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Inside the Ember Reach

The Pitch

Eighty star systems. Eighteen alien civilizations. One impassable void with something moving inside it.

Escape Velocity is a science-fiction tabletop RPG setting built on D&D 5e, where two genres sit at the same table. The ancestral species (human, elf, dwarf, and six others) emerged from a hollow black hole at the center of the Ember Reach about fifty years ago and brought something nobody in the galaxy had ever seen: magic. Bring a classic fantasy character through and they become the first caster anyone has ever met. Build a new character from seven original classes and seventeen playable alien species designed for the cluster. Both work at the same table.

The setting hooks:

  • Fantasy PCs encounter a civilization that has FTL, mechs, cybernetics, and no clue what a spell is.
  • Sci-fi PCs encounter magic and realize it breaks their physics.
  • A hundred-year cold war is under more pressure now than at any point since it started.
  • Ancient Remnant artifacts that have been dormant for a million years are waking up.
  • Something has been detected on the outer rim. The Locus is collapsing in response.

The Setting

The Ember Reach is a cluster of 80 catalogued star systems, surrounded on three sides by the Great Void. Ships that enter the Void do not return. The cluster is approximately 200 light-years across. Standard hyperspace crosses it in two to four months. The ancient Vector Rail network crosses it in a week.

The cluster is politically fragmented. No single power controls it. Roughly 78 billion sentient beings live here, distributed across the alien civilizations and the recently arrived ancestral species.

Key locations:

  • The Locus. A hollow black hole at the center of the Reach. A Remnant construct: a shell approximately 1.5 AU in radius enclosing a hidden star, a planet, and a moon full of Remnant vaults. Currently destabilizing.
  • Ebon Reef. A second Remnant shell at the top-right rim of the Reach. Same structure, different purpose. The Icosa guard it and will not explain why.
  • Hearthworld. The garden capital. Eight billion people. Home of the Cluster Assembly.
  • Threshold Station. The converted observation post where the ancestral species first stepped into the cluster. Population ~340,000.
  • Crossroads. The junction system for the Vector Rail network.
  • The Frontier. The outer ring. Mostly empty buffer with a handful of narrative hook systems.

The Alien Civilizations

Eighteen alien civilizations call the Ember Reach home. Seventeen are playable. They differ in biology, culture, and ambition more than the typical fantasy roster.

What you encounter when you cross the cluster:

  • Silicon-crystal beings with thousand-year lifespans, communicating by subsonic vibration
  • Insectoid hive-minds, expanding aggressively for the past century
  • Plasma-based intelligences inside ceramic containment suits
  • A distributed artificial intelligence spread across networked chassis, recognized as a legal person
  • Cephalopod-humanoids who were the first to crack FTL and field the strongest standing navy
  • Crystal-bodied species that perceive the world by electromagnetic field rather than by eye
  • Parasitic consciousnesses that attach to the spine of a recently deceased host
  • A fungal-network species with a planet-scale mycelial layer for memory and rebirth
  • Ocean-descended shapeshifters and telepaths who maintain self-imposed limits on both abilities
  • A tardigrade-convergent survival species that tolerates vacuum and radiation
  • Silicon-based seismic communicators living in volcanic lava-tube cities
  • Honor-debt mercenaries in two physical variants
  • Massive endurance-built humanoids with organ redundancy (two hearts, two livers)
  • Plant-humanoid hybrids who can root into soil for water and minerals
  • A prey-animal humanoid species running the cluster’s communications infrastructure on a radical democracy
  • Winged insectoid humanoids with concealed raptorial claws and a disciplined readiness philosophy
  • Amphibious humanoid scientists who regenerate limbs and form research pods around questions
  • And one species that is not playable: ancient AI megastructures four to eighty kilometers across, of unknown allegiance and locked memory

Three planets host two sapient species in different ecological niches. Every species has full racial trait blocks, original mechanical traits, and lore covering history, culture, religion, politics, and biology.

The Classes

Escape Velocity introduces seven original classes designed for the cluster. Six are summarized here. Each has three or four subclasses with full feature blocks at levels 3, 6, 10, 14, and 18.

Catalyst (d8, Constitution, half-caster). Atomic manipulator who channels force and energy directly through the body. A frail-looking Catalyst can hit harder than an athletic soldier because the strike comes from atomic control, not muscle. Subclasses: Vanguard, Thermodynamic, Eclipse.

Operator (d10, Dexterity, no casting). Trained combat professional. Squad tactics, suppressing fire, action surges. The only class with heavy armor proficiency and every firearm category. Subclasses: Overwatch (sniper), Ironwright (heavy weapons), Void Breacher (boarding actions).

Cipher (d8, Intelligence, no casting). Hacker, infiltrator, and remote tactician with a programmable tactical drone partner. Breaks systems: people, networks, doors, weapons platforms. The most skill-versatile class in the cluster. Subclasses: Ghostrunner, Netjacker, Handler.

Rift (d8, Wisdom, half-caster). Living conduit to spacetime, neurologically rewritten by Remnant artifact exposure. Perceives the geometry of impossible dimensions. Teleports, manipulates gravity, opens dimensional anchors, and creates singularities at the highest levels. Subclasses: Graviton, Chronopath, Weaver.

Graft (d12, Constitution, no casting). Biological adaptation specialist. Body has been rewritten by exposure to an extreme biome and now carries that biome as combat capability. Claws, spines, acid spit, pressure bursts. The hardest to kill class in the cluster. Subclasses: Apex (predator), Bulwark (tank), Propagator.

Smolder (d8, Charisma, full caster). Entropic caster who channels hypospace decay through a living aperture. Highest sustained damage ceiling of any class. Carries a passive consuming aura. Four subclasses: Fray, Ember, Veil, Threshold.

The seventh class is not described here.

Ships and Space Combat

Eight ship classes ship with the launch product:

  • Viper. Scout and carrier-launched fighter. Smallest combat hull in the cluster.
  • Sparrow. Personal shuttle. The civilian entry point. Preview-featured.
  • Falcon. Light freighter. Armed merchant. Preview-featured.
  • Mule. Heavy freighter. Cargo specialist.
  • Sentinel. Patrol frigate. The Assembly and Lane Warden default.
  • Talon. Strike fighter. Corvette-scale combat ship.
  • Guardian. Destroyer and escort. Faction flagship tier.
  • Arbiter. Cruiser and command. Top of the commercial market.

The ship combat system uses Deflector Points and Damage Threshold layering, Impaired Systems tracking, Crew Actions (Pilot, Gunner, Engineer, Captain), ship Saving Throws, and Critical Hit locations. Round-by-round mode runs full set-piece battles. Quick-Play mode runs narrative transits and chases. Escape pods, salvage rules, hull repair costs, and a complete detection and stealth subsystem fill out the rest. Thirty-eight civilian and military ground vehicles support planetary operations.

Mechs

Mechs in the Ember Reach are 3 to 10 meters tall. Not kaiju. Taller than a tank, shorter than a building. They fit inside station corridors, barely. Each mech includes its pilot skill tree and advancement path.

Four canonical frames in the launch product:

  • Wasp (4 meters). Light mech. Lean insectoid silhouette, digitigrade legs, sensor-heavy head module. The pilot wears it more than sits in it. Scout, harasser, and skirmisher.
  • Centurion (6 meters). Medium multi-role combat platform. Reliable, customizable, capable in every combat role without excelling at any one. Two arm mounts plus two shoulder mounts. The mech equivalent of the Falcon-class freighter.
  • Goliath (9 meters). Heavy walking siege platform. Tungsten-reinforced armor, heavy weapons, barely contained reactor output. Two arm mounts, two shoulder mounts, two back mounts. Optional co-pilot or gunner seat for independent shoulder and back weapon control. The heaviest ground unit short of a starship touching down.
  • Atlas (7 meters). Civilian utility frame. Hydraulic grapple arms, cutting torches, cargo lifters, tow cables. Two hardpoints that accept standard mech weapon mounts. The backbone of frontier industry, occasionally pressed into combat as an improvised platform.

Four to six advanced frames in the launch product cover specialized combat, support, exploration, and stealth roles. Additional specialized frames (extreme environment, science, and legendary high-CR variants) follow in Extended Reach.

Mech and power armor melee weapons include the Chainsaw Lance (serrated), Vibro-Blade (keen), Magnetic Grapple Fist, Electrified Lance (mech-only, stunning), and Hydraulic Maul (mech-only, crushing).

Power Armor

Twelve power armor variants in the full Equipment document, plus the Preview-featured Breacher Suit.

  • Breacher Suit. AC 19, DP 15, +30 Suit HP, +6 Strength. Built for boarding actions and corridor combat.

Damage in power armor layers: Deflector Points absorb first, then Suit HP, then wearer HP. Don and doff rules govern entry and removal time during play. Integrated power systems mean the suit drains a power cell over hours of operation rather than minutes.

Technology

All advanced technology in the Ember Reach runs on gravitational force. This is a hard rule that shapes every piece of equipment in the cluster.

  • Singularity Engine. Standard sublight propulsion. Projects a gravity well ahead of the ship; the ship falls toward it. Top speed 1c. Ten minutes from rest to 1c on a mid-sized hull. Occupants experience freefall the entire time.
  • Hyperspace Engine. FTL drive mounted on the bow. Wraps the ship in a bubble and slips it into hyperspace at 500c. Bubble formation takes 12 to 18 seconds and produces a visible white luminescence at enormous range. Stealth escapes are impossible.
  • Vector Rails. Seventy-eight ancient structures in two rings (the Ecliptic Ring and the Meridian Ring). Slingshot ships at 10,000c on fixed routes. No living civilization knows how to build them. Two have been destroyed. Those losses are permanent.
  • Zero-Point Tap. Power generation with nearly unlimited output. This is why power cells are small and cheap.
  • QE-Link and Wave-Cast. Quantum-entangled instant communication (limited, expensive) and slower radio-wave FTL comms (standard).
  • Viewport materials. Six canonical materials, all transparent: ALON, sapphire, resonance-tuned crystal, and others. Apheron ships use grown sapphire monoblocks. Thuuveen ships use resonance-tuned crystal panels.

Personal technology covers 50-plus items: wrist comms, hand terminals, tactical HUDs, med-kits, void suits, mag-boots, glow rods, rebreathers, auto-injectors, data chips, holographic displays, and more.

Cybernetics span 67 items across 9 categories: grafts, implants, neural interfaces, limb replacements, visual and auditory upgrades, internal power cells, and dedicated complications for when the augmentations start fighting the biology underneath. Cybernetics are a Core feature in the launch product.

Weapons and Equipment

Forty-plus weapons across energy, ballistic, melee, and heavy categories. Sixteen weapon properties. Fifteen-plus armor types. Shields with power-cell mechanics. Fifty-plus personal gear items.

Signature weapons:

  • The Schism Blade. A gravity separation weapon repurposed from asteroid and comet drilling bits. The active zone absorbs light into a matte black void with thin blue-white Einstein-ring lines concentrated at the cutting edge. Intensely hot at the blue line. Cuts through heavy armor under sustained contact. Forms include the Dagger, Spear, Axe (Balanced), and Blade. Non-balanced forms require Strength 13 or 15 because the field pushes back against the user. Miners still call the drill bits “bits.”
  • The Inferno Rifle. Heavy laser with an Adjustable Beam Width property. Toggles between Focused (single target) and Spread (30-foot line). Width steps trade damage for accuracy or save DC. Sustained fire builds Burning stacks up to 3d6 fire damage per turn.
  • The Focal Cannon. Shoulder-braced laser with a trombone-style beam rail. Five settings from Pinpoint (4d10, minus 4 to hit) to Flood (1d6, plus 4 to hit). Requires a backpack power unit.
  • Reactive Shield and Phase Shield. Powered defensive shields that spend charges to impose disadvantage on attackers or halve the first energy hit each round.

The Cluster uses Credits as its currency. The Hidden World uses D&D coinage. Conversion: 1 cp = 1 Cr, 1 sp = 10 Cr, 1 gp = 100 Cr, 1 pp = 100 Cr. Platinum equals gold because asteroid mining makes both common.

Adventures

Two adventures are draft complete and ready to play.

The Outer Edge. Adventure 1. Four sessions, levels 1 to 2. Independent miners find a secret biolab. The introduction to the cluster for Operator and Catalyst crews.

Containment. Adventure 2 and the starter campaign at launch. Six to eight sessions, levels 1 to 3. Set in the frontier town of Thornhaven on the Hidden World, this campaign drops fantasy PCs into their first contact with aliens. Two alien factions arrive over the course of the story (the Nexari diplomat Observer-6 communicating through light panels on its shell, and the hostile Awakening cult). A Remnant calibration satellite called Echo-Seven has crashed beneath ruins called The Crown. Set pieces include a south-to-north headache gradient that escalates across prime-number Countdown stages, Repair Drones with the Task Fixation trait that work through obstacles without attacking, the Access Port Crisis time-pressure mechanic (a welder drone reaches the port in 3 rounds, seals it in 2), and a buried crater chamber revealed mid-campaign by ground collapse. The campaign ends with a four-option moral choice that branches into four discrete endings.

Adventures 3 and 4 (Conductor’s Hand at levels 6 to 8, plus additional Containment side missions) are planned for Extended Reach.

The launch arrives in May 2026. Sign up for the newsletter on the homepage to follow the build.