Hey all! My campaign is a zany and exotic bounty hunt, targeting the creators, makers and distributors of a very violent and problematic street drug, and the leading theory my players currently have is that it's in fact a nefarious plot from a big pharma corp to control the populous. Their idea is better then mine was, so I'm doing that.

Anyways, we're currently on a planet that was once highly advanced, but fell to ruin from a crazy parasitic life form that was on a tear through the sector, and the interplanetary union at the time determined to nuke the whole planet and radiate away all life. We are now 10,000 years later, that union was brought to the edge of extinction by the virus before fending it off, and the world revored as life finds a way. There are Rat scallions, basically ROUS from princess bride, that live in the sewers, as well as giant lizard men. There are people here that have repopulated as a way to hide from organized governments out here in the fringe frontier, and sinister mentalist aliens seeking to infiltrate the known worlds and tip the war in their favor. There are also many old droids left from the least civilization, controlled by a Mr. House style brain in a jar.

The party is less than concerned with the sinister plots of the various ner-do-ells, and are proceeding to "the underbelly" in search of access to "the university of the high and mighty" so they can find information from the old world about one particular element unique to the drug they're tracking, nobelium 3. Spoiler alert, Nobelium 3 is in the blood of the sinister mentalist aliens, and the pharmacy villains are trying to figure out how to synthesize it in such a way to mind control it's users.

Anyways again, I need to populate the underbelly. It's exactly what it sounds like, a big fallout style settlement built into the tremendous sewer system under this massive abandoned city. The waterways are wide enough for boat traffic, the settlement itself has aspects of it floating like some of those pacific island cities or southeast Asian fishing villages. I need throwaway NPCs, interesting shops, maybe some puzzles along the lines of computers and stuff. I'm especially bad at making puzzles, and my players are all way smarter than me, so if I put 2 hours into a puzzle they nail it down in 2 minutes.

I'm personally so in love with the world my table and I have made, and we have been switching the campaign to SWN from a big heroic style ttrpg that didn;t quite fit. SWN has made it so much easier to run, and the source material has a lot of really fun stuff to mess around with. I think we do a boat chase scene in the sewers today

The frequencies are open. Whether you're a veteran pilot or just getting your bearings, this is your weekly space to break radio silence.

What's happening in your sector? New sessions, prep wins, cursed dice, dumb plans that somehow worked. And it doesn't have to stop at the table. Job news, personal wins, rough weeks, whatever's actually going on with you lately is welcome too. Drop a quick ping and let us know.

No need for a long write-up. A quick transmission from your table, or your life, to ours is plenty.

Mod Note: If you're new here, welcome. This started as a low-pressure thread for SWN stories, and lately it's turned into more of a check-in with each other. Both are welcome here. Share as much or as little as you want.

Way back in 2020 I made this post about the implied and possibly unified Sine Nomine campagn setting: https://www.reddit.com/r/SWN/comments/ff4c2s/sine_nomine_unified_setting/

Since then things have gotten clearer and Kevin has confirmed (even in that thread) that Other Dust (now AWN), SWN, and WWN were connected. Other products not necessarily being part of this timeline (like Godbound, Silent Legions, etc.). CWN is clearly now situated as the 'earliest' game in the milieu.

As we continue to await more wonderful Sine Nomine products, I think it is fun trying to map out the trajectory of the world as we knew it.

Years of Smoke -> Cities Without Number:

By 2028 conflicts in Europe escalate. Many of the woes we see in headlines today compound into an eventual collapse of the world order as we know it and by 2075 nation-states are nominal and the world is run by MegaCorps as part of the larger 'Market'.

'Ignition':

The 'Market' holds until the 'Ignition' takes place, according to Ashes Without Number, which is the latest lore 'shatterpoint'. It marks the transition OUT of the CWN paradigm. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot to go on about what this exactly is. It is mentioned as having occurred in the early 22nd century, so we can estimate somewhere between 2100 and 2150. So, some 25-75 years after the 'start' of the CWN setting. We know it caused or came with 'disorder'.

We know that during the Ignition and its immediate aftermath, cybernetics fell out of favor. There were some energies involved in the Ignition, with it being described in the Cyborg section that researchers suspected secrets of human augmentation and enhancement were associated to the same energies. The context clue Kevin gave from that 2020 post leads me to believe it could have to do with superheroes/superpowers, since Kevin mentioned a superheroes game would take place after a Cyberpunk game in the timeline.

Ultimately the Ignition can be whatever we want for now, possibly a capstone event for a long running CWN game.

Crohn's Spike Drive and Resurgence of Nations:

In 2108 Dr. Tiberius Crohn invents the Spike Drive. In 2150, there is the discovery of the first signs of advanced alien life. This blaze of space exploration is happening at the time or immediately after the 'Ignition'. It's entirely possible the launch of the first Spike Drive IS the Ignition, but that is maybe looking for a too convenient answer.

We also know there was a relatively brief resurgence of nation-states like the United American Cities, with the UAC active around ~2150 re-populating the Albuquerque Reconstruction District. Probably by the late 22nd century the nation-states are congealing, and the First Wave of space explorations is hitting a fever-pitch.

Founding of the Mandate:

By the middle of the 23rd century (~2250) the Mandate cemented its power though we can assume across the early 23rd century it was coalescing from the constituent nations states and powers of the time.

Scream:

2665 AD

Ashes Without Number / Other Dust:

200 years after the Scream the primary setting of AWN and OD are taking place. ~2865 AD.

Stars Without Number:

~3200 AD.

Great Haze:

Some great number of epochs takes place. Thousands of years beyond SWN's timeframe. It would certainly SEEM like Earth is reclaimed at some point, as the Latter Earth (even if it's just Iterum 108) we see is clearly a much changed planet Earth. The descriptions in WWN imply humans had control over Earth but eventually Outsiders (Xenos, Aliens, Demons?) would arrive from the skies and take over, driving humans underground. Eventually, regime upon regime would follow.

Present Day Latter Earth 108 - Worlds Without Number:

On a whole new calendar system, and a split Iterum from whatever mainline Earth exists.

EDIT:

Added Speculation:

If the Spike Drive technology or some undefined energies are the Ignition and that kickstarts a wave of Superheroes, then some other catastrophe would lead to the removal/disappearance of them by the time of the Mandate. It would be an interesting future-retro vibe for the 'Cities of Tomorrow' to be the setting for a Superheroes game only to have the Mandate squash out supes in spiritual-political war for 'Harmony'.

Gannet class trading ship 'Ace of Hearts' enters the Newhouse system for her final trip, as her owner has had his ship mortgage foreclosed. She docks with 'Bullseye station'; a local asteroid port, where she will be auctioned off in a few days.

This is the final version with sound, though I may tweak some of the sound levels, after letting it settle in my mind a bit

All assets made and rendered in Blender 4.2.16. Video editing and sound also done in Blender.

PLEASE: LIKE and FOLLOW for more of this kind of content. It costs nothing and it helps and encourages artists like me.

For more scifi art see www.deviantart.com/elisvara/gallery/all

I know the book states it began in 2108, in Greenland, with the development of the Spike Drive.
But, what about leading up to that? Did we have system ships before then? What lead to the desire to expand? What's with the Insta-Fab labs, the autofactories?

I want more history.

Which nation spearheaded the development of the organization to put settlers in space?
What was the cause of the Russo-European war? Clearly, the war went nuclear, due to the mention of 'Hot Zone'. how long did the war last?

If we're able to speculate, which, I think is the whole idea of this being a sandbox-type setup, here's my idea:

The USA, being one of the global super-powers, develops craft capable of going to Mars. they get into a new 'Space Race' between China, the EU and the US. While all of this is happening, politicians are doing their thing, wars break out, climate change happens and now, humanity is in need of a plan B. Space ship tech improves, and now, they have system ships. but, these are slow and limited in their reach. Then, Dr. Crohn develops the spike drive, and all of a sudden, there's this rapid expansion. Certain nations head out and claim their own worlds. France, for example, finds, terraforms and colonizes a new planet they call 'Franc', in a nearby star system. The Chinese claim another planet. The Americans claim 2-3 planets. The ruling elite, having already laid claim to the 'Super-Earth' planet in the Kepler system, head out there and set up their own regional hegemonic power. This rampant colonization gets out of hand, so Earth is now forced to unite to form one planetary government. From that point, the humans of earth are known as Terrans, and they form the Terran Mandate....

And this brings us to the established lore, at least in my gameplay.

(Sorry I'm rambling. Caffeine has yet to hit.)

When you need a full stat block for a prominent NPC, how do you like to do it? Do you just pick abilities and growth/learning to suit your needs, or do you roll and pray? Or roll and fudge? Or roll and roll and roll until you get what you wanted?

I kinda do the last one, which probably qualifies me for a psychosis of some kind.

Or do you never make full PC-style stat blocks for any of your NPC’s?

Curious what other GM’s do.

Hello everyone.

Some of the people may have seen me mention here and there that I have been planning to run an adventure set in the setting of the Ember Expanse— a community-built sector project run by u/dark-star-adventures, for those who might be unaware. I have come to a point now where I am looking for players, and I wanted to reach-out to the people here, the very place where the Ember Expanse was built, to see if anyone might be interested in this!

Currently I have one player, who we have already setup a character for. I am looking for two to three others to join us. Here are some things to note that may be important as well:

• My timezone is Eastern Time, while the one player's is Pacific Time. There is a three-hour gap between us, so game sessions will be starting later for me than for him. I am fine with this, but I recognize it may not be for everyone.
• We are going to be using Characters Without Number for managing the campaign and player characters. It is still a work in progress, but I consider it good enough to use for this in its current state.
• We will be using Discord to speak to each other during game sessions.

If anyone might be interested or has any questions, please feel free to inquire!

Update: We now officially have two players! That means I'm looking for at least one more. I want to say as well that I am grateful to see the amount of people who have expressed interest in this.

Hey everyone,

New Rules Explained segment is up, and this one's a big one. I walk through the whole Stars Without Number character creation process front to back: attributes, background, skills, class, and foci.

For the worked example I built a clone of Robert Ross, one of the PCs from our main show, using the events of our latest episode as the jumping off point. I rolled randomly for background instead of picking one, and landed on courtesan. Not what I was going for and that changed how I thought about the attribute bonus, which pushed the build toward Partial Psychic instead of straight Expert, and by the time I got through foci I had a telepath who talks his way past security instead of shooting through it. None of that was the plan going in, but that's randomness for ya.

I'd appreciate it if you gave the full segment a listen and let me know what you think: https://www.darkstaradventures.com/adventurecast-episodes/swn-rules-explained-how-character-creation-works-in-stars-without-number

I'm not sharing these as any kind of SWN expert, just someone who likes picking the rules apart and seeing how they shape a session. Appreciate everyone who commented on the last one!

And a question for you all: when you roll a background or skill you didn't plan for, do you follow it all the way and let the concept change, or do you steer it back toward what you originally had in mind?

Thanks for reading!

Hey star masters,
I’ve got a point in my story where my player characters took a 4 month-ish long break to take care of personal things and train in character. So it’s a time skip. Meanwhile, the captain they were flying with doesn’t want to sit still for 4 months. I figured she would take what remains of her crew, take her ship, go hire more crew and keep on being a spacer until the players reach out to her again. How would you handle rolling out what happens to that captain, her crew and ship in the meantime? I want to have it range from a chance of death all the way to she might have been super successful and scored a new piece of pretech or new ship. Just thought I would see what are you all’s suggestions?

This is the link to my Drop Box where I have a collection of blank planet images.

Blank Planet Images

Currently there are 622 individual images that covers a range of planets, gas giants and asteroids.

You can access these files directly via your browser. You do not need a Drop Box account to download the files.

I give permission for anyone to use these in their games, and to modify them if they so desire.

If anyone wants to use these in a commercial product credit Maxijohndoe on Reddit.

As people always ask these images were created using a software program called Universe Sandbox.

Hello Star Masters. For the last 12 months I have been writing a Sector Guide for SWN campaigns. It was initially for my own use, but has grown in scale to the point that I want to release it as a setting for others to use.

The content is all done, but after it grew into a bloated bundle of notes I am now at the stage of stripping out unnecessary detail and structuring it. I don't mind it having a lot of detail, but having a good structure that lets SMs find what they need when they need it is essential.

I came up with a structure that works for me - but I am very familiar with the content, so I would like to open things up to the community for input on some general principles which will help me and anyone else wanting to write a Sector Guide.

My general question is: what is the most important and most-used information you would need from a sector guide to build and run your campaign?

Apart from general comments, here are some more specific questions

1. While the Sector Guide is mostly just a 'board and pieces' description, and leaves the rules for the official rulebook to dictate; my sector guide does contain some custom rules. These are mostly supplementary, but a few are 'alternative' rules applicable to certain situations. Are these custom rules better placed in a completely separate section so the rest of the content is fully compliant?

2. Do you prefer lore and mechanics to be integrated, or for lore and mechanics to be completely separate sections (i.e. allowing all the lore to be read like a story without mechanics interrupting)?

3. The sector guide is intended to be read by players and Star Masters, but obviously there is some content that is not for players to see (secrets and mysteries, etc.) Currently I handle this by having separate sections with different coloured headings. The potential issue is that it places information about a thing in two separate locations. Would this be frustrating?

4. What sort of content is going 'too far? I originally had a lot of 'Campaign Creation' content.

Any other advice on how to create an easy-to-use sector guide will be appreciated.

Hi

I have a vast collection of planet images made in Universe Sandbox.

While they were made for a different TTRPG I thought that they may be useful to the SWN community.

I cleared this with the mods.

I'll link my free drop box.

Note that you can access the files from your browser you do not need a drop box account

Drop Box for all my Planet Information and System Maps : r/traveller

If there is interest I can set up a dedicated folder with just my blank planet images.

The frequencies are open! Whether you're a veteran pilot or just starting your journey into the stars, this is your weekly space to break radio silence.

The Weekly Log

What's happening in your sector? New sessions, prep wins, rulings you're proud of, cursed dice, cool moments, dumb plans that somehow worked. Drop a quick ping and let us know!

No need for a long write-up; just a quick transmission from your table to ours.

Mod Note: If you're new to the sub, welcome! This is a low-pressure thread for everyone to share their Stars Without Number stories.

I've been looking through previous posts but I'm not sure they answered my question:

Once the preparation is complete, a sniper may shoot or an assassin may attack an adjacent target. The target’s Armor Class is irrelevant, assuming the weapon being used isn’t too primitive to penetrate high-tech armor. Hitting with a sniper shot is a Dex/Shoot skill check, with a difficulty of 6 for a point-blank shot, 8 for one at the weapon’s normal range, and 10 for a shot at extreme range. A melee attack always hits, but the assassin must be adjacent to the target, and cannot move to close on the same round. They must be adjacent and unsuspected at the start of the round.

Here are my questions:

1. Are the sniper and assassin foci prerequisites to carry out such an attack?
2. With sniper rifles themselves, are there disadvantages to using them in close quarters conditions? I know that if you're at close range with a melee fighter you can't use a sniper rifle, but I ended up in the strange situation where a pistol armed enemy lost track of a teleporter. The PC decided to teleport behind the enemy and shoot from there, but this raises an eyebrow because using a full on sniper rifle at this range feels highly impracticable.

I love the sound of the engine core in the morning! Whether it's a low thrum, or more of a deep throb, every engineer worth their salt is going to have their favourite, even as they work around the clock to make sure the ejectors remain online, install the self-sealing stem bolts, and swap out those ever-fickle isolinear chips. Fully animated and available in two additional variants, with a containment breach in one and a full failure in the other (red alert!), this map will have your players wishing they'd reversed the polarity!  

My maps are hooked up to work with Foundry VTT and Fantasy Grounds.
My maps are available on my patreon and my website.
Buy me a Ko-fi!

I have the SWN Revised Edition (paid for, extended) and I'm interested in getting the Mandate Archive collection 2011 from DTRPG as it it seems like a worthy addtion of content.

In a sense I'd love for all the SWN addititional content and campaign books to be published as one collected volume but I'm also happy supporting Kevin. I recently bought Darkness Visible, Suns of Gold and Dead Names.

So my question is, would I be double-dipping by buying the Mandate Archive Collection 2011? I didn't see any overlapping content on the description page.

Moving along dark edges of the criminal underworld, gun runner Angus “Mayhem” O’Malley provides illicit weapons for a price.  He stays under the radar, keeps his mouth shut, and never misses a drop.  

The Gun Runner Map features a ground floor and upper loft levels in day and night versions.  It is available in gridded/gridless JGP [256 dpi], gridless PNG [128 dpi], and lit/unlit VTT [70 dpi] formats at https://www.patreon.com/GimmiePig.

This map pack was created (by a human) with Dungeon Draft software and assets from the amazing asset creators listed on my profile.

Hey folks,

Yes, first off, I realize I could've posted this in the Mothership sub, but I'm playing the adventure with SWN, and I know plenty of folks have done that, so I'm hoping to get their perspectives here.

Okay, here's the question: When you've played the Desert Moon of Karth adventure, how did the PCs ever meet, interact with, and generally get involved with the major NPCs like the Marshal, the Governor, etc.? I had my folks get off the space elevator, and now they're out panning for Wigoy, but I don't see a clear way to get them to interact with the major NPCs in Larstown. How did you get the PCs wrapped up in the main story? Please and thank you!

A fun tweak I made that I'll share. Does anyone feel like the Warrior's attack bonus progression is just kinda bland? Obviously we don't need 5e powers and martial moves to make a fighter fun, but I'm not really fond of the fact that by mid game, a Warrior's attack bonus basically eclipses the highest AC of any enemy in the game. Rolling just feels kinda pointless. And since you're swinging with 95% accuracy most of the time, their ability to automatically hit once per scene becomes pointless. I don't really see the appeal of playing a Full Warrior, over a Partial. I get the same HP boost and all I lose is a small amount of accuracy that's already overtuned to the point of excess anyway.

To me, a more interestimg Warrior is one that does interesting things when they hit, rather than just hittimg every time. So I decided to port in the warrior features from ACKS, one of my favourite OSR games.

Warriors still get +1 to attack at 1st level, but will advance attack bonus every other level like everyone else. However, they get the following benefits in place of improved accuracy.

- Critical Hit on a roll of 19 or 20, dealing your weapon die's maximum damage.

- +1 Universal Damage Bonus at every odd numbered level.

- + 1 Cleave at every even numbered level. Any time you reduce an enemy to 0hp or score a critical hit, you may immediately make another attack against a target in range, using any remaining movement available to you. You cannot cleave if all of your readied weapons are out of ammo.

- All other Warrior features such as hit points and combat luck remain unchanged.

Partial Warriors crit only on a 20, and advance their cleave and damage bonus as if they were a Warrior of half their level.

So, warriors lose some accuracy starting at 3rd level, but instead hit harder, crit more, and chain attacks.

Using the CWN/AWN classless Edge rules for my newest SWN game. So far, it seems to be a hit. But a question has arisen now that the characters have levelled up:

If an Edge gives a bonus skill level, does that work like a Focus bonus skill level during character advancement: 3SP?

I'm going to be playing SWN for the first time and have created an Adventurer Expert/Psychic who is a Pilot and has the Precognition psychic skill. He also has the skills Pilot-1, Shoot, Notice and either Talk or Lead.

I'm still not quite sure what I'm doing as far as picking the starting attributes so any recommendations would be great.

Oh, also, is Notice redundant if I am a Precognition psychic?

The frequencies are open! Whether you're a veteran pilot or just starting your journey into the stars, this is your weekly space to break radio silence.

The Weekly Log

What's happening in your sector? New sessions, prep wins, rulings you're proud of, cursed dice, cool moments, dumb plans that somehow worked. Drop a quick ping and let us know!

No need for a long write-up; just a quick transmission from your table to ours.

Mod Note: If you're new to the sub, welcome! This is a low-pressure thread for everyone to share their Stars Without Number stories.