Since Shadowdark keeps it simple, the classes are easy to hack, modify, and create. Using our examples, we must set a few things regarding armor, hit dice, and weapons. Next, we get to the fun part, coming up with 2-4 class special abilities, and the class will have less if they are a caster.
Skilled classes, like the thief, are simple - a group of actions to have an advantage.
The spell list, if you have one, is the hard part. Still, it isn't hard; more than that, it is a little work looking at existing spells and modeling your new ones after those. If you have a spell list to convert over, just use the names and model the effects using Shadowdark spells as your guide. And just pick the best spells! Four spells per level of tiers one and two are all you need to start; if the class is fun, you can do the others later.
I could develop hundreds of classes using this framework, everything from cowboys to space marines.
I could put together a "ShadowTrek" game in about an hour with command, science, medical, engineering, and security classes. Looking for "position skills" to create navigation, piloting, and communications specialists? Use the "profession system" in the game and give the character an advantage on the rolls. Weapons? Two or three types of phasers that do a d10 ranged damage with a few settings, and you are good to go.
A scanner, technical, or med kit? Okay, just say what they are. They take one slot of gear. Try a profession without them, and you roll at a disadvantage. If you had an advantage since this is your specialty, it cancels out, and you make do with what you have and roll with no modifiers. Put a 3-use limit on them before they need a recharge, if you want to avoid "scan everything" syndrome. Bigger 2-slot kits with 8 uses? Why not?
The main rules will handle everything else. Hand out a sheet for the classes, and players can play just with the free downloadable rules in any genre or game.
Ships? Design them as monsters. A level 10 "cruiser class ship?" AC 17, 50 hp, two "phased laser" attacks doing 1d10, and two short-range torpedo attacks doing 3d6 damage each. A +10 attack modifier and +4 for the ship's "ability scores." It is good to start; if those stats are wrong, it will work out in your first few ship combats. The pilot for the show will be the first few games, and things will change for the better. Want shields? Give it a 20-hp shield that goes down as it is damaged and restored when the ship "rests." Take everything else from the TV show. It feels right.
I need 4-6 pages of notes; it is an entirely different game.
You can't do this in 5E without a 300+ page book and a Kickstarter. The current generation of "phat book" games is bloated and blatantly obese, and the frameworks of the games themselves are so heavy that they drain all the fun and imagination out of the hobby. Wizards designed D&D to need so much support that it takes over your shelves and puts a structural limitation on who can support the game. Pathfinder 2 is no different; it is a super-heavy game.
D&D was designed to limit competition by requiring all this "stuff" to work with the main rules, heavy subclasses, action support, multiclass support, and all these other rules-heavy dongles. Bloat keeps the little people out of the market.
Even many OSR games "miss the point" with this modular design. I could put my ShadowTrek character in any Shadowdark game and have them work correctly, and I would have no issues with needing a saving throw table or any other OSR cruft we enshrine as part of the hobby. The class? It works. The phaser? It works. The combat system is Shadowdark.
What compatibility problems?
One little book is all I need for a lifetime of fun.
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