So, SWN is Stars Without Number. It has an interesting XP Mechanic as well as an interesting set up for sandbox gaming. Planets(Towns) have Tags, each tag gives them a small setup called EFPTC, Enemies, Friends, Places, Things, Complications. Using EFPTC you can Mad Lib dozens of adventures together. DnD settings like forgotton realms or ebberon have enough lore written that you dont really need tags. The other thing that SWN has is the "GM Turn". Once per in-game month the GM takes a turn out of the main session. He rolls die for "Assets" for the major factions and they take a combat style turn where they get 1 action and can buy 1 thing if they want. Example; Say you have a faction "Red Wizards" and they have an asset called "Combat Magus" that is in the town of Baldur's Gate. Say an enemy of theirs "The Gold Knights" is there as well, the Red Wizard faction might have their Combat MAgus attack The Gold Knights asset called "Foot Soldiers". DM rolls some die, the magus fails and is 'defeated' from counter attack damage. The way the GM relays this information is - lets say the party has a wizard who is friends with a red wizard. His friend sends a sending spell or something that tells the party (who happens to be a week from baldurs gate) that a far ranging operative has been taken prisoner and asks them to free him. If the party does so, the GM can then go back to the asset table to give a new Combat MAgus back to the red wizards at 1hp. See how the two games feed on each other? The GM turn makes adventures in an abstract fashion, then the players pick what they want to do and the effect that they have is visible in the GM turn. Factions have FactionHP and FacGold. FacGold is what lets them buy assets, everything from Muggers to Magic Items to Storefronts or Blackmail. (maybe they use blackmail on the leader of the squad and he orders them to leave town. "defeating" them) Players can found their own factions as they gain power, and you can cause other factions to disband. It would be a persistant sandbox world that you are free to walk around in. No BBEG or main directive. If you want to montage a year away as a hunter hunting meat for gold, go for it. If you want to spend that 6 months making a golem, go for it. If they party does not want to wait for you, you can bring in an alternate char while your guy is in town, or not. Up to you. --- The other big thing, is the goal for xp system. In SWN, you do not getp XP for anything really, outside of acomplishing goals. A "Goal" is an objective you set. It can be anything damn near but in order for it to be valid there has to be a roll involved somewhere in it, and has to have a meaningful failure or meaningful amount of time to acomplish. So you cant stand above a dying goblin and set the goal "kill this goblin" then stab it. But you could set the goal while in town to "clear the goblin cave of goblins." and that does not nessicarily mean kill them, it means clear them out of the cave. killing is valid, but so is scaring them away. The other XP Mechanisim i would involve is the Instict/Belif system i have seen used. Your Instict is something you can do even before intiative rolls. Example is "If i see magic i draw my weapon." So that means ANY time you see magic you draw your weapon out of instict. If you allow your instict to go forward even when it hurts you then you can gain bonus xp for the action. Example is if your instict is "See magic, Draw Weapon." and you are talking to the King, he steward casts a heal spell on you, so your dagger comes out and it to his belly. That could get you in trouble, so you would gain XP for allowing it instead of resisting it. If you decide not to follow along with the instict then you get nothing. It could also help you, you will ALWAYS be armed when fighting a wizard as it goes off before intiative. Beleifs are largely the same thing, but more broad and less liekly to get xp from. If you took the belif "Killing is wrong" to get XP from it you would have to be in a situation where killing is RIGHT, and then you dont do it. Say a bunch of orcs are coming to enslave you, or your escaping from the orc camp - you decide NOT to kill the guard who saw you to stop him from raising the alarm because you are following your belif that killing is wrong. Between Goals, Belifs, and Insticts, with a sandbox world, i think itd be fun. If no one wants to play this then i wont bother building the tables.
