Alpha Star Issue 2 Brings New Sci-Fi Options to D&D 5E

Alpha Star issue 2 gave Dungeons & Dragons 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E groups a clean way to push a campaign into science fiction without learning a new engine. The quarterly print-and-PDF magazine landed on Backerkit as part of EN Publishing’s expanding Voidrunner’s Codex line, and its pitch was simple: keep the familiar rules, add the lasers, psionics, aliens, and salvage-world weirdness.

That matters because Voidrunner’s Codex already established the chassis. The 2025 boxed set and hardcover expansion packed in starship design, starfighter combat, hacking, cyberware, vehicles, psionics, and a bestiary of 50 monsters, robots, and aliens. Secondary listings put the book at 399 pages and gave it a deep bench of player options, including 8 heritages, 19 cultures, 18 backgrounds, and 3 destinies. Alpha Star issue 2 did not try to replace that toolkit. It added more fuel for the same machine.

The issue’s strongest table-facing material came from its mix of character options, gear, and an actual adventure. DJ Shepard’s Hokey Religions & Ancient Aliens added backgrounds and archetypes for characters raised in religious societies, which is exactly the kind of detail that helps a sci-fi 5E party feel distinct without turning into a different system. Theodore Kacavas’ Advanced Armory Requisition brought weapon augments and explosives into the mix, while Thomas Pugh’s One Chap’s Scrap offered a 2nd-level adventure built around a junk planet and the missing Eye of Clintock. Russ Morrissey’s The Moons of Boria rounded out the issue with a new heritage and a homeworld made up of moons circling a gas giant hidden inside a nebula.

For tables already using Voidrunner’s Codex, the fit was obvious. EN Publishing had framed Alpha Star as ongoing support for that line, and issue 2 followed issue 1’s pattern of loading the magazine with playable material rather than just lore. Earlier previews for issue 1 pointed to 7 to 9 archetypes, a new alien heritage, cultures, destinies, and street-level technology, so this was never meant as a slim novelty. It was a content stream for groups that want starships, strange faiths, and alien frontiers bolted onto the rules they already know.