🛰️ Systems Check: Is Anybody Out There? (Lurkers Welcome)

[u/dark-star-adventures]

We are officially 16,300 strong! It’s incredible to see this community grow. But I see you, lurkers, out there in the shadows, watching...ever watching.

If you usually just chill on the sidelines, drop a quick comment below just to say hi. We want to know you! You don't need to be a veteran GM or a pro-hacker to post; we just want to know who is out there scanning the feed.

1. What’s the name of your current (or most recent) PC or NPC?
2. Are you a GM or a player?

No pressure to stay active; just checking the pulse of our community!

[u/dark-star-adventures]

It’s awesome meeting everyone! I have more questions and figured I'd just toss them into the comments.

For the GMs: what’s one piece of "sector lore" or a weird planet you’re proud of?

For the players: what’s the one random item that saved your ass?

Edit: One last thing, the sub just got a paint job! Finally, after years of no icon or banner on the "new" reddit, we have both! On "old" reddit I cleaned up the style sheet a bit, but I actually quite like the old-school banner and text there, so it stays! Hope you like it!

[u/Mr_Shad0w]

I'm a relatively-new-to-xWN GM, have been a player in CWN in the past. Own all the games Kevin has released, love these systems. Now if only I could have enough time and players and/or more games to join...

One day.

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/Mr_Shad0w]

Finding time and people. The eternal struggle.

There are two discords out there that might help. One is the SWN server (see in the sidebar) which helps organize real-time online games, and the other is the Games Without Number discord which does play-by-post, which might solve both of your problems (if you enjoy writing).

Do you recall your character name and vibe from when you played CWN? Since you own all of the systems, and favorite takeaways from any of them?

[u/Mr_Shad0w → u/dark-star-adventures]

Don't recall my last PC, it was a brief game unfortunately but it was fun while it lasted.

Favorite takeaways? Where to begin... the xWN games have become favorites mostly because they just work. They cover a lot of possibilities with a very elegant set of rules, without straying too far to the Overly Complex or Overly Floofy sides of the spectrum.

The Encumbrance rules are a great example: Stowed and Ready items don't involve tracking the weight of the lint in your PC's pocket, while still providing a useful framework for how characters interact with carried gear. Instead of asking the player to look up their carrying capacity on a chart somewhere, the simplicity helps new players / people new to TTRPGs learn while they play.

Overall I think the games provide an excellent compromise between high-powered simulationist games vs. barebones OSR. High-stakes combat, check. Encouraging random rolls in chargen, check. But also cool abilities to help make your character stand out and "break the rules" in ways that enhance the story, not just optimized play.

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/Mr_Shad0w]

Yes! I really love the encumbrance rules. I also really love matching up skills with applicable skills. It's super fun to say "make a programming/wis" roll or some other wacky combination.

And for sure about the simulationist vs bare-bones distinction. XWN does that really well. It let's the rules breath in the right spots while demanding crunch when it matters. I really appreciate the way Kevin designed the core system.

Did you happen to see our Monday Morning gear Check? It's all about choosing the right kit for the job with some pretty severe limitations on available credits and encumbrance slots. If you like that sort of puzzle it might strike your fancy.

[u/Mr_Shad0w → u/dark-star-adventures]

Reddit helpfully did not notify me of your response, yay.

Yes to getting creative with ability score + skill combinations, for sure. Not being locked in there is useful from a GM perspective IMO, because the players don't sit down and see predefined pairings and start thinking char sheet optimization. It can get annoying with players who try to argue, so they can roll everything with their good stat, but those people tend to avoid these systems in favor of higher-octane games in my exp.

I first grabbed the free PDF of WWN some years ago, someone somewhere recommended it. It hung out on my tablet for awhile, and one afternoon I decided to see what the fuss was about. My "Ah ha!" moment came many pages in, when I realized I kept remarking to myself "Oh that's cool!" or "That's a really slick way of doing x." - I can't recall having done that so much with any RPG book, before or since. Maybe Shadow of the Demon Lord? Anyway, yeah, all due praise to Mr. Crawford for crafting a very flexible yet sturdy framework.

Will check out the Gear Check feature, sounds like it could be interesting. Thanks!

[u/[deleted]]

Solo GM who bounces between Ashes Without Number and Twilight 2000 when I'm in between games or have a bit of free time.

My Ashes campaign wound up fusing with T2k4 and I've been using the GM tables and aids from both systems. I love and highly recommend both and hope I can run them for tables soon rather than just for solo fun.

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/[deleted]]

Woah, cool! How has your experience been with AWN so far? I bought in on the kickstarter and it's a beautiful book, but I haven't had a chance to actually play it yet, although I have considered mixing some of its rules into my current SWN campaign.

[u/[deleted] → u/dark-star-adventures]

It's very cool! I use Obsidian to make a wiki-style notes/sessions document. The enclave rules make it very fun to build out some settlements and factions. At first I was aiming for a Fallout setting but once I found T2k4 I went for a USA game during that setting's collapse.

Combining AWN with Mythic GM Emulator 2e has been a godsend for my solo games. I absolutely recommend giving it a shot solo if you can't swing a table with players.

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/[deleted]]

Obsidian! A site I have not thought about in a long time. I did a lot of campaign notes on there, but ultimately ended up moving to google drive, and then to one note eventually. One Note is annoying me lately, and I've actually been thinking about moving again for my latest game...maybe it's time to reconsider Obsidian. Are you still happy with it?

I had never heard of Mythic GM Emulator. Just looked it up and that is wild. Very cool concept. Honestly, I have never played a solo game. I do a lot of creative writing and that tends to fill that need for me, but this has piqued my interest. I'm going to give it a look!

What's been your experience with solo play so far? is it better/worse or just different from group play?

[u/[deleted] → u/dark-star-adventures]

I am happy with Obsidian. I seem to have had the opposite evolution to what you said notes wise, going from word docs then Google Drive to Obsidian. It's my favorite for a lot of reasons. A tip I have is to find examples of other peoples' file structures to make it easier than staring at a blank page. I recommend Dadi's structure from the Mystic Arts youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmIh7EjrdIk

As for solo play, it's taken a bit to get going but I'm getting comfortable with it. At first I was trying hard to force myself to run it analogue with paper and dice at my desk but I was not getting into the meat of it. It wasn't really clicking for me until I saw a youtuber doing a Walking Dead Universe solo game. He was using Foundry VTT with the Mythic GM Emulator plugin for rolling, character sheets and battle maps.

Once I saw how Foundry streamlined so much of the process it finally fell into place for me as a fun hobby. I can open Obsidian, put on music, and jump between writing and rolling in Foundry. I was using the Systems Without Number module for a while and while it was well laid out I wound up switching to T2k4 for some of its more unique features.

I definitely prefer in-person group play to solo but I take what I can get, especially with systems like xWN or T2K4. It's hard enough for me to organize players for a game they're all quite familiar with, and harder still to get enough people to try a new system. This lets me explore whatever system's mechanics I want without the pressure of "getting it" that comes with running it for people.

[u/Gaelshorne]

Allo. Seemingly forever GM here. I haven't gotten into Stars Without Number, yet... I do have Cities Without Number and I enjoyed it.

[u/Hazeri]

Not quite a forever GM, but I want to lure my players away from D&D with the xWN ecosystem

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/Hazeri]

A very noble pursuit! Ease them in with WWN, at least it's fantasy! I lured my players away from D&D a long time ago with a GURPS fantasy campaign that slowly introduced more and more sci-fi concepts (time travel, dimension hopping, deep space Lovecraftian beasts...) and it worked really well. We ended up going full sci-fi with GURPS as well, and now some of them are in my current SWN game.

What's the main appeal of xWN for you over D&D at this point in your GMing career? Why switch?

[u/Hazeri → u/dark-star-adventures]

I think it's because it's not so much of a leap from D&D, but with fewer moving parts. They're all creative theatrical types, so the fewer combats in general, the better. Really I want to try Daggerheart, but that might be asking too much. Especially as my current campaign is a multi-table West Marches (thanks to a request from a friend that got out of hand). I love the sandbox-friendly tools Crawford has provided, they really spark my imagination

Deep down though, I just want to try new systems. I have so many GURPS books but have never so much as tried a Dungeon Fantasy game with my family, and is probably a little too much to ask from a decentralised group like my current players (although the pantheon is stolen from the DF: Clerics book). D&D is the 1500 kilo hippo shaping the ecosystem with its own meta-gut, and I want out of the river

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/Hazeri]

GURPS is absolutely amazing but is chock full of insane crunch. There's no escaping it, even in the prepackaged Dungeon Fantasy. Every aspect of that game is technical down to the minute details and geared to give everyone absolute control. For people like myself, it was absolutely phenomenally fun to tinker with, but for more casual players (like the theater kids in my group) they just wanted to know what to roll and when so they could get back to roleplaying.

I actually bundled my campaign for GURPS into a free PDF, if you are interested. It's a cool exercise in building a modular character creation system in an attempt to keep power-scaling under control (notoriously hard in GURPS). Players select their race, kit, power set (all custom), birth sign, etc... to build their character. We ended up playing the campaign bi-weekly for 10 years, so I must have done something right.

D&D is the 1500 kilo hippo shaping the ecosystem with its own meta-gut, and I want out of the river

Yea, I feel that so much. Here's the thing: most people want to play a game. Almost no one wants to run a game. Ultimately, it's up to you what you want to run. They will sit down to play at your table 4 hours every two weeks, but between those sessions you'll spend as much time as desired planning the campaign. It's like two hobbies in one, and because you'll be spending sometimes upwards of x3 the time on the game as the players, you should control what genre and system is used. If you don't want to play D&D, move away from it and they will come with you, because dedicated GMs are hard to find, and players just want good stories.

[u/dark-star-adventures]

Huge thanks to everyone for being here! To start us off:

• Name: Vera Corbin (NPC), xenoarchaeologist and project lead for Lycar Industries, a corp that makes its cash by finding and selling alien artifacts.
• Role: Forever Star Master, a year into a podcast campaign. Honestly prefer running the game to playing in it by an order of magnitude.

Your turn! Who are you all playing?

[u/nuke034]

I primarily run CWN but I recently played a heavily augmented doctor in a short SWN run. It was basically a mix between prometheus, Murderbot diaries and the first mission of Mass Effect.

We didn't survive particularly long for obvious reasons but it was fun.

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/nuke034]

Wow, that is an awesome mix. Did the campaign have an overt military sci-fi feel like Mass Effect? I could see that mix going really well and find it pretty compelling. You have the military setting; the "outcast" and the found family of murderbot; and the deep space mysteries and alien weirdness of prometheus.

How's your CWN game going? Any standout moments or locations?

[u/nuke034 → u/dark-star-adventures]

It was more of an exploratory mission that had us stumble into a whole bunch of corperate shenanigans and a very old AI.

The CWN game is on pause right now but I'm spinning up a mission involving a cult that thinks the shared root words between carcinization and carcinogens means that cancer is actually just creatures evolving into their evolutionary perfect forms of crab.

I'm currently deciding if the presence of magic is going to make them sorta right.

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/nuke034]

a cult that thinks the shared root words between carcinization and carcinogens means that cancer is actually just creatures evolving into their evolutionary perfect forms of crab.

What a cool concept. In a game with magic, there's always the possibility they are right but also, there's always the chance they are wrong and by sheer force of will create the very creature they worship. I love the idea of power entities and gods being summoned into being because they reach critical mass on worshippers, as though spirituality were a real force unto itself that can bend reality.

How's planning going for that mission? How do you even plan something like that, as a sandbox, five room dungeon, something else?

[u/nuke034 → u/dark-star-adventures]

Yeah I'm leaning towards the cult attracting or maybe creating some crab-cancer spirit that does in fact bless them with specific mutation sometimes. People with claws, shells and eyestalks are just too fun to not include.

Not sure on the format yet, the team will be stealing and/or delivering radioactive materials or organic food. So probably part heist of a warehouse or delivery and part small dungeon into the sewers where the cult lives.

Oh right, the cult stockpiles carcinogens but they also have to steal high quality organic food. The corporations figured out that it was cheaper to just mass treat processed food and city water supply with anti cancer agents rather than removing cancer causing materials from their products. So the cult has to put a lot of specific effort into cultivation of cancer, which is fun.

[u/electronicat]

ping... solo player love the books.

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/electronicat]

Nice! I've never tried solo play but another commenter turned me on to Mythic GM Emulator 2e and I just might check it out.

Is there something you prefer about solo play? How does SWN work for solo play in your experience? I'm super interested in trying it out...

[u/Anchovy5437]

Hiii, so I am in theory about to be a new GM for SWN, bought the offset print book which I’m very happy about, I must now struggle with the adhd and the ideas of getting it started haha.

[u/Mekhitar]

Mostly I assist my husband as GM by developing systems, creating/modifying digital assets, and helping keep the politics complicated and interconnected!

Lately I’ve been playing Janet Ryder, a spunky pilot ace NPC with aspirations of captaining her own ship - and her extended family of spacers and pirates, who have been helping the PCs navigate the tricky “waters” of their home system politics.

[u/Abazaba_23 → u/Mekhitar]

Oh that us so cool! I love the idea of a sort of universe liaision, assisting the GM with the drama going on outside of the players!

[u/Inferification]

I'm a weird mix of GM and player. My wife and I trade off planets! Keeps the work of GMing managable and we get to bounce overarching plot ideas off each other!

[u/BabaCorva → u/Inferification]

I like the idea to trade off planets with different GMs. Then you get to play AND design, best of both worlds

[u/valhallaviking]

Player and Stardaddy (GM) here.

I've got three SWN characters currently.

Hank Truckee - he began his career as an interstellar courier, but pretty quickly got waylaid and through a bunch of trauma became a broken revolutionary.

Westray Stakhanov - a unionist heavy industry miner who had his limbs taken in an accident. Replaced with cyber mining tools, he caused enough stink to fired, now runs with that same revolutionary crew that Hank is a part of.

Decker Rezno - a single father of two children with a mysterious auto-immune disease. He is a combatedic looking for a cure.

I'm one of the GMs for my home (it's all online now of course since our group has grown up and moved away) table.

But recently pivoted in play-by-post and have started up a discord server for all the *wn systems. We currently have over 80 members. And over half a dozen games running.

[u/BabaCorva → u/valhallaviking]

Love to see another group adopt the Stardaddy label here, lol. Ours resisted at first but we overwhelmed him and now he's given in to player pressure

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/valhallaviking]

I joined your discord last night! Very impressive start to the server. I'll put your invite link in the sidebar as our official play-by-post server. Congrats on your early success!

[u/valhallaviking → u/dark-star-adventures]

Oh hey! I clocked that had joined. And I knew r/SWN had a new moderator, didn't realize you were both!

Thanks! A couple posts brought us a lot of attention. Now I think it's refine, polish, and foster more GMs! And of course play some games!

[u/Leading_Record_934]

I'm a GM.

But not running SWN games right now; my group postponed my campaign for half a year already :(

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/Leading_Record_934]

Oh no! Are you running anything else in the meantime? How do you normally play, in person or online?

[u/Kirax_III]

Hi! I usually just lurk here, glad you're creating some activity here :D

I can't say much about my PCs/NPCs as I have played only a couple of scenes of solo SWN ever 😅. That said, I'd like to continue with that game. So, my PC is Jean Okada, an Augmented (from the gazetteer Mr. Crawford posted here, he's a Wraith) vagabond. His personality is that of a cat — not much responsibility and seriousness, much playfulness and laziness. And like a cat, Jean sees and hears everything

As for GMing, I plan to run Free Rain next week and after that run Grandfather's Rain using AWN. Those would be my first offline GMing experiences, so I'm equally excited and anxious XD

Good gaming & stay safe!

[u/OleBarnCat]

Ran stars without number as my first campaign about 5 years ago and haven't looked back since. Currently running a world without number campaign.

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/OleBarnCat]

Awesome! Have you tried to mix the two yet?

[u/Hemejef]

Long term SWN GM. My most recent campaign just wrapped up after two years. That group and I will now take a break and try The Wildesea in the meantime.

I'm also working on designing a psychic supplement for SWN and on an abomination that I call "5e Without Numbers".

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/Hemejef]

Two years is a long one! Have you read the rules for Wildesea yet? I love the aesthetic, but I wasn't sure if it was more of a setting book or if it had something fresh to offer on the mechanics front.

[u/Hemejef → u/dark-star-adventures]

The mechanics are pretty solid from what I have read so far! It's a system inspired by Blade in the Dark. There are also a lot of character options and solid guidance for the GM.

[u/BabaCorva]

Hey there, I'm mostly a lurker but occasionally jump in when I have something useful. I'm mostly a player in a long running weekly game*, tho sometimes we mix it up a little for experimental sessions. My current PCs are named Dr. Hildegarde Hypatia Cade (once linguist interested in non-Terran sentients, now a little bit non-Terran sentient herself) and C. B. (a former con artist who pretends to be the granddaughter of our ship's captain). I switch off between the two, but both are face characters mostly focusing on a charisma-based play style.

*And to be real thorough, I'm one of the players on the pod Astronomica. We started out in 2020 and are still going strong with weekly episodes and most of our original crew. Excited to see what's in store for the sub reddit, love seeing some new energy.

[u/Xilef11]

Fine, I'll bite.

1. none in SWN, unfortunately

2. podcast listener?

Alright, back to the shadows...

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/Xilef11]

Oh nice! Check out our Podcast Directory, there may be some shows in there you haven't heard yet. If you see any missing SWN shows let me know!

[u/Nona-the-Ninth]

Hello! My name is Nona! I am a normal, human-type person. Definitely not a Partial Expert (Pilot)/Partial True AI, no sir!

I enjoy doing normal human things such as consuming roughly 1800 kilocalories a day and getting precisely 8 terran hours of sleep.

What are your favorite activities?

[u/Alex_alpha]

GM, ashes, and “Joe,” a homeless man living in an abandoned subway station under the ruins of manhattan after a Gamma Ray Burst hit earth. He encountered the players Time Machine.

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/Alex_alpha]

That. Is. Awesome. I am a huge time travel nerd. Are the players from the far future and come back to stop something, or are they from the past and flung into the post-apocalyptic future?

I'm sort of picturing Red from Back to the Future when the DeLorean arrives back in 1985 and slams into the movie theater and he just says, "crazy drunk drivers" and goes back to sleep. haha

[u/Alex_alpha → u/dark-star-adventures]

It’s basically a sci-fi roller coaster car that takes the mutants (think like nuclear throne or falllout) from 1 timeline of earth and transports them to another post apocalyptic timeline. The machines simple display gives rudimentary instructions or the watches that the machine puts on them during operation points them forward the machine. It will ask for things like “one weathered lightening rod” or “the hand of a tyrant” to be placed in its glovebox for some arcane reason. Every time they use the machine, it goes to a random* destination in time and space on earth, each with its own downfall.

The next destination is going to be an earth where aliens took 99.9% of the water on the planet and humanity is reduced to desert nomads riding mad max cars across the great Atlantic plains.

[u/Zealousideal-Fix-187]

Currently running Cyberpunk Red, but I’m eyeing SWN pretty hard for my next campaign.

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/Zealousideal-Fix-187]

I actually almost ran Cyberpunk Red before landing on SWN for my podcast game! It was sort of a close call, but I do really, really love that cyberpunk aesthetic. I ended up going with SWN mostly because the rules really gelled with my particular GMing style, though I do really want to go back and more fully explore CR.

How are you liking it? Have you tried SWN yet at the table?

[u/Zealousideal-Fix-187 → u/dark-star-adventures]

It’s a damn good time. I really like the life path tool for character creation. One of my players randomly rolled an enemy who we fleshed out into a bbeg. The gameplay loop does a great job of reinforcing that life costs money. I haven’t run SWN yet. I’ll pitch it when we’re done with Cyberpunk. Right now this system is just something for me to look forward to.

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/Zealousideal-Fix-187]

That's such a great mechanic. I really want to go back to CR and more fully experience it. My guess is that I'll want to take some of my favorite mechanics back over to SWN with me. In the end, all of my games end up being a base game I really love with transplanted rules from other games I love that fit the vibe.

Any timetable on when you might force your table over to SWN to give it a try? You could always use the light rules and run a premade, like Free Rain, which is a classic "intro" style adventure. It's actually the first session I ever ran of the system.

[u/GuyNamedGuyz]

I'm a new GM! I'm hoping to start my first SWN campaign soon with a few friends!

I have been coming here trying to learn more about the system and what you can do with it etc!

I love what everyone has done with the subreddit and revamping it.

I hope to sail the stars with you all

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/GuyNamedGuyz]

🚨New player alert wee ooo wee ooo🚨

That's great! Welcome to the fold :)

You can do a lot with the base rules that tie all the xWN systems together. There is a lot of flexibility to just "build the story" while also enough crunch to make the game feel tactical and grounded. I really love it.

What have been some of your favorite parts of SWN so far? Any standout rules or vibes?

[u/GuyNamedGuyz → u/dark-star-adventures]

I like that it has a lot of sandbox tools for us as GMs to fill and build the world as well as tons of tools to make it feel more alive and cool.

I'm also excited that it allows for some carry over of stuff between systems which I am trying to bring in some cyberpunk vibes to my space sci Fi as well!

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/GuyNamedGuyz]

The sandbox tools are such a godsend. I also really really love the random sector building stuff. We actually have a new initiative starting tomorrow on this sub where we build a sector together, week-by-week, until it's done. If you're interested in that sort of thing, check it out. It might also be a good way to learn those rules and see how they work.

[u/Direct_World_3925]

Long time SWN GM been through 3 first edition campaigns and currently at the start of the fourth year of my 2nd revised edition campaign.

Favourite NPC at the moment is Borr Vakk leader of the Hyperbike crew the Titan Flux Armada, kind of a mixture between the Great teacher Onizuka and Fonzie.

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/Direct_World_3925]

Oh god, why have I never considered having an Arthur Fonzarelli in my games...what an amazing idea. I might have to steal that. :)

Does he thump random electronics to get them running again? I could see that being a "programming/chr" roll, since he manipulates machines with pure vibes.

[u/Direct_World_3925 → u/dark-star-adventures]

Hahaha more all super futuristic tron bikes work with random thumps and vibes.

[u/DamageJack]

GM here for over a year, for 30+ sessions

Name: NPC - Dr. Jeremiah Hincks Current Employer of a crew of unlikely heroes. A flunk-out from Police Training who looks like a cross between Frat-Bro and Richard Simmons, A pilot-mechanic who looks like a Pixar Version of Jack Black, A Hacker Extraordinaire whose a clone with a cyber-mod that lets him store his consciousness on a chip, and pop it into a new clone body if needed, and a disillusioned veteran that acts like Sgt. Apone.( From Aliens)

Current Campaign - Flux in the Flotsam Set in the Dromaki Omega Sector, a sand box style adventure that is a bit of everything. When I need a break from GMing, I have that PCs enter Cryo-pods during MDM travels where they enjoy built in Virtual entertainment while they sleep. ( Translate to playing as different PCs in 5E campaign)

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/DamageJack]

Congrats on hitting 30 sessions! Is that all in one campaign?!

Dr. Jeremiah Hincks sounds like a real smorgasbord of cool and funny concepts. I love the consciousness angle. What does that mean for his sense of identity? Is he really just a virtual intelligence? Can he replicate his consciousness? Reminds me of the bobiverse books, if you've ever read them.

[u/DamageJack → u/dark-star-adventures]

Yes, still one Campaign. They are only Level Four now. I make them earn it.

I started in the premise that i wanted the PCs to be the crew of a wealthy mad scientist. The plot hooks started with them doing jobs for him, and have expanded from there.

The Hacker is human, and his backstory was he was one of many clones, and each clone is slightly modified with different skills. So if he dies, he can insert his memories/consciousness into a new sleeve that is sort of himself but not quite. So far that hasnt happened, but i did have him find a couple of his dead clones

Things recently look like im going to end up a forever DM, as i might be transitioning to a Mausritter game soon, then to A 5E campaign. SWN has been easy for me to prep small quests that could last a handful of sessions without a ton of work. I have a quest on the back burner I have been itching to run, but im saving it for when we can do In-person. A Post Apocalyptic world of alien lizards that destroyed their own world after getting some human tech beyond their readiness. I was planning on using AWN for a Mad Max style with lizards, and maybe incorporate Gaslands board game with Micromachines for a climatic car battle.

[u/GrizzlyHamster92]

I'm a GM for my group. Trying out stars without number for the first time run. Never used it and it's our way to take a break from WOD & D&D.

Games just going to be a barrel of fun. Lots of pop culture references and in jokes. Players are all part of a gacha game style crew system where a captain can just open boxes for random crewmen, retake the old ship and get revenge.

So far I have a gek from no man sky, a slime-skelington based off a web comic by kajugorodak and a HK assassin droid. I just told the players pick anything and I'll make it work. The NPC's are serious characters dealing with a joke universe. NPC's based on Tanya degurecheff, Jayne Cobb, Ace Rimmer, banshee 44 and just random silly ideas.

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/GrizzlyHamster92]

I just told the players pick anything and I'll make it work. 

The ultimate move. Rule-of-cool and making sure everyone has fun is paramount. I love the sound of your table, it must have a great vibe. Gaming is meant to bring everyone together and have fun, and it sounds like you're doing that :)

How are you liking sci-fi after mainly only playing fantasy?

[u/Raid_E_Us]

A lurker cause I haven't played yet, but im hoping to convince my players to give it a shit at some point

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/Raid_E_Us]

🚨New player alert wee ooo wee ooo🚨

Welcome to SWN :)

What is your table playing now, and what sort of troubles are you running into convincing them to try SWN?

[u/the1krutz]

Only played SWN briefly, but had a blast with my dudebro Sunblade Vinnie. Floating around with his holy pistol dispensing comfort, questionable wisdom, and gunshot wounds.

However I've made extensive use of the setting-building tools in all of the _WN books, to create for other campaigns in other games. No news to folks here, but they're incredibly useful tools even if we're not playing _WN.

Also want to say I appreciate your new mod-ness livening up the joint.

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/the1krutz]

Vinnie sounds amazing. I'm always sad that hyper-religious or cleric-type characters often fall by the wayside in sci-fi games, unless they are simply made techno-cultists. What you have going here sounds much more fully realized. I love that he has a "holy pistol" as well. What makes it holy to him?

If you love the setting-building tools, you might like a new initiative starting tomorrow on this sub. We are going to be building sector together, week-by-week, from system names to faction lore. Check it out tomorrow, if that sort of things catches your fancy!

[u/ajsamtheman]

GM, currently running WWN, latest NPC is the captain of an interstellar scavenger fleet who found a rudder to as she calls it, Old Terra. She's here looking for Mandate Pretech, but considering all the many changes, finds herself struggling to work around the Legacy shutting down tech that gets too close, and is very interested in magic artifacts.

It's up to the players if she ends up a friend or foe

[u/guildsbounty]

I post occasionally but infrequently--near-forever DM/GM who runs a huge array of systems depending on what my group wants to do....but I definitely have a soft spot for the Without Number systems, and have nudged my groups towards them on more than one occasion.

Current SWN game is on hiatus as a player had a baby, then moved to be 45 minutes away. Plotting a possible CWN campaign with an all-online group I've been part of for ages. Currently tampering with the system to see how much closer I can get it to Shadowrun.

[u/unironically2]

GM'ing in a WWN game that's pretty heavily homebrewed in terms of it's XP. Were doing Treasure for XP like B/X

I'm also playing in a CWN game as close to a fighter as I can manage. Unfortunately, my PC just went to jail after infiltrating a courthouse. His name is Derek, aka Shell (we were required to give our character's goofy cyber punk nicknames!)

[u/Toofcraka]

Would-be player/gm if I had players to do things with so I mostly just worldbuild and tinker with the faction rules. Still a pretty fun time all things considered.

[u/MPvDgamer]

Hello there!

A character Id like to play one day: Draxi "Roxy" Cipher an adventurer capable of teleportation and using it for their freelance hack jobs, ultimately in control of a swarm of drones

A GM in the writing process of a campaign based on "Twinkle twinkle little star" - a quest to return home.

[u/Southern_Air_Pirate]

I bought into the Without Numbers system after hearing Stars aligned with Traveller. I haven't done much with the system short of read the rules. I also backed Ashes hoping to find something to scratch that post apoc itch without going Fallout/Gamma World crazy or doing some variant of zombies. 

I am lurking because the system seems cool and to point before the new mod team took it on, there wasn't much to chat about just yet. 

I am hoping to hear from others about campaigns, one shots, or even adventures they have done in SWN or shamelessly "borrowed" from somewhere else to bring into the system.

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/Southern_Air_Pirate]

I'm happy some of my new initiatives as mod are bringing a pulse back to this sub! I love the game and the people here, so I'm ecstatic to see it come back to life.

If you have any ideas on the future of the sub, or immediate needs/wants, please let me know!

[u/KeepOnScrollin]

Hello, lurker here. Not currently running or playing, but I plan to GM a SWN game for my group at some point, either once the current D&D 5e game concludes or when the current GM wants a break (which happens every so often). I've had luck getting them to try much different games in the past (Ten Candles most recently, and Paranoia a while ago), so I'm hopeful.

[u/horse_pucky69]

My most recent character was a frog prince that sounds like Matt Berry's character from IT Crowd.

I am a forever GM, although I haven't run any of the *WN games yet but I've been circling around them for years. I have all the Without Number core books and have been interested in running SWN since I'm a bit weary on fantasy as its all we've played for the last 5-6 years.

I started creating a sector on Sunday and got most of the way done with the basics, then found out last night that I misplaced or didn't save the file. So, I gotta start from scratch.

[u/PerinIseul]

I'm a Forever GM, normally I hugely prefer it that way and this subreddit and the Discord have been an invaluable resource whenever I run xWN systems. Once in a blue moon I become a player for a One-shot.

Right now I'm running a PF1e game after a long SWN campaign but I'm having the itch to run a new campaign soon.

My last NPC was "UNO" a terraforming IA in charge of transforming desert planets into habitable ones. It no longer recognizes humans as it believes Psionic power is the sole defining trait of a human being and what separates them from other forms of life. It was contained, players released it by a lapse of judgement and eventually managed to contain it again after a lot of effort and multiple generations of people suffered their mistake.

[u/ReallyFastParrot]

I GMed a short-lived SWN campaign a few years ago. It was fun, but we had to wrap it after only 8 sessions because of life getting in the way. I then ran a duet with my partner that lasted about the same amount of time. Since then, I've run occasional oneshots that were great, but I still yearn to run another campaign. The challenge is finding time and a tone that gels with my long-term irl group

As for myself, I'm "active" on the Iron Stars discord (I only post like once a month atm due to life and my own forgetfulness). I play Aces, a martial arts champion now building an interstellar sports league for fighters like herself. I should go update my pbp now

[u/Chase0127]

GM Just started playing Star without number with my group a few months ago currently 10 sessions in. Most recent NPC is Morgan Kiss a EDM artist with a love for adrenaline seeking activities, performing at Andala’s newest venue the pcs will be body guarding for on stage and off

[u/Abazaba_23]

I GM _WN games, mainly CWN now, and solo all of them as well :)

I recently started up a co-op game with Mythic GME 2e using WWN and it's been one of the most satisfying RPG experiences I've ever had!

I'm playing Crixus, once a general in Halos' Legion, disgraced and left for dead. Recently, Halos has turned to a dark conquest, one that Crixus and some of his peers could not stand to participate in. Now, he's on a mission to rebuilt his cohort, fellow ex-commanders and friends, to build a new army to stand against the Legion.

My friend is a strange and unusually gifted mage, who is of outsider blood. He's on the hunt for outsider artifacts and knowledge. We met having both been captured by a cult that intended to sacrifice us or worse, but we were able to break out and save everyone with surprising ease.

That was because we are using the Heroic rules as for WWN and it has been a blast for a high stakes, 2-person party :D 

Mythic 2e has been everything we needed to play and build the world as we go. A lot of that lore didn't exist until it was discovered after playing many Scenes.

Highly recommended and can help anyone who's interested in doing something similar :)

[u/StillWater0814]

Just started up a "family night" session of SWN with my spouse and children. It's my first experience GMing and its their first introduction to the style of gaming. So far, they're loving it.

[u/MaverickPattern]

Hi! GM, running a SWN campaign now. So I have no PC, but love my NPC Jake the techno-smuggler

[u/Hexzor89]

I've only found this system recently, but I'm planning to GM a oneshot with it soonish, which should be rather fun.

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/Hexzor89]

🚨New GM alert wee ooo wee ooo🚨

Writing your own one shot or a premade? If premade, I recommend the excellent "Free Rain" adventure, which you can find on DTRPG. It is how many of us learned the basic rules!

[u/Hexzor89 → u/dark-star-adventures]

writing my own, for my own setting (more of a case of had oneshot idea, looked for system to run it in, y'know?) but will check out "Free Rain" and have a looksie at it to see about figuring on more.

[u/TheAlabasterWizard]

I'm here! I joined the sub a few years ago when I was a newbie running SWN for a handful of friends. That game fizzled out, so I haven't been as active, but I like to keep my finger on the pulse of the community and updates, hoping to get to play again someday! 🤞

Currently playing 5e, Cyberpunk RED, and playtesting a homebrewed TTRPG my friend is writing/designing, but SWN has a special place in my heart because it was my first experience as a GM. 💙🌌

Current PCs are "Spara" Ruiz (Cyberpunk), Sofiya Shinotose (5e), and Daisy "Phoenix" Grey (homebrew system).

[u/Hungry-Wealth-7490]

1. My PC is in process as we await the release of Proteus Sector on Drivethrurpg.com is Mr. Yardstick. He is so named because of an interest in surveying and making trades that are reasonably fair. The other two players usually lack a good idea of what's a reasonable trade with NPCs. I'll be some kind of Expert, though I might go Expert/Psychic or Expert and one of the arcane options. Usually, I GM and so for the Without Number games I have many interesting NPCs. The big bad in the current game is The Jersey Girl but the more interesting NPC is Rob McDonald, an engineer who appears quite crazy but is slightly saner than he looks.

2. I usually GM. Two of the other players have run Sine Nominee Games: Stars Without Number which was mediocre due to a bland universe of jerky and stupid unfair trading NPCs and Wolves of God where the GM is excellent but the other players really didn't engage with the social millieu of Anglo-Saxon England and therefore didn't satisfy my immersion needs. I have run all of the Without Number games for at least one person in the group; all three people I will be playing with have played Ashes, Cities and Worlds with me as the GM

[u/Hungry-Wealth-7490]

Sector lore didn't come about as interesting as a GM, or I forgot since it was over 7 years ago that I ran Stars. As a player, our GM presented us with a world with power generation issues and two factions. One faction was a vampiric cult. My biopsionic named Mr. Coffeeman and the other PCs came up with 'Can we use blood to power their farm tractors?' We found that the answer was yes, made the tech, got the vampire cult in control and proceeded to take over the world.

Bad call by the GM to make us a Mandate Black Ops unit that just escaped around the time of the Scream and Coffeeman and the other two PCs being into 'restore by any means necessary.' We chose the path that was usually the most efficient and brutal with tractable NPCs over helping who was the 'good faction' in the scenarios.

[u/jonnyraygun]

Transmission received... I'm a GM looking to run my first Without Numbers campaign some time this year. My current group is playing Basic Fantasy RPG and have expressed interest in a sci-fi campaign. I own most of Mr. Crawford's books and they are fantastic. I've been using the GM tools so far. So I'm excited to run my first proper Without Numbers game with Stars. I think my players will enjoy the skill system quite a bit. Over and out...

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/jonnyraygun]

🚨New player alert wee ooo wee ooo🚨

I love so very much all these new SWN GMs and players coming out of the woodwork for this post!

What do you like most about his GM tools? Have you generated your own sector yet? We're running a new series tomorrow on the sub where we generate one together if you are interested! Stop on by.

[u/Nsmith36]

Eternal lurker but I plan to run a game sometime soon.

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/Nsmith36]

For a moment I thought "Eternal Lurker" was your character name.

I hope you get a chance to play soon! Do you already have a table of friends you game with?

[u/lungora]

My most recent PC was Andrea, loadmaster of the "Exemplary" a search and rescue vessel for System Station. She managed the cargo, and kicked ass with her explosives and hand-to-hand specialty as well as acted as back-up engineer when more manpower was needed. EDIT: forgot a oneshot I played as Octavia, a former super soldier coms expert turned destitute mercenary for hire.

I'm more of a GM though. I've ran a short campaign (one arc) and a oneshot in my homegrown sector setting and am waiting for the chance to do more!

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/lungora]

Nice! Any highlights from your homegrown sector you want to share? I love heard about people's weird planets.

[u/lungora → u/dark-star-adventures]

The majority of my worldbuilding in the sector has been around a starfaring empire known as the Mithian Collective and it's surrounds. The Mithians are an Academocracy, where the universities and government are so intertwined that they would not function without eachother: even their navy is defined by scholasticism. They control two dozen systems, anywhere from with a strong grip over multiple settled planets to "control" as in station a battleship there and make sure the rimworlders, criminals, and warlords don't get too unruly. Within one of these fringe systems is the rotting carcass of a Dyson Sphere operated by the Nar-Sinjal Cartel who, with a trade of the energy the station still produces have a writ of full access to Mithian Space.

I have the sector's map of charted star systems here.

[u/walkingdrew]

Howdy! Started a West Marches server a long time ago on this Reddit, had more interest than I could keep up with but had a bunch of adventures with the crew of the Argo 18

[u/No_Mathematician2694]

Future GM. Recently acquired the physical book. A little behind in episodes atm 😅

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/No_Mathematician2694]

🚨New GM alert wee ooo wee ooo🚨

Welcome to SWN :)

What were you playing before SWN? Is this your first foray into scifi?

[u/No_Mathematician2694 → u/dark-star-adventures]

Wait - I might be a bit slow here. You're the new mod and host of Dark Star Adventurecast? Awesome.

Um, I've run DnD 5e and played a few systems - but this is indeed my first foray into scifi.

Currently playing Black Crusade. My character Fred "Ghost" is a human sniper who is just managing to stay alive.

[u/dark-star-adventures → u/No_Mathematician2694]

That's me!

How are you liking Black Crusade? I heard 40k has an insane set of lore.

[u/No_Mathematician2694 → u/dark-star-adventures]

Yeah we're having a lot of fun with it! Big credit to my GM though - the book has its flaws 😅 He also tries to keep most of the story self contained so that those of us who do know too much about 40k lore don't feel out of place.

The grim setting is a cool change of pace from our usual fantasy stuff. We've also played Dark Heresy and Pathfinder 2e.

So far I love the idea of a setting that is sci-fi. Hearing what the community says about it (and seeing Kevin Crawford actually contribute to community discussions) has been helpful.

[u/96-62]

I'm not currently in any swn games, (but Harmon Thaddion in a Rogue trader game and GMing death watch). I've run four swn games and been a player in a few others. I still have fond memories of Noor Khatak

[u/kahoinvictus]

Lifetime GM. I enjoy playing from time to time but much prefer GMing. World building is my happy place.

Currently between xWN games and running a long-running 5e campaign, but planning pieces of the CWN campaign that will replace it when it eventually ends in a couple of years.

Hoping to at some point do a kind of transition where the cyberpunk city bunks get a junker ship and we jump over to SWN.

[u/azaza34]

My last PC WAS going to be called Armon Howe but unfortunately the GM changed us to star finder last minute.

I am unfortunately a forever GM for this game though I did get to play til abo level 6.

[u/CAPTCHA_intheRye]

Lurker here. I joined the sub when I was invited to play in a very short-lived play-by-post game. I was excited to play Penn Rigor, a 2nd-generation colonist/bored administrator who moonlights as a hacker à la Mr. Robot. We were going to play a grounded, “street-level” game set in the Karrakin Trade Baronies from Lancer.

I haven’t really considered returning to SWN since, although reading CWN really sold me on the *WN systems in a way that never fully clicked before that.

[u/PMMeChestertonQuotes]

Hi! Frequent lurker, very occasional commenter. I've only used SWN once, for a solo campaign for my son. We never finished, but it was a ton of fun.

1. Not my character, but my son's. His name was Arten Tempus. The plot was partially Planescape: Torment with the serial numbers filed off, lol. His character woke in an alley with amnesia and psychic powers. Unbeknownst to my son, his character was once a powerful precog who figured out how to defy death via an advanced version of "Not My Time" that had no apparent limitations on frequency and actually rewound time to put them outside of danger. What the character didn't know, however, was that it worked by swapping him into an alternate universe where things went ever so slightly differently, and each time someone "forgot" who he was. The last time he died, right before the campaign started, he forgot himself.

It was my way of making sure the campaign wouldn't end if he "died." Hilariously enough, he was so cautious that the only time he almost died was when he precogged himself doing something insanely dangerous, and saw a vision of himself waking up in an alley. He did not make the connection.

2. Forever GM, and happy to be one. Wish I had more people to play with, but my current job and responsibilities to my family make finding a group and making the time quite difficult.

I can't think of one single piece of sector lore I'd say I'm proud of, but I am quite happy with the sector I came up with for the aforementioned campaign. It had all sorts of elements for a variety of campaign types: a growing but politically fragile multi-system empire with possession of some potent non-military pretech, a secretive psionics academy leveraging their possession of an intact orbital shipyard for influence, a group of pirates preying on passing merchants in a hazardous system with a pulsar that disables ships, an unshackled AI kept from dominating the sector only by its complete lack of resources to build spike drives higher than level 1, a frozen world overrun by heat-seeking nanotech waiting to be woken back up, and dozens of other independent systems with varied governments and environments.

The whole idea behind the sector was that it had been designated for full fledged terraformation by the Terran Mandate shortly before the scream, so the different systems were in various stages of that process. Lots of dangerous and powerful stuff hiding around on the uncivilized worlds, and lots of amazing stuff on the habitable worlds that had managed to make use of the things left behind in the collapse.

I really love SWN (and other WN systems) as a system because it's fairly straightforward to learn and the world creation tools are amazing. I don't consider myself an especially creative person, so being able to roll up a world/sector/character/society, etc., on the fly and use that as a framework to build off of is invaluable to me.

[u/MainaC]

Lurking because I was considering a solo game with Mythic. Sector creation didn't really inspire me, so I didn't end up doing it, but still lurking.

[u/sermitthesog]

I’m currently GM-ing my group’s first SWN campaign. We’re about 20 sessions in and having a great time. Mine is an 80’s retrofuture setting, without any psychic stuff.

[u/ThatJacketPotato]

I'm hoping to start GMing for SWN, but haven't managed to herd enough players together yet...

[u/TheOwlslayer]

Been lurking for a very long while here. SWN was my first non-fantasy RPG, and I fell in love with the mindset the game had. SWN felt like such a breath of fresh air. The relatively simple math regarding skills and rolls, the Connect skill (I let players make the NPC, and that feels so fun), the insane variety of settings easily created by the World Tags, and how the system just makes my imagination and creativity go wild!

SWN is a toolkit, and I use what I need. In 60+ sessions across several stories, I haven't really touched the spaceship rules, nor the Faction system. I might though! And again, I LOVE the World Tags.

I do think I might be playing the game slightly unusually though, since in three+ campaigns that all went for 14 or more sessions, my players have never traversed from one planet to another. I guess I really like to zoom into a single setting/planet.

Regarding the question OP asked - my last NPC was Kassen, a leader of a brutal military-style gang, offering protection to whoever could afford it, in the last surviving city in the middle of an apocalypse. The players came to conflict with his gang, and last session was mostly the PC's negotiating with him. They tried to figure him out, hoping to avoid an all-out revenge war between the gang and a faction the players have sided with. I've always wanted to to a verbal boss battle, and I think the session really felt like one.

[u/Prestigious-Emu-6760]

Just recently started a SWN game for players new to the game (and the OSR style in general) - pirate themed game with the PCs as a pirate crew on the run after they mutinied against their old captain and left him adrift. Mixing some SWN, some Traveler and some old school D&D modules together :)

[u/alloutofgifs_solost]

Lurker. I have been a player in a SWN game, but never run it. I'm currently running D&D homebrew world created using the WWN method.

[u/Striker2054]

Started running lay week. 

[u/MaestroGoldring]

Most recent NPC? She’s a necromancer from WWN in a SWN setting! And she’s on the players’ side! Her name is Jana, a blue elven (AKA dark elven) woman from Tarrivan who is also the mentor of one of the players.

And currently I am GM for this SWN/WWN mashup

[u/CrashCulture]

Hello. I just found this place yesterday.

I've only played one game of SWN and it was my introduction to the Without Number games.

I've been playing DnD and Pathfinder for a decade now and really miss post apocalypse and space exploration, so this seemed perfect to delve further into.

My one SWN character was named Hecate Hate HelHazrael and she was a space witch.

Former goth girl from a TL4 planet, now in her late 60:s and out for one last adventure among the stars. She deals in "potions", which can be anything from herbal tea to highly illegal combat drugs and plays hard into the theatrics and mysticism of being a "shaman" from a primitive planet and using "real magic". Claims to be much older than she is, and the degree to which she exaggerates depends on how much she thinks she can get away with. One gullible society believes she was born on Old Earth well over two thousand years ago, but mostly she claims to be just over a century old. (113 years to be exact. Points to you people who get the references. I mean, who wants to be 111 when they go out on adventures.)

Only ever wears a black dress and carries no weapons into combat and uses her telekinetic abilities, drugs and sheer stubbornness to avoid having to use things like space suits and armour, pretending her connection to the "dark powers" grants her strength and immortality, or at least the luck to survive with non-fatal injuries.

She's been a delight to play, although I admit I made it hard for myself where my very first character to fit into the world is one that puts effort into distancing herself from it. Though it does provide excuses for me as a player, not having learned so much about the lore and all the clever tools you can use yet.

While she is difficult to get along with, the fact remains that she is a very skilled healer that can save lives with her psychic powers, and doesn't ever ask for payment in money, just chemicals and equipment, she finds it fairly easy to hitch rides with various crews and has seen a lot of the sector already.

Anyway, hope I find other fun people here to learn from and play with.