Purely magical "science" fiction and space opera?

>>55299411
>Would you have fun in this setting?
I probably would, a lot it sounds cool. Could I play a Large sized Dinosaur person in it?

>Run a purely magic-focused paradigm like this?
I'm running a space campaign right now, how would a solar system if yours look? Any special features I should note?

Didn't you post this a few days ago?

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>>55299411
>Have you ever played out a pure magic sci-fi setting.
Not quite. Magic was present in the setting but largely planet-locked; huge debilitating penalties to it anywhere outside atmosphere. Psionics had social risks because it was rare but Did work in space so being public about it had a 50/50 chance of getting you turned into an emergency battery. Shadow/Void magic existed but had zero presence in public eye or most private ones either.

>Sci-fi-sms filtered into magic.
Gate and Portal linked societies. Stargate's later seasons did this in a sense. Even if you've got enormous ship-sized gates between systems it provides a kind of "here's the map" situation for you and your players to work with.

>Would you have fun.
Had quite a few laughs, some gripes, and generally the party got a kick out of it.

>>55299411
Yeah, it was called Spelljammers.

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>>55299442

>Dinosaur
Probably.

>I'm running a space campaign right now, how would a solar system if yours look? Any special features

Every star system is encapsulated within a "crystal sphere," much as they are in Spelljammer. While most crystal spheres are bog-standard binary star systems, many more are exotic in layout. Canonical examples include Herdspace, a star system whose inner lining is a vast savanna inhabited by world-sized megafauna; Kofuspace, a solid sphere whose worlds are air pockets interconnected by tunnels; and Faeriespace, whose worlds are the fruits of a gigantic tree. A few ideas in the original Spelljammer campaign setting include a sphere half-filled with water where the worlds bob and float, and a sphere where the worlds constantly tumble down the inner surface of the sphere.

Even the more mundane binary star systems of Spelljammer have exotic features to them; Oerth's sun actually has watery lakes and water elementals living within them, and there is a brobdingnagian ringworld shamelessly named "Nivil."

One point where I diverge with Spelljammer is that there are legitimate stars floating outside of the crystal spheres. I style them as constellates (http://www.lomion.de/cmm/constell.php) immensely powerful yet not-too-light, living clusters of stars themed after various creatures and legendary deeds. For that matter, constellates exist in every plane with a night sky, and I am generous in my definition of "night sky," so even Pandemonium and the Plane of Fire have constellates.

It is in a great empire's best interests to befriend the local constellates. They are tremendously powerful guardians, and also a source of magical power, somewhat like a string of Dyson spheres. (Granted, I downplay Dyson spheres as relatively minor sources of power compared to the vastness of planar energies, and most magic items are their own self-sustaining energy sources anyway. Such solar power can craft some magic items, but not a wide range of them.)

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>>55299632

Another point where I diverge from Spelljammer is the Phlogiston.

Elsewhere in my cosmology, I merge together the Deep Ethereal and the Elemental Chaos, creating a kaleidoscopic rainbow-realm of dancing and clashing elements, so the Phlogiston is left without a niche.

Thus, I have merged the Phlogiston with the Region of Dreams, the Veil of Sleep, Dal Quor, or whatever you call it. (I go into more detail on the 2e canon here: https://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/50939985/#50941783).

In my cosmology, whenever a sentient or sapient creature sleeps and dreams (all sapient creatures require at least two hours of sleep each day, both of which are dreaming sleep), their mind/soul transfers to the Phlogiston/Region of Dreams and creates a dreamscape out of the protomatter drifting from the Ethereal Plane and the ectoplasm floating from the Astral Plane. Within that dreamscape, the creature's memories copy themselves, crystallize into memory cores, float into the Astral Plane, and gradually ferment into ectoplasm, which subsequently gives birth to the Outer Planes and the bodies of its inhabitants.

In other words, once you set sail on a spelljammer outside of a crystal-sphere, you are in the middle of a sea of dreamscapes. Floating around these demiplanes are titanic constellates who prance around doing starry things, Eberron-style quori, and, as per 2e Planes of Chaos, some of the finest oneiromancers and dream-walkers in the multiverse, the goddess Bast's feline "Dream Hunters."

I am unsure of why the 2e writers put Bast in control of some of the plane's best oneiric wardens. Perhaps they thought that since cats sleep often, they must dream often, and must therefore be good at guarding and manipulating dreams?

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>>55299704

Another point I try to emphasize is the concept of the "known multiverse" versus the "uncharted multiverse."

There are a total of 27 planes.
• 17 Outer Planes
• 6 Inner Planes (Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Negative Energy/Shadow/Shadowfell, Positive Energy/Faerie/Feywild, and the para-elemental and quasi-elemental border regions of each)
• 3 Transitive Planes (the Astral Plane, the Ethereal Plane/Elemental Chaos, and the Region of Dreams/the Veil of Sleep)
• The Prime Material Plane (no Phlogiston; you leave a crystal sphere, you directly enter the Region of Dreams/Veil of Sleep)
Demiplanes are most common in the Transitive Planes. The dreamscapes of the Region of Dreams/the Veil of Sleep are a specialized type of demiplane, as are the divine realms commonly found in the Outer Planes.

There are two parts to the multiverse: the finite, known multiverse, and the infinite, uncharted multiverse.

The power figures of the known multiverse have no political power whatsoever over the uncharted multiverse, except to extend their reach through expeditions, which slowly convert sections of the uncharted multiverse into new additions to known multiverse. The only way to go from the known multiverse to the uncharted multiverse is through manual travel, which often entails using a spelljammer.

Absolutely no portals, conduits, vortices, or other planar pathways connected the known multiverse to the uncharted multiverse; however, when a portion of the uncharted multiverse finally becomes charted, a multitude of various planar pathways abruptly link it to the known multiverse.

The Prime Material Plane's known area has only 10 million crystal spheres within it. Of these, 60% belong to mortal empires, 10% are planar protectorates, 10% are wartorn spheres, 10% are free spheres, and 10% are newly-accessible "frontier" spheres (or "backwater" spheres, more derogatorily) that have only recently been discovered, and thus added to the Prime Material Plane's known area.

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>>55299730

As far as numbers are concerned, the mean and median sophont population of each plane's known area is in the tens of quadrillions, including demiplanes. The one outlier is the Prime Material Plane's known area, whose sophont population is roughly in the hundreds of quadrillions across its 10 million spheres. The mean and median amount of sophont-inhabited worlds per crystal sphere is 10, and the mean and median population for a sophont-inhabited world is 10 billion. Although the typical sophont-inhabited mortal world is comparable in radius to Oerth or Eberron, such worlds ofttimes have habitable oceans, atmospheres, and Underdarks and are almost always populated by more than just mortals.

In any case, I have been speaking of the Prime here, but I do my best to focus on the Outer Planes in my games all the same. I consider them to have the most plot potential for actual adventures, so those are the areas I try to emphasize the sci-fi elements of, such as the clockwork operating system that is Mechanus, or the controversies concerning "altraloth" bioaugmentations in Gehenna and the Grey Waste.

>>55299494

What exactly is "shadow/void magic" in this context?

>Gate and Portal linked societies.
I actually prefer to emphasize portals more than vehicles and ships. The way I handle it in my cosmology is that spelljammers are primarily used for cargo transportation and warfare; everyone else relies on a series of intra-city, inter-city, intra-planar, and inter-planar portals to navigate both the streets and the vast reaches of the planes. I can see the appeal in cool vehicles and spaceships, but they do not call to me as much as magical portals do.

>>55299595

Spelljammer does not fully commit to the sci-fi-ification of D&D, so I am afraid it is not quite what I am looking for.

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>>55299632

>It is in a great empire's best interests to befriend the local constellates. They are tremendously powerful guardians, and also a source of magical power, somewhat like a string of Dyson spheres. (Granted, I downplay Dyson spheres as relatively minor sources of power compared to the vastness of planar energies, and most magic items are their own self-sustaining energy sources anyway. Such solar power can craft some magic items, but not a wide range of them.)

To expound on this, a sun is essentially a giant sphere of elemental fire, quasielemental radiance, and/or positive energy. Why bother building a Dyson sphere around a sun when a power plant of planar energies directly within the Elemental Plane of Fire, the Quasielemental Plane of Radiance, or the Positive Energy Plane will cut out the middle man and provide even more overall energy?

>>55299704
HP Lovecraft's Dreamlands are Cat Haven. Ulthar is in the Dreamlands.

>>55299411
That sounds interesting, but you'd need to have a pretty good handle on what "magic" actually entails in the setting.

>captcha: THIERRY Junction

>>55300714
Are there any other important Species? Or at least one with equivalent population power to Humans?

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>>55299411
Sounds like a cool setting, could have a lot of fun there. Are you planning on using the standard fantasy DnD classes, or something else for a more sci-fi sort of feel?