here's a little idea for a game that's been floating around my head for a while. what if early D&D had been based around classic scifi rather than classic fantasy, but otherwise kept the same structures. how would you translate, say, b/x dnd into a scifi game. Why B/X? because it's my favourite edition, that's why.
so. principles. We want to keep the basic structures of the game the same: descendingarmour class, xp-for-treasure, dungeon exploration, the seven classic classes, etc etc. like early dnd, we want to keep our setting minimal but with some strong implications, a template you can build your own scifi setting out of, with a grab-bag of relevant tropes and concepts thrown in. we want to keep the same gameplay loop.
So, our set-up. We replace 'adventurers' exploring 'dungeons' and later a 'wilderness' with 'salvagers' exploring 'derelict ships' and later 'deep space'. You get XP for the valuable salvage you can leave the derelict with. At first, you explore a given derelict room-to-room, and once you've done that your little salvager band can return to a space station, sell your loot, maybe buy new equipment or hire some followers, and move on to the next derelict and continue.
First big thing: classes. We want to keep our classes pretty simple, classic and broad, to cover wide archetypes. b/x dnd has seven classes: 4 human classes (fighter, thief, cleric, magic user) and 3 demihumans (dwarf, elf, halfling).
We will do likewise: 4 human classes, and three non-human classes.
The Fighter remains the same. High hit dice, access to all the best armour and weapons, done. No changes.
The Thief remains largely the same, too. We change up the thief skills a bit to represent the scifi setting, but a lot of them - find traps, open locks, etc - are still very applicable to the task of exploring a hostile space-derelict for salvage. The only one that we should probably replace is 'scale sheer surfaces', which gets turned into the more useful 'navigate zero-gravity'. these stay one key difference is, obviously, which weapons the thief gets, since we'll be using a different weapon list.
The Cleric is tonally off for scifi, but there's an easy archetype to replace it with: the Psychic. We can keep the 'turn-away undead' ability, but replace it with 'turn away people': it's a sort of jedi-mind-trick or psychic scream that causes people (whose minds are sensitive to these things) to avoid the psychic, and a 'destroyed' result is basically a headsplosion. The cleric Spells at level 2+ are replaced with Psychic Powers, that need to be readied through careful meditation and can then be unleashed later. Psychic healing, support, and a bunch of mystical utility powers.
Likewise, the Magic User is not great for scifi, so we can replace it with something better: the Network User. This is your hacker/technologist/admech type character. Their spellbook is replaced with a data-tablet, on which is stored the Programs (spells) they can use. They have a finite number of Programs they can store in their data-tablet's memory, prepped and ready to go with the flick of a switch. These can cover a wide variety of technobabble tasks, giving them the same utility as a regular magic user. As the Network User levels up, they expand their data-tablet's memory, allowing them to prepare more and stronger programs. Scrolls are replaced with data-chips, little portable one-shot files that you can use immediately, or plug into your data-tablet to learn whatever program's on the chip.
The demi-humans are equally simple to handle.
The Dwarf is replaced by the G.E.O. Aka, the Genetically Engineered Organism, custom made for space exploration. Tough, rugged, and short, able to see in the dark through heat-vision and with some perks for void-exploration such as the ability to spot certain space-hazards.
The Halfling is replaced by the Alien. Typically in the 'little green men' mould, the Alien is short, hard to hit and good at shrugging off hazards, good at sneaking, and a dab hand with a laser pistol.
Lastly, the Elf is replaced with the AI. An artificial intelligence in a synthetic body. The elf's immunities to sleep etc are replaced with the normal immunities for not being a biological life-form. The elf's sharper senses and infravision are likewise a product of the AI's advanced scanners and superior data processing. And, in the same way that the Network User can use Programs through training and their own data-pad, so too the AI has a built-in data-pad that lets them innately use Programs.
Now, the miscelania of the system.
Attributes are kept exactly as is, tbh. Frankly, 'Wisdom' makes just as much sense as a prime requisite for psychics as it does for clerics, in my view.
Saves get renamed. Death or Poison (D) remains the same. Wands (W) is replaced by Weapons, for saves against weird rays, sprays, beams, and other fanciful devices. Paralysis or Petrification (P) can again stay the same. Breath Attacks (B) becomes Blasts, for bombs, explosions and so on. And lastly Spells Rods or Staves (S) is replaced with Strange Effects, as a catch-all for everything else.
We can likewise rework equipment. Armour goes from Leather/Chain/Plate armour to Padded/Flack/Power armour. The weapon list gets re-worked: spears and bows are out, laser pistols and shotguns are in. We can add some proper space-utility-gear to the general equipment list: geiger counters, oxygen tanks, spray-glue, fire extinguishers, magnetic boots, etc.
Gold Pieces are replaced with Credits. Levelling still works the same way. Likewise, Magic Items are replaced with Xenotech, weird alien devices that do weird inexplicable things in ways that humans don't quite understand.
The party get a space-ship for free. It's a simple shuttle to get them between locations of interest. deepspace encounters replace wilderness encounters. Add a very barebones ship-to-ship system, we don't want it much more complex than the regular b/x combat rules.
Likewise, the mechanic at high levels for getting a stronghold and followers is kept; hit high levels and you can build a lil space station of your own, a cantina where similar salvagers will come to work under your leadership.
Dungeons are replaced with space derelicts, floating wrecks of spaceships an space-stations. Some are still protected by old security systems, and others have been infested by wandering space-monsters and such.
On the topic of which, space monsters! We can pretty much go through the standard monster manual reskinning.
Vat Soldiers covers our various orcs, goblins, ogres, trolls etc. Cloned mass produced soldiers for various space-empires, sometimes still fighting for those empires, sometimes lingering after the empire that created them fell. These are still, fundamentally, people just like you, but the fact they're all mass-produced to be soldiers (cannon-fodder for goblins, up to shock troops for trolls) warps their cultures around that.
Spacers is our equivallent of various human/elf/etc encounter types. Space merchants, bounty hunters, space pirates, vanguard soldiers of evil space-empires, etc etc. Drow, dero, dueragar etc are likewise alien space-empires; our klingons and moon-men and venusian amazons.
Nano-virus Creatures covers our undead. Something - probably a living thing - has been infested with nano-viruses that use its body as a host. Incorporeal undead are swarms of tiny nanobots in an almost intangible cloud; instead of being immune to magic, you need to hit them with energy attacks: fire, EMPs, etc.
Robots covers various constructs and artificial beings. Gargoyles, golems, animated armour, etc etc etc. All robots.
Space Monsters covers all our weird DnD shit. Wacky aliens, space whales, weird scifi anomalies, evil plants, giant carnivorous cubes. Frankly a giant eyeball monster that shoots weird beams all over the place is plenty at home in pulp scifi without any adaptation at all. Kinda a grab bag for All The Other Stuff.
As far as a campaign goes? Set up a hex-map for a local asteroid field. Scatter in some space-stations where towns would normally go, and some derelicts where dungeons would go. Come up with some random encounter charts for deep space between stations, map out some derelicts, roll up a party and go.
I have yet to *actually write it* but I think it's a pretty good skeleton for good old fashioned pulpy scifi. Illustrations can be liberally lifted from early 20th century pulps, there's plenty of good stuff out there.
no idea if i'll actually make this. my work laptop is in the repair shop right now, so i can't get started even if i want to. we shall see.
(yes, I know traveller exists, and yes I know stars without number exists. this is different. traveller is very much its own game that is still going strong, and SWN is a pretty clean modern scifi game with some osr stylings. *This* is a full-on, pretty faithful, retroclone, just with all the fantasy swapped out for scifi.)
