Homebrew class including Metallic Arts for a d20 system ttrpg

[Edhack77]

Hello there, first of all, I would appreciate if this post could reach Brandon himself or someone from his team, because I'm going to ask him something in this post, so any help would be most welcome and appreciated. The TLDR of this message is that I made a homebrew Class for a homebrewed version of the Starfinder TTRPG by Paizo, in which I essentially include mechanics for the Metallic Arts from Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, I'll have links to the google document at the end, plus other links that I will explain further. Btw apologies in advance if I express incorrectly in english, it's not my native language (that would be Spanish) and, though am decently fluent in it, I will probably make mistakes while writing this, also apologies if the document has some errors as well, if you have any input surrounding the Language used or the content in it, I will welcome it in DMs and comments.

 

So, the Context, I have a friend who is a madman, and we both like ttrpgs a lot, he probably likes them more though, since he looked at the game known as Starfinder (developed by Paizo, who also make one maybe more known: Pathfinder) which, is a tabletop rpg system set in a more sci-fi space era universe, well my firend looked at it and said: "I can make it better", and debatably, he did. One of the many gripes people have with Paizo's systems is that they're very crunchy in numbers, so he reworked the system to reduce the amount of crunch, while keeping the colossal amount of options it gives, and adding even more. Thus what my friend calls "The Glorious Guide to Starfinder" was born. This Guide includes all the official Starfinder classes and races, plus all the unofficial ones from extra modules and stuff, and three extra homebrew classes developed by other friends, and one by me, the one I mention in the start of the post. The total number of Classes in this homebrew system I believe is 26, and they are all very different with unique features, we also have a now separate document including 200+ species from which you can choose from in character creation, plus a lot of themes (equivalent to backgrounds in D&D) which you can also choose from in character creation. And that's not taking into account the Bestiary which I don't even know how many monsters it holds by now and another document for Starship Construction plus adapted rules for starship combat. It's all in Spanish though, since it's our native language and the original idea behind this guide was to translate the Starfinder system to Spanish since a lot of our role-playing friends aren't as fluent with English.

Anyways, taking into account how big it has become (according to my friend it's about 600+ pages in different Google Documents) we have considered publishing it in a more official way (through a kickstarter maybe) and make some amount of money from it, thanks to the ORC License being developed (which was initially funded by Paizo after the OGL debacle that happened earlier this 2023 caused by Wizards of the Coast, company holding the rights of DnD) we hope to do it soon enough. That intention of publishing it in a more official way is the reason I want this post to reach Brandon, since I don't want to enter into any kind of trouble regarding possible copyright claim to his Magic systems in which I have blatantly inspired the Class I made. It's true that I haven't used any official terms from Brandon's system, but I like to secure my bases first, since I know there is already a Mistborn Tabletop RPG, though it uses a different system than the one that the Class I developed uses (which is a d20 system). Still, if this could reach Brandon or his team, and they could read what I made and give their consent to us publishing this Class, it would be preferable. In addition to this, I would like to tell Brandon that if these mechanics that I developed for the Metallic arts in a d20 system were to be used by him or his team in the future they can consider this part of the post as a formal relinquishment on any copyright towards the mechanics created for this class (if they would like a more formal and appropiate statement about this, they may contact me and I'll make it). 

 

So, after all that, a quick summary of what this Class/this Glorious Guide to Starfinder includes. The Class in question I named it Metallist, and it is a Utility Spellcaster whose primary stat is Constitution (Quick note, the main 6 stats of this game are the usual Strenght, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma). What the term Utility Spellcaster means to those not used to the ttrpg jargon, it means that it is a class with magical abilities which are more focused on buffing your allies and debuffing your enemies. The core mechanic of the Class is what i've called Metalmagic and Metalchemy (yes very subtle, that's why I asked permission to Brandon before considering publishing it officially), which you have access to both for teh base class, though you can take the option to specialize in any one of them. I also have started developping rules and mechanics for what I've called Sanguilurgy (also very subtle) but that is still in development.

Metalmagic functions as follows: you learn it at level 1 and you have a number of "Metalchemic Brews" which are some kind of potions you can drink to gain "Metalmagic Charges", which you will spend to use your abilities. Also at level 1, you learn 1 "Metalmagic Ability" (you learn 1 each odd numbered level) whose name and/or effect is related to some pure metal or an alloy of such metal (I've added more metals other than the 16 allomantic ones, just to give more options). The effects of the Metalmagic Abilities activate wheter by having Metalmagic Charges or by spending them. Metalchemy works quite differently: you learn it at level 2 and you have a number of "Metalchemic Vessels" which you can use to store "Metalchemic Properties". You learn 1 Metalchemic Property at level 2 (and every even numbered level) and the way you use them is by storing them in Metalchemic Vessels (they have a negative effect when you are storing) and when you are finished storing them, you can empty a Vessel with a Metalchemic Property to gain a positive effect.

That's about what I designed, the more specific stuff about the Class are in the following document, which is a translation to English of the original document in Spanish that I made, hope you like it.

Metallist Class --> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OiF5DlyMMEJjxEUiO1dIPYHGNzCQhvipXVniqbPqLNQ/edit?usp=sharing

 

I'm gonna take this chance to also promote the Glorious Guide, bear in mind that it is in Spanish so, to all of you Spanish Speakers, here is the document known as "Guía Gloriosa de Starfinder" and also an extra document that has links to all the interconected web of documents related to this Guide, such as the Bestiary, a Guide on how to Master a Game with this system, as well as the document for Shipbuilding. We are considering translating these documents too, especially if we want to publish them officially, so if any of you are interested in that I'll try to keep you posted on that matter (also if any of you would be interested in helping us translate it, it would be of much help).

Guia Gloriosa de Starfinder --> https://docs.google.com/document/d/13DvttkHW7FOMWDLhB6-qA4Zy8vr23jgQpnmdYw_PI8g/edit?usp=sharing

Compendio Glorioso de Starfinder --> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SgBHJQZjwhATaYGVHYS2am9SEPX8ArU327nV0HNZrxA/edit?usp=sharing

 

Mind you, almost all of this content is technically still in Playtest phase and thus is subject to changes in the future, but it's still fully playable.  Any feedback on it is welcome, so hit me up in DMs or in comments. Thank you for your attention and help to reach Brandon.

 

Sincerely,

 

Edhack77