about martial classes. You basically have to remake all the weapons and armor to have them make sense in a setting that isn't assuming basically medieval/Renaissance level technology.