HYPERLANES: Cinematic SciFi for DnD 5e

First grab at the Character Sheet
over 9 years ago – Sat, May 20, 2017 at 12:08:44 AM

Hey everyone. Hope your having fun poring over the HYPERLANES corebook PDF. Just wanted to let you know we've put together a form fillable 2-page character sheet, so you can get cracking at assembling your crew.

For technical reasons we don't have it up on DriveThruRPG for download quite yet, so for now you can just pick it up here: 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e66koglcoapnc2w/Hyperlanes_charsheet_fillable.pdf?dl=0

Have fun!

-Ryan

Some Genius clarifications
over 9 years ago – Fri, May 19, 2017 at 08:33:42 PM

We’ve had a couple backers with questions about how Genius procedures work, so let me explain what we’re trying to do with them. Procedures are simply gambits, when performed by members of the Genius class. They’re like normal gambits, but a bit more methodically practiced. The Genius is the HYPERLANES equivalent of the Wizard, and Procedures work almost exactly as Wizard spells do. Like the Wizard, a Genius must keep their gambits documented and study them in order to execute them. This is what we call their “Procedures Book”, but it could easily be a computer or a collection of rolled up blueprints and plans. It really depends on your particular sci-fi setting.

The physicality of Procedures is what makes them distinct. Just as a Wizard might stumble upon another Wizard’s spellbook or scrolls and learn new spells, a Genius is always on the lookout for the research of the other Geniuses in the galaxy, so that they too might learn.

This can be particularly flavorful to your particular campaign. If your Genius is a Tactician, but the party has raided the laboratory of a famously brilliant engineer, she might end up with the Procedures book of that technician, providing a host of technical schematics to learn from. That Tactician might from then on have a special insight into engineering, represented by all those Engineering school gambits they picked up.

In general terminology is just altered to reflect the genre, but the rules still work basically the same:
Wizard spell = Procedure (a kind of gambit)
Spellbook = Procedures Book
Ritual casting = Experiment

One other element of the Genius that seems to be confusing people is the Genius gambit list. While the rules technically refer to the existence of a list, the truth is that all of the gambits in the book are on the list. The Genius is so brilliant they can technically learn anything. This is obviously a bit of a departure from Wizards (who usually don’t have healing or other divine flavored powers). This is intentional for a number of reasons.

First, we wanted Doctors to be included as a kind of Genius. This just made sense for the more limited number of classes we were going to be working with. Second, gambits are actually a bit less deadly in HYPERLANES than they are in D&D. The power of gambits comes from combinations and affecting the conditions of things, rather than raw damage. With the Genius less of a damage dealer than the Wizard except at high levels, the Genius’ power actually comes from their own cleverness. Smart players will find useful combinations with their own powers, and with the gambits of others in the party. That’s their strength, and having access to all the gambits is a big part of that.

As a DM you’ll likely find that the Genius needs quite a bit of protecting by the rest of the group, but that when they really put their mind to solving the problems at hand, they’re amazingly effective. It takes brains to play a Genius sometimes, but it can be a blast.

Keep the questions coming!

-Ryan

Digital copies of HYPERLANES are away!
over 9 years ago – Fri, May 19, 2017 at 01:32:39 AM

We've just sent out the PDF digital versions of the HYPERLANES Corebook to backers. We're super excited to get it out to you all and really looking forward to hearing what you think of it. 

A couple notes: 
If you were supposed to get the PDF and somehow didn't, please email us at: [email protected] and we'll work to figure things out.

The book has a 2-page character sheet at the back. We should have a separate, fillable PDF version out to you soon.

If you have questions (or catch any problems we need to fix before the print edition goes out), please email us at the above address. If you have quick rules questions you can feel free to Tweet me or DM me on Twitter: @chaddockr  I generally follow back fellow gamers.

Incidentally, a lot of great art came in these last few days as portraits for our high level backers. I think the most important piece is this one though. One for the ages.

 -Ryan

Almost ready for Digital
over 9 years ago – Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 06:24:55 PM

Hey just wanted to update you all on where we're at on delivering things. We've had a bit of a hangup on the artwork side of things. Basically the process of back and forth with the high level backers getting portraits has been sluggish. We need to make sure those art pieces are in the core book, so we've had to hold off on finalizing the layout process until all that art is done. 

Other than those pieces, we're pretty much done with the core book, so our layout process has moved on to getting the cards ready. They're looking good so far. Other writing and development for our other books are underway, so we should have a lot to show you soon.

My hope is that we'll have digital copies of the core book out to you in a few days, with hard copies to follow in the coming weeks. We're all super excited to finally show you what we've been working on.

I'll be writing up a few more updates soon, just to introduce you to a few of the more nuanced elements of what we've made.

Thanks for all the patience guys!

-Ryan

Plunging into the Deep Space of Layout
over 9 years ago – Fri, Mar 24, 2017 at 08:50:06 PM

If you haven't heard much from us in a while it's because we're deep in the heart of assembly for the HYPERLANES corebook. We're  a week and a few days behind where I wanted to be in terms of schedule, largely due to workflow issues, but we're on course to put this baby together soon! The book is written, with a few little areas in need of patching. Most of it's edited. Most of the art and freelance writing is in the can. 

Once we're done with all this crunch time activity we'll have more time to help with community stuff, like the  maintainance of the HYPERLANES subreddit, which you can find here: https://www.reddit.com/r/HYPERLANES/

At this point it looks like we'll be shipping hardcopies some time in late April. We'll keep you posted as we get things together. Digital copies of the corebook will go out sooner.

Again, once those go out things will happen fast. We'll be sending something out every month until July! It's getting exciting.

-Ryan