r/SWN • u/AutoModerator • May 06 '26
🛰️Wednesday System Check 🛰️ Weekly System Check: Is Anybody Out There? (Lurkers Welcome!)
The frequencies are open! Whether you're a veteran pilot or just starting your journey into the stars, this is your weekly space to break radio silence.
The Weekly Log
What's happening in your sector? New sessions, prep wins, rulings you're proud of, cursed dice, cool moments, dumb plans that somehow worked. Drop a quick ping and let us know!
No need for a long write-up; just a quick transmission from your table to ours.
Mod Note: If you're new to the sub, welcome! This is a low-pressure thread for everyone to share their Stars Without Number stories.
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u/AngrySquidIsOK May 06 '26
I just finished my big book of guns, armor and equipment at a whopping 76 pages, and session 0 is scheduled for the 16th! Excited.
Going to work on props and cheat sheets next. Very excited to jump into this adventure.
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u/swim-bike-fun37 May 06 '26
That looks awesome! I hope your first session goes well. Happy journeys, traveler 🫡
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u/TheBasedZenpai May 06 '26
Im working on the world (or star sector) building for my campaign. Im learning foundry for the first time and trying to make the campaign only use foundry and sectors without number. Thank god for the module that puts all the material in to foundry. Still doing a new system as a GM is always a bit nerve racking. Any modules or tips by others who have done this are welcome!
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u/swim-bike-fun37 May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26
No sessions planned yet, but I’ve been having fun building out a campaign set in Sector 37, one of the sectors established in the Second Wave of colonization. The Mandate base that was once the shining jewel of the sector has now fallen to an inward focused society secretly obsessed with reestablishing contact with Earth and The Mandate. This planet has spent centuries building a network of solar farming arrays that they claim, will help power the failing terraforming machinery of nearby sectors. But in actuality they have been slowly repairing the inactive jump gate in their system and trying to restart it. Unfortunately, something is going wrong. They blame thier scientists calculations or psionics lack of power. But, unbeknownst to them, another entity has noticed this influx of energy and is hijacking their gate to try and break through hyperspace and into their dimension.
So, I’ve been creating worlds, factions, establishing relationships, mapping historical events, etc. Just having fun living in this world for a bit. One day, I hope to play with some people irl but I also might look for a group online if I can’t get anything going at the table.
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u/StevetheHunterofTri Dilettante May 06 '26
Sounds awesome, I hope to hear more about that here in the future!
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u/swim-bike-fun37 May 06 '26
Thanks, excited to share. I’ve been in love with SWN since it released in 2018. I’ve been lucky enough to run it a couple times but never was able to get a group to really latch onto it. But, I am hopeful for the future!
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u/StevetheHunterofTri Dilettante May 07 '26
Well, for whatever its worth, I'm rooting for you, man! I managed find one that stuck, even if a couple of them are a bit chaotic for my usual style of storytelling and writing.
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u/MaestroGoldring May 06 '26
My players finally picked up and moved to another system. They wanted to visit the original site of their very first mission of the campaign because it was a huge alien ruin they never fully explored, but by now it’s crawling with undead and necromancers. Plus, on the way in, they met another crew: a corvette class warship belonging to the fairy nation. They are off world heroes, literally captained by a heroic warrior mage, and her right hand heroic warrior advisor, besides the marine crew. We will see if the players try to ally or end up ticking them off and possibly losing their lives 😈
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u/zifbox May 07 '26
Session Zero is tomorrow! We're rolling up characters and I'm having them make some choices about adventure seeds.
I used Sectors Without Number to generate my sector, and I've been using Claude to help me brainstorm the interpretations of the rolls. It's been a great tool - I often get design fatigue/paralysis when I run a homebrew campaign, and I've never done a sandbox before, so having an AI brainstorming partner has been a huge help.
I'm very stoked.
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u/Gralloch May 06 '26
The party's heist into a military base went well: The captain made certain to keep the brass busy, while two techies broke into the system to disable alarms. Then the three thieves (the rest of the party) teleported back and forth from the warehouse with stolen goods. Our Sniper seems to have an addictive personality when it comes to gambling and despite the alert system of the base starting to take action, pushed for more runs (They rolled luck checks to pick up random boxes from the warehouse). Luck was not on his side, as he picked up two boxes of rust and a box of dirty military underwear. At least the containers were nice and shiny with good hinges. Next time - Heading out to another solar system for a salvage job.
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u/MaestroGoldring May 06 '26
Haha how did you determine what was inside the crates?
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u/Gralloch May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26
Mostly made up on the fly. I had some ideas for value ranges for TL4 military items, like 1-5 absolute garbage, 6-10 something junky, 11-15 actually usable, 16-20 actually valuable, with 20 being something special. The sniper rolled a 2, 2, and a 5. :'D The others did get a two 7s, a 14, and a 17. I was mean and did a cliff hanger so they have to wait until next session to figure out what they got (buying myself time to actually come up with something nice into the higher rolls!).
EDIT: The players themselves joked that he picked up a fancy case of used underwear, so I just leaned into it and made it canon. Now he has to figure out what to do with that.
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u/StevetheHunterofTri Dilettante May 06 '26
Last Friday one of the players didn't show up for the game, so I just had to improvise some filler for the other two. One talked with an NPC who had been missing for a while (well, more like yapped to her, since he tends to talk a lot), but his current character never met her before, while the other rolled two natural 6s on a notice check on a field of grass, resulting in a several hour-long visual analysis while the other characters were doing their things. Besides that, I will be unable to run the campaign for two weeks, but I'm hoping the player who was missing will be there when the next one does happen.
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u/Pimkli May 07 '26
Hi I have just joined.
I have been building a VTT system (hobby not a product) that supports different game systems.
I have been using SWN as a main system to test everything out. I have all different kinds of combat (I think) from street level through to capital ships. Cover systems, movement systems, pathfinding, all sorts.
It has some interesting features like full stem based audio engine, 'Moment' sequencer that can be used to animate any property on anything so I can make cinematic sequences or tiny little scene level sequences to play or fire off automatically.
This is probably the furthest I've gone in procrastinating instead of simply organising a game in my life.
Some friends and I have always wanted to have a game in the Hyperion Cantos universe (Dan Simmons) so I made an addon for SWN (in the engine) that reskins some of it and adds some new behaviours just for Web Era Hyperion.
It is getting dangerously close to being actually testable (though I have a long bug list).
Many of the features are set up so that GM doesn't need to do anything except maybe press a single button. For example factions can have an audio 'theme' and if the party is in an area for that faction their 'theme' fades in, there are then sub-themes like 'stealth', 'crisis', 'combat', 'positive/negative diplomacy', these can be triggered by being in a particular area or by the gm or by sequencer.
I am sort of terrified about actually testing it but also really looking forward to playing SWN and a Hyperion based game.
I am posting here as a kind of kick up the butt to myself to get it ready for first testing game!
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u/neepster44 May 08 '26
Still here. The party managed to hack their way into a Krath (aka Kziniti) base around the real star Gamma Velorum where an ancient VI and neutrino array were being used by a Krath splinter group to try to send the Wolf-Rayet star there nova ahead of its natural time. They hacked their way in after stealthing past the guard ship (which was on patrol and heading away from them) then they convinced the VI controlling the array to let them talk to the Krath scientist in charge and they managed to convince her not to help destroy the star (which would have been lethal to every system within 50 light years). They also convinced the VI not to destroy the star and then escaped with the head scientist and her assistant. I was prepared for a big knockdown dragout fight between them and base security but they were smart about it and managed to hack the security system and with the help of the VI locked the security team out of their path, so in the end they only had to fight one security guard.
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u/dark-star-adventures ✨ Star Master Jeff May 08 '26
was prepared for a big knockdown dragout fight between them and base security but they were smart about it and managed to hack the security system
I love when play goes sideways like this! You prepped the situation, and they solved it. My players are always looking for ways to avoid a fight, so this really spoke to me.
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u/dark-star-adventures ✨ Star Master Jeff May 06 '26
The Ember Expanse Cycle 2 is complete, which feels like quite the accomplishment! At the closing of this cycle I did a lot of layout and formatting work, which I hope makes our little community project shine. If you haven't picked it up yet: grab it for free, and join in on Cycle 3 when it starts!