The Setting Im a bit foggy on the specific years, but the general timeline is an alternate earth future. Where we expand, become super awesome, then collapse into isolated pockets. The imemdiate recovery is over and a renissance like space time can be possible in the future. 2015 - Humans today as we are. 2100 - we hit the Sci-Fi post tech kinda world. Minority Report, Star Wars, most Sci FI that is not Star Trek level things are here. No transporters or replicators, but light sabers and laser guns for sure. 2100-2500 Humanty spreads across the galaxy, we unlock psionics, and we use psychic energy to manipluate matter and fabricate devices. We hit star trek levels and then go WAY beyond star trek. Star Gate SG-1 Ancient level tech. Mass Effect Progenitor level tech. Beyond even that. If you name it, we can do it, there is a fun book of items called Relics of the Lost that has a bunch of devices in it from this time period called "pre-tech" 2501 - Around here an even called "the scream" happened. A massive galaxy wide psychic backlash either killed or drove into an insanity about 95% of living things in the galaxy. Those driven insane turned into things like Reapers from Firefly, or those crazy cultist guys in Deadpsace. Canibbal Death Cults. Those that has psychic power became feral psychics, gaining immense useage of their powers but being tottaly insane. Psychic storms ravaged worlds. The jump gate network was lost, isolating sectors from each other. Most plants got fucked in the ass pretty hard, some got taken back to cavemen level. After this point 99% of reconstruction occurs with local resources, some plants lacking certain ones that halt advancement. 3235 - The current year, some 700 or so years after the scream. The immediate 3-4 generation shockwave of how terrible of a time survivng the scream was is gone, many plants are rebuilt, others are in the process, some are stuck, and others are still in the throes of some calamity unleashed 700 years ago. How i run the game Public Rolls I have found that both as a player and as a GM i prefer to have the GM do public rolls, except for in certain situations. As a player, it is good to know that when you get hit for 11 damage and have 2 hp, the gm is not just fudging. Similarly, it is more fun to know that the GM will not reduce the damage or otherwise save me from bad choices or rolls. It keeps the tension higher and removes any doubt about impartiality. It also alows the game to be a thing at the table. As an example, if you are in a dangerous asteroid field and i tell you that each hour you have to roll a Stealth check vs the Pirates perception check while they hunt for you then you will not blame the GM or be able to say "but we have no hp or ammo, why do you want to kill us?" Too often as a player have i seen GMs always crit knowledge rolls or have other Mary Sue like characters in games. If you need something to happen, dont roll for it, just declare that it occurs. Even if its something that is normally rolled for. True Sandbox Stars Without Number is a sandbox-style RPG with a scifi tilt. DnD is a storybook adventure. You can go a little off rails in DnD, but the GM knows what happens ahead of time mostly. In SWN the GM is as clueless as the players as to what is going to happen, and attempts to plan ahead often result in the plans never being used. To fight this, many GMs remove the sandbox from SWN. They use NPC Captains, or otherwise restrict movement and ownership of a ship. Imagine if Wind Waker said it was a Naval Sandbox but then the boat only went where it wanted to. I give the party a ship, outright, and am generous enough with credits and other gear that unlike in DnD where your always after that next +1, +2, +3 ect that you really wont need that here. One of the best guns is a Shear Rifle and a party member got it on week 1. Gear Grinding is for MMOs. In a SWN Sandbox, you explore the story of your character and what they do within the universe. You might aim for a paticular piece of technology, and it might take a long time to get it depending on what it is, but there is not an ever increasing numerical system of gear to grind off. Once your awesome weapon is had it is unlikely there is anything better to be gained. A few house rules and human judgement SWN has some limited areas where they kept it very very open ended. Like Space Combat or Cybernetics. There are a total of about 6 cybernetic devices listed in the SWN core book and there arent alot of expansion materials. Other settings like Shadowrun have TONS of cyberware that would fit right in, so it makes sense to borrow it. So i do. Other things that may not be in the base system but can be easily implemented with human jidgement are done so. If you really want to use a Halo-like Power Sword, then sure, we can use a comprable item from Core, change the asthetic, and you can use it in the same ways you would imagine doing so. The biggest current house rule changes are the Inclusions of Cybernetics and Bioware from Shadowrun (3E because thats the book i have), some house-rules that make space ship combat more of a thing. Use of the expansion "Other Dust" is also avalible. Days We Play The Current party is a Slayer/Warrior team of two guys that worked in a mercanary outfit and a Xenoarcheologist that really enjoys a playstyle similar to monster hunter. They lack a computer person, a pilot, a captain, and no one is psychic. Dont feel obligated to fill a paticular role though, just make the person you envision and want to really play as. NPCs are fairly cheap to hire to fill a role on the ship like pilot. Tues Nights 7 PM to 11 PM Eastern Saturdays 4PM to 8PM Eastern (likely to change to a similar but different time on the same day) Skype is used for the group call, Roll 20 for tokens and rolls, Google Documents are used from itmeJP subreddit for automated character sheets. Below is a short written description of the setting for Stars Without Numbers.
