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Lodestar: A Spacefarer's Manual | Space Fantasy in 5e!

Created by The Dragons Vault

Sail the galactic seas of Lodestar in a swashbuckling space-fantasy campaign setting for 5e that evokes the magic of Treasure Planet and Spelljammer, finally bringing the glory of "D&D in space" to your table as it was always meant to be!

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Choose Your Adventure - 07. The Fire Squall ☄️
6 months ago – Tue, Nov 11, 2025 at 04:36:51 AM


Ahoy Spacefarers!

With your ship tended to and upgrades installed, you huddled together to decide which route you should sail out of Dark Moon. There were those amongst you who favoured the slower route, and even a few who wished for the chaos of capstan teleportation, but in the end yer thirst for danger won out! And so we return to the intrepid voyage of the Dawnstar:

With your route plotted you bid farewell to the shipwright, and lower the silt sails. You travel outward of the port, and then veer down and off the main silt stream, towards a fast flowing current that winds its way through the beyond. You are travelling for but a couple of days when you start to see the first signs of the comet storm, small stragglers at its fringes that burn a bright blue and move like cannon-shot through the void. None come near to striking, but your lookout calls your attention from the crows nest and directs you to gander upon the whipping blue swarm ahead.

It looks like a dream, a cosmic shower of ice and rock, burning with an unearthly blue, the glitter of the silt piercing right through its centre. It is at this point that you see the debris, shards of burnt and pockmarked wood and metal drifting through space, a memento mori of those what braved this storm before you. Some amongst you shudder, some steel themselves, now be the time to test yer mettle!

The captain calls to batten down the hatches, and orders all to be vigilant and ready at their posts. The Dawnstar cruises ever closer, the deck now awash in the blue glow of a thousand burning rocks falling from the heavens above. Then you hear the sound, whizzing, as comets fly by closer and closer. Then small impacts, tiny burning pebbles scorch the deck like hailstones, causing the crew to cling to the cover of the masts and railings.

You are in the heat of the storm now, surrounded on all sides by the cascading walls of fiery blue bullets. Your helmsman swerves, avoiding the larger rocks as your lookout calls out their positions above and ahead. All seems to be going well, until you see a massive rogue comet burning hot as a sun and flying at an odd angle straight toward the Dawnstar! You call it to your helmsman, who swerves as hard as they can with a DC 14 saving throw:

8, a failure! 

The Dawnstar takes a massive blow to its starboard hull, dashing the crew across the deck as the ship lurches and rocks on its keel, groaning like a wounded animal. You've no time to discuss, another hit like that and it'll send all of you down to the locker for good, you must think fast and act faster!

Do you run to man the guns, hoping you might be able to shoot the oncoming comets out of the sky before they hit despite how fast they are moving? Do you look to overburn your engines, rocketing you out of harms way but potentially damaging the engines themselves? Or, do you rush to the capstan, and pull the rip cord that might allow the Dawnstar to escape the eye of this storm to a fate unknown?

Choose Your Adventure - 06. Wrights and Wrongs ⚓️
6 months ago – Sun, Nov 09, 2025 at 02:16:29 PM


Ahoy Spacefarers!

The crew floods off the deck of the Dawnstar and into the hustle and bustle of Dark Moon. Tis clear to the entire crew what a lawless place this port be, and so whilst some disappear into the chaos that abounds, most stick together. You decide to head to the shipwrights, and wading through crowds of drunken pirates and down narrow alleys, you eventually alight upon the entrance to a modest dry dock, and in a hut attached you find the 7 fingered fellow you’d heard talk of.


As you approach, the wright looks you and your companions over, then asks if you be the crew of the ship Corsair, returned to retrieve your goods. You give the shipwright the news of the Corsair, and  see a sadness wash over his face.

“I’d told those scallywags of an idea I’d had for a new set of upgrades I’d been a’thinkin of. Told em it would be impossible, but with with a few select pieces harvested from a space kraken I might be able to do it. They told me they’d get me those pieces, but I laughed it off as a joke, those poor souls.”

“Regardless, I thank ye for letting me know. Those fellers bought and paid for an upgrade that I was meant to install for em upon return. Bring yer ship round and I’ll fit it free of charge, maybe it’ll offer me some redemption after sending those blighters to their doom, unwittingly or otherwise…”

You bring the Dawnstar into the dry dock, and the wright gets to work attaching the 🌕 Capstan of Teleportation 🌕 to the ship. This very rare upgrade might allow your vessel a single opportunity to escape danger, or gain the upper hand!

The upgrade completed the wright bids you farewell, but not before offering some advice on where your journey might take you next…

“The way I sees it, you’ve two clear options; you could take the main silt stream out of Dark Moon, it be safer but if any royally chartered privateers catch you leaving a pirate port you’ll have a tough time explaining yerselves! The other option be to take the silt less travelled, it be a faster stream, but it takes you through a wild sea of comets. Ofcourse, you could always hit that shiny new capstan of yers, and pray to whatever gods ye bow to that it spits you out somewhere favourable…”

Choose Your Adventure - 05. Dark Moon 🌒
6 months ago – Sat, Nov 08, 2025 at 10:45:46 AM


Ahoy Spacefarers!

We be a tad delayed on our adventure entry this week, so in order to catch up voting shall only be open for a day, with a new chapter appearing tomorrow and a third on Monday! Now, without further adieu, we rejoin the crew of the Dawnstar:

You huddle and discuss amongst yourselves as to what approach to take as you approach Dark Moon; some wish to ply caution, others to avoid the port entirely, but the majority instead vote to enter and barter with the scallywags!

And so the captain orders the Dawnstar on a course straight for 🌕 Dark Moon! 🌕 Approaching the port it becomes clear as to the origins of its name, this star port is made of cobbled together asteroids and ship wrecks, cast forever in the shadow of a desolate moon that hides the port from the light of its nearest star…

Nerves are high as the ship makes for dock, weapons quietly at the ready, sweat dripping from the brows of the sailors about you… Yet drawing nearer you hear no gun shot, no alarms being raised, instead the sound of chaotic merriment wafts from the port docks, joined with a strong aroma of grog! It is clear that the inhabitants of Dark Moon are more preoccupied with rum-soaked frivolity than they are the arrival of newcomers. You make port, pay the drunken dock master, and lay eyes upon this place of fortune. There be all sorts here, pirates and privateers alike, basking in the freedoms offered in this bastion of piracy and anarchy out here in the far reaches of the silt.

The Captain speaks before you disembark, stating that “we be here for only a moment, a stop on our journey toward our true treasure! Choose where ye spend yer time carefully, and be back aboard within a few hours or we will be maroonin ya here till our return!”

With precious few hours here, what would be the best way for you to spend yer time; Ahead you see raucous merriment spilling from within a tavern built from the cracked hull of a ship, named the “Winking Nipper”. You also hear two dockhands talking about an old shipwright on the ports far side dock, a man with many tales and missing fingers. Finally, you see traders disembarking their siltsails, hauling cargo toward a street draped in colourful fabrics and much excitement, a bazaar perhaps?

Choose Your Adventure - 04. Chum & Choices 🦈
6 months ago – Mon, Nov 03, 2025 at 07:31:26 AM


Ahoy Spacefarers!

When last we left off, the Dawnstar was in peril as silt sharks descended upon its deck! Without hesitation you rushed to your stations, some wished to make a quick getaway whilst others looked to plunder more loot, but most of you instead ran to man the ships cannons! With your decision made, destiny plays out once more upon the seas of the Beyond:


Rushing to the guns you take aim against the foul beasties swarming about the ship. You focus as the screams of the unfortunate echo in the vast void, sailors wrenched from their duty to become chum for devil fish. Looking to those at your side you each steady you aim, and then loose a violent broadside of cannon fire out into the colourful wash! You must roll a 12 to have any hope of defeating the beasts, but fortunately this is no mere rum runner or trawler, this ship be well stocked with all manner of cannonry! And so the roll is made with advantage:


14, a Success!! 

Your cannon fire blasts through these creatures like buckshot, adding yet more souls to the grave of the Corsair. One such specimen even drifts to the decking, allowing you to examine it and perhaps learn more about its nature (🟡 Silt Shark Swarm added to the ship system 🟡). Thanks to your quick action your ship and crew has suffered minimal casualties, and is able to make way with little time lost! But even with victory, you can’t help but trouble that this odd nebula, and the fate of the Corsair, remain a mystery to you…

You travel unimpeded for a number of days, tending to the wounded and fixing the little damage dealt to your vessel, until your ship’s navigator approaches. It seems that the only course available to you would take the vessel frightfully near the pirate port of Dark Moon. Once more the captain looks to you, the crew, for how you might best approach such a treacherous crossing!:

Will you sail straight for Dark Moon, and look to ingratiate yourselves with the outlaws harboured within? Or will you move with haste past the port, readying your defences should they be needed? Or will you attempt to pierce the silt stream and cross through void space, avoiding the port entirely? 

We were on the Rotating Heroes Podcast!
6 months ago – Fri, Oct 31, 2025 at 03:09:40 PM

Ahoy all!

Just a quick heads up for anyone who listens to podcasts, or who considers themselves podcast-curious, Aston and myself had the pleasure of being invited to talk with Jasper William Cartwright on the incredible Rotating Heroes Podcast!

We spoke all about Lodestar and the beginnings of Dragons Vault, as well as his amazing setting Axis! So if you want a deeper peek into Lodestar, insight into our process and the history of the Vault, or just to hear what we sound like, go have a listen!

You can check it out on their Patreon, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts!

- Conor