Kevin has done us all a great service in making both SWN and WWN compatible with a lot of OSR material. That gives people a lot of extra opportunities when pulling in resources from other games.

What do you use for your SWN games? Any interesting resources for spaceships, horror, whatever?

I just barely finished the revised core, and I'm hooked. I'm a GM that loves creating tons of content, and this game (along with Kevin's other work) makes that so much easier. It's also incredibly flexible; I can imagine applying these rules to Star Wars, Star Trek, the Traveller universe, and more with relatively few changes.

I'm hungry for more, so I checked out the supplements. It loos like a lot of these came out before the revision. Which still work - at least with minimal effort to convert them? Are there other resources I should check out?

Thanks in advance!

When it comes to handling pretech components needed for modding, I feel like I have a pretty good handle on how to deal with them from a mechanical perspective, but one thing I'm a little unsure about is how handle introducing them in-game.

What should they look like or how should they behave, and how do you communicate to players that these things might be good for putting inside a gun or starship without explicitly saying so? Should they have other uses besides as part of a mod? How have you handled them in your games?

Hi, in my upcoming campaign I have some players who are pretty tech/fix proficient. And I know they are going to be tapping into the systems involving building equipment, installing mods, and tuning starships.

However, the book mentions many different items that would be used in these situations.

Talking about equipment mods, ‘salvage’ and pretech salvage is mentioned often. When it comes to making equipment, it seems to talk about spare parts and components. Starship tuning seems to use components. Repairs all use spare parts.

My question is what is the distinction between all these things and are there any hard rules i’m missing? Spare parts seems to be the only defined item out of this list with a credit value to it, but where do ‘components’, ‘scrap’ and ‘salvage’ sit in terms of functionality and value? Is there any real difference or are these just words substituting the ‘spare parts’ item?

When building a weapon instead of buying it off the shelf, I gather that it says it costs 2x the credit value of the store price in component value, but what is the value of components?

Any clarity regarding this topic is appreciated; thank you.

So the book states that the Icarus Harness acts as a Vacc Suit for 30min per vacc refresh. This, to me, implies that the Vacc Refresher is used Directly On The Armor to refresh it. Thoughts?

How much are slaves worth in general?

Our players always hate slavery and try to free them and end the trade when possible. A lot of cruel greedy folk don't mind using slaves for cheap forced labor.

According to Suns of Gold , SLAVES have a base value of 25,000 credits. It does say slave(s), but if we assume that slaves takes up 1 ton, = 10 people. Each slave is 2500.

A basic level 1 industrial bot costs 2000 (swn revised base book).

Now a bot requires no food or sleep, but does need energy, so most likely used on tech 4 or 3 worlds. Slaves can be used anywhere, and may be more skilled / adaptable .

If this price is correct, then that would explain why slavers would be such a lucrative but cruel job. DOES THIS PRICE SEEM CORRECT ?? ARE SUNS OF GOLD PRICES THE SAME AS SWN REVISED PRICES ?

All this has come up because my players are investigating a rumor of tech 4 aliens capturing humans from a low tech planet and selling them as slaves to unscrupulous businesses on a high end human planet. Most likely they sell to a space station, who sells to Smugglers, who sells to the businesses . The players want to end it, if possible. Simple explanation of plan They made their way into the space station and are trading a pretech artifact to this elite black market, in exchange for slaves. I was trying to figure out how many slaves they could get (to set free / gather info )for this trade.

So, yeah, I know early days, but I am super hyped about AWN and I wanted to start working on my campagin, maybe get some early playtesting in using the existing WNs and whatever Kevin releases for Ashes as we go along. Also, as PA is kinda my favorite setting/genre and I haven't really done anything for a WN game yet, I might actually work this up into a full supplement for later release (after Ashes of course). Since the Chargen exerpt dropped, I have been considering what kind of apocalypse to use, and I think I've settled on a Gamma Ray Burst scenario, modified from real science a bit to allow for survivors of course. High levels of radiation (mostly solar UV in reality, but Gamma of course in fiction), hothouse earth, murky skies (due to the chemical reactions in the atmosphere due to the GRB). Everything that doesn't mutate to survive is dying or dead. Perfect setup for a post apoc, possibly post human, campaign.

Instead of the players having their own ship, they could book passage on ships that arrive periodically in the sector that run on fixed paths. I know this removes a decent amount of mechanics, but I'm curious how you would rule it. How much would fare cost? How would you generate routes?

After looking at Other Dust, I wish the old school RPG style used in that book will be used in Ashes Without Number. I felt the art in WWN and CWN wasn't as interesting. I felt the more brutal looking art gave me a better idea of the setting in Other Dust. Is there a plan to use that old style of art in Ashes Without Number? For example, art from the book, which I purchased on Drivethrurpg.com and I am including for discussion purposes only.

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https://preview.redd.it/meqvo93yaaxc1.png?width=611&format=png&auto=webp&s=4d31b9922212eb1a824583417e08b892321d2f5b

While Im at it, what is ceraplast/ceramic plastic?

Similar to how Heart: the city beneath does "beats" I thought it may be fun to assign a list of minor and major goals that influence player behavior for each background in SWN. Example:

Barbarian:

• minor: defeat an enemy with your bare hands
• major: survive a harsh planet through force of will alone

Clergy:

• minor: have a conversation about your religion to a non believer
• major: become a martyr for your beliefs

Courtesan:

• minor: seduce someone into giving up information they might not otherwise
• major: use your reputation to change the tide of a war

Any other examples you can think of?

So we have had 5 sessions now. I’ll give a quick run down and where we are heading to next. Feel free to comment, give advice or ideas.

The players have all come from a no rpg background or linear (like being told where to go) rpg experience.

So they all started off in prison, on a prison world, run by prisoners and automated and monitored from above by the New Frontier government.

They meet the warden (a prisoner) who has prestige and influence in their particular prison.

They discover that tensions outside the prisons planet system is causing issues for their invisible overlords and hear about this character “the admiral” based in a different prison.

They manage to make an escape and enter into a firefight with what they is the NF police but is actually the Admiral who has liberated several prisons and secured shuttles.

They enter into a Mental VR without their knowledge thinking they doing a mission for the Admiral who sends them on a deadly mission.

(This was for me to see how far I could push them and how easy it was to kill them without any consequences for the players)

When they found out it was all in MVR they were quite relieved and it was the best session yet.

And just tonight they went off with 3 NPCs they picked up along the way to infiltrate and search for intel, credits, weapons, equipment and a new ship.

“Frontier News Bulletin: The Empire and Monks and beached at Red Gate. The system Grodhil has gone dark, reports that the NF has abandoned the system and its prison planet. Scary reports of a fleet blockading the Parado system.”

Mission briefing: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PMRX_-XTiatP7PU5Nd2M_gn03coERync/view?usp=sharing

They now after clearing out the robots, rescuing a left behind VI (Imperial Companion Bot) are in the moon base hangar waiting for the next session.

Here are the all the bits and pieces they gathered and now have to decided where to go:

1. System: Desolate tribes - Planet: Manes - Mission Marker: "Reports of an Imperial Patrol Boat with a spike drive lvl 3, potentially abandoned. Local rumours."

2. System: Delphic - Planet: Senos - Mission Marker: [Meeting in Senos] NF reporots major internal struggles in leadership of IFS (Independant Frontier Systems). Suggestions of power struggle lead by ISE (Individual System Enterprise). F.N. Herstal, a member of IFS has asked the NF to investigate. NF has released on INFRN (Intersystem NF Relay Network) for a Private investigator to accept.

3. System: Parado - Planet: Albadie - Mission Marker: Radio message suggests that the system and planet are under threat by a fleet. Find out intel, and/or stop the fleet from attacking this system.

4. System: Munos - Mission Marker: New Frontier believes critical intel available in this system but any scouts have failed to return.

https://sectorswithoutnumber.com/sector/xdlTM7ojUT1OD6fA7feB

I wonder what they will do and where they’ll go.

I’ve read through the faction rules. But I’m struggling to understand what I’m looking at here in regards to the little numbers. What balance is and experience.

The other thing is how much FacCreds my factions should start off with.

My 2 major factions hold over 7 planets each and a few smaller factions hold 1 or 2.

Just a random SWN appreciation post! 😀

After generating my campaigns star sector, I'm continually surprised by the awesome background and story settings it can create totally randomly. Sure, sometimes the results are just weird, but often they are amazing!

I've got a couple of examples from my current star sector.

The Otierus System In this system there are two habitable planets, Aglaia and Alzu. Aglaia has fewer than a million pop, and the planet is pretty good (breathable atmosphere, temperate, etc) and it's TL 4+. Tags generated: Regional Hedgemon and Major Spaceyard. Looks like these guys are militaristic and have great starships. Alzu also has fewer than a million pop, but the planet is a hellscape with burning temperatures. TL1. Tags generated: Night World and Dying Race. Also generated an orbital ruin and a space station manned by 'secretive military ovservers'. Totally random generation.

It's clear what happened. Aglaia and Alzu had an interplanetary war decimating the populations of both worlds and the Aglaian military ended the conflict when they reduced the other planet to radioactive glass. They even have a space station to keep tabs on the other planet. The story writes itself! And so, a new faction, The Oterian Stellar Legion has joined the campaign setting! Watch out for them, they have advanced capital ships and aren't afraid to nuke your homeworld from orbit if they need too!

The Anius System. The sector generator randomly scatters stars around the sector, and when I set up space trade routes of no more than three hexes, I get a three spokes connecting together at one system, Anius. The Anius system is home to the planet Thorfinn. If you were worried about Otierus, these guys up the ante. They are well positioned to control the flow of all commerce in the sector as a trade hub in the middle of the sector, have a large growing population and are the only planet in the sector at TL5. They are tagged with 'restrictve laws' so I guess they are pretty active in controlling the spread of their tech and hunting down whoever has whatever they consider maltech. They are positioned to completely control the sector and probably could if they want to. Totally random, surprising and interesting results. Another faction of Technologists has entered the campaign.

And look what we find tucked away waaay down in the corner of our map? Planet Khanliani, home to mercenary psychic commandos!
OMG this campaign is going to be so fun!

I've been on the fence about whether I should get a hardcopy of the book. I have the free PDF copy but I find it easier to read hardcopy. It comes out to $70.64 from drivethrurpg.

I recognize that the author should charge whatever they feel their effort is worth but the price seems inconsistent with the fact that the free version is so rich in content that I wonder if I'm missing something. Should I be going somewhere else for the hardcopy?

Here's the breakdown on the price:

Order       $59.99
Shipping:    $4.50
Tax:         $6.15
Total:      $70.64

I posted about this a couple months ago and wanted to post an update. I've been working to make a Warhammer 40k conversion for SWN. I've added Weapons, new Backgrounds, Homeworld options, a slightly expanded spike-drill mishap table which causes players to have to deal with situations arising mid transport, and a corruption/purity system totally not lifted from other 40k table top rpg systems (it's definitly been lifted from other 40k table top rpg systems). I'm still updating this, so any constructive criticism on how to make this better is more than welcome.

I am using cascading magazine sizes for weapons. So if there is any confusion on how that works I would reccomend looking up that particular homerule, or ask me about it and I can explain fairly succinctly.

I'm also attaching a custom player sheet to accomidate the new systems i've put in. Thank you for reading and I hope some of you find this to be pretty cool.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KAlKDjGXvmKb0RjxwQ2JkUFSbxZBMp7LDR3rTn46zHE/edit?usp=sharing

https://preview.redd.it/aithap64wbwc1.jpg?width=3300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=828b1cc49d16505df1eeb4430eba5a519bf22e32

https://preview.redd.it/6ptbhp64wbwc1.jpg?width=3300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2a009191cc3daed23c0f53dfc225c0161fc00ecb

Hey SWN community! Wanted to pick the collective precognitive brains of the Reddit users out there; We are planning on starting a new campaign in a couple months and I want as much time to prepare as possible. We’re going to try mixing a bit of stuff into this one, aiming for a true science fantasy blend. There will be something like elves, like fey, like goblins, but everything has been lifted up to SWN tech levels and with a splash of space magic thrown in. But for this one, we are aiming for a small sector where there is a TL5 human planet still holding to the mandate of old. They are actively trying to expand across this sector and fight other races back and be the Hegemon in the area. So some questions pop up:

1. Just because there is a TL5 planet with surviving infrastructure, does that mean the human empire in general is TL5 or they just have a source of it and individual planets should still largely be TL4 or lower?
2. Humans are the only race with access to psionics, but the rest are invested in “space magic.” Any good sources that you can recommend for spell lists or move sets? I’m thinking about checking WWN for one of them.
3. Does anyone have any recommendations on balancing races if the players want to play one of the “aliens”? I’ve made pseudo human races before, but just wondering if you all have specific pitfalls or golden ideas

Am I reading this right?

So this guy (legendary fighter) has a pistol, he has 10HD, so I roll 10 d20 for his shots?

And his attack bonus is +12 x2 so he hits on a 24 minimum?

So unless the pcs can kill this guy first, he’s going to delete them one per round?

Mecha and Engines of Babylon have different stats for the same weapons and weapons that are not on each other's lists. How do I give mecha vehicle weapons and vice versa?

Or maybe raw material like Skyfall Guns?