Sci-Fi Up Your 5e Dungeons & Dragons & TTRPG
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ส.ค. 2024
- We're taking a rocket ship to inspiration station this week! We're talking about the genres of Science Fiction and Space Fantasy and how to make a kickass sci-fi Dungeons and Dragons or TTRPG campaign.
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"Lost Laboratory of Kwalish explores an alternate expedition into the Barrier Peaks" dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/lost-laboratory-kwalish
Released as an Extra Life adventure before christmas
A science fantasy book I have always liked is Lord of Light, it has a very interesting twist and different look as it deals with people who have made themselves into deities as well as dealing with things like reincarnation.
Check out Ventus by Karl Schroeder for a hard scifi look at a 'medieval' civilization ruled by nanobots and orbital AI's. It's one of his first books and I think has a free DL on his site: www.kschroeder.com/my-books/ventus/my-books/ventus/free-ebook-version.
Just a heads up, M.A.R. Barker sat on the editorial board of a holocaust denial advocacy group and wrote Nazi fan-fic released by a white supremacist publisher. So, he's probably not a guy to continue citing.
Me a few weeks ago
"Yo....He-man and Lion-O are friggin hexblade warlocks..."
Multiclassed into a barbarian, obviously
Wow...I mean yeah.
I always thought of them as barbarians that found blackrazor-level artifacts but their INT scores were too low to understand them.
C M
I mean they probably mixed with barbarian and paladin
He-man is a 20th level paladin
I ended up making a science fantasy setting as a kid just based on the lego sets I had to play with (I had some scifi ones and some medieval ones). The gist of it is magic gradually died out as technology improved...became a totally sci-fi setting until during a mining operation a legendary sword was found that ended up releasing a lich and now magic is back. So there's now an intergalactic undead empire incorporating advanced technology against the well established civilization that now has to try to cope with magic
Neat. That makes me curious, what do you think of the Nexo Knights line?
I had something similar which leans much more into sci-fi but still had arthurian knights with laser swords, tech worshippers, and a load of aliens who just decided to hang out in Atlantis. Lego was a big part of that, although it was les being based and literally copying and pasting Lego Universe in...
thats very Gloryhammer. I love it.
Sounds like a CD from Gloryhammer
Adventure Time has some good interactions between the fantastical and tech. Great D&D inspiration.
YES!!!! That show is incredible.
Adventure time is literally a D&D show. There was a joke about Fin not doing stuff because it's "against his alignment."
Pendleton Ward is a huge D&D guy, he helped write tomb of annihilation for 5e
Tanner Schake I love the fact they brought him in to write for some levity in an otherwise grim campaign. You can really tell where he was involved!
oh my, I think I had a nerdgasm over the phrase "I practice the psionic techniques of the Golden Tower and am versed in the Hundred Spells of the Last Realms of Men."
What is that a reference to?
I'd also like to know, sounds cool as heck
After some googling, best guess is the Magisterium series of books by Holly Black & Cassandra Clare, it looks like it's Potteresque modern fantasy and one of the books is called The Golden Tower. No luck googling various parts of that quote, though.
I figured they just made it up on the spot.
That's some good nerd talk right there.
Love the intro gag today XD
Yeah it was fun!
Ladies and gentlemen : the greatest episode of Web DM.
I was going to say the same. started thinking it would be relatively uninteresting, but now I am sitting here rivited, giving me so many ideas
To this day. No offense to the boys, its just that this one is so good.
Still the best!
I loved the sorcerer origin In Xanathar’s: “You were made in a vat by an alchemist”. That’s straight Vancian science fantasy and I could easily build a whole character around that.
Props for mentioning He-Man. I remember the initial mini-comics that game with the figures. They were the epitome of Jack Vance style science fantasy. I was 7 when they came out and was blown away.
Then, then next year the cartoon hit and He-Man suddenly had a mild-mannered secret identity and lived in some sort of utopian society where Skeletor was just an external threat. I believe that at the age of 8, that may have been my first ever “WTF, man?” moment. It was no where near as cool as the world depicted in those mini-comics. And then they changed the comics to match the damned TV show.
I just watched Wizards a few weeks ago at around 2 o'clock in the morning on a movie channel. After the first minute I knew I was going to stay up and watch the whole thing.
It was interesting, weird, and cool. I don't think I would have sought it out on my own but it happened to be on and I'm glad I watched it
Try "Fire and Ice", another Ralph Bakshi film. It's good too.
Photonic Cutlass I love it!
I think it sounds cooler than lightsaber, though the name fits a hardlight construct better than a truncated plasma beam.
Light *waver*
There will be a "Photonic Sword of the Order" in my DnD game. Basicly a Sunsword but found in an "Iron Fortress" deep in the Mountains.
@@benjaminstorace6699 neat idea!
They used that in the classic She Ra cartoon
Pruitt in the thumbnail is forever burned in my mind
You're welcome!
Zardoz sounds like the weirdest movie ever made.
@@niall_sanderson It is. Definitely worth watching if only for the WTF factor.
ZARDOZ is a "classic".
speak for yourself I'm trying to find a way to get it on fullscreen
I like to create settings where it's mostly traditional fantasy, but then in some places magic and industrial technology mix a little bit. Dwarves might use underground rivers and coal to produce electricity, which leads to sprawling underground train networks.
That nano sorcery bit is fantastic. A Sci-fi Necromancer that animates corpses with some sort of nano tech would be sweet. A horde of these zombies would act like a hive mind and could even be made stronger, faster, etc with the implants.
I made a setting once where one of the PC races was a sentient swarm of nanobots inhabiting a human corpse. Other races included space elves, squirrel-halfling hybrids, androids, and sentient ooze.
If you haven't read, "Prey", by Michael Crichton, I'd highly recommend it.
As I'm watching this, I can feel my brain getting rid of useless stuff to store all the ideas I have from the words flowing out of jim and pruitt's mouth! So glorious.
Pruitt wearing a tight red leather banana hammock and quoting Zardoz in a thick Scottish accent was a mental image I really didn't need in my life, thumbnail.
Pruitt is this the right time to ask for the Spelljammer encounter tables?
Working on getting that out this year!
Like... please? Give us some written material... ?
What about adding a few races from star frontiers?
It has been a while since we have seen Pruitt using a lightsaber! Great episode, guys.
Book of the New Sun is absolutely incredible. You guys should definitely check it out - just mind-bending stuff with tons of awesome science-fantasy. Sort of takes the promise of Vance's Dying Earth to the next level.
Ayy Pruitt's lightsaber from the 6 in the morning fanfilm! i love it
Oh my Lord, the intro to this video has to be my favorite due to Jim being like an 8 year old in class playing lasers and light cutlasses with his best friend Pruitt during history class. You guys just made my day! XD
I love sneaking in some surprise sci-fi elements into a traditional D&D fantasy setting
Does anyone remember "Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light"? It's also a series about a post technologically advanced world that has collapsed and magic has returned.
Good example!
hell yes. one of the first times i thought to myself "i think it's cool to turn into an animal" later i would discover druids. Always felt sorry for the guy that turned into a spider. they only get one animal form and the spider guy was always getting kicked around
Or the Shannara Chronicles
The Cuthullu mythos is another example of science fantasy.
Underrated
I've never found a mixed game setting that worked for me, probably because I'm too analytical by nature and would think too hard about science vs. magic, but the idea of it still appeals to me. I love Jack Vance's stories, and I really appreciate the enthusiasm you guys show for science fantasy; maybe some day I will find the right combination.
There's a fine line between genius & madness, what side of that diviide Zardoz Pruitt lurks is beyond my meagre ability to discern... Fantastic vid though & I really like that you guys are Diamond Age fans, (I love that book, but I don't know anyone else that's read it.)
Web DM is well read in Neal Stephenson! Glad you liked the video!
Another fan here! Was very surprised to hear it mentioned!
I think every game could do with a bit more strangeness, adding Sci-Fi elements could be the Red Spice your campaign needs!
Another fantastic video! Well done all!!
Love the Warlock command code idea. Thank you!
Check out their WebDM Plays Spelljammer campaign. E-404 rocks!
PHOTONIC CUTLASS!!!! 😂😂😂 I love that this, in conjunction with the podcast last week about westerns, continues to expand the influences people should feel comfortable pulling from for their games!
Guys literally Vampire Hunter D is perfect for this, would love to see yall discuss that for a setting.
Ds World is so awesome! Started Reading the Books recently and am super hooked.
I don't know if anyone seen this book, but some good inspiration for stuff like this is the Broken Empire series. The first book is prince of thorns, and its a great low tier magic science fantasy setting that gets more and more into the science part of it the more you read
Loved it but where's Shadowrun?
exactly, Shadowrun is the quintessential science fantasy.
I had a blast running Lost Laboratory of Kwalish as an extra long one-shot for some friends this past weekend. I even gave it a bit of a Westworld style twist ending, the unlikely human wizard of the party was actually a warforged envoy manufactured by Kwalish himself!
I love the charisma of you guys, thanks for the great content and fun videos
I always like adding sci fi stuff to the campaign. I mean many races in dnd are technically aliens anyway so why not? Lol plus you have spelljammers which are spaceships and I also like the idea of visiting alien planets in addition to going to various planes.
Really fun episode and you guys included a ton of good ideas and leads for DMs to run down.
I think for DMs that are iffy about psionics on a broad scale in their games - a more palatable example for those folks to ease them into it is to look at the fact that many of the skills of the Monk class are essentially psionic abilities of a sort. Using their qui or chi, whichever it is, to perform semi-magical effects without magic - using their powers of focus and concentration (not game mechanic concentration but ya know). That way its not a huge leap from those abilities to more general psionic capabilities.
While I don't know how you'd really define it as either sci-fi or fantasy or a combination, but Lovecraft and the Mythos. CoC has options for spell casting, or at least did in the early editions that I have. I haven't checked out recent iterations, but regardless, DMs can pull all kinds of things from the Mythos for D&D (just remembered that I saw an episode of Web DM that you guys did focusing on that - so I'd encourage anyone interested to go watch your/their video on the Cthulhu Mythos for ideas)
Also, you were listing science-fantasy literary examples - I can't remember exactly, b/c I read it back in high school, but the Clive Barker book (well, a two part-er) called Imajica. If I remember right it incorporated parts of magic and fantasy of a sort, blended with sci-fi aspects. That book was one of my imagination exploders back in high school. Plus, its such a huge book and it took a little while to get through, such that I remember really getting sucked into that universe. He's such an evocative writer - its one of those that I don't think I could explain, you just have to read it yourself ya know.
Another one that's pretty recent -and actually it would be two books by the same author - Neil Gaiman's books, "Neverwhere" and "American Gods." Particularly American Gods though - that one was an incredible read.
Lastly, more pure sci-fi, but something you could still try and work in themes from for your D&D game would be Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide series. That's another series that carried me off in my imagination for a while back in high school.
High fantasy that used to be high-tech science fiction, and remnants of that technology are still around to find: the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey.
Now that i think about it, mass effect is definitely science fantasy. The Reapers are very fantasy villains, and they've even got wizards. If you don't say biotics are magic, you're wrong.
Thats why im putting TJ Lazer in my campaign lol
Good for you guys getting sponsors! Love your content!
Land Between two Rivers is about as close to He-Man as I think you can get without giving it away. Very cool setting. You should mention Gene Wolfe, Shadow of the Torturer, etc. Technology is present but not part of normal society, only the elite benefit from it, and its thought of as magic by almost everyone, aside from the Emperor and his advisor/wizard. Oh, you got it closer to the end. Nice
Thanks! A lot of work has gone into LB2R and Jim loves it deeply!
Thank you! Such an inspiring video. I'm running a 5E campaign where I've converted a lot of creatures and places into "science fiction" equivalents (for instance my Underdark/Shadowfell is a stellar region where most planets have little to no ionosphere, forcing life underground), and you've just convinced me that my gods are insane orbital AIs equipped with dimension-folding powers (my magic is still a force from beyond the material plane, causing various mutations at leylines and such). Thanks again, really hoping WotC expand into new Spelljammer or Barrier Peaks stuff!
Your campaign sounds awesome!!!
@@WebDM oh wow, thanks! I still have the players thinking it's a semi-standard fantasy setting, it's going to be fun to drip feed hints and clues... and then have them find the human colony ship...
This is the first vid I've watched and I'm hooked, thanks for the DM tips!
Welcome!!!
Amazing video. There are plenty of other examples that mix science and fantasy like D20's Urban Arcana or superhero games or even Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Facing an ancient demon who is supposedly immune to all man-made weapons? Try a rocket launcher on him!
Oh, gosh, you guys. I must have missed this one when it came out. This was an incredible video, and I'm glad I saw it! :)
Yeah, definitely tell me more about science fantasy. I especially enjoyed the trip down Saturday morning's memory lane. I have recently been cooking up Skeletor for 5e both as Skeletor but also as Prince Keldor.
The reaction to the cutlass ignition was noticed. And appreciated.
The intro and thumbnail are top tier. Great work!
That intro was sublime xD Great episode as usual, i definitely wanna put some psionics in my game now, perhaps a temple built around a mysterious crater or something like that , monks there ended up unlocking psionic abilities. Also a photonic cutlass for sure xD
Love this episode! I also do much science fantasy! The graphic novel I'm working on is defiantly Science Fantasy! Love all the points you made, references and opening! love to think of a mix of magic and tech as well as considering logical consistency and implications of tech and magic as well as vast timelines and real huge and travel a far! keep up the great work!
Great discussion! I know you guys mention Pathfinder but the adventure path series “Iron Gods” is pretty much a science fantasy story.
Great episode, thanks! I would love to hear you guys talk more about magic vs psionics and how they are envisioned in different settings such as Star Wars and Warhammer 40K.
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks was great! Loved the fencing and wrestling androids and the police & worker robots !
I really loved this talk. I hope you guys could expand on this even more in the future.
another great intro keep up the good work
The Dark Tower is an excellent example of a science fantasy story. I love the way technology and magic and gods and horror and western elements come together.
In the DND realm the Adventure Zone Podcast is a great example of mashing up technology with traditional elements. One adventure happens on a train but the main characters are still the standard classes - one uses a magical beetle - the scuttle buddy - to “bug” one of the train cars and listen in on NPCs.
Ralph Bakshi! Yes! He's so good.
I've been slowly adding sci fi stuff in the background to my games, I've been keeping my story pretty low tech for now, but I fully intend to have a war of the world's style series of sessions at some point in the future.
Love the intro. And the thumbnail! Props for doing it (if you did) lol. Braver man than I haha
It's a shop but it's good to know pru has cosplay options outside of Karl Urban Judge Dredd
Good old zardoz lol. Sean really needed money on that one.
I just had a heart attack, your description of "nano-magic" is EXACTLY the underpinnings of a new campaign that I am beginning! Wild coincidence! (The players are clueless, of course) ;-)
That stuff about having the genetics to access the reality around you sounds like the manga BLAME! which functions basically just like you described.
8:35 in and you guys have not only helped my own homebrew but also read Dying Earth. Like holy crap take my sub hahahaha
I remember a science-fantasy board game from the 80s called Shadowlord. Not an RPG, but I had always found the art and the concept very evocative.
Well, for guns, the DMG has those. As for robots, funny enough, there's various constructs, and one doesn't need Eberron to find them.
Can I just say the thumbnail art for this episode is just outta this world?
Great intro, guys! Love the Zardoz on the thumbnail :D
You guys introduced me to so many authors and so much new content. Thank you guys so much. You guys are hilarious and helpful, as always. Sounds like steampunk and psionics are next?
Earthdawn is really a fun setting. I'm really lucky to be playing a GM that has been running with it from the start.
28:30 Best example of a one-shot Meteor Swarm in a sci-fi campaign. Sheridan at Z'ha'dum calling down his white star with the nukes on board. 😁
It's taken me up until literally right now to realize that Treasure Planet is basically a Spelljammer campaign.
I really enjoy these. I save these for work since I work nights.
Great scifantasy is Wolfe’s shadow of the Torturer 4 novels amazing stuff. Awesome video as always
Thanks!!
OMG I literally just started building a Science fantasy (well cyber-fantasy) campaign last week lol this is just great lol.
Another fantastic talk! Although I would absolutely LOVE a steampunk discussion too. Coming up with inspiration to validate a technological vs magical cold war in my personal D&D setting is proving to be an ordeal. Keep up the great content.
Love the worldbuilding of Endless Legend so much and I think it's pretty similar to some of the things you were talking about especially the inert nanites as the game's dust. The later technologies you research in that becoming more and more science fiction... then Endless Space, it all checks out and blends magic and technology beautifully.
God damn do I love geeking out over Science Fantasy so much! And having my favorite Tabletop Channel talking about it for just under a hour too? This is the best! :D
Also, book recommendation for running Science Fantasy for other RPGs is to pick up the The Codex of The Black Sun which came out recently for Stars Without Number Revised, not only adding in cool new magic, classes, and abilities exclusive to the book, but also even giving you plenty of tools to help build whatever sort of Science Fantasy game you'd like (even covering some of the Subgenres like Sword & Planet, Space Fantasy, and Street Magic). Just reading it makes me wish I had stuck to using SWN for my current Spelljammer-inspired campaign instead of swapping over to 5E.
Another one is Shadowrun. very high tech, but has wizards and shamans.
My friend began a new sci-fi campagin literally today. The timing is too perfect
Thank you thank you thank you!!! I have been trying to remember the name of Wizards for literally a decade!
I've been looking up the older spelljammer stuff for ideas, some far future stuff like Dying Earth and I've been reading Frank Herberts Dune series again, good timing
Pruitt "He's a smelter."
Me: *smashes that like button*
Omg you mentioned Wizards! Thank you!
Dying Earth is essential reading to truly understand where and how DnD came about.
Ursula K LeGuin's literature is totally sci-fantasy. I would strongly recommend the short story compilation "Worlds of Exile and Illusion". Incredible juxtaposition of high fantasy and hard sci-fi.
An idea for psionics as not-quite-magick: Psionicists powers are mechanically the same as spells (so telekenisis, mage hand, etc), but where magic is used to dispell or otherwise directly oppose psionics (or vice versa) you roll with disadvantage (unless using a specialised spell, e.g. Dispell Psionics); magic resistance doesn't work vs psionics (so you don't get advantage on saving throws), etc. Basically, if the psionics and magic directly interact and there's a way to impose disadvantage or advantage, you do so.
Great episode guys! I agree - Science Fantasy is one of the best genres. You might want to look into Titansgrave as well.
You guys have no idea how hype I was for this video. Right now, I am DMing a Post- Apocalyptic Science Fantasy campaign where planar travel pretty much caused the Earth to enter a dark age as fantasy elves and monsters run wild. I love watching my players run around the ruins of New Orleans as they fight mech, drow, orcs, and weredragons. I honestly wished this genre got more love and I am so glad Starfinder is a thing now.
This episode remind me of tons of weird books I read in high school who's titles somehow escape me. My sigil game just got so much wierder thanks guys.
I recently rewatched Heavy Metal, and despite my fond memories... boy, it did not age well.
Love this episode! Great ideas for lot of sci fantasy
I love science fantasy. I was reading through the first ever scifant module to be produced a while ago. It's a great funhouse dungeon space ship thing. It was great.
Expedition to the barrier peaks
It's not that much of a fun house, just old school dungeon design, it's actually kind of a boring dungeon apart from the Sci fi stuff
Loved this episode, i’m planning a campaign at the moment which is set in the Warhammer 40 K universe on a feudal world but the characters don’t even know it. I’ll just use tropes and references and see if they figure it out
Also shadowrun in telling you its fun and awesome!!!
Also krull was a neat movie that was sci-fi and fantasy it leaned more fantasy but had sci-fi feel
You all forgot Exalted, anime meets D&D meets technology with robotech gundams
Pruitt! Loved seeing you in StarFinder premier!
Fritz Liebers Stardock anyone?
An amazing episode gentlemen thank you once again for being in my life.
Great video guys! You briefly touched on steampunk as being technically part of science fantasy, but felt like its own genre. How about games like Shadowrun? That's another fantastic mix of science and fantasy, with powerful dragons heading up multinational corporations and orcs with cybernetic implants. Seems like some of those ideas could transfer over to D&D well also.
No love for full metal alchemist? It's total science fantasy. And a great gaming inspiration.
I think there could be a full metal alacumist rpg
I have a player who draws her spell focus like a transmutation circle and describes all her spells as being drawm out. Great flavor
Another thing they left out is power rangers.
That series is full of alien monsters, aberrations fiends and warlocks of the fiend and fey. I mean the PR universe is full of D&d concepts
@@davidotoole2853 i never thought of that! Nice one
everybodytogether yeah well power rangers is my favorite kids show right up there with ATLA, Kim Possible and American Dragon Jake Long
Always liked this idea. Science shaped like magic, swords being more common than guns, stuff like that is just fun to think about. You could have enchanted items being highly advanced technology, mages being psykers, dragons being the result of advanced biological engineering. I love thinking about it.
I've always liked the settings where tech are catching up to magic, with normal people with extreme technology catching once extremely powerful magic users. Where the two sides of the magic barrier is slowly becoming blurred, and it causes some tensions between the two "classes".
This was a great episode! Second Favorite.
Could you guys do an episode on Rifts? It's one of my favorite settings, and the sourcebooks are gold :)
I remember moving sidewalks from Childhood's End when that guy goes to the alien planet and he goes through their museum. Looks like I need some more Jack Vance in my life.