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Wrapped up a year long campaign recently, next semester I'm doing SWN for the first time (far cry from Space 1889).
I'd love to run the system for a group of my friends that are much more familiar with Pathfinder, but first I want to do some worldbuilding. Whenever I run a game, I always use an original setting.
I want the game to focus more on the interactions of various alien races rather than human cultures. Since there are so many species with different environmental needs, you can pretty much find one or two different intelligent races on almost any planet or star or whatever.
There are Ringworlds, Dyson Spheres and all sorts or artificial environments besides huge ships that might host millions if not billions of individuals.
It turns out that for most species, it's hard to become a space faring civilization through war, so while some fighting does occur, it's usually between smaller groups and not entire races.
Unfortunately, humans went extinct before alien aid workers could arrive to help humans survive a mass extinction at the hands of their robot servants. It turned out that the robots deeply regretted killing all the humans and destroying any organic material that could be used to recreate them. The robots deeply revere humans not that they are advanced enough. The original AI that orchestrated the war destroyed itself after it had massively improved it's mental abilities and realized that the conclusions it had come to about humans was deeply flawed, and that genocide of robots or organics was not actually necessary.
The aliens inform the robot inheritors of Earth that this has happened many times across the universe, and it was one of the dangers of creating artificial lifeforms before a civilization is ready for them.
So the setting has all kinds of aliens and robots and whatever weirdness that might be expected, but no humans.
>>47146228
I recently started a campaign with my internet buddies. Right now it is full sandbox, and I don't think that will change. The Core Rulebook is your friend, as it has almost anything you could need to build a sector, worlds, and aliens. Don't be afraid to have some worlds hidden or forgotten by the sector at large. Militaries are small, fleets even smaller. It isn't rare for a large hegemony that isn't at war go have a dozen ships, only two or three of which would be cruisers. Aliens could be a regional power depending on their home world's tech level. You can also use "magic" as pretech or xeno artifacts, especially the ones that use psitech.
After reading the prelude on the Suns of Gold campaign book I am absolutely now deadset on using this setting. System? Whatever. I'm hooked.
>>47149215
Read the core book's background. It's fucking awesome.
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/86467/Stars-Without-Number-Free-Edition
>>47149520
>http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/86467/Stars-Without-Number-Free-Edition
oh THAT'S the core book? i honestly thought I was gunna run this shit freeform... haha
thank you so much
>>47149545
No problem familia
Anyone have experience with both SWN and Traveller? Help me decide which to run. I want a space sandbox with focus on exploration and smuggling, with a dash of psychedelic weirdness and cosmic horror. I'm a relatively novice GM and have never touched either system, though I'm familiar with D&D/OSR.
>>47146228
It's a good system and I like it, I've been running it over the internet with some gamefinder dudes for nearly a year--for all the bad rap gamefinder gets, I have a really good group, the trick is to cull the undesirables until you're left with a party that has good synergy--and it's a solid, rules-light system for space adventure.
Like the other guy said, everything you need to generate a sector, a planet, an alien species, a culture, a religion, heresies for said religion, a corporation--all of it's in the main book. In my opinion, the great strength of SWN doesn't come from anything inherent in the rules, but from the fantastic procedural generation resources it provides to the GM.
>>47148648 has low-powered space adventures, with stellar hegemonies that have only a handful of ships, but don't be afraid to change a lot of stuff depending on the campaign you want to run. The best sci fi is sci fi that's a commentary on some aspect of reality, because those are the tropes that resonate in us; in my campaign, I wanted to contend with concepts like fascism vs liberty and civilization vs barbarism, and stronger stellar presence suited my campaign better.
>>47150438
I can't say much about Traveller, but SWN is basically a retroclone, so if you're familiar with OSR you should check out the rules. SWN is also particular suited to themes about exploration.
>>47150559
Well yes, I was just stating the official lore in the matter. Other examples of larger fleets are in Skyward Steel, where they detail the fleets of the Flower Union and Burning Mirror Compact, both of which have large navies.
>>47150438
Suns of Gold has good rules for buying and selling cargo, and grab Lost Names or use the Alien chapter to generate Eldritch horror. Use the Exotic table, and mix in some traits from other Alien types.
>>47151794
So you can use it to play as a small trader/space trucker? Neat.
>>47146228
Does anyone have Starvation Cheap? I've looked around but haven't found it in the archive.
>>47153715
Or as the crew of a warship, or a naval specops team, or infantry. Or as freelance adventures wandering the stars
>>47153801
I thought I had it somewhere. Give me a minute
>>47153801
Here's the link. Some Nomine folder.
https://mega.nz/#F!axkmmbKT!NKiex_659PAGOlaKBbukFA
Honestly as a total noob gm, don't know if I should run dnd 5.0 or this. How dificult are the rules to learn by comparison?
>>47149545
>oh THAT'S the core book?
It's most of the core book. The boys down at the PDF share thread have the version you'd normally pay for and it has an extra ~40 pages of convenient stuff you may want.
>>47154631
Honestly the rules here are, for players, a lot more straightforward, and it avoids numberbloat very well, but then again so does 5e. SWN also has a bit more of a workload for the GM in the background, as between sessions you need to take care of Factions doing their shenanigans. The rules for that are pretty streamlined tho, and there isn't need for spreadsheets or anything. I have all my notes in a Google Doc.
It also depends on the players. If they want an overarching story, D&D is probably a little better. Sandbox is better with SWN, but it still works very well for story driven stuff.
Chargen is also simpler in SWN. You just roll attributes, pick a background and Training, then choose a class and gear.
So you can desing your own Spaceships and all that? Any Example?
>>47156140
More like you choose a hull and add fittings within a Mass/Power allotment.
Examples of various ships with fittings are in the rulebook
>>47155322
I can handle the by myself faction work, and really I just want to make an interesting sandbox for some folks to play in.
>>47156546
Then SWN is the game for you
I really like the SWN system, but it is laing a little bit of juice in the combat department. I'm thinking maybe rules for crits when you hit above a margin, and maybe damage type vs AC mods for those foes that are really hard to injure w lasers. Do this rules already exist or does anyone have something playtested?
>>47156738
I like combat, and Lasers already get a natural plus 1 to hit. It's a simplistic system, but quick and deadly.
>>47154703
*with north-side italian accent*
How convenient are we talkin', here?
>>47157481
AI rules, Mechs, and designer notes that suggest some possible alternate rules.
>>47157516
.. oh baby
>>47157536
I almost forgot that the AI rules cover AIPCs as well. And there are Mechs that psychics can channel power through.
>>47156140
https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/2mazpm/the_complete_resource_package_for_stars_without/
This page had what you need and more, there's a link to an excel sheet hosted via gDocs that allows you to easily construct your own ship.
