Every adventure starts with a character you’re excited to play. So here’s how to build your science fiction (or science fantasy) adventurer using the steps in Dark Matter.
A Maw station, portal to interstellar travel, hangs in space among swirling stardust. Art by Martin Kirby-Jackson.
We’re using options already freely available on the Mage Hand Press blog, but if you want to see more you can follow the Dark Matter Mega Box Kickstarter or get the 32-page preview PDF with a $1 pre-pledge. Let’s get into it!
Choose any class
Your first and biggest choice is your class, which defines what your character does best and how they do it. In Dark Matter you can still choose a fur-clad Barbarian or robe-and-hat Wizard—it’s a big universe, after all. Each of D&D’s core classes have sci-fi options like the Space Marine Fighter, the doom-slaying Dreadnought Barbarian, and the Cyber Ninja Rogue.
You can also choose from Mage Hand Press base classes like the Gunslinger or Necromancer, as well as our bespoke sci-fi base class, the Gadgeteer.
Fantasy and Alien Species
Alongside familiar species—like star elves in their living tree ships and dwarves of the Adamantine Fleet—you’ll find sci-fi specific races in Dark Matter. Here are my top three:
Amoeboids are intelligent, vaguely Humanoid-shaped oozes that can mimic the form of any creature they touch. Play an amoeboid to experiment at the cutting edge of science and adapt to any creature you encounter.
Nautilids are an orphaned species. The naturally-occurring Poseidon Solution that keeps them alive vanished when a dying star boiled their home world. They search tirelessly for a new world with the right mix of rare elements and dissolved gasses in its oceans to establish a colony. Play a nautilid to become an imposing, mysterious adventurer on an endless odyssey.
Vect are evolved golems awakened to sentience in a sudden, universal event called the Spark. Now the vect are free to search for meaning in the ‘Verse. Play a vect to become a tireless, adaptable bastion for your party, reconfiguring your limbs and even your ability scores on a long rest.
Choose your Background
Your background is what you did before becoming an adventurer. Dark Matter lets you create a sci-fi background by swapping new Origin feats into backgrounds from the Player’s Handbook to get a Technical Sage, an Affluent Noble, or a Silver-Tongued Wayfarer.
Or you can choose from 20 new backgrounds like Galactic Colonist, Holo-influencer, Interpreter, and Low-worlder.
Origin and Species Feats
Your background gives you a special level 1 feat called an Origin Feat. Naturally, Dark Matter comes with an expanded roster of Origin Feats, but it also comes with brand new “Species Feats”! You can pick one of these feats instead of the Origin Feat provided by your background, giving you the ability to mix-and-match. Your Dragonborn might be a “Multiscale” with two draconic colors, or your Ameoboid might be a “Shapeshifter” with the ability to perfectly look like any other species.
New Skills
Dark Matter presents three new skills: Data, Piloting, and Technology. These skills are available to characters at level 1 as detailed on the Futuristic Skills table.
Futuristic Skills
| Class | Proficiencies |
| Alchemist | Data, Piloting, Technology |
| Barbarian | Piloting |
| Bard | Data, Piloting, Technology |
| Captain | Piloting, Technology |
| Cleric | None |
| Craftsman | Piloting, Technology |
| Druid | None |
| Fighter | Piloting, Technology |
| Gunslinger | Piloting, Technology |
| Investigator | Data, Piloting, Technology |
| Martyr | Piloting, Technology |
| Monk | Piloting |
| Necromancer | Data, Piloting, Technology |
| Paladin | Piloting, Technology |
| Ranger | Piloting, Technology |
| Rogue | Data, Piloting, Technology |
| Sorcerer | Data, Piloting, Technology |
| Vagabond | Piloting, Technology |
| Warden | Piloting |
| Warlock | Data, Piloting, Technology |
| Warmage | Data, Piloting, Technology |
| Witch | Data, Piloting, Technology |
| Wizard | Data, Piloting, Technology |
Starting Equipment
Dark Matter gives you a full suite of sci-fi options for armor, weapons, and spells to round out your character’s experience. You can find some of these, like the Vestments of Ra and Un’s Codex, on the site already, and a full list in the preview.
Building Your Ship
Every crew of spacers worth their salt has a ship, a base of operations and means for crossing the ‘Verse from one job to another.
Build or Choose a Ship
When you start a campaign, you can choose a ship from dozens listed in the Ships chapter or you can collaboratively build a ship of your own. This process asks players to imagine what makes their ship unique and then pick out its systems and weapons. And yes, you can choose a 100-foot tall mecha Battle Frame for your ship.
Ship Feats
Optionally, you can give each player a Ship feat from the Feats chapter to help each player settle into a particular role aboard the ship, such as its Pilot or Gunner.
Launching a campaign
Now that you have a shiny new character, you’ll want to send them to space! The best advice I have for getting players excited about any campaign, especially a sci-fi departure from the medieval fantasy norm, is to make a strong promise and make it accessible. Here’s how to beat the real BBEG of D&D: scheduling.
The Promise
My most successful campaigns have begun with a clear promise that gets your players excited. Here are some examples:
Welcome to Grax’s Guys for Cheap! You play second-rate mercenaries working for a third-rate mercenary company, taking whatever nonsense oddball jobs come across your desk. Each chapter of this campaign functions as a slapstick one-shot, as you are recruited to some new, ridiculous job for yet another kooky client.
You play a crew of Contractors working for a crime syndicate known as the Firm. You have your pick of freelance jobs across the ‘Verse, as well as a steady supply of safe-cracking, robberies, and assassinations, provided by your AI overseer.
For more ideas, check out how to hijack your fantasy campaign into space and a d100 table of plot hooks.
Accessibility
The less time you spend looking up rules, the more time you can spend using them. That’s why much of Dark Matter is already on our blog: so anyone can play and any DM can approve. More is added every week! Here’s a link to everything Dark Matter on the site:
Dark Matter launches Feb. 3
Dark Matter returns early next year! Here’s what’s changed since we first released the book:
Expanded and Revised. We’ve revisited the entire book, from blasters to monsters, to make your sci-fi characters and campaigns better than ever. Dark Matter now has over 130 pages of new content!
2024 and Beyond. Everything in Dark Matter now supports the 2024 ruleset and the entire slate of classes from Valda’s Spire of Secrets.
New art. Our human artists have had years to hone their craft, and it shows!
New adventures. What makes this a Mega Box are Grax’s Club and Contractor Corp, two new adventure paths to explore the ‘Verse with your party.
Follow the Dark Matter Mega Box Kickstarter and be among the first to back, or get the 32-page preview PDF with a $1 pre-pledge that also locks in your Grax’s Club challenge coin.
See you in the stars!
—Mike
