In February, I will be running one of my multipart con-campaigns using Stars Without Number (it is a generational space opera with a little bit of Expanse vibes). I have read the game and I love it, but have not actually run it yet. I plan to run some sessions over the winter break to get a handle on its specific flavor of OSR-ish-ness.

But I thought I would ask here and see what advice folks have, broadly speaking, for running SWN.

Thanks.

NOTE: I will be running 4 hour sessions with 5 players.

Me again, got more questions:

• AI can be built into vehicles and ships. Which of your Foci translate? E.g. lets say I got an AI with Ironhide I, does my ship/vehicle now have AC 15 + half level? I know Gunslinger is specifically called out as not working, for example, but I havent seen anything else.

• Per character level, AI can built two weapons or pieces into their armature. What benefit does that transfer, beyond being able to charge them from the core? Can you use Split Focus to attack multiple times with built-in weapons, or something?

Cheers!

I am looking at the most recent beta for AWN and it mentions that certain armor marked as "primitive" gives no benefits against gunfire, explosives, or TL4+ melee weaponry. Does that mean, in those cases, the AC would be reset to 10?

I also wonder if this means we will not see a return of the ranged/melee AC which I thought was an interesting innovation for CWN.

Is there an implied order for doing things?
Made a test character with mutant edge, feels like dealing with mutations happens parallel to edges. Theres is a lot of stuff that affects your stat mods, so picking Prodigy and making any bad stats go away is tempting, but feels a bit weird.

https://preview.redd.it/t4t5gcuy9h0e1.png?width=2450&format=png&auto=webp&s=54f1547ab2971433af85f4d15b266261f3a5983c

Made some assets in Dungeon Scrawl and then used gimp to arrange them, With assets and Gimp should be able to knock out a variety of open areas to use a simple battlemaps very quickly. I wasn't going to use them, but I think it will add an interesting visual element to the game. Hopefully it won't bog us down too much, but I've never really had an issue with that with KC's games.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Awn/comments/1goz1f4/a_simple_weather_system_i_am_using_in_my_awn_game/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

In SWN: Our campaign shifted to adopt some transhuman elements around level 7, so we're navigating some questions about character advancement and ability scores within shells.

When your original character inhabits a new Shell, what happens to their Improved Abilities gained through spent Skill Points (as per page 57) or Background bonuses rolled during their initial build (page 10-15)? Do they simply lose those bonuses with the shell's new base abilities? Do they port over those Ability bonuses to the new form? If their affinity abilities then increase that stat to 18, would their previous ability bonus increase it to 19+? What impact would that have?

Alternately, if they lose those bonuses, do they gain the Skill Points back to allocate elsewhere?

Hello Friends Without Number!

I've backed all the XWN games included AWN. I was skimming 0.7 and started thinking about how modular the games are. What modules were added or changed in AWN that could be considered for other games? Is Diseases new? Stress? Thanks!

https://preview.redd.it/3lj2haaz940e1.png?width=1889&format=png&auto=webp&s=9cd7b5038b7abf21d81d88002e1761190e662eab

I think I'm about ready for the game, and Role looks like it will be a decent table to use, even at the free level.

Still learning the system, I got a few questions to check if I understood correctly/where I am unsure:

• If a weapon is modded with 'Infinite Magazine/Power' or e.g. from 'Imperial Arms', do I still need to reload the weapon? I would assume not, based on the mod name.

• Drones are automatically destroyed if reduced to 0 HP, yes? Or can they be recovered and repaired in some form?

• The Starship stats seem to be wholly unconnected to the rest of the game's, unless every ship should install as many Drop Pods as possible for cheap 'Heavy Frigate' level HP combatants (since they are called out as Flying Gravtanks). Is there word on how to handle that, beyond the Ground Weapons vs Ships sidebar? E.g. for Starship Weapons vs Ground Targets. The different timescale alone seems to make that difficult to impossible, in addition to no range stat, and the HP scale. I've seen mentions of 1 Starship HP = 10 Vehicle HP, apparently from SWN1, but am unsure on how accurate/applicable that is.

• On that note, True AI obviously dont gain the 'VI Vehicle Bot' Focus benefits (since they dont have the focus), right? However, what are the physical stats while built into one, or a Starship? With 'Split Focus', an AI can head multiple starship departments at once and take actions for each, right?

Thanks for the help in advance.

Cheers!

Context:

I like for every boss I put against my players to have a quote that I have prepared that shows their personality....those quotes tend to be one liners saved for if he is about to kill someone (i have more than that but for this it is a finisher quote).

My players are going to go up against a warlord kinda based on African warlords of real life and movie portrayals and I wanted a finisher quote and I wanted to base it off of a Nigerian way of speaking that some people I have heard refer to it as Niger [NYe-jer] poetry and this is what I came up with.

"The writers of fate have abandoned you, as it seems I will be the one to finish your story"

If this sounds lame please let me know because I don't want the potential last scene of a character to be spoiled by a lame ass quote.

Both are nice and simple:

1. If I have a weapon fittings on a drone, can the weapon attached be switched out easily, or is it stuck there and I'll need a new drone if I want to add a new weapon?
2. Is the ammo unit necessary for using a weaapon, or can a single magazine be manually loaded into the weapon, with the need to return the drone to the pilot and reload it by hand every time?

First things first sorry about formatting I'm on a phone.

So my players are going to be soon deployed out onto a planet that is subject to the perils of interstellar war between the zealous and warmongering Calkarians (Baddies) and the New Republic (Players faction).

The Calkarians have dug in their heels on a mountain fortress they have lovingly called the "Bastion of Heaven". For years now the New republic has set siege to this compound throwing thousands of lives away for little to no gain.

The Bastion of Heaven is one of the last Calkarian holdouts on the planet and under its control is the town of Lincoln, a medium sized backwater that used to serve as a staging ground for local mining operations but in recent years has become more of a den of criminals after the mines all dried up. The only reason the Calkarians hold this town is because it falls under their artillery range and Republic brass hasn't deemed it worth the attempted occupation prior to taking the fortress.

THE ISSUE

I'm thinking a covenant of space witches are holed up in a nearby swamp and they aren't too fond of the war. They know a secret passage into the fortress. HOWEVER, my problem is is I am having an issue figuring out a hook or something similar to get the players to the witches, my first initial thought was "what about a local crime boss" but I'm having trouble figuring out ways my players could organically get to the necessary people to receive that information.

SO I ASK YOU! My fellow dm's what are your ideas.

P.s. feel free to ask any questions regarding the setting or anything else as I would be more than happy to provide

Hi all, new to the *WN games. I grabbed the offset print version of WWN from the Sine Nomine webstore recently, and noticed the SWN one is still listed, but out of stock. Is there any chance of it coming back in stock, or should I just get the PoD version from DriveThruRPG?

(Noob here, only gotten the SWN Delux Edition recently, and am still digesting it.)

With Wild Psychic Talent, you gain the level-0 core power of a discipline, or a level-1 stand alone technique, and then again at WPT Level 2.

Now, I got two understanding questions:

• Can you take powers from multiple disciplines? E.g. could I take Oracle at WPT1, and then Telekinetic Manipulation at WPT2, or do both need to be within the same discipline?

• However, in that vein, since it doesnt grant any Psychic Skill (and you dont count as Psychic, which would be a requirement for learning the skill), you will only ever be able to use a core power at level-0, correct?

But, I also wanna know with what combinations of powers from WPT you had the most fun, which are your favourites, and which are simply magnificently effective. Looking forward to reading your anecdotes!

Cheers!

I think it's pretty neat but he's always down for feedback!

Hello everyone,

Are there somewehren more interviews of Kevin Crawford? I found only this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziteyWHAzCs

I found myself torn between Matt Colvilles mostly narrativ game style and RPGPundits extrem opposit style of sandboxy game with a real stringent worldbuilding. I'm a big fan of Godbound and was convinced there must be a middleground between both styles, that are easy on the GM. Thats when I remembered Godbound and checked for Kevin Crawforda Game Design Philosophie. So...

Is there a way to exchange maps? If so, has anybody out there made the Sol system (our solar system) and the nearest stars? I was hoping to find this pre-existing so I could fill in my own details. I'm running a near-future game where Earth is suddenly elevated and given magic by space-faring dark elves, so I was hoping somebody had already weaponized their OCD to make a local star map where I could just add my own homebrew details.

I feel like both concepts could potentially intersect

Been reading through the stress rules for AWN and I don’t know if I missed it, but how long does a breakdown last? Is it for a scene, day, or until stress is reduced below max?

Hey y'all, I'm in the (very early) preparation stages for my first SWN campaign and something has been on my mind as I've been making my way through the Revised Edition: how is time standardized across the sector/s?

I can believe that, in-canon, there was a standardized time system enforced by the Terran Mandate that may persist in a post-Silence system, but the book often simply uses the phrases day/month/year to indicate time for gameplay systems dependent on it.

I wanted to open up the discussion and see how other GMs and players have implemented standardized (and non-standardized!) time within their campaigns, especially when most sectors encompass multiple star systems that would theoretically operate on different stellar calendars. Looking for some inspiration!

Again, they view all you’ll see on a big screen at the table. Think “StarTrek ‘on screen’”.
Watch the very incomplete demo at the link below. It’s only small bits of the total package, but you’ll get the gist of what I’ve done here. Yes, I’ll share it all once it’s ready for others to use.

Here it is: https://youtu.be/Z1FO1kx5qhg?si=j5k9Nl5OjS6J3DEw

Yes, that cover photo is a digital painting of mine.

Obviously with the caveat that we don't know the full contents of AWN yet.

Mutations as superpowers? Cybergear for you're tech heros? Heist and mission planning from cwn to create crimes to fight? Region building and city building tools to create your own Gotham/Metropolis/Westchester County?

Idk if the idea has legs yet, but do you all think there could be something there?

Hey,

Creating my first SWN since I love the sci fi theme and the feel of the history and the worlds you can build. Since this system is very sandboxy though Im finding it hard to intergrate like a overarching BBEG in my mind unless I use a large faction as the BBEG or a mega corp. Or due to the nature of SWN is it better just to allow my PC's to roll from planet to planet solving issues but again that feels like they have no grand effect on the overall feel of the universe and are simply just travelling consultants with guns. Anyone had any of these issues or have any ideas ?