Hello fellow forumites, I am interested in hosting a Stars without number (SWN) campaign, and was thinking of seeing if there's enough interest among us bay12ers. New Roleplayers, New Roll20ers, New SWNers welcome!
What it is: A Sandbox Tabletop RPG, not unlike D&D (a early edition perhaps), based heavily on Traveller but simplified to be a bit less demanding on its players/gm mechanics-wise. It's crazy future tech mixed with random primitive tech, with psionics, AI's and the odd alien thrown in. It also has massive amounts of random generation tables to help generate a entire sector full of interesting planets/factions/adventures. It basically stars several characters as they run around from planet to planet (and asteroid to asteroid) doing missions/jobs/adventures either with their own spaceship or not. It also features a faction system allowing for npc factions to do stuff even when players aren't around, conquer planets, complete secret mission and other stuff... some of which players may stumble upon, some of which they may hear in the news, and some of which they will never know... of course players can also join/lead/create these factions too (although usually its expected for the player to be a fairly high level to lead/create one)
It's FREE:Well more percisely there is a
free edition of the core-book, that happens to be the same as the normal corebook minus some stuff on mechs/ais (but hey, you as a player likely don't need that part desperately anyway), click the link for the slightly more professional blurb about the game.
Official SWN Backstory:The year is 3200. Humanity is scattered like dust among the stars. The broken relics of a former day litter the sky and men and women struggle to rebuild the glory of humanity’s lost golden age. For almost a thousand years humanity had expanded from its ancient cradle to fill the sky with its worlds. At first the expansion came by way of the enigmatic “spike drives” that granted humans the ability to skip between stars. Countless nations, faiths, and ideologies sent colonists to the darkness above to find new homes where they could live free from the oppressive rule of Terra’s calcified masters.
The spike drive touched on different worlds. It folded the tissue of space and time and pierced it to emerge at distant stars, but the space between touched in turn those who traveled it. Over the course of generations, this subtle influence shaped certain descendants of the starfarers. Th e condition that resulted was known as “Metadimensional Extroversion Syndrome”. Most simply knew its victims as “MESses”. Later, they were known as psychics. MES inevitably killed or maddened its carriers when they began to use their powers. The surge of extradimensional energy either cooked their brains or burnt a pathway through their sanity. It was only through decades of research and the expenditure of countless lives that techniques were developed for harnessing this power safely.
The channeling of psionic energy began the second great expansion of humankind. Even though hardly more than one in ten thousand humans were touched by MES, it was still enough to reshape human civilization. Vast choirs of psychics were employed to develop new technology, advanced manufacturing capabilities, and huge jump gates that could teleport whole freighters across interstellar distances.
Spike drives were relegated to the frontier, to the distant star systems that could not yet afford to train the psychics or buy the components necessary to build their own jump gates. This reliance planted the seed of the golden age’s destruction. In 2665,
a metadimensional pulse of unimaginable violence erupted from the Veil Nebula, washing over the whole of known space in seconds. Every psychic in human space was instantly killed or maddened by the surge, burnt out in what later became known as the Scream.
With the jump gates inoperable and all the psychic mentors insane or dead, the core worlds were suddenly cut off from the frontier. A few spike drive ships remaining in the core were able to make their way out, bringing tales of horror, starvation, and frantic warfare over shipyards and orbital factories. Most of the core worlds are thought to have perished, cut off from the worlds that supplied their enormous populations and fueled their vital technologies.
The centuries that followed were known as the Silence, as unnumbered human worlds fought to survive their sudden isolation. Some slid into barbarism or worse, their planets unable to support a starfaring civilization. Some worlds lacked metals, or fossil fuels, or any one of countless other vital ingredients for maintaining their industry. And all, of course, lacked the psionic mentors necessary to train a new generation of psychics.
Over the past six hundred years, humanity has slowly, painfully begun to heal the wounds of the Scream. Not all worlds were incapable of independent survival, and these hardy planets have become the lynchpins of stellar nations and miniature empires. Trade routes have revived with time and the building of new spike drives. Expeditions are regularly mounted to the tomb worlds of the outer core to scavenge what can be reclaimed from the bones of the dead past.
Yet a pall hangs over these efforts. Great sacrifice has revived some of the old secrets of psychic training, but no world dares rely on psionic forces any longer. Th e nature of the Scream is still a mystery. For now, humanity strives to build a world that does not rely upon powers it cannot fully understand or completely control.
Human space is a vast canvas of mystery to most. Ancient nav charts are long out of date. Alien races have since moved into many formerly human-held sectors, and there remain ruins of races that long predate mankind. Warlords and petty tyrants scheme to expand their stellar domains, and brave souls struggle to recover lost secrets. Stars without number await you.
I've only run one SWN campaign(in roll20) that ran 8 sessions before, and am currently a player in someone else's campaign. Other then that i've run a bit of paranoiaXP and played a bit of it and D&D and some custom stuff. I'm not terribly experienced at running games, but i'm fairly familiar with the rules, and universe. (And yes, i have seen
swansong) and read/watched tons of sci-fi so i have lots of stuff i can draw from on the fly.
Desired Players: 4-6 dedicated players, if people don't show up without telling me, expect to be dropped quickly. I don't mind emergencies/life intruding but if you don't expect to be able to make it weekly more often then not, it ruins it for everyone.
Possible Times: Expected Session time is 4 hours long. At the moment i'm more or less free to start a session between 2pm-4pm GMT any day but SUN/WED. Thats 10am-Noon my time (EST) to start a session, and i prefer Mon/Tue/Thur, but Fri/Sat are options. Would run Weekly, assuming enough people showed up. As to which time/date in particular is up to who can play when. I can start hosting almost immediately though, as i have tons of GM-prep work done.
Requirements/Things will be using:1.)
Roll20, which basically means a html5 capable computer/browser... hopefully not a toaster so it doesn't lag too bad for you.
2.) A Microphone/Speakers. While i understand some people are shy, don't have one, or just hate words voiced aloud, personally i find the pacing/enjoyment/ease of explanation is way nicer when you can actually talk to people. Plus.. sarcasm/accents translate quite a bit better/funner.
3.) Skype. I'm not 100% dead set on this or anything, but roll20 voicechat is actually worse then skype, and skype adds the abilty to have a seperate OOC chat and PM's in their own tabs... which makes it quite a bit easier on me to keep track of things. Also we can have a skype group and have a out-of-session chats if you have questions or just want to make fun of each other.
4.) That free Corebook. Other official supplements are cool too, i may draw from them at times, and certainly equipment/stuff in them will 'be around' in the universe, but you really don't need anything else.
Game Mechanics:Basically most non-trivial actions are done by 2d6 + skillmods+ statmods +situationalmods >=difficulty. 7 being the default non-trivial difficulty, ramping up as it becomes more impossible. At level one, with something your slightly skilled in, you can expect to succeed about half the time if it's not too out there of an action. Some stuff it's more about how long it would take to succeed, rather then if you fail.
Combat-wise its d20+armorclass(of what your attacking, lower means more armor) + skillmods(combat skills) + stat (usually dex) + situational/weapon mods to hit, 20 being hit. At level one, most people miss more then half the time except against unarmed targets(armorclass of 9), Damage is different depending on weapon, but its all rather high compared to level one HP, so expect to be one-shot'd by most guns if you actually get hit as any other class then warrior at level 1.
If it wasn't obvious by the previous statement, combat is very fatal at low levels.. and even at mid levels a few good/bad rolls can kill both you and your enemies. SWN doesn't really hold back much on combat. Fortunately being knocked to 0 or less HP just starts you bleeding out, and if someone gets to you with a Lazerous patch or uses a certain psionic power on you, you will be stablized and not die. Otherwise you get to enjoy the -1HP/turn countdown until you die at -10.
Fortunately once you get the hang of it characters aren't that time consuming to generate, likely takes more time to think up a good backstory then to actually fill in the character sheet.
There are 3 classes: Warriors, Experts and Psychics. Each get one special ability, and a selection of trainings(starting skills), and class skills(skills that are easier to level), and different hit dice /attack bonuses / saving throws. With the exception of psychic abilities, anyone can learn any skill, just some are harder to learn if they aren't your class skill.
In paticular, warriors get a free 'dodge any attack' every real hour ability, experts get a reroll any skillcheck every real hour ability, and psychics get psychic powers. Warriors may seem boring/useless outside of a few combat bonuses, but to be honest, they are hands down way better at combat then the other two, and can likely take 2-3 of the same level non-warriors in a hands down fight. Experts are your pilots/techs/scientists/general skill jack of all trades, they level up faster, get more skill points, but have a harder time raising combat skills, lack a few combat bonuses, have a bit less health then warriors, and don't have psychic powers. Psychics have very low health, arent very good at non-psi-weapon combat (which is rare), and not very good at tech stuff, they get psychic powers, which are cool, hard to notice, and more utility-based then combat-based.
All skills/powers are fairly vague, a lot is more 'common sense' or open to interpretation; which statmod to use with what skill is common-sense situational.
Tech skills let you repair/modify/build things, Culture skills let you 'know'/ 'remember' /'find' knowledge/ people/ friends. Combat skills let you use that weapon type better.. most skills are pretty much exactly what the same says. "Stealth" lets you hide yourself/things. "Vehicle skills" lets you drive stuff better. Artist lets you create drawings or sing songs... Navigation lets you plot jumps through jumpspace.
There are 6 stats. Str, Int, Wis, Dex, Con, Cha. very standard. they are 3d6, and don't go up with levels, so 3-18, which results in a -2 to +2 mod. If you end up with more negative mods then positive you can reroll it all, and you can shift some stats up by shifting other stats down ect. and you get to make one of your classes primary stat 14(+1 mod), more details below/in the corebook/in roll20.
0.) Characters are humans, unless i ok it first. Character sheets will be in roll20, and your stat rolls should also be done there. Roll 3d6, 6 times, you can choose which number goes to which stat. You can also 'balance' your stats by lowering a number to as low as 13, and raising one by the same amount to as high as 8. Don't worry too much if you are lack any mods, that's what normal humans and most the people you run into will have anyway. Also, leveling up wont ever increase your stats, so this is genetically, who you are. Out of Kindness you start at max hp for level 1. Oh, you also get to set one of your primary stats as 14 if you want.
0.5) AI's, Aliens, Non-core equipment, non-core backgrounds are possible; but will need a good RP reason/story if you want to start as/with it on/as your first character, and gotta run it by me first.
1.) Combat is lethal, especially to low level characters, however in this universe, surrendering or running away is often a option. Things like having warriors on your side helps, as does smart tactics. Natural 1's always miss, natural 20's always hit.
2.) Sandbox, You can go anywhere and pretty much attempt anything, but that also means some degree of pro-activeness is necessary. Looking for work/jobs in bars, net postings, or using your culture rolls to find jobs will help everyone involved. Also, this means you can fail without the game being over, and sometimes you might want to consider whether you can actually accomplish a job, or re-evaluate if it seems to hard. Some opponents may be near impossible to fight head on, so it may not be a good idea to say, storm a military installation with a couple laser rifles.
3.) New Npcs / Your background, You can use your culture checks to make npcs, old friends, enemies and the like, or people you used to run with. If you succeed they will likely help you, if you fail, they might have a old grudge. Don't be afraid to expand on your own background, or even your homeplanet as you wish. As long as it doesn't contradict the universe, i'll try and roll with it. Obviously, this can backfire as well, so be careful about making strong npcs. Also, the 'more significant' the less likely they will 'do you favors' for free and the like, even with a good roll. And just owing you one, or liking you, doesn't mean they will die for you or make huge sacrifices or anything. Think of them as 'people', who have you know... feelings and lives outside you.
4.) Important Skills:
Having someone with either tech/medical and some lazerous patches or biopsionics [psi ability that stabalizes/heals] will possibly let you bring someone back from being fatally wounded, very useful. Lazpatches are amazing, buying one will go a long way, even if you lack tech/medical.
Navigation-1 [not just 0] is necessary to make jumps with your ship, so atleast one person should get it.
Vehicle/Space-0 is necessary to not crash your ship during normal flying around, it can be the same person as the navigator or different.
Also, not all having the same skills is kinda a good idea.. Warriors may not seem that powerful, but they really are good in a fight y'know, like a lot better then it appears. On Skill checks critical fail type things may happen if you roll way lower then the difficulty of the task, most times it likely won't be that bad though, and even if you roll double 6's, that doesn't mean you will necessarily succeed if it's a near impossible task (and would require other bonuses) >DC12.
5.) Initial Equipment, You can buy anything Tech 4 or lower as starting equipment, if its not core, run it by me first.
6.) Culture/Criminal and Culture/Traveller can be used against any planetary knowledge/knowing someone/someplace on any world, its less effective then culture/world on that specific world, but the fact it can be used against anywhere is useful. Criminal is limited by knowledge of seedy things/people/places. Culture/Spacer can be used anywhere too, but tends to relate to ships, stations, orbitals, and will more likely know rumours about worlds then hard facts. You need at least 0 in the culture skill to use it.
7.) Player Impact: Just so you know, your actions can effect the sector on both the small scale and large scale. While you might not have the sheer force of arms to defeat a planetary government at the moment, let alone one of the sectors major powers, you could still influence their actions with your own... Do keep in mind who exactly your pissing off, or who your setting up against who, lest you have to be constantly on the run from bounty hunters or watch worlds get conquered with only you to blame. I will do my best to keep track of any/all npcs you meet, the more you interact with them, the greater i will 'simulate'/think about what they do, even when your not around. No promises i won't kill them off while your not there though.
8.) Character Advancement/ Leveling Up:
Add goals to your character sheet, upto 10 (you don't have to always have 10!)
I'll add xp values based on pretty much my heavily biased and arbitrary feeling of how difficult/risky it is. if you think you have completed one, then at end of session, tell me, and if i agree, you get that xp.
9.) PVP: Because it's a sandbox game where the mission failing isn't necessarily the end of the game, and you have your own goals, those goals might conflict. As such there should be at least some expectation that your character may be 'influenced' 'manipulated' 'injured' or even 'killed' by another player, it's not the end of the world, just try and stay true to your character until the end. You can always roll up new characters [You won't necessarily start at level 1]. Also, please try and be at least somewhat open to role-playing being 'tricked' or 'persuaded' by your fellow players in such cases. Remember you are playing a character, just because there is no 'mind control' in SWN, doesn't mean you should always ignore the advice/things others are saying. It's funner if you let your character get tricked now and then, and if i see you obviously meta-ing your character too much, i will step in.
10.)Houserules:
10.1)Natural Criticals[20] get to roll their damage twice, Rolls of 1 or less, may result in bad things. (Does not apply to skillchecks, although really high numbers will almost always succeed and really low results may have bad things happen)
10.2) Encumbrance: You can have 1.5 times your str in encumbrance on your person without suffering a penalty. All things on your person are 'readied', and can be labelled as such on your character sheet to indicate they are on you, rather then left on the ship. Anything readied can go to your hand in combat as a free action. Other encumbrance penalties apply as normal.
10.3) New fire mode for semi/full auto: Suppressing Fire:
Uses1/2 your mag, mag size must be at least 10, Every target 'in front' of the weapon in a cone that isn't behind cover must roll a evasion save or take half damage, if they evade they can move up to 10' to behind cover for free and take no damage.
10.4) You can wear other armour above 0 encumbrance armour, but receive a -1 to all dex related rolls, the lowest AC applies. This not not apply to Vacsuits, which no armour can be worn with.
11) Currently Added Houserule equipment:
-Additional Oxygen tanks are 10c [as used in pressure tents, vacsuits, ect]
-Pressure Marks are 10c, for breathable in pressurized but oxygen/nitrogen rich atmospheres.
12) Missing/Not Playing Sessions:
Advanced notice is appreciated, and if you can't make sessions regularly you will be dropped. Your character will be treated as 'ignored' /'sleeping' /'injured' /'busy' /'off doing something' ect, People might reference you, but your character is more or less invincible except if say the ship you are on explodes or a similar TPD.[i am not 100% sure yet, what i will do in this case]
13) Death/Leaving:
You will die if you do not leave the crew. SWN by its nature is full of lethal combat/situations. Every jump might kill you, or the entire party. Nearly every combat between people of similar strengths will be over in a matter of a few short rounds, pretty much luck dependent. This is usually why you should avoid combat if you appear to be at a disadvantage. It is also why running is sometimes a good idea, when possible. the "tactics" skill exists because even small advantages like positioning, cover, ambushing can help you a great deal. Or the enemy can do that to you. Alternatively to dieing horribly, your character might at some point want to leave, either he has grown attached to someone/somewhere, completely all his dreams, got a offer he couldn't refuse, or he just hates being part of the crew. In such cases feel free to rp your character leaving, and he can become a npc of the world instead, and you can just.. roll a new character. I'll say it again to be clear. Please fall in love with and attached to your character, however they will die at some point, when the rolls finally catch up to them. [Npc-fied pcs are not immune either, they can die too].
14) New characters:
In the event of player death/leaving, they can roll up a new character, it may be granted bonus xp (or even credits), depending on the average level of the party. If it's non-human, or already has been mentioned or has a direct connection to someone already mentioned, run it by me first.
The exact time/day of week. Also if you have preferences over how 'mature' the world would be, feel free to say so, i don't really have many limits, so if you guys want to rollplay some crazy stuff, then as long as everyone's comfortable with it, by all means. Also, while i lean towards throwing a initial mission and a ship at you to get you going, if you would prefer to just go full sandbox from the get-go, and try and find your own space-wheels/missions right from the start, its a option.
Xp gain: Can be granted every successful adventure/mission/job, or just by completing your own personal goals. I think players only getting xp for completing their own goals (complete the mission, is a valid goal), is a bit more interesting and makes for more... interesting situations, it can be more stressful on players though.
Explored Local Space:Roll20 linkGame is public on Roll20 now, as dwarf-only applications were closed. You can still contact me/apply to be put on a waiting list if the roll20 game is full.
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Topic: Stars Without Number - Dwarf Stars (Roll20) (Read 4951 times)