Dragonstar
Encyclopedia
Dragonstar is a futuristic magic-meets-machine campaign setting
created by Fantasy Flight Games
for Wizards of the Coast's
D20
role-playing game system
. The setting describes a galaxy
under the dominion of the Dragon Empire. The Dragon Empire is a huge bureaucracy, ruled over by the ten houses of dragons
, five chromatic and five metallic, led by Mezzenbone, a red dragon of immense might and evil disposition, who sometimes travels on board The Maleficant, one of the few remaining immense Dreadnought class warship spacecraft.
Across the galaxy, the same fantasy races are found to inhabit countless worlds, sometimes living in great technological civilizations or magically advanced medieval cultures. When the inhabitants of many of these worlds took to the stars by magic or machine (usually both), they were amazed by their similarities. Even their languages were the same, although different dialects had evolved on the various worlds. Both scientists and archmages alike tried to come up with a logical explanation of why most worlds were almost the same, but they were stumped. Eventually, a predominant religious leader of unknown origin emerged and proposed that all the gods of every religion were the same, just different aspects of the twelve "True Gods" and their hybrid faiths.
The Dragonstar setting can easily combine preexisting D20
material and settings. A PC group can be made up of character races and classes in any combination and be rationally integrated with little work. It is similar to the classic Spelljammer
setting by TSR
, although Spelljammer was essentially "fantasy in space", with all space travel explained through magic rather than technology, Dragonstar is more science fantasy
; fighters use lasers, machine guns, robots and grenades, and characters fly in starships through solar systems, although things that are impossible due to our current understanding of physics, such as faster-than-light travel between stars, force-fields, and teleportation, require magic.
Campaign setting
A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place...
created by Fantasy Flight Games
Fantasy Flight Games
Fantasy Flight Games is a Roseville, Minnesota-based game company that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games. Fantasy Flight Publishing was founded in 1995 by its CEO, Christian T. Petersen. Since the release of its first game product in 1997, the company has been doing...
for Wizards of the Coast's
Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
D20
D20 System
The d20 System is a role-playing game system published in 2000 by Wizards of the Coast originally developed for the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons...
role-playing game system
Role-playing game system
A role-playing game system is a set of game mechanics used in a role-playing game to determine the outcome of a character's in-game actions...
. The setting describes a galaxy
Galaxy
A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias , literally "milky", a...
under the dominion of the Dragon Empire. The Dragon Empire is a huge bureaucracy, ruled over by the ten houses of dragons
Dragon (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game , dragons are an iconic type of monstrous creature used as adversaries or, less commonly, allies of player characters...
, five chromatic and five metallic, led by Mezzenbone, a red dragon of immense might and evil disposition, who sometimes travels on board The Maleficant, one of the few remaining immense Dreadnought class warship spacecraft.
Across the galaxy, the same fantasy races are found to inhabit countless worlds, sometimes living in great technological civilizations or magically advanced medieval cultures. When the inhabitants of many of these worlds took to the stars by magic or machine (usually both), they were amazed by their similarities. Even their languages were the same, although different dialects had evolved on the various worlds. Both scientists and archmages alike tried to come up with a logical explanation of why most worlds were almost the same, but they were stumped. Eventually, a predominant religious leader of unknown origin emerged and proposed that all the gods of every religion were the same, just different aspects of the twelve "True Gods" and their hybrid faiths.
The Dragonstar setting can easily combine preexisting D20
D20 System
The d20 System is a role-playing game system published in 2000 by Wizards of the Coast originally developed for the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons...
material and settings. A PC group can be made up of character races and classes in any combination and be rationally integrated with little work. It is similar to the classic Spelljammer
Spelljammer
Spelljammer is a campaign setting for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, which features a fantastical outer space environment....
setting by TSR
TSR, Inc.
Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
, although Spelljammer was essentially "fantasy in space", with all space travel explained through magic rather than technology, Dragonstar is more science fantasy
Science fantasy
Science fantasy is a mixed genre within speculative fiction drawing elements from both science fiction and fantasy. Although in some terms of its portrayal in recent media products it can be defined as instead of being a mixed genre of science fiction and fantasy it is instead a mixing of the...
; fighters use lasers, machine guns, robots and grenades, and characters fly in starships through solar systems, although things that are impossible due to our current understanding of physics, such as faster-than-light travel between stars, force-fields, and teleportation, require magic.