Dragonstar

[Xorial]

I have started the laborious process of entering data for my future Dragonstar Campaign. Which, needless to say involves a little bit, just a tiny bit, of conversion, lol. For compatibility's sake, I was going to remain true to the original setting except where the old rules are superseded by Pathfinder Rules. Because of that, I am checking what some of you think about what I have planned so far.

The additional racial abilities will be turned into alternate racial traits, instead. Some of them may actually end up traits that can be taken by any race.

I will make "Imperial" archetypes for each class. Most of these won't change much more than skills. Anyway, I plan to make it where you can still take nearly any other archetype for your chosen class.

Feats, I will have to add the Technical Proficiency feat. I am going to ignore the extra feats, like Two-Gun Fighting. The precedent, since d20 Modern & carried over into Pathfinder, is the standard Two-Weapon Fighting feat applies to firearms as well. Many of the feats in the Starfarer's Handbook are already in the game in some fashion. No need to reenter them.

Skills, I have the Modern Hero data set, but I am not counting on everybody having it, even if it is free. I will enter the new skills needed. I originally thought of using Fly as the go to skill for Freefall. After further consideration, I think Fly also deals with aspects of flying that do not carry over into Zero G training. I believe Acrobatics works better. That said, I am leaning to allowing those with the Fly skill to use it as well. That leaves Pilot, Repair, and Use Device to be entered in.

The biggest changes may well be the weapons & armor section. Like it, or not, Pathfinder resolves most firearms as against Touch AC. With that in mind, I will adjust the weapons accordingly. Adjust damages to reflect something to the range of Pathfinder. That mean the design of armor will need to be looked at. My idea is to leave the AC Bonuses as the equivalent Fantasy versions. If it looks like Plate, it has the same AC as Plate. The differences will be some Hi-Tech qualities. One quality will add DR. I will do this because of the way actual real world body armors are designed. Kevlar is meant to absorb the energy of a bullet. The other quality will allow the AC bonus of said armor to still apply to Touch Attacks. This may be thru Ablative coatings that flake away, or thru Anti-Kinetic Fields.

Now, a change that to some may be bigger, but really doesn't affect the data set. Pathfinder changed the definitions of the ranges of Teleport spells. Greater Teleport no longer has truly unlimited range. It is unlimited on a planet. It is not allowed for interplanetary distances, much less interstellar. Even the new 9th level spell Interplanetary Teleport doesn't reach interstellar distance. There is an alternate FTL drive in the Guide to the Galaxy, but it isn't widely used in the original setting. Simply use the Astral Plane as the fantasy Hyper-Space. that would change the construction of the Long Highway to based on the Gate spell. The other way is to make it where the ranges of a Teleport spell are greatly increased when you get away from the gravitational influences of a star. the quickest way to teleport a ship would then to go to the Zenith, or Nadir, point of a star. The limit would wrap like a bubble around the star. This could be used to explain, form a scientific viewpoint, how there is an occasional teleportation mishap, even when a caster is very familiar with his/her target. The stars truly where not aligned for it.

[chiefweasel]

Hey there, I have been looking to start a DragonStar version of Pathfinder as well. I would start with the basic book and expand from there.

When playing DS I did find that the teleport was too powerful for a character, and caused a lot of role playing problems. I instead put limits on character teleports but left ships alone to operate as they normally do.

If you would like to contact me I would be happy to lend a hand.

My new hope was to create the DS data set and do HL demo videos on it. I was ging to try and start some of it before Gen Con, but my time is getting chewed up gearing up for the convention.

[Xorial]

Demo videos as a step by step demonstration on entering data?

[chiefweasel]

And just how to use HL. There are several out there already, but to create a whole system and document it would be a help to the overall community.

[Xorial]

I believe you are right.

[chiefweasel]

Shoot me a Private Message when you would like to start on this and we can coordinate things. Its going to be a bit rough for me before Gen Con, but I might be able to fit some time in.

[chiefweasel]

Hey there Xorial, any movement on this?

I was talking to a few folks at Gen Con about this and we would like to run with the project if you havent gotten very far. Just let me know, I didnt want to duplicate work.

[Xorial]

I wouldmsay go ahead with yours. I ran into some personal time conflicts that have this ground to a halt right now.

[chiefweasel]

Sounds good. I'll get with Rich and set up some videos for it.

Can you send me what you have so far so i dont duplicate the work, thanks.

[Xorial]

I have been having issues with trying to export files. Every time I send somebody a file, they can't get it to open. Also, I didn't really get that far. All I did was make some Imperial Archetypes for the classes that still let the players choose another archetype.