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I have attempted to preserve the feel of the Shadow Raiders universe for use in other space-based RPGs. Character classes and Races are fairly straightforward, with the obvious selection of races and classes. The addition of the Extractor class provides a unique character class for the setting.
For the character races, a lot was extrapolated. For instance, to make the Sun People a viable race (rather than simply comic relief), it was assumed that they designed much of the buildings and equipment in the past, and simply grew complacent in their reliance on the Sand people. Likewise, the people of Tek had few real examples (except for Tekla) - the information on some of the cybernetics either came from her or the brief viewing of her father and his guards.
The Gear and Ships have been given statistics to conform roughly to items from the Star Wars RPG. As other Sci-Fi d20 systems become more popular, I will attempt to add stats for them as well. The Star Wars "space fantasy" fits well with Shadow Raiders; I'm anticipating adding a Farscape d20 conversion too, if the mechanics are sufficiently different from SW.
There are certain things that Mainframe stated about the different races, gear and so forth. I have included these where they make sense - even if they were not demonstrated in the show (for instance, the ability of people from Fire to liquefy in extreme temperatures). At other times, the information was adjusted - for instance, Mainframe states that CRPRs were 60 feet tall, where they're clearly smaller (see the first Episode).
Some of the ideas come from discussions in online forums. While there are some elements of material I've presented that are not agreed upon (and Mainframe Entertainment has not provided any further information), I've tried to resolve inconsistencies (see below). However, individual game-masters are free to interpret the material in whatever way they see fit.
In this set of D20 conversions, I have tried to maintain the feel of the series, while at the same time reconcile any discrepancies. There are a number of errors and inconsistencies throughout the series. In this section, I'll try to explain how I reconcile them.
One of the most amusing discrepancies is the number of fingers the inhabitants of the various worlds have. For the most part, each race has 4 fingers, (except Ice and Sandpeople, which have 3 fingers, and Rock which has the human-like 5). However, Tekla's father has 5 fingers, as does the Fire inhabitant Jade was accused of murdering in J'Accuse. No big deal though - we can simply assume a mistake on the part of the animators and ignore it.
Another discrepancy is the inhabitants of Bone. The physical differences between Sternum and Femur are tremendous - Sternum seems to have a skeleton proportioned like a human, while Femur's head seems almost completely fluid at times. The standard Bone Warriors are more ape-like in proportions, and then Pelvus is skinny and tall. We can assume that the inhabitants of Bone have a considerable variety in their body sizes and proportions - much greater than the other races.
The touch or weapons of the Beast Drones' Null-matter bodies can instantly blast a target "... to another dimension contained within the Beast Planet" Blokk obviously has the same ability (witness his wasting the entire Rock contingent in Ascension). Since people shot on the Prison Planet don't disappear, we can assume this wasn't an attempt on Mainframe's part to sanitize killing. But obviously the commanders have some control over their ability - Mantel's body doesn't disappear. Furthermore, at times, we see the Beast commanders (e.g., Lamprey, in Girls Night Out) slowly drain the life-force from a victim. Is it the same effect? Or does Lamprey have an additional trick?
The Ice Fleas are another puzzle. In the first episode, we clearly see them condensing out of the Nanonyte fog, showing they ARE the nanonyte fog. This would seem to imply they're artificial. Yet we see wild ones in Worlds Within Worlds (which lack the back-mounted cannons too). Therefore we can assume that the nanonytes can be introduced to creatures, and that gaseous discorporation is one of the abilities of nanonytes. Of course, this brings up the question of why Cryos or Zera never used this ability (particularly in Born in Fire or Against All Odds). We can assume it is a technique which is dangerous to sentient beings - thus the severe penalty for using this Feat.
Another discrepancy we see is in the Bladewing, Ice's primary craft. We see both a 1-person fighter version and a 6-person craft. However, the ships are apparently the same size (note the fighter-escorts are the same size as the passenger craft in Against All Odds). However, we must assume that the 6-person craft is in fact slightly larger, since the apparent size of Graveheart in proportion to the one-man fighter (Ragnarok) is larger than Pyrus (in Against All Odds).
By far the biggest discrepancy is the Control Chambers. In This is the Way the World Ends, Tekla specifically states there is a control chamber at the center of Fire. However, if we look at Sandstorm, Zera descends to the vault and runs to the control chamber in a matter of minutes. Also, she and Zuma are standing in the wall of the control vault, looking out at the control chamber. If it were in the center of the world, the control chamber would be below their feet.
The other thing to consider is that in The Long Road Home, both Pyrus and Sternum specifically state "telepods" - plural, indicating there are multiple telepods on both the remnants of the Prison Planet and on Rock. Finally, on Jungle, Tekla finds the telepod after maybe an hour or two of searching. The chances of finding a single small site on the average world are tremendously slight - and if they had been able to detect the telepod with sensors, they probably would have landed much closer to it.
Having multiple telepods and chambers answers these questions easily, and makes sense too. Any reasonably advanced civilization would have a backup system for their computers, particularly those that are expected to last millenia. Also, it provides a consistent explanation as to why the Teleport Engines and Control Chamber of the prison planet were close to the surface, rather than in the exact center of the original planet, which obviously no longer exists. To answer the question about Tekla's discovery of the control chamber at Fire's center, it makes sense for the Master Control Chamber to be located there. Perhaps the chamber in Sandstorm was an auxillary chamber, and telepods always teleport to the central chamber.
The Prison Planet itself is another discrepancy. It is initially unknown to Cryos, who later recognizes it; Femur recognizes it once they get close enough to see surface features. Why wouldn't they recognize it from space? We can assume that the Prison Planet was originally a spherical world like all of the others (the curvature of the "surface" is about the same). This also corresponds to Sternum's comment about "all that's left of the Prison Planet", not to mention the name (otherwise it would have been called an asteroid or planetoid).
The other discrepancy about the Prison Planet is that Pyrus didn't know about it, but Mantel did. If it had been a world within the Planet Cluster, we can assume that Pyrus would have known about it (after all, he had studied astronomy). The disappearance of an entire planet would have been something all of the worlds would have been aware of. We can therefore assume that the Prison Planet was not actually in the Planet Cluster, but in another nearby system, probably one with no other worlds (otherwise the Beast Planet might have dropped in for a snack). Also, we can assume that it disappeared fairly soon after Sternum arrived - Mantel knew enough about it to recognize it, but Pyrus wasn't told about the Prison Planet because it had mysteriously vanished and was assumed to be destroyed (perhaps some debris remained).
The Beast Planet itself is full of contradictions too. No normal matter can withstand the heat of a sun, yet the Beast Planet emerges from one with absolutely no effect. The only possible explanation is that the Beast Planet is NOT normal matter; since the Beast Planet's claw is supposedly denser than a million black holes (which is physically impossible), we can assume that its incredible density can be attributed to it being composed of Neutronium, (which is the matter that Neutron Stars are made of), and that it is also protected by very powerful force fields.