Mail Room: Esper Genesis

It is like a 5E version of Mass Effect with monsters, space combat, exploration, and a ton of cool stuff. I got this in the mail today, and I am waiting for my printed copy of the referee's book. The character builds are great. This understands what makes 5E cool, and it expands upon those concepts.

Seriously, why play Spelljammer?

This is cool.

The art rocks.

This is a real sci-fi game with gargantuan monsters the size of a 5-story building.

Nice.

Oh, and it is a stand-alone 5E OGL game. This means, unlike Spelljammer, EG won't be a legacy book in two years, and the rules will be the same. Nice. No repurchasing this, converting, or having parts of it incompatible. Honestly, I have my 5E core books, but if I am playing 5E, I am sticking to the stand-alone OGL games at this point.

And I will stick with them past One D&D's release date too. These will not change and still use the same familiar framework that One D&D will still have - so it is a win-win. Play this or play that.

And somehow, this feels more cohesive and well-put together than Starfinder, to me. There are no "leveled weapons" here, just your standard gun list, and your character levels up and makes them more deadly. They assume a projectile weapon base, but you can mod the guns to have lasers, blasters, needlers, or whatever you want.

There are rules to create your own space races in the referee's guide. Want Star Wars races? Starfinder races? Star Frontiers races? Mass Effect races? Add them in. Fine. Play. Want giant ships? Referee's guide too. They have a monster manual-type book too.

Want to do "elves in space?" Just use monsters and races from other books. It doesn't need "elves in space," however, or any of that streaming service Star Wars, Star Trek, whatever filler, since the Mass Effect vibes are way too cool. When a sci-fi game needs "elves in space," there are plenty of elf-like sci-fi standards that could fill in without going "too much mojo" on your setting.

Cool. This has it all. Want more? I got the perfect "stuff book" for this game.

Another one I got in the mail, Ultramodern 5. This one isn't a standalone game but a collection of tons of sci-fi stuff for 5E. It looks like it works very well with EG, and I would pick and choose from this since you want to be selective, but it feels like a fantastic add-on if you ever wanted more.