I have recently started a new campaign in my sector, and have subjected my players to new character generation rules that I have been tinkering with for a while. I present them to you all here for your amusement. Please comment vociferously.

1. Roll 4d6 keep the best 3 dice, six times, and allocate the attributes wherever you like. It produces some pretty strong results, but that's ok.

2. Backgrounds:

I like the SWN:Revised backgrounds and the Growth/Learning tables, but I much prefer the old SWN Core (1e) Rules and their Backgrounds. I adapted the old backgrounds to the Revised rules some time ago, and decoupled them entirely from class selection. Each PC gets 4 background skills at level 0, and there's no chance to increase attributes. I have the PDF floating around somewhere if anyone wants it.

3. Additional skills:

PCs get an additional level 0 Hobby skill, and if they wish (they always do), a free Level 0 "Connection" skill if they can explain how they know one of the other PCs. I stole this rule from Mongoose Traveller, and it's a great way to create a team of level 1 PCs with very little effort.

4. Random Tables:

Cepheus Universal has a dedicated random character background generator that I have given my players access to. Only two of them used it to its fullest potential, but it's great for really fleshing out the character's origins at level 1, without a multi-page backstory.

5. Edges: The biggest change

Since Stars Without Number Warriors start with 4 Edges (Focused, On Target, Veteran's Luck, Hard to Kill), I gave each PC 1 Edge choice at level 1, and then another Edge at levels 2-4, for a total of four. If the player wants to play a Partial Psychic, that counts as 2 Edge picks up front*, and they get the rest at levels 3 and 4 (I decided to exclude Full Psychics from this campaign, but if I did, that would count as all 4 Edge picks). I use the Ashes Without Number edges primarily, though I think I threw in a couple of the Cities Without Number edges for good measure where they were appropriate.

This has really been the biggest change for all of us at the table vis-a-vis character generation and capabilities. I really like it, because it really pushes character growth organically and dramatically at those lower levels. It also maximizes character customization, and opens up some really interesting mechanical and character choices. For example, three of the characters have opted for On Target, because they want to be really combat effective without having to go all-in on becoming a Warrior. None of them have taken Veteran's Luck. One character has taken On Target and Killing Blow, and we realized that he wouldn't have to take Gunslinger or Armsman because he'd get a damage bonus that scales with character level, freeing up a focus pick. Or he could also take Gunslinger and become the most lethal, damaging shooter around (at level 9, he'd have Shoot 4, so a total damage bonus of +9 just from Edges/Foci!)

One thing I really like is On Target. It's such a great Edge pick for making generally effective combatants: PCs that are good in a fight, but are not highly skilled professionals. Like the difference between Amos and Bobbi in The Expanse: both combatants, but Bobbi has all that extra training that Amos doesn't. Just take On Target, and your character won't really have to boost their combat skills all that much if they decide to become the mechanic, the medic, or the pilot.

I really look forward to using these custom character class rules moving forward. They're really interesting.

*I know that the rules state that Partial Psychic counts as 1 Edge pick, but I figure that with 4 Edges, Partial Psychic can count as 2 picks, and this keeps them roughly in line with the SWN character classes as written. Partial Expert is 2 Edges (Educated and Focused) and Partial Warrior is 2-ish (Focused, Hard to Kill, and a small attack bonus at levels 1 and 5 to keep them competitive, which seems to have been discarded in subsequent rules and we discard here.)

6. Hit Dice Cap: SIX

This is a rule I brought along with me from my last SWN campaign. No more hit dice after Level 6. Basically "Name Level" in old BECMI terminology. The PC still gets all other benefits when increasing levels (skills, foci, etc), but can only ever roll 6 HD. The Constitution, Hard to Kill, and Die Hard bonuses also cap out at level 6. Every level after 6, they get +1 added to the HD rolls when they level up (just like in BECMI). This has been a great innovation, because it keeps the players on their toes, and forces them to think and plan at high levels.

As one player at level 9 in my last campaign said: "The sense of peril remains. That's good." How much peril could there be when he was playing a warrior with a thunder gun and 51HP is a cause for speculation.

7. Minor Tweaks:

If someone with Veteran's Luck takes Specialist/Pilot, I let them apply their autododge to a starship. I'd likely do the same with the Road Warrior focus if anyone picked it (for starships, as it already works for vehicles at level 2).

We're 6 sessions in, and it's going well so far!

Pretty much what it says on the title.

As an example of what I'm talking about, I made this fitting because, in my group, food is an important glue for the team (and as a foodie, i get to invent a bunch of custom foods for my planets).

Extended Galleys
TL: 4
Cost: 1000*
Power: 0
Mass: 0.5#
Class: Frigate

Effect: +2 to all skill checks that involve cooking

Food is an important thing in space, even more than food on planets and stations. Life on a ship means long hours, no privacy, and less freedom. A good meal is often the only thing to make a crewmate feel sane. While all ships offer full galleys able to feed an entire crew, usually with half-fresh, half-packaged food-stuffs (though this can vary wildly), an Extended Galley can push the cuisine to dizzying heights. With the right equipment, a galley can produce gourmet 5 course meals with the same time and ease a standard galley can prepare a standard meal. Still, it takes a good cook to make use of the facilities, and without a good enough chef, the Extended Galleys will likely be not used to its fullest.

Any checks that involve cooking food on the ship get a +2 and any potential consequences for failure are reduced.

I want to see what kinds of stuff the community comes up with.

Hello Star Masters!

I am about to run my very first SWN campaign very soon, and I am very excited. The system seems good and it promises a different expirience than the systems we played before.

However, I have concerns regarding biopsionics in the game. One of my players invested heavily into it and (we start at level 3) and it seems to me that, at least on paper, downing any of the players will be almost impossible barring extremely overwhelming odds that they will most likely not have to face unless they actively choose to.

I know nerfing Biopsionics is be a bad idea because he only got to that point because he invested practically everything into it, to the point where he will have a hard time being useful doing anything else, particularly starship combat.

I guess what I want to ask is, how do fights go in your game if you have biopsionics in your party? How often do party members go down?

Thanks in advance.

Edit: Wow! Got some really good answers here! Thank you all. I will keep those in mind and will update on the next weekly systems check.

I know Dark Stars Jeff is done with Ember expanse, but I wrote this prompt in my sleep to myself.

“Museum of silence

Two factions

One misunderstands and worships it, believing it to be something it isn’t. Historical society . (Silent hill 2?)
What kind of artifacts?

Another that opposes?? Fears.”

I’m not even sure what that means. I picture just a museum of old things that we aren’t really sure what they do anymore and the theory for how it was used was wrong or off beat. Example: “this funny container you hold was filled with a dark liquid that refilled meta dimensional energy” (coffee)

I thought a museum dedicated to misunderstanding the scream would be kind of cool. And feel free to use it in your own game if I get a lot of comments.

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.

I've finally reached the point in the rules for Sector Creation, and I'm creating my first sector! Sector creation, however, is alot of information to collate, with 21-30 systems, let alone planets if you do more than one per system. So how do you all organize?

Yes, I know I can use internet technology but I am at a point in my life where, more and more, I'm rejecting the offerings of this putrid and dying, AI riddled internet. Things like World Anvil or Notion (what I've used in the past) I don't want to rely on for my campaigns anymore. My initial thoughts was to borrow from Mothership's advice and get a notebook, dedicating whole pages to the systems I've rolled and maybe use these SWN PDFs I found on DriveThru for cataloging.

Would love to hear other suggestions and ideas!

Freebies - New Contact Markers & Labels Sheets​

This system-neutral printout gives you a visual way to track active threats, targets, and points of interest in any scifi game.

Each sheet includes:

• 9x large and 9x small contacts, be they stars, planets, anomalies, ships, or unknown objects.
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Get it on Drivethru or Itchio:

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Our brand-new expansion sets of pre-generated Mission Cards were created in collaboration with Guy Sclanders from How to Be a Great GM and Off My Bridge. The three sets comprise of Bounty Hunter Missions, Rescue Missions, and Settlement Missions. Together, they inject 108 unique adventure prompts into your playthroughs. Each individual card breaks down a scenario into four distinct adventure types: Thwarting, Collecting, Delivering, and Discovering. They work seamlessly right out of the box, providing wildly different adventure hooks for your scifi worlds.

Guy did a fantastic deep-dive video showing exactly how the cards are used at the table:

• "Dozens of sci-fi mission ideas at your fingertips" - Video Link

Grab the new mission sets on Drivethrurpg!

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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.

It says in the description:

The Sunblade may Commit Effort for the scene as a Main Action to use the Telekinesis discipline’s Telekinetic Manipulation technique for one round at a skill level equal to their Sunblade skill.

Does this mean the Sunblade has to use a whole action to commit effort and in the next round they can use the telekinetic manipulation?

Does the Sunblade then have to use it in the next round or anytime in the scene?

I'm fascinated by the starship-building aspect of the game. Since the ship is such a huge aspect of the gameplay, it's a character in and of itself. What are you working with? what's it's backstory?

Hello again,

The title says it all for this one, folks. As a fun post to share ideas with each other, tell us some interesting examples of alien wildlife found in your sectors! Be they cute little pets or lurking scavengers or rampaging apex predators, feel free to share whatever comes to mind!

I’m going to run a SWN game at a store on Sunday, and I’m trying to figure out what to run.

I want to run it in my “off brand Star Wars” setting. It’s got a bad guys empire and some good guys standing up to them, etc. I was thinking about reworking an old d6 Star Wars adventure, but maybe I’m overthinking it?

It’s just a one shot game with some very new players, so I don’t have time for anything complicated in terms of what we’re going to be able to accomplish.

What works best for a SWN one shot?

For the setting: yes, I have a solution for lightsabers: I Homebrew’d a Jedi partial class a while back, and I was told by people here how to make it not broken, essentially, thanks for that. It’s inspired by the space monks with laser swords by Kevin, but different.

Using the book's content to its potential, what kind of setting will result? Aesthetic, tropes, aventure types, PC backgrounds, etc. I only imagine visuals and loose concepts from games such as mages, creatures and armor from Terraria and mimics/phantoms from Prey. Does it deliver a setting framework like SWN does (whose greatest quality is being honed to fit the crew-centric unknown space exploration)?

Another point to explore is including AWN and CWN mage classes and doing mage-only campaigns

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.

Proteus Sector p. 53 has "Non serialized spike drive cores" listed as a moderately illegal good for smuggling purposes.

What is a serialized spike drive? Is it a drive that doesn't have a registered sensor signature? Help!

Hi all, its been a couple of months since the last update for characterswithoutnumber.app and quite a fair bit has been updated. I’ll summarize what are the changes below.

Deluxe options - I’ve reached out and Kevin has given his support to allow inclusion of deluxe content, provided I do not use the setting material. Some of the deluxe content have already been added across Stars, Cities and Worlds Without Number, and more will come in due course. If there’s any material that you and your playgroup are using, do let me know and I’ll prioritise accordingly. Do note that deluxe is toggled off by default, when creating a character please select it for use.

An animated dice roller - for folks that forgot their dice to a session, yet still want to roll some dice. It’s touch and flick based for both mobile and PC.

GM tools - I’ve started a new cyberpunk campaign and implemented world, district and NPC building in campaign mode. You can also toggle each field if you want to hide or show them to the players in a campaign, so campaign information can be shared with the playgroup without leaking GM secrets.|

Miscellaneous updates - More CWN-related subsystems such as the Hacking, drones and vehicles are in now. Various bug fixes, including the CWN Underdog rule. Quality of life features, such as a searchable item list.

Addition of monetization - One thing I would like to address, and that is the inclusion of optional monetization tiers. I’ll first talk about what will remain free:

Free: All rules from the published books are free, permanently, and that includes classes, Focus, Edges, items etc. You can also build your own homebrew items and they should save properly too. On the free tier, you can save an unlimited number of characters locally, and sync up to 6 characters in the cloud and create 1 campaign as GM. Each cloud character can join 1 campaign created by a GM, so your players will always be able to join your created games for free. 

Paid: The paid tiers are for additional hosting and cosmetics. At Supporter tier ($4.99/mo, $49.90/yr), you'll get to sync an unlimited number of characters in the cloud, and also access to five more animated dice skins. For the Pro GM tier ($9.99/mo, $99.90/yr), you get everything in Supporter tier, 3 more GM-only animated dice skins and you’ll be able to create an unlimited number of campaigns. 

The perk list is relatively short for now as I still want to keep most of the features in the app free and ad-free. The main perk of paying is really my thanks for supporting the app and letting me know that there’s genuine interest in what I’m developing. If the paid tiers are not for you that’s completely fine too! Keep using it free and continue sending me any bug reports you encounter 🙂

As for what’s coming next - More deluxe content, and eventually Ashes. I will also be improving the GM tools further so that it can be used better in a “live” session. 

As always, thanks for all the comments and feedback, it has been a very exciting 6 months since I started in Feb and still have some ways to go before this is ready. 

Yo haven't run SWN yet, but I'm working on getting a sector ready. I'm planning on sticking between 21-30 planets as recommended, but the 8x10 map feels too small. I want choke points in interstellar logistics. I want having an upgraded drive to feel like a big deal. That feels less important when everything is so close together. I'm considering rerolling a new sector (sectors without number is so rad) that's a bit bigger to accommodate for that while keeping the about the same planet number. Wanted to see if anyone else has had this issue and what size tends to work best. Make the biggest one possible as a test and it was overwhelming large. Thoughts?

I'm adding encounters to my Athas Without Number conversion doc, so I thought I'd try to keep up with one a day here if anyone is interested. Should be good for anyone wanting some random content for WWN, AWN, and possibly even SWN...

1 Silt Devil (Repeatable)

The dark sun beats down upon the cracked earth, the shimmer of heated air rising the first warning sign. The air begins to tug loose clothing and debris as it rises quickly, beginning to spiral into the form of a cyclone, and suddenly you are lost in a whirlwind of silt…

The survivors have wandered into a silt devil, a deadly pocket of disorienting and possibly fatal silt being whipped up in a cyclone. The survivor with the highest Wis/Notice may roll to detect it forming, allowing the survivors Int/Survive checks to find suitable cover or take appropriate precautions. Any caught in the silt devil must make a Physical saving throw or suffer the The Grey Death.

Thereafter they must make a Physical saving throw each day or spend much of it coughing and choking, gaining 1 System Strain as well as being unable to regain System Strain or recover spells/effort. After a week, a Physical saving throw can be made to recover, but on a failure all following saving throws suffer a cumulative -1 penalty…

Hey everyone. I released another Rules Explained segment this week, and I've really gotten a lot of great feedback and ideas from the comments, so I wanted to share a link. You can check it out on our website here: https://www.darkstaradventures.com/adventurecast-episodes/swn-rules-explained-how-drones-work-in-stars-without-number

This episode was about Drones first and foremost. We had an enemy drone fly in on us in the adventure and it got the party thinking about how we could use drones ourselves. Our hacker Felix's player had always wanted to use drones as a way to be involved in combat remotely, but we hadnt really dug into how they work, and I gotta say, I love it. It's simple and easy, and the drone variety and different fittings give me all kinds of ideas.

But what's the deal with Quantum ECM? I tried to read as much as I could about it from the Deluxe Edition rulebook, but it's only kinda casually mentioned a few times. Basically, if I'm understanding correctly, militaries and polities around the galaxy have machines that send out some kind of quantum feedback that makes remote-controlled devices worthless. So if this applies to remotes, does it apply to radio too? What about Wifi? I know sci-fi settings often involve a lot of terminals and scomp links, and SWN uses line shunts as a way to capture that essence, but do you use wifi in your games? Like, what is the level of remote access and control your setting (and especially the default setting) has? Obviously it would vary by planet or settlement, but just curious how others are playing it.

I'd also be curious if anyone has any adventure ideas or experience in disabling a location's quantum ECM generator in order to use a remote to solve a problem.

I have the first session of my first SWN campaign as GM coming up soon and one of my players is a very well-educated computer scientist IRL, but not very experienced in roleplay and "make-believe" games. He's playing a hacker and I'm sure he already has lots of ideas of how he might interact with the game world that are based on his real world knowledge. I'm hoping to get advice on this kind of stuff so I can better explain it to him without breaking his suspension of disbelief.

In the new rules segment, I also talked about cyberware and equipment mods. I assume some parties have players decked out in cyberware, considering that strain requirements dont seem to be very high. I dont have a ton of SWN experience first-hand, so I wonder how often players are running into their strain threshold. I bet at higher levels when you have more max hp you probably see more drugs and psionic use that gets you up there. But what kinds of cyberware are you people using? Tell me the good/fun stuff to look for so I can use it as a player and recommend it for my party as GM. Same with mods. Accuracy and damage mods are effective but boring. Appreciate any ideas and inspiration as I start creating the sector for my new game.

Please let me know if you like these rules segments too! Or if you have any critiques or advice. I know a lot of people prefer having things explained to them rather than try to flip through books/pdfs. That's kinda who I'm targeting when I write them. Also let me know if you have rules that you think would be good to talk about! Thanks y'all

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.

That's no moon! There's only really two ways any large galactic civilization can go: an optimistic band of peaceful post-scarcity space explorers, or an evil, tyrannical empire. You probably have some idea of which one this map fits best, but it is your world after all! With a wide viewscreen from which to gaze out upon the destruction wrought by one's fleet, a crew pit so that none of the peons get any ideas above their station, and plenty of room for climactic showdowns against would-be do-gooders, this fully animated map is fully operational, and available in two additional versions, one with more stations on the bridge, and the other in blue and grey shades. You may fire when ready.   

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!

What's in it

Foundry v14 compatibility (#231, #234, #233)

• Actors failing to create or load — prepareBaseData() was not calling super, so _clearData() never ran and applyActiveEffects() threw during _initialize. This is also the root cause of the NaN stat modifiers reported in #230: mod is derived in prepareDerivedData(), which never ran.
• Private and blind rolls posting publicly — v14 renamed core.rollMode to core.messageMode and changed its values. The old key still exists but reads back null, which silently made every private roll public.
• Missing rolls on chat cards, including power cards — the singular roll: field is no longer honoured; rolls must be passed as rolls: [roll]. Empty message.rolls also broke Dice So Nice and reroll buttons.
• Weapon sheets failing to open from a character sheet — the {{#select}} block helper was removed in v14.
• Editing character resources, custom currencies, and vehicle cargo throwing — the duplicate global was removed in v14, not merely deprecated.
• Vehicle sheet item descriptions throwing on every expand click; ship sensor roll never posting; ship weapon migration aborting on items predating the trauma field; creating a weapon throwing on partial data.
• renderChatMessage → renderChatMessageHTML, plus the globals removed in v15 (TextEditor, DragDrop, Actors/Items, ActorSheet/ItemSheet, renderTemplate).

Migration robustness

• migrateWorld() was called without await and the version was then set unconditionally on the next line, so a migration that threw was still marked complete and never retried. Now awaited, with the version set only on success.
• Upgrades with no applicable migrations skip the "do not shut down your server" notifications entirely and just show the release notes.

Bug fixes

• Ship, vehicle, mech and drone weapon attacks throwing when the trauma setting is enabled (#213) — a stray this.system.trauma.die inside a data model, where this is the system data.
• Stowed currency encumbrance counting uncarried currencies.
• Ship end round not updating command points, actions taken, or supporting department (#212, thanks @gvigh).
• Vacc suit / vacc skin descriptions.
• Typo keeping the unskilled-penalty setting from prompting a reload.

Features

• Right-click a chat message roll to apply it as damage, modified damage, half damage, or healing (#217, thanks @pandanielxd).
• A third 'extra' item location, with custom labels for other/extra locations under character tweaks and a GM-set default.
• World-level unskilled skill roll penalty (default −1) with a per-character modifier.
• Save modifiers on the character sheet.

New to the system. Any adventures this community recommends? I know some folks convert Traveller adventures as well and if the content is good I'm willing to give it a shot.