Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up A5E games into space!
Alpha Star is a quarterly (print and PDF) magazine with science fiction content for your D&D 5E and Level Up A5E games. It's compatible with the core D&D rules and with A5E rules.
In 2025 we released the Voidrunner’s Codex, a boxed set which introduces sci-fi to your D&D and A5E games, with rules for starships, space travel and exploration, starship combat, alien player options, and psionic abilities.
Alpha Star magazine expands the sci-fi content from the Voidrunner’s Codex, adding new player options, equipment, psionics, and more. Issue one was crowdfunded on Backerkit at the end of 2025. This crowdfunding campaign is for Issue 2 of Alpha Star.
We’ve scoured the universe for the best sci-fi content for your A5E games in our ongoing quest to support and expand the Voidrunner’s Codex--which, incidentally, sold out in North America, to our surprise and delight!
In this issue, we’ll delve into a selection of backgrounds and archetypes for those raised in societies shaped by religion. We’ll examine an armory of new weapon augments and explosives. We’ll search a junk planet for the missing Eye of Clintock in a new adventure from Thomas Pugh. And, finally, we’ll meet a brand new (to A5E) heritage: the Borians, whose homeworld is a not so much a planet but a system of 47 moons which orbit a mighty gas giant hidden inside a nebula!
So, step aboard your starship and join us on another insterstellar cruise. Just watch out for that giant space whale… no… helm, hard to port! Brace for impact!
The second issue of Alpha Star magazine is here! What can you expect to find inside?
Hokey Religions & Ancient Aliens by DJ Shepard. Backgrounds and archetypes for those raised in societies shaped by religion.
Advanced Armory Requisition by Theodore Kacavas. New weapon augments and explosives.
One Chap's Scrap by Thomas Pugh. An adventure for 2nd-level characters featuring a junk planet and the missing Eye of Clintock.
The Moons of Boria by Russ Morrissey. A new heritage, along with details about their homeworld--the many moons orbiting a mighty gas giant hidden inside a nebula.
If you missed Issue 1, you can pick it up right here on Backerkit.
The legacies of first contact and lost remnants of ancient civilizations have shaped the peoples and cultures of the far future. Religion seeks answers to the questions of meaning and mortality amongst the stars of the void. While science and reason seek to explain and map the wondrous structures and technology, other beings live in societies shaped by their proximity to these marvels.
3 new backgrounds--Annointed Warrior, Explorer, Xenoarcheologist
2 new cultures--Devotee, Precursor
Voidrunners are not only defined by their abilities, but also by how they choose to equip themselves. In an expansive universe of technological civilizations, a vast array of weapons and armor can be found. Due to the massive distances between planets, systems, and sectors, the most advanced of these can be hard to come by. However, if a voidrunner can find these augmented weapons, they will find themselves equipped with more versatility and devastating firepower.
19 new weapon augments
6 new explosives
When the Scarlett Scourers are blown to smithereens above the junk planet of Grax XVII, it seems as if the Eye of Clintock is lost forever. But then one chap has an idea. Somewhere on Grax XVII is the answer, and what could be simpler than a quick rummage among the detritus?
An adventure for 2nd-level voidrunners.
Known as a race of craftsmen and engineers, there’s much more to the Borians than meets the eye. This article delves into Borians, their homeworld, culture, and more.
Days of travel through the dense nebula have played havoc with your sensors. Ploughing through the fog at half speed, unable to detect anything around your vessel, you finally see a bright blue light penetrating the clouds ahead of you. As you come gradually closer, a mighty blue star comes into view, its heliosphere clearing out an entire star system deep within the nebula, hidden from sight. You emerge from the gas clouds, your view now unimpeded, and your sensors come suddenly alive with a thousand pings from vessels swarming around the star’s fifth planet, a great gas giant, surrounded by dozens of moons. This busy system, tucked away from galactic conflict, is Boria, the homeworld of the Borian people.
Your PDFs will be with you June 2026. Digital (PDF) rewards will be fulfilled as soon as the crowdfunding campaign ends. We pride ourselves on the fastest digital delivery of rewards in the world!
Your books will be with you August 2026. We will place the print run order for the books the same day the pledge manager surveys close in -- the printer is standing by! Printing and shipping via DriveThruRPG is estimated to take 2-4 weeks depending on your location.
Some destinations may impose separate customs charges upon delivery of the Voidrunner's Codex box set.
This beautiful boxed set rockets your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! It's compatible with the core D&D rules and with our A5E rules.
Voidrunner's Codex is a hardcover containing new player options, equipment, psionics, and more!
Star Captain's Manual details starships, space travel and exploration, and starship combat--along with rules for building your own starships!
Escape from Death Planet is an introductory adventure for character levels 1-3. Can you get off the planet of Ninemoon before the Imperium destroys it?
Plus 200+ tokens, 20 poster maps, and a magnetic Narrator's Screen--all in a beautiful slipcase!
This is not a standalone ruleset. You will need either the Dungeons & Dragons 5E/5.5E or A5E core rules in order to use it. The A5E core rules can be added as part of this Kickstarter, or accessed for free on our comprehensive tools site.
We are strong supporters of the Open Gaming movement and encourage third-party support for Level Up Advanced 5th Edition.
Creators can publish for A5E under the licence of their choice: Creative Commons, the Open Game License, or the Open RPG Creator (ORC) License.
We are developing a new System Reference Document (SRD) for Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (A5E), which will be designated the A5E System Reference Document (A5ESRD). You can read more about this at a5esrd.com.
We already have a thriving community of third party creators for Level Up A5E which can be found here.We are strong supporters of the Open Gaming movement and encourage third-party support for Level Up Advanced 5th Edition.
Creators can publish for A5E under the licence of their choice: Creative Commons, the Open Game License, or the Open RPG Creator (ORC) License.
We are developing a new System Reference Document (SRD) for Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (A5E), which will be designated the A5E System Reference Document (A5ESRD). You can read more about this at a5esrd.com.
We already have a thriving community of third party creators for Level Up A5E which can be found here.
These magazines contain no art or any other content created by generative artificial intelligence. We work with a large, international team of talented freelance artists and writers to create Alpha Star Magazine, overseen by magazine editor Russ Morrissey.
