SWN: Jade Dragon

“You are a black dog. Members of an infamous mercenary organisation called Black Dog located in in the Jade Dragon sector. Recently you were hired by a Chimera Corp to go and steal some trade data from their rival, Gigacorp. The job went well but after uploading you were ambushed by Gigacorp security. You were set up by Black Dog, evidently it was far more profitable to sell you out to Gigacorp as a rouge party keeping Chimera pay along with the pay-out by Gigacorp. By some miracle you escaped with your life’s only losing your team leader Jenkins.

Right now, you’re trudging through the sewers trying to think of your next move before Gigacorp or Black Dog find you.”

Hi you can call me Tarrot I hope that little blurb piqued your interest I'm sorry to say that we have finished session one and escaped, one of the players decided that the game wasn't for them. Currently the party has managed to get hold of a smuggler contract putting themselves in debt to get smuggled off world. They are about to arrive at a trading nexus and are going straight to the darkside in looking for work after hearing from one of the more helpful smugglers that their are some bandits out of town that the party can team up with.

This is going to be my first-time running stars without number (Revised edition). That said I’ve had around 4 years’ experience running and playing games of other systems so this isn’t my first rodeo. That said this is going to be a new experience so there might be some moments where I make a bad ruling. That said I think I should be a good fit for stars without number because every gm has their skills with writing, map making, voice acting, ect. I’d say my greatest tool is my ability to improv and I get the feeling that is a useful for a game like this.

What to expect from the game

SWN is a gritty sci-fi game set in a post apocalypse… With cannibals. From the way the system works any kind of combat at level 1 is likely to kill you a single pistol shot that hits for average damage might be enough to kill you. Also, no death saves but there is a short opportunity to revive the dead if you’re fast. So as you can guess combat is terrifying and if I ever mutter the words “Roll for initiative” something has gone dreadfully wrong, combat should be avoided unless it’s a well-planned kind of combat.

Almost contradictory I don’t like super depressing games. I get that it is part of the experience but I don’t want it to all be like that. So expect a lot of dark humour and wacky wild shenanigans to happen. Also, some lighter stuff from time to time, depends on the context.

This game is also a true sandbox (at least that’s the aim old habits die hard) you can do pretty much whatever you want and at character creation I will be using the goal based xp system so we can get some ideas of what you want to do if that seems a little intimidating having no set plot. What to expect in the sandbox is anything reasonable, if reason dictates that a base that could house around 100, bandits there is going to be around 100 bandits in that base so plan accordingly. If you cheat a tyrant out of his fortune and gain an insane amount of credits, I guess the campaign is now about how you spend that money.

Because of the level of freedom in this campaign most of it will be done without maps aka theatre of mind. Unless you undertake a quest, I can reliably prep for and deem it necessary (With psychics that can teleport 10km’s at a time… yeah, I’m not drawing maps for that). Visual aids like locational portraits will be used however.

What I expect from you

To be respectful to other players and the gm.

To show up most of the time, if you can’t make around 70% of sessions for the full session then please don’t apply it can mess with the game somewhat.

To avoid ruining the fun of other players. It is a very open game I’m running but the point of it is to have fun and I will take action if a player is ruining the experience for other players.

To tell me if you have any issues with how I’m running the game or how other players are acting in it. I can help sort things out or explain my reasoning for some rulings. I might not even be aware that another player or I are bothering you.

To remind me of a rule if I don’t rule something correctly but not to argue with me If I decide use my own ruling, there might be a reason that your pc couldn’t know.

To make a character that wants to stick with the party and has enough moral flexibility and common sense to become a mercenary. Playing the naïve idealist in a non-comedic way will result in a bad time when faced with the many horrors of the universe. I like to think of this is the SWN equivalent of asking you to “make an adventurer” in D&D.
To have the expectation that space is cruel and your pc might die hideously. Its okay to be upset about it, I would be too. Just know it is a real possibility at any level.
To not be easily offended, I don’t think you’re going to have a good time if you have thinner skin as this game will contain a lot of mature themes.

Optional rules and how to apply

The rulebook has a tone of optional rules that can be used. Obviously, the culture and tech change from world to world. But for the most part you will see robots and mechs regularly. The transhuman kind of stuff will not be around much if at all but cyberware is a thing that exists. Space magic is non-existent. AI will exist but it will be a big deal, don’t expect to make an AI in this game it’s unlikely. As you might have guessed in terms of character options no true ai or space magic classes, I can be convinced of VI player characters but it will need to be a very good story to convince me to let them in as this is sort of a grey area for me. Other than that, we will be using standard character creation rules using the goal based xp system if you don’t have a rulebook or experience with the system, I can share mine so don’t worry about that. Its my view that as long as people come in with the right expectations of what the game is the amount of experience a player has doesn’t matter, it’s all about having fun together.

Post character applications in the format in the pinned post bellow as a reply. And any questions in the questions post below.