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Dark Matter

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What is Dark Matter?

Dark Matter is a full science fiction conversion for 5th Edition that unlocks a universe of adventure for your table, without leaving your favorite fantasy staples behind.

Everything in Dark Matter, from character options to space combat, is easy to learn, generic enough to use with any sci-fi setting, and made to work with 5th Edition. Moreover, this entire 298-page book is filled with gorgeous illustrations from start to finish.

Dark Matter is for any player or GM who wants a little more sci-fi at their table. Though it's a full campaign setting, Dark Matter is designed with flexibility as a top priority: the rules and options in Dark Matter can seamlessly be applied to any 5E campaign from the definitely-not-Star-Wars settings the to all-inclusive fantasy games. You need Dark Matter if you want to throw a blaster, laser sword, or starship into your next game, even if it's only for one session.

What can you expect from Dark Matter?

Dark Matter is a 298-page book with full-color illustrations and gorgeous art direction. Its 8 chapters (and appendices) are chock full of sci-fi action, from beginning to end. Here's what every chapter entails:

The 'Verse: An introduction to the universe at large, providing the all-important top-down view on everything. This chapter details much of the 'verse's history, outlines all the major races, introduces all the major factions, and gives some insight in how to adventure around the galaxy.

Races: Seven new playable character races, plus an extremely customizable human subrace, to inhabit the 'verse alongside the usual fantasy standard of elves, dwarves, gnomes, and so on. Your next character could be an Amoeboid, a shapeshifting ooze-person, a Vect, a living construct of magical technology, or an Avia-Ra, a bird-headed sun worshiper.

Gadgeteer: A highly-customizable technological base class (complete with four subcalsses) that uniquely belongs in the Dark Matter universe. 

Character Options: A swathe of archetypes for every class in 5E core; plus a handful for Mage Hand Press classes, a deluge of new feats, a host of new backgrounds, and three new skills. With these options, you can finally play the tech-savvy gnomish space marine or the dashing elven starship pilot you've always longed for.

Equipment: Blasters, laser swords, rocket hammers, magic items, artifacts, and more! This chapter contains everything from personal radios and tool kits to universe-shaping artifacts. You know what they say: hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side!

Ships: Innovative rules for space combat, options for assembling and customizing your own starship, and over 40 example ships to populate your space battles. Everything you need to explore the universe! Will you spend your hard-earned gold on upgrading the dark matter drive in your custom Freelancer, or does it need another battery of pulse cannons?

Monsters: A bestiary full of alien critters from the adorable thrwirrel to sinister wandering rift. These creatures, all of which come with full descriptions and statistics, should provide a sci-fi challenge all the way from 1st level to 20th. In addition, the Monsters chapter comes stocked with a vast array of NPCs, ready to pilot opposing vessels and populate humanoid factions. 

Spells: A catalog of spells to influence technology, harness hardlight, and travel the universe. From cantrips like technomancy, which give some harmless tech-manipulation, to the devastating orbital hardlight cannon (which is a magic space cannon that is every ounce as cool as it sounds), there's spells for every caster of every class and every level.

Appendicies: The appendicies of this book are a treasure trove of world-building fun, including tables to randomly-generate exotic alien planets, a breakdown of neat spacer lingo, a d100 table of plot hooks, and even a helpful unit reference and conversion guide!

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Reviews (5)
Discussions (34)
Customer avatar
Corbin M July 27, 2022 12:18 pm UTC
Does this come with the adventure Conspiracy in the Stars? I cant seem to figure out how to get this.
Customer avatar
Erik Z July 24, 2022 8:16 am UTC
The book sounds very interesting to me, but the print version is not available in Europe, and requests from European traders are not even answered. In the same way that questions here on Drivethru have gone unanswered for 2 years. Which probably means that I'm never going to get to read it, but at least, I've hereby documented the "why" ;-).
Customer avatar
NEIL S July 05, 2022 9:01 am UTC
Any chance of pod and wheres the print version
Customer avatar
NATHAN D July 04, 2021 8:24 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Any chance of a preview of the book?
Customer avatar
William A May 28, 2021 12:15 pm UTC
Only seeing Pdf of publisher website store. Is there a print version available.
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Customer avatar
William A May 29, 2021 3:48 pm UTC
Found it. Nevermind
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Customer avatar
D. C April 22, 2022 5:19 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Where?
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Customer avatar
Patrick S June 30, 2022 10:07 am UTC
Yes, where? :D
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Customer avatar
William A July 10, 2022 11:00 am UTC
https://store.magehandpress.com/products/dark-matter-hardcover

Just looked under campaign settings in pull down.
Customer avatar
Clayton B May 26, 2021 12:35 am UTC
PURCHASER
Just purchased this, and I am excited to start running this for my friends. There are parts of the Character sheet that I don't understand. In Dark_Matter_Character_Sheet_Form_Fillable.pdf, 3rd page with the ship info, what is the difference between the Left and Right AC? Left-side is oblong, right side looks like a shield.

Would you consider adding something to the DM Guide to explain the parts of these sheets that are different from the normal 5e character sheet?

Either way, loving it so far!
Customer avatar
Chris M May 25, 2021 2:30 pm UTC
Would like to take a look at the book before purchasing but there is no preview?!?
Customer avatar
Ryan S April 16, 2021 8:56 pm UTC
I just ordered the hardcopy from the store (linked off of the Kickstarter). It said ships 3/21, I ordered it today 4/16, so can I assume the hardbacks are shipped quickly?
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Customer avatar
William A May 29, 2021 3:53 pm UTC
Did you ever get it?. Just ordered my print copy
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Customer avatar
Ryan S June 02, 2021 2:36 am UTC
Never got a reply but found out from their Kickstarter page that copies will go out in July. I wish that was communicated better on this site.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/magehandpress/dark-matter-starter-set-science-fiction-for-dnd-5e/posts/3155035
Customer avatar
Jeffery K January 17, 2021 2:42 am UTC
PURCHASER
I really need the hardcover of this book. I'll follow you for updates on when this will be available.
Customer avatar
Joe C November 24, 2020 12:51 am UTC
Any options or potential to make it available for Virtual Tabletops? I love this supplement and I am putting a campaign together to use it. Thanks for all of the hard work. I backed the kickstarter.
Customer avatar
Michael S August 02, 2020 7:40 pm UTC
Does this include a form fill-able character sheet for creating and storing characters digitally?
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Customer avatar
Justin F August 02, 2020 8:33 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
It does!
Customer avatar
Thomas R July 23, 2020 5:13 am UTC
Are there plans for more books or content in the Dark Matter universe? I've been driving myself nuts trying to choose which 5e sci-fi supplement/conversion I want to run for my next campaign. The only thing holding me back from choosing this is how much more content most of the other supplements have in comparison. This is my favorite single book in this category and I'll probably end up going with this regardless, but it would set the decision in stone if I knew MHP still planned on developing this further.
Reply
Customer avatar
Thomas R July 23, 2020 9:55 pm UTC
Nevermind! Just saw the Starter Pack kickstarter releases on 7/29 with a campaign in it. Perfect timing!
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin F August 02, 2020 8:35 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Glad you found it! I miss comments on Drivethru way too often!
Customer avatar
Benjamin A July 22, 2020 11:57 pm UTC
Any word on when POD will be available? I'd pay good money for a HC physical copy, from what I've seen (and heard from my son who's in the middle of an online Dark Matter campaign) this is an excellent book!
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin F August 02, 2020 8:34 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Check out our kickstarter! We sell our Hardcovers through kickstarter and on our own store page because we want to make sure that the books are printed in the highest quality possible!
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Customer avatar
Talon D August 19, 2020 1:39 am UTC
The Kickstarter appears to be over and your store says they're sold out. Any chance on another print-run of the physical book?
Reply
Customer avatar
Justin F August 19, 2020 9:03 am UTC
PUBLISHER
The Dark Matter Starter Kit campaign is still live and includes a second print run of the core book! :)
Customer avatar
Z. Daniel B February 20, 2020 5:14 pm UTC
This is, hands-down, the best science fantasy supplement for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition. It expertly melds familiarity with D&D 5e with inspiring lore, flavorful races/subraces, a bevy of pitch-perfect subclasses for the D&D classes (as well as some of Mage Hand Press' best-loved supplements), inventive feats and backgrounds and hundreds of new equipment, magical items and spells. The spaceship combat system is the best by far that I've found, balancing complexity and ease of learning, as are the rules for building and upgrading your party's ship. The included monsters are original and perfectly-portable into any game.

I have looked far and wide for the perfect science fantasy add-on to D&D 5e and I promise you - this is it. (I purchased the book from Mage Hand Press' website, hence the lack of purchaser tag here.)
Customer avatar
Keegan G November 15, 2019 3:45 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Excellent writing, fantastic information, and a whole world of things to explore! Absolutely cannot go wrong with this! (And all other titles in the series!)
Customer avatar
kenneth F September 22, 2019 4:34 am UTC
PURCHASER
so would it be possible for the PDF to be optomised or a more optomised version put out, as it stands this PDF can use over 2 gigs of ram opened with adobe.
Reply
Customer avatar
Mage Hand P October 01, 2019 5:34 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
I'll be doing that with this month's update! We recently added 6 more pages, so this month's update will both include that, and /much/ better performance.
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Gold seller
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Pages
267
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File Last Updated:
December 19, 2020
This title was added to our catalog on November 15, 2018.