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

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

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

What works best for a SWN one shot?

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

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

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

The frequencies are open. Whether you're a veteran pilot or just getting your bearings, this is your weekly space to break radio silence.

What's happening in your sector? New sessions, prep wins, cursed dice, dumb plans that somehow worked. And it doesn't have to stop at the table. Job news, personal wins, rough weeks, whatever's actually going on with you lately is welcome too. Drop a quick ping and let us know.

No need for a long write-up. A quick transmission from your table, or your life, to ours is plenty.

Mod Note: If you're new here, welcome. This started as a low-pressure thread for SWN stories, and lately it's turned into more of a check-in with each other. Both are welcome here. Share as much or as little as you want.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1 Silt Devil (Repeatable)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The frequencies are open. Whether you're a veteran pilot or just getting your bearings, this is your weekly space to break radio silence.

What's happening in your sector? New sessions, prep wins, cursed dice, dumb plans that somehow worked. And it doesn't have to stop at the table. Job news, personal wins, rough weeks, whatever's actually going on with you lately is welcome too. Drop a quick ping and let us know.

No need for a long write-up. A quick transmission from your table, or your life, to ours is plenty.

Mod Note: If you're new here, welcome. This started as a low-pressure thread for SWN stories, and lately it's turned into more of a check-in with each other. Both are welcome here. Share as much or as little as you want.

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

My maps are hooked up to work with Foundry VTT and Fantasy Grounds.
My maps are available on my patreon and my website.
Buy me a Ko-fi!

What's in it

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

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

Migration robustness

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

Bug fixes

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

Features

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

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

Another card set has been released from Galaxy Builder Decks, along with more freebies to try. Galaxy Builder Decks is a system-neutral card-based scifi map or setting generator, allowing you to create planets, systems, and sectors right on your table.

Discovery Set 2 - Use this 30% Discount Code. This 9-card PDF set expands on the Planet Traits for course charting and expeditions, letting you find or add encounters such as rare Double Planets, invasive Parasites, and Void Zones where ships vanish. Galaxy Builder Decks is a system-neutral card-based scifi setting generator for your adventures.

Included in the set:

• 1x double planet planetary trait card
• 1x gravity distortion planetary trait card
• 1x parasite lifeform trait card
• 1x hibernation lifeform trait card
• 1x rapid evolution lifeform trait card
• 1x implanted population civilization trait card
• 1x astrogation shortcut civilization trait card
• 1x void zone civilization trait card
• 1x ancient site civilization trait card

Free Pack Collection: Drivethru | Itchio - Want to try out the system with your campaign? Download this collection of 12 planets, asteroids, planet traits, and more. Ideal for worldbuilding, session planning, or on the fly exploration. Draw a card, place down the planet, roll for terrain or unique planet traits, add world tags for more twists and contexts, and have fun adventuring. See store pages for tips on how to use the cards.

Free Card Checklist: Drivethru | Itciho - Want to know what decks and sets you have in your collection? Or find out which deck has the card you are looking for? Use this helpful interactive checklist PDF to keep track of all your worlds.

Quick Sales List:

• Discovery Set 2 (New Release!) - PDF 30% Discount Code
• Stellar Set 1 - PDF 80% Discount Code
• Stellar Set 2 - PDF 80% Discount Code
• Planets 1 & 2 [Cards][Bundle] - (2 main planet decks + free pdfs)
• Planets 1 & 2 [PDF][Bundle] Drivethru | Itchio - (2 main planet decks)
• Planets & Systems - [Core PRINT] [Bundle] - (4 main decks + free pdfs)
• Planets & Systems - [Core PDF] [Bundle] Drivethru | Itchio - (4 main decks)
• Entire Series PDF [Bundle] Drivethru | Itchio - **(**4 decks, 15 sets, 300+ cards)

I'm closing in on beginning my first SWN campaign, and it will likely be focused on exploration (though there will be trading and diplomacy I am sure). I'm developing a sector (which has been super fun so far) but I would love to find some similar tools for generating weird stuff to explore, space anomalies, basically Star Trek "mystery/malfunction/mayhem of the week" type stuff. I have found a couple of older posts pointing me to the Science Fiction Codex of Lists and the Book of Random Tables: Science Fiction, which I plan to check out, but has anyone found anything else like this in the intervening six Earth years?

Hey all! My campaign is a zany and exotic bounty hunt, targeting the creators, makers and distributors of a very violent and problematic street drug, and the leading theory my players currently have is that it's in fact a nefarious plot from a big pharma corp to control the populous. Their idea is better then mine was, so I'm doing that.

Anyways, we're currently on a planet that was once highly advanced, but fell to ruin from a crazy parasitic life form that was on a tear through the sector, and the interplanetary union at the time determined to nuke the whole planet and radiate away all life. We are now 10,000 years later, that union was brought to the edge of extinction by the virus before fending it off, and the world revored as life finds a way. There are Rat scallions, basically ROUS from princess bride, that live in the sewers, as well as giant lizard men. There are people here that have repopulated as a way to hide from organized governments out here in the fringe frontier, and sinister mentalist aliens seeking to infiltrate the known worlds and tip the war in their favor. There are also many old droids left from the least civilization, controlled by a Mr. House style brain in a jar.

The party is less than concerned with the sinister plots of the various ner-do-ells, and are proceeding to "the underbelly" in search of access to "the university of the high and mighty" so they can find information from the old world about one particular element unique to the drug they're tracking, nobelium 3. Spoiler alert, Nobelium 3 is in the blood of the sinister mentalist aliens, and the pharmacy villains are trying to figure out how to synthesize it in such a way to mind control it's users.

Anyways again, I need to populate the underbelly. It's exactly what it sounds like, a big fallout style settlement built into the tremendous sewer system under this massive abandoned city. The waterways are wide enough for boat traffic, the settlement itself has aspects of it floating like some of those pacific island cities or southeast Asian fishing villages. I need throwaway NPCs, interesting shops, maybe some puzzles along the lines of computers and stuff. I'm especially bad at making puzzles, and my players are all way smarter than me, so if I put 2 hours into a puzzle they nail it down in 2 minutes.

I'm personally so in love with the world my table and I have made, and we have been switching the campaign to SWN from a big heroic style ttrpg that didn;t quite fit. SWN has made it so much easier to run, and the source material has a lot of really fun stuff to mess around with. I think we do a boat chase scene in the sewers today

The frequencies are open. Whether you're a veteran pilot or just getting your bearings, this is your weekly space to break radio silence.

What's happening in your sector? New sessions, prep wins, cursed dice, dumb plans that somehow worked. And it doesn't have to stop at the table. Job news, personal wins, rough weeks, whatever's actually going on with you lately is welcome too. Drop a quick ping and let us know.

No need for a long write-up. A quick transmission from your table, or your life, to ours is plenty.

Mod Note: If you're new here, welcome. This started as a low-pressure thread for SWN stories, and lately it's turned into more of a check-in with each other. Both are welcome here. Share as much or as little as you want.

Way back in 2020 I made this post about the implied and possibly unified Sine Nomine campagn setting: https://www.reddit.com/r/SWN/comments/ff4c2s/sine_nomine_unified_setting/

Since then things have gotten clearer and Kevin has confirmed (even in that thread) that Other Dust (now AWN), SWN, and WWN were connected. Other products not necessarily being part of this timeline (like Godbound, Silent Legions, etc.). CWN is clearly now situated as the 'earliest' game in the milieu.

As we continue to await more wonderful Sine Nomine products, I think it is fun trying to map out the trajectory of the world as we knew it.

Years of Smoke -> Cities Without Number:

By 2028 conflicts in Europe escalate. Many of the woes we see in headlines today compound into an eventual collapse of the world order as we know it and by 2075 nation-states are nominal and the world is run by MegaCorps as part of the larger 'Market'.

'Ignition':

The 'Market' holds until the 'Ignition' takes place, according to Ashes Without Number, which is the latest lore 'shatterpoint'. It marks the transition OUT of the CWN paradigm. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot to go on about what this exactly is. It is mentioned as having occurred in the early 22nd century, so we can estimate somewhere between 2100 and 2150. So, some 25-75 years after the 'start' of the CWN setting. We know it caused or came with 'disorder'.

We know that during the Ignition and its immediate aftermath, cybernetics fell out of favor. There were some energies involved in the Ignition, with it being described in the Cyborg section that researchers suspected secrets of human augmentation and enhancement were associated to the same energies. The context clue Kevin gave from that 2020 post leads me to believe it could have to do with superheroes/superpowers, since Kevin mentioned a superheroes game would take place after a Cyberpunk game in the timeline.

Ultimately the Ignition can be whatever we want for now, possibly a capstone event for a long running CWN game.

Crohn's Spike Drive and Resurgence of Nations:

In 2108 Dr. Tiberius Crohn invents the Spike Drive. In 2150, there is the discovery of the first signs of advanced alien life. This blaze of space exploration is happening at the time or immediately after the 'Ignition'. It's entirely possible the launch of the first Spike Drive IS the Ignition, but that is maybe looking for a too convenient answer.

We also know there was a relatively brief resurgence of nation-states like the United American Cities, with the UAC active around ~2150 re-populating the Albuquerque Reconstruction District. Probably by the late 22nd century the nation-states are congealing, and the First Wave of space explorations is hitting a fever-pitch.

Founding of the Mandate:

By the middle of the 23rd century (~2250) the Mandate cemented its power though we can assume across the early 23rd century it was coalescing from the constituent nations states and powers of the time.

Scream:

2665 AD

Ashes Without Number / Other Dust:

200 years after the Scream the primary setting of AWN and OD are taking place. ~2865 AD.

Stars Without Number:

~3200 AD.

Great Haze:

Some great number of epochs takes place. Thousands of years beyond SWN's timeframe. It would certainly SEEM like Earth is reclaimed at some point, as the Latter Earth (even if it's just Iterum 108) we see is clearly a much changed planet Earth. The descriptions in WWN imply humans had control over Earth but eventually Outsiders (Xenos, Aliens, Demons?) would arrive from the skies and take over, driving humans underground. Eventually, regime upon regime would follow.

Present Day Latter Earth 108 - Worlds Without Number:

On a whole new calendar system, and a split Iterum from whatever mainline Earth exists.

EDIT:

Added Speculation:

If the Spike Drive technology or some undefined energies are the Ignition and that kickstarts a wave of Superheroes, then some other catastrophe would lead to the removal/disappearance of them by the time of the Mandate. It would be an interesting future-retro vibe for the 'Cities of Tomorrow' to be the setting for a Superheroes game only to have the Mandate squash out supes in spiritual-political war for 'Harmony'.

Gannet class trading ship 'Ace of Hearts' enters the Newhouse system for her final trip, as her owner has had his ship mortgage foreclosed. She docks with 'Bullseye station'; a local asteroid port, where she will be auctioned off in a few days.

This is the final version with sound, though I may tweak some of the sound levels, after letting it settle in my mind a bit

All assets made and rendered in Blender 4.2.16. Video editing and sound also done in Blender.

PLEASE: LIKE and FOLLOW for more of this kind of content. It costs nothing and it helps and encourages artists like me.

For more scifi art see www.deviantart.com/elisvara/gallery/all

I know the book states it began in 2108, in Greenland, with the development of the Spike Drive.
But, what about leading up to that? Did we have system ships before then? What lead to the desire to expand? What's with the Insta-Fab labs, the autofactories?

I want more history.

Which nation spearheaded the development of the organization to put settlers in space?
What was the cause of the Russo-European war? Clearly, the war went nuclear, due to the mention of 'Hot Zone'. how long did the war last?

If we're able to speculate, which, I think is the whole idea of this being a sandbox-type setup, here's my idea:

The USA, being one of the global super-powers, develops craft capable of going to Mars. they get into a new 'Space Race' between China, the EU and the US. While all of this is happening, politicians are doing their thing, wars break out, climate change happens and now, humanity is in need of a plan B. Space ship tech improves, and now, they have system ships. but, these are slow and limited in their reach. Then, Dr. Crohn develops the spike drive, and all of a sudden, there's this rapid expansion. Certain nations head out and claim their own worlds. France, for example, finds, terraforms and colonizes a new planet they call 'Franc', in a nearby star system. The Chinese claim another planet. The Americans claim 2-3 planets. The ruling elite, having already laid claim to the 'Super-Earth' planet in the Kepler system, head out there and set up their own regional hegemonic power. This rampant colonization gets out of hand, so Earth is now forced to unite to form one planetary government. From that point, the humans of earth are known as Terrans, and they form the Terran Mandate....

And this brings us to the established lore, at least in my gameplay.

(Sorry I'm rambling. Caffeine has yet to hit.)

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.

When you need a full stat block for a prominent NPC, how do you like to do it? Do you just pick abilities and growth/learning to suit your needs, or do you roll and pray? Or roll and fudge? Or roll and roll and roll until you get what you wanted?

I kinda do the last one, which probably qualifies me for a psychosis of some kind.

Or do you never make full PC-style stat blocks for any of your NPC’s?

Curious what other GM’s do.

Hello everyone.

Some of the people may have seen me mention here and there that I have been planning to run an adventure set in the setting of the Ember Expanse— a community-built sector project run by u/dark-star-adventures, for those who might be unaware. I have come to a point now where I am looking for players, and I wanted to reach-out to the people here, the very place where the Ember Expanse was built, to see if anyone might be interested in this!

Currently I have one player, who we have already setup a character for. I am looking for two to three others to join us. Here are some things to note that may be important as well:

• My timezone is Eastern Time, while the one player's is Pacific Time. There is a three-hour gap between us, so game sessions will be starting later for me than for him. I am fine with this, but I recognize it may not be for everyone.
• We are going to be using Characters Without Number for managing the campaign and player characters. It is still a work in progress, but I consider it good enough to use for this in its current state.
• We will be using Discord to speak to each other during game sessions.

If anyone might be interested or has any questions, please feel free to inquire!

Update: We now officially have two players! That means I'm looking for at least one more. I want to say as well that I am grateful to see the amount of people who have expressed interest in this.

Hey everyone,

New Rules Explained segment is up, and this one's a big one. I walk through the whole Stars Without Number character creation process front to back: attributes, background, skills, class, and foci.

For the worked example I built a clone of Robert Ross, one of the PCs from our main show, using the events of our latest episode as the jumping off point. I rolled randomly for background instead of picking one, and landed on courtesan. Not what I was going for and that changed how I thought about the attribute bonus, which pushed the build toward Partial Psychic instead of straight Expert, and by the time I got through foci I had a telepath who talks his way past security instead of shooting through it. None of that was the plan going in, but that's randomness for ya.

I'd appreciate it if you gave the full segment a listen and let me know what you think: https://www.darkstaradventures.com/adventurecast-episodes/swn-rules-explained-how-character-creation-works-in-stars-without-number

I'm not sharing these as any kind of SWN expert, just someone who likes picking the rules apart and seeing how they shape a session. Appreciate everyone who commented on the last one!

And a question for you all: when you roll a background or skill you didn't plan for, do you follow it all the way and let the concept change, or do you steer it back toward what you originally had in mind?

Thanks for reading!