[Closed] Starjammer (D&D 5e)

Wildspace, the final frontier.
These are the voyages of the spelljamming ship Enterprise.
Its five-year mission: To explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilisations.
To boldly go where no man has gone before!



Game System: Spelljammer - Adventures in Space. D&D 5e.

The Flavour, from the Lead Designer himself, Chris Perkins: "When Spelljammer [2e] came out in 1989 at the height of Star Trek: The Next Generation which I’m a big fan of, it hit me at the right time. Because I was looking to do a campaign in space but I didn’t know how to do it with D&D. I ran a Spelljammer campaign for 5 years and it was very episodic. My characters were just on a ship. And every session they’re just visiting a new world and dealing with a new problem, and then they resolve it and they move on."

Themes (what to expect): Exploration, crises and resolution, the prime directive vs first contact social encounters, space combat, home and away teams. The published Spelljammer Academy will serve as a proto-version of Starfleet. The ‘Federation’ exists in Realmspace and is about to extend its reach to Wildspace and beyond. Characters will be the bridge crew of the spelljamming ship Enterprise.

Character Options: All published resources are available for use, insofar as they reflect the Star Trek universe. Elves are Vulcans, orcs are Klingons, dwarves are Tellerites, goblins are Ferengi, lizardfolk are Gorn, troglodytes are Cardassians (I think), the undead are Borg, etc. Classes and sub-classes should be chosen which best represent the overarching theme. Proficiencies, skills and class abilities other than combat are a must. We will start at level 5.

Game Duration and Post Frequency: We will begin with one story arc, roughly corresponding to an ‘episode’, ie. a clear beginning, middle and end, with a main plot and one or two sub-plots, after which your characters will gain a level. If this is enjoyable for all, we can play through more episodes with an extended campaign story-arc, like a whole season. (A five-year mission?!)
Post frequency realistically depends on what the players can reasonably commit to. We can strive for 1 per day or 1 every 2 days, but experience with many games here tells me if we have a bunch of regular, committed players, we’ll be able to find a rhythm that works for us.

Specialised Resources: I typically like to set up a Discord channel for chat purposes, which we will use often. Other than that, everything else will be on Gamers Plane.

Player Experience: Some experience with 5e needed. No experience with Spelljammer needed as I’m happy to explain the new features as we go along. Some degree of fandom for Star Trek definitely needed.

GM Experience: I have run and played a ton of RPGs, D&D and many more, and with life being what it is now, I largely do play-by-post. I tend towards detailed setting creation with multiple plots and options in a sandbox, but for this game I will be relying on fixed episodic story arcs.

How to Apply: Some of you have already spoken up here. Thanks to everyone who’ve already indicated interest! A classic bridge crew needs 6 or 7 members, the game will only start if we have this number. If we have more than 7, I shall declare how I intend to pick players.

Welcome All: In the true spirit of Star Trek, EVERYONE is welcome! Explicitly embracing all races and genders.

I have an idea for a coms office

Awesome runekyndig, so glad you're jumping in straightaway on this! In the spirit of Star Trek, all races, all classes are available, and on-theme subclasses are particularly welcome!

I very much like this idea as jump-start to get the vibe of Spelljammer. I'm no Star Trek fan (yet) but the idea of a Star Trek campaign sure evokes something and sounds fun. I would be interested.

Yesyesyes! If you do it, I'm here for it along with my Plasmoid named Dod. :P

Beam me aboard!
I would love to play spelljammer.

That’s sounds cool. I love Star Trek. I’d definitely be down to play a security officer.

Is it Starfleet characters only, or is there room for non-Starfleet cast members á la Deep Space Nine?

I thought of DS9, but since we'd be on a ship instead of a space dock or space station, I figure the crew would be Starfleet. Although I'm open to collectively agree whether there are civilians on board. Alternatively, we can also imagine a Neelix or Kes type to be counted as part of the crew. If you pitch an idea, and I'm sure we can make it work!

I'm running on assumptions here, but I assume starting level is 5 (as this is where the Spelljammer academy adventure ends, indicating that fully trained cadets are level 5)
My concept is a rouge(soul knife)3/Sorceror(abarent) 2 resulting in a lot of telepatic abilities
She has lost her arm so she is sporting a permant magehand (she knows the spell) that can also be changed to a blade (soul knifes psy-blade)
And she is an astral elf

There is another image of her, but that is most serenely not safe for work or PG13. But it shows her in a pasioned relationship with a tiefling that is going to be part of her backstory somehow.

I'd love to get in on this as Science Officer. I'd like to play a clockwork gnome.

Sorry, I mean autognome.

I have been thinking about characters as well.

If I'd get in this game my idea of a character would be either one of the following two (character portrait can kinda work for both):

I have no experience with Spelljammer, but I'm willing to try it. Probably a Doctor or a Comm Officer, if that fits the party.

@BedzoneII you have seen a few concepts, do they fit with your idea?
Are we playing spelljammer with StarTrec theme or StarTrec with D&D5e rules?

Personally, I would prefer that we lean towards Voyger for inspiration for the ship and crew. When the ship becomes too big, there are too many npc and it can be difficult to have the player-group-cohesion.

My character concept is for a giff security officer. I’m thinking of playing him like a Klingon.

Do the giff in 5e still use black powder weapons? I know it was something they used in the 2e version of the setting.

Hi everyone, I've updated this thread to become a recruitment thread, and have replaced my opening post with the full details of what I imagine this game will be like.

In short, we are playing Star Trek as if it were set in a fantasy world, and not so much regular Spelljammer with token Star Trek references. So visualise the class, sub-class, skills and abilities of your character to be equivalent or akin to what a Star Trek character could be like.

I will have this up for a while more, and then announce players and send out invitations.

To flesh out some specific questions, the ship's population will be more like TOS or Voyager, less like TNG.

Still trying to figure out where to place the giff or hadozee. Telepathic races would be akin to betazoid or ocampa. The new plasmoid race is very much like Odo. Data is an autognome (not so much a warforged), etc etc. Part of the fun is discussing how it all fits together I hope!

Listing the possible roles: captain, first officer, helm, navigator, engineer, science, tactical, comms, security, counselor, medical, and even cook (morale officer!)

Already building my Autognome Sage College of Lore Bard. Heavily focused on knowledge skills, as befitting the science officer. What are we doing for equipment?

In terms of TOS/Voyager, the giff could be analogues to the Hirogen or Andorians.

I keep imagining Andorians to be tieflings, purely because of the antennae :D. Hirogen for giff feels workable for sure. I shall brainstorm some more!

Equipment-wise you can have anything reasonable on the regular equipment lists. I'm thinking one on-theme magic item for each PC, ie. its effect is something that approximates or duplicates some equipment in Trek.

With elves being vulcans, that leans me more to the half-vulcan (is that a thing, Be'Lana (sp?) was half klingon right?) or human artillerist as the ship's weapons specialist.

I don't really see my self go full vulcan.

Very interested in this. It is fun to mix and match stuff and bend D&D into other lore.

Spock is half-Vulcan, so it's definitely a thing

Oh, and in one episode of TNG, there was a half-Romulan who pretended to be half-Vulcan

Quick question are stats going to be point-buy or roll in the game forum?

I'm going for full Vulcan (Astral elf) but with a twist

Yes Spock is Vulcan-Human (so, half-elf), B'Ehlanna is Klingon-Human, (half-orc).

Btw Romulans are drow.

And @runekydig that works perfectly well!

Um, I'm not particularly bothered whether we do point buy, standard array or roll, so long as everyone uses the same method.

I used point buy to create Clanker, my autognome science officer. If we go with another method I’ll happily redo his stats.

Really? I was never much into TOS so in my mind he was full Vulcan.

So half Vulcan weapons expert artificer artillerist it is.

In Star trek: discovery and Star trek: strange new worlds he handly won't shutup about it :D

Name: Dod
Race: Plasmoid

Possible builds...

I'm thinking about this Vulcan surgeon/doctor named Turak (way of hope).

I'm have no experience on SpellJammer, but from what I'm reading here, and what I do know about D&D, he would probably be an astral elf cleric (healing domain).
He hates battle and fighting, but defends life the best he can.

Oh yes, Happy belated Star Trek Day! I had intended to post the invite on the 8th, but there was a space time anomaly.

I'll give this recruitment thread a full week, but it happily sounds like we have most of our players already, so I'll use the weekend to begin to set up the game.

Also, for @cathamber, here's something to give you an idea of how Spelljammer is like:

Chris Perkins Talks About Spelljammer

I’m going to throw my hat in the ring with a robotic DOT-7 "custodial officer" and maintenance robot. Still working on personality, but I’m thinking there’s something quirky and odd about this robot who is several generations past his prime.

I’m thinking maybe he feels that organics are a burden and he’s constantly having to go around cleaning up their messes. He sighs a lot.

Also, he used to be trained for another position, maybe full engineering or security. He was repurposed so many times he has glitchy memory banks. Thinks he can do thinks he has no skill for and sometimes gets caught in a loop regarding the missing skill file.

He has no filter, speaking his mind and wandering through whatever and wherever without heed for decorum or order. Not that he’s unstoppable or refuses orders, he just doesn’t contain himself of his own accord.

I think I might build him as a wizard, but need to look through some things before settling that down. Honestly, he could be almost any class so I can be fluid on that front.

Looking through the tread, I have summed up what I have observed.


I'll take the first officer role or even counselor, but my character concept and my current preference is not for the captain's chair.

I decided to go with two possible rogue builds instead of cleric. I decided to do some fun combinations, not try to recreate characters whole cloth.

What ever you say captain :D

My feeling says that captain should be an NPC. Easy way to give quests.

I consider the artillerist option more a tactical officer and the echoknight option more security.

Just go the Lasers and Feelings route and have the captain be out of commission in sickbay when you start. That way, the players have to immediately deal with a new situation

Hey #bunt would you sit on the captain's chair?

I actually like this idea slightly a bit more, but if it comes down to it, Cathamber, I wouldn't say no.

I haven't yet seen possible builds, but I was thinking on doing a Navigator that is some kind of mathematician. I'll come back with something more concrete afterwards :)

The roles, as we have been talking about them:
1. Captain
2. First Officer
3. Helm/Pilot,
4. Navigator Of. Ok
5. Comm Of. Ok
6. Security Of. Ok
7. Science Of. Ok
8. Engineer. Ok
9. Doctor. Ok
10. Counselor
11. Tactical Of. Ok
12. Cook

The roles according to Spelljammer:
1. Captain,
2. First mate,
3. Helsman,
4. Navigator,
5. Ship's Mage,
6. Doctor/Healer,
7. Quartermaster,
8. Boatswain,
9. Weapon Master.

So far, it seems we are more of a Space Station crew than a Spaceship crew...

As someone else also wants to play a science officer, I'd be happy to take another role. I'm thinking Helmsman. Probably a variant human.

I see our table is filling up fast. I'd say we've got all the players we need!

No need to worry about not having anymore wanting to play captain. As bowlofspinach points out, there are ways of getting around that, and svanderh's idea of an NPC captain makes sense too. I'll have something that solves that at the start. We need a pilot episode after all to start us off.

Same goes for wondering what happens if we have duplicate roles, eg two science officers etc. There'll be a chance to fix that when we start.

So, let me recommend that you visualise your characters in terms of their 'Star Trek role'. Along with that, think about race and class. I'd recommend considering some of the more off-beat sub-classes, this game will support those types of choices.

I loled at Cathamber's comment about a space station crew. It's making me think DS9...

Anyway, I'll be setting up the game and sending out invites, hang on for a moment! We can continue the character creation discussion there, and also on Discord.

Man. I spend a week not paying attention to new games, and this bowl of awesomesauce comes along. Ah, well. Boldly go, my friends!

Got it! Warlock with Ghost in the Machine patron! And armor proficiency feats to emulate some kind of metal exoskeleton that I am installing on myself.

Isn't that tactical? Kinda the job I was thinking about if I go artillerist.

I see you are right. Sorry!
Just corrected my earlier post.

I guess we would only miss a Pilot and a Captain, or maybe one of them.

@Timplausible, I'm dropping you an invite anyway, all are welcome!

Invites have been sent to all who've shown interest!

Refreshing this interest thread!

We have completed the first chapter of this game, and with player movement, we currently have 4 players. However, a nice number for a Star Trek bridge crew is anywhere from 5 to 7 PCs, so I'm opening up recruitment to see if anyone wants to join us as we are exactly about to start the next chapter.

The premise of this game: we are playing D&D 5e Spelljammer, but the setting is an alternate Star Trek 'swords and sorcery' fantasy universe. The PCs are crew of the spelljamming ship Enterprise. Each chapter is akin to an episode of the series. In fact, we just completed the two-parter pilot episode, which explains how the PCs end up being on the Enterprise.

The game focusses on investigation, problem solving, some social interaction and some combat, much like the various scenarios in the series. We start at level 5, to represent experience with Starfleet.

Previously on Star Trek Spelljammer, the Borg!

Most interesting. I remember seeing this the first time and I am definitely interested. Are there any particular ship roles that you need filled?

The party is just about to figure out who might play which role, now that they've discovered the ship.

We have an arcane trickster rogue, a rogue / sorcerer, a rogue / soulknife, and a warlock / fighter at the moment.

I'll shoot you an invite Verrain, and you can browse the threads, ask questions, and see how you might like to join in!

I am very late to the party, but if there are any rolls the group wants filled I'd be happy to round out the crew.

Glad to have you as well MaJunior, dropping you an invite for you to come browse and chat so that we can fit you in!

BedzoneII, I'd be interested in joining the crew whether wearing red, blue, or yellow!

Got it Galdr! Sending an invite over for you to browse and chat.

It's feeling like a properly-sized bridge crew again! ;)

What is that like to play a Doctor/cleric in it? Hard for me to imagine 5e Startek. "He's dead Jim."

"He's rolling his second death save, Jim."

"Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a cleric."

A doctor is absolutely necessary in Star Trek! Whole episodes revolve around sickbay, or involving biomedical crises, or xeno physiology.

Raise Dead is definitely a whole movie in itself.

Thanks for all those who replied, we have a full bridge crew again, and more importantly, an interestingly diverse mix, in the true spirit of Trek! Can't wait to get on with the next episode! Recruitment closed for now.

Hello friends! Our D&D 5e Spelljammer Star Trek mash-up game is warping along nicely. We've completed two chapters, have had some players come and go, and are comfortably playing with 5 PCs. I'm about to start the next chapter, and wouldn't mind having another one or two players on board. After all, a bridge crew's rotating cast is typically 6-8 members.

Imagine swords-and-sorcery but spacefaring, elves are Vulcans, orcs are Klingons, Mage Hand is a tractor beam, Invisibility is cloaking, you get the idea. Spelljamming setting ruleset.

Quick synopsis: The PCs are survivors of the Battle of Wolf 359, and find themselves on a strange Enterprise-S. The Enterprise itself survives an encounter with a Borg skullship and escapes, only to find themselves almost accidentally warping into the Neutral Zone. They face down two Romulan ships pursuing a defector in a prototype shuttlecraft and investigating the destruction of their Neutral Zone outposts, and again narrowly escape. Someone is destroying the outposts on both sides of the border.
Other complications. The former Enterprise crew had rescued their ex-captain / now-Borg from the aforementioned Borg ship, and have had to deal with his presence on board.

Hope this gives you an idea of what to expect. It's a shameless ripoff of some of the favourite bits of Trek, played using 5e. We'll restart soon, but can wait a bit if people want in. Thanks for reading!