Uncharted Hyperlanes

A fan blog about Hyperlanes, the D&D 5th ed conversion for SciFi and Space Operas. Information, homebrew, races, equipment and anything else you might need to boldly go.

[hyperlanes]

Leader of the Avernum prison colony, which is where the Valhallan government deposits all of its free - thinkers, would - be revolutionaries, seditionists and agitators. She's an accomplished engineer and while begrudgingly agreeing to be the leader, she does a fine job out of keeping the place together.

[hyperlanes]

Cyborg upgrade: Elbow Rocket

An upgrade for a cybernetic arm, it features a solid fuel thruster attached to the elbow of the arm, allowing for rapid and powerful unarmed strikes. You can activate it as a bonus action before declaring an attack, and if the attack connects, it will deal a bonus 2D6 bludgeoning damage. Additionally, the target must succeed a DC15 strenght save or be propelled 10 feet backwards and knocked prone.

[scifiarchitect]

Ignacio Bazan Lazcano senior conceptartist

– Share via Artstation iOS App, Artstation © 2017

[hyperlanes]

One of the Player Characters, Decca. She’s an Artistic Chiropterian from Moitea, an Ambassador by profession.

[inkary]

Drovic Bree, a mandalorian bounty hunter, commission for Nexuum.

[hyperlanes]

Ship - to - ship combat

I thought, to avoid rolling too many dice (although let’s face it, you will still have to probably roll a lot of dice), I have divided ships into several classes. One class can only damage a ship of another class, or one up, although that only on high rolls, unless they use specialized weaponry. I put down example HP of ships in the brackets.

Fighters / Light Frighters (30 - 120 HP)

Frigates / Medium Frighters / Long Range Ships (300 - 700 HP)

Cruisers / Heavy Frighters (850 - 1500 HP)

Destroyers / Heavy Cargo Haulers (2000 - 3500 HP)

Dreadnaughts / Carriers / Contact Units (5000 - 7500 HP)

Dread Carriers / Flagships (15000+ HP)

A few words on the classifications: Fighters are usually smaller, one person crafts that can evade fire more easily, especially from the larger ships, but unless equipped with very advanced weaponry, won’t do much damage. Freighters are the standard for transportations, while Cargo Haulers are usually employed by corporations to transport increadibly vast amount of cargo over long distances - they can reach up to a size of dreadnaught (1000 m), but don’t have the same protection or armor, and usually travel with an escort. The Dreadnaughts bring the firepower and heavy armour to the battlefield while Carriers serve as mobile docks for wings of Fighters and Frigates. Contact Units are advanced long - range exploration ships, which while focusing on sensor and science capability, are nevertheless equipped with an impressive array of defensive weaponry (especially the point - defense system) and armour. Finally, the Dread Carriers (as the name would suggest) combine the functions of Dreadnaughts and Carriers, are even larger and more powerfully armed - think of Battlestar Galactica on steroids. Flagships are similar, but usually more well - outfitted and there is rarely more than one of them as building these takes a vast amount of resources.

Now as far as the combat goes, when one ship attacks another, it would be a contest between the mounted weapons roll from the gunner of the firing ship and an approrpiate vehicles proficciency roll from the pilot of the ship being fired upon. Various bonuses and penalties can apply, depending on size, class and other traits of the ships.

[hyperlanes]

Bonus Culture:

Artistic

Your society has focused on creating and refining arts and various form of expressions, giving rise to actors, entertainers, fine chefs and diplomats. You have a way with languages and words, often being able to talk your way out of difficult situations.

Abity score increase: your charisma is increased by 1

Heart and Soul of the culture: you are well spoken and traines in various arts: you have an advantage in performance tests where you can use it if you have an audience of more than two people. You also know one additional language.

Street performance: people will almost always appreciate even the most impromptu of your antics: unless in outrightly hostile territory, you can put on a show of singing or acting (or otherwise a performance) to create a distraction and additionally earn a D10 of credits, multiplied by your level.

Hunger for Attention: You are profficient with cooking tools, but your talent truly shines when cooking for the others: if you are preparing food for someone  beside yourself, you have an advantage on all cooking rolls.

[hyperlanes]

Bonus Physiology:

Gaseous lifeform:

You have evolved in the environment of a gas giant or perhaps within a Nebulae. For all intents and purposes, you are a sentient cloud of gas. For easier interaction with environment of the galactic community at large, most of the gaseous life forms are outfitted with a containment unit that gives you a roughly humanoid shape and allows you to manage objects like a regular solid humanoid would. It also has a voice projector as normally you would communicate with intricate patterns of colour appearing within your form. Your gaseous environment hosts a small ecosystem of bacterial life that allow you to process most foods and drinks and derive energy and nutrients from them. 

Ability score increase: Your dexterity is increased by 2

Dispersed Physiology: There is no obvious centre to you and your appendages are arbitrary, as they are formed within the containment field. You cannot permanently lose a limb or suffer other organ losses. You can still be killed, and if your hp goes below 0, your containment unit is disabled. At that point, while you don’t die outright, you can’t regain your form unless someone repairs it.

Age: You don’t age, but your bacterial ecosystem does. Unless you use specialized therapy, you will have a lifespan of about 100 standard years.

Shapeshift: you can reconfigure your containment unit to compress your form temporarily. For up to two hours, once a day you can compress yourself to a size of small rectangular box. After that, the auxilliary power in your containment unit needs to recharge before the next use. You can trigger the expansion yourseld or it will happen automatically after two hours.

[hyperlanes]

Bonus Physiology:

Silican Physiology: You have evolved in an ecosystem which used Silicone rather than Carbon as the building blocks of life. Your body appears to be build of stone, which doesn’t make you the most agile of creatures, but you certainly are sturdy.

Ability score increase: Your constitution is increased by 2

Age: You mature and age very slowly. Your species does not reach maturity until they are 200 standard years old, and some of your people have been known to survive for thousand of years.

Life, but not as we know it: Because you have a completely different biology from carbon based life forms, you are incompatible with them – you can’t eat their food or drink their beverages. You don’t need to breathe, however you must periodically ingest or inject some form of sulfur to keep going. Your regular food must be silicone based.

Speed: You are somewhat slower than average – your base speed is 25

Natural defense: Your have a natural AC of 17, but you can’t wear standard armour.

Living Encyclopediae: Because of your long life, you have already accumulated a lot of knowledge. You have advantage on Science skill rolls when recalling information.

[hyperlanes]

Terminals

Terminal - a small, handheld device with a holographic interface that can be used for communication, recording data (text, audio, images and video and storing the procedures for gambits you have learned), browsing the Outernet and depending on data and service availability, maps, tracking or even some basic forms of scannig, where an appropriate upgrade has been installed. A standard Terminal has two extension slots and while the upgrades can be installed in the field, because of the intricate connections that form between the two pieces of hardware, it requires some skill and specialized tools to uninstall it. Some of the more common upgrades are:

External Power Source: A renewable battery for terminals that uses a combination of bioelectrics and chemistry practically eliminating the need yo charge your device. Over time, it will also recharge any Terminal Expansions that require it. Price: 450 Cr

Medical Scanner: this basic scanner allows you to assess medical conditions of living creatures more easily. You have an advantage on the rolls when using medicine skill to assess medical condition of a living creature. Standard issue for any Medic or a Doctor. Price: 300 Cr

Heavy Duty Holographic Projector: this upgrade features a much more powerful image projector that allows you to use your terminal to project life size images, much larger and more complicated than the standard functionality of the terminal. You can conjure any image you have previously recorded and for up to one minute it can distract a creature. A wisdom check of DC 15 will reveal that it is a holograph, and so will any attempt to touch it. After a minute however the holograph depletes its power source and needs to be recharged before it is used again. Sometimes it is also used by Entertainers to enhance their performances. Price: 1200 Cr

Satellite Uplink - this advanced transmitter allows you to bypass the groundside relays and tap into the Outernet via accessing the comm satellites directly. Only works if there are civillian Outernet satellites, otherwise it may require hacking expertise, and if there are no sats in orbit, this upgrade will not work. Ideal in wilderness or newly settled planets which may not have the structure to otherwise support the Outernet. Price: 6000 Cr

Energy Converter - this upgrade allows you to transfer energy from one source to another, for example using a vehicle energy core to fill a spent energy weapon clip. The rate of conversion depends on how skilled you are. The converter comes with a relay that you plug into the terminal and a small rectangular box that you can clip to your belt with an assortment of plugs and cables that can be attached to a variety of ports. Price: 1500 Cr

Microfabricary - an advanced suite of miniature 3D printers and matter converters, able to, with materials and appropriate schematics, fabricate small items. The fabricary is a small rectangular box thay can be clipped onto belt or kept in a backpack and is connected to your terminal via small relay. After being connected to the terminal, the software needs to be attuned to your operating system, which takes 6 hours of work and requires profficiency with Computer Tools. It uses canister of omnigel to craft simpler items, such as food rations, small containers or simple tools like a knife, and cartridges of supplemental material for anything more advanced (like clips for energy weapons or medpacks). The fabricary can break down materials from just about anything into omnigel - it can use scrap, rocks or even condense the local atmosphere (if it supports life) to fill the canisters. It cannot produce the supplemental materials however. After producing 3 simple items or 1 advanced item, the device will need to be recharged. As the models available to the public are still in experimental phase, after fabricating an item, roll a D20. On a result of 1, the software suffers a breakdown and needs to be de – bugged before further use, which takes 4 hours. Price: 17000 Cr

Black Box – a heavily armoured solid state storage drive, designed to backup the information you have accumulated and survive anything short of a black hole. Plated with advanced and extremely resilient materials, the Black Box additionally features a powerful homing beacon that triggers automaticcaly upon destruction of your terminal and a power source that will keep it operating for years, waiting to be recovered. The Black Box automatically backs up the data recorded from on your terminal every 15 standard minutes, but the process can also be triggered manually.  It is often used by scientists as well as military. Price: 4000 Cr

[hyperlanes]

Currently working in converting paladin class to Hyperlanes. Thinking of a good name.

[hyperlanes]

SciFi Trinkets

Rolling for a trinket was always one of my favourite parts of character creation, so since it was not included in the rules conversion, here is a list of a 100 inconsequential items adapted for the SciFi setting. The names of species and cultures are arbitrary of course.

01 A old Earth action figure 02 A holy Book of an unknown alien species 03 An empty bottle of a fine Valhallan wine with an ornate, metallic label 04 A tiny singularity enclosed in a miniature Higgs Canceller Field 05 A single page of a crime novel 06 A plastic mug with a floral design 07 A small set of spices and seasonings relevant to your culture / race 08 An OSD of unknown type 09 A holographic postcard from New New York 10 Moitean Flame Orchid, preserved in a stasis field 11 A religious symbol of a long - gone civilization, carved out of Everwood. 12 A keychain replica of R-47b Arbalest projectile weapon 13 A working replica of an earth tamagotchi 14 A decorative dish from a set 15 A single card from a deck of an alien culture 16 Carbon fibre model of the Coalescent, one of the three flagships of Armada 17 Carbon fibre model of the Resplendent, one of the three flagships of Armada 18 Carbon fibre model of the Exultant, one of the three flagships of Armada 19 Small leather pouch containing several octagonal coins 20 A ballpoint pen 21 A spork 22 A handle of an ancient projectile weapon made of sandalwood 23 A ring made of Tungsten 24 A small vial of Einstein - Bose condensate 25 A small, red pill 26 A fragment of rock with an imprint of a fossilized fern 27 A scent flare (can be fired off to fill the room with a scent pleasant to your species) 28 A vial containing compressed ashes of supposedly Rixaan folk hero. 29 A small plushie of an animal considered aesthetically pleasing by your people 30 A glowing green lipstick 31 A vial containing an inert retrovirus 32 A single glowstick 33 A pair of sunglasses 34 A medalion which opens to reveal a photo of an unknown family 35 An inactive distress beacon from an alien ship 36 A really small flute 37 A wind - up radio working on unknown frequencies 38 A fossilized sweet pastry 39 A dedication plaque of an old starship 40 A small set of construction blocks that forms a skycar 41 A sticker with a smiley face which has three eyes 42 A towel 43 A small wooden statuette of a smug looking Cebrean 44 A plasteel orb filled with water in which a holographic fish swims 45 A small needle that cannot be bent 46 A self - preserving packet of butter with a label “Upon close inspection, I can confirm, this is not butter!” 47 A single Earth bee, preserved in stasis 48 A gemstone which appears as a lump of coal when anyone but you looks at it 49 A bottle of holographic nail polish that can be synched to your terminal 50 An Oddball signed by a moderately famous player 51 A small banner emblazoned with the crest of your former colony / planet / hometown 52 A single, 7 - fingered left glove made of fine silk 53 A self - cleaning material handkerchief 54 A single ancient projectile weapon bullet 55 Carbon fibre letter opener 56 Sugar detector 57 A dog tag od a fallen comrade 58 A small cog made of titanium 59 An old handheld console displaying graphics at a light wavelenght you can’t perceive 60 A miniature fold out chair 61 A small model of an ancient space probe of your people 62 A tiny, desktop vacuum cleaner 63 A small, empty jewellery box that the bottom of looks like open deep space. It is not a screen nor holographic projection 64 An Earthen four leaf clover, preserved in stasis field 65 A small holographic display depicting a single scene from an ancient play 66 An electronic journal written in a language you don’t know. 67 A small holographic display of the Andromeda Galaxy, sealed in a plasteel ball 68 Plastifibre mask 69 A finger helmet 70 A single button from a control panel which has the words “Do not push” imprinted on it 71 A warning sign in an alien language 72 A helium inhaler 73 Half of the holographic data for the Galactic Senate floor plan 74 A vial of Space Wyrm mucus 75 A space pirate flag, adorned with Moitean skull and crossed beam rifles 76 A cigarrette thay cannot be lit and always remains cool to the touch 77 An engraved shard of metal from the title belt of an interplanetary wrestling competition. The words “2284 Reunion” can be read on it 78 A small artificial tentacle you can clip onto objects. It wriggles constantly 79 A miniature microphone which de - amplifies your voice 80 A small can of edible chrome paint 81 A small insect from an extinct species, preserved in stasis field 82 A self - refilling bottle of seal wax 83 A model of a blue, robotic lion 84 An invisible headband 85 A mood ring which changes colours depending on your feelings 86 An Morthandveld feromone dictionary 87 A small token made out of material that was once precious to your people but became almost worthless after achieving ftl flight. 88 A rainbow coloured bootlace 89 A programmable holographic scar 90 A bobblehead figurine of a small, four - legged fungoid 91 A plasma nail cutter 92 A small yellow brick 93 A small bottle of self - tanning lotion appropriate for your species skin type 94 A wig that fits any type of head, covered in red hair 95 A small six sided dice that always orients itself with the number 1 facing up 96 A small blacklight torch (it creates a spot devoid of light) 97 Fidget spinner appropriate for your species 98 A toothbrush belonging to apparently a very small species of alien 99 A pet bowl for a small rodent with a name “Sir Galahad” printed on it 100 An android space hamster

[hyperlanes]

Greetings

Hyperlanes is still in early access I think, but I will be posting some of the stuff I came up with in relation to that. Like races, settings and such. Stay tuned.