Stars Without Number discussion

[Marullus]

Since we have some players new to the system as a whole, this thread will be for overviews, rules questions, and system explanations as needed. SWN veterans, please post things that others need to know. Everyone else, feel free to post your questions.

If anyone needs information from books they don't have, just ask (here or in PM).

For those that need it, here are the free core rules: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/230009
The deluxe edition has optional rules, like battlemechs.

The magic systems are all in Codex of the Black Sun.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/259700

Other Dust is an older supplement from the previous edition and isn't needed. If you want to try random mutations and don't have it, I will tell you what to roll and the results.

Kevin Crawford is pretty brilliant at simplifying the OSR rules.

I was asked to summarize Stars Without Number, so here's the synopsis for those that need it.

It has D&D attributes, but for the most part they result in providing an overall "modifier" like 5E. An 18 and a 3 give +2 and -2 respectively. 14-17 is a +1, 4-7 are a -1 and 8-13 are a 0.

It has three main systems.

• Combat is the familiar d20 attack roll with modifiers - base-attack, attribute, and skill. Armor class is the familiar 3E/5E system of 10 to 18 as a normal target number. All very comfortable.
• There are three savings throws - Physical, Evasion, and Mental. They are each modified by the better of two attributes. Saves are also familiar and comfortable.
• Everything else is a skill roll with a finite and clear set of skills. A skill roll is a 2d6, modified by an attribute and a skill level. Target difficulty is 6 for normal things, 9-10 for hard things, 12 for heroic things.

You pick a Background, which determines what set of starting skills you pick from.

There are three classes.

• Warrior, who gets better base attack bonus, extra hit points, and an ability to modify success each scene on a Combat Roll.
• Expert, who gets extra non-combat skills and an ability to modify success each scene on a Skill Roll.
• Then a third class for whatever wierd stuff - Psychics in the main book, Arcanists and Magisters in the magic suppliment, which translate as Wizards and Sorcerers from D&D 5E, respectively, as far as how they handle spells. These guys get the ability to do their special third thing and miss out on the bonuses of Warriors and Experts. In the magic book there's additional Adept classes that focus on a wierd shtick (A Jedi-like guy who specializes in a themed weapon, a Familiar who gives bonuses to other characters, a mage-hunter, a lawyer-like "balancer," etc.) and thus get special abilities instead of normal systems as well.
• ... then there's an Adventurer class that lets you pick two other other classes as "partial" to get a combined flavor. (It adds some capability of each, generally skipping the "modify a roll" major bonus of each.)

That keeps everything really simple and basic. But then there's a list of non-classed Foci which add-on to give a deep burst of flavor and an ability to modify a roll within that flavor. Star Pilot, Doctor, Martial Artist, Gunslinger, Diplomat, etc, etc, etc. It is with these that the options really come together and shine. The classes keep everything super simple but the combination of background, class, and 1-3 Foci creates really unique and special characters even at 1st level.

[Marullus]

Some important things you should know right off the bat...

Tech Levels
Full details of Tech Level are on page 63. They describe levels of technological development so you can understand the planet you're on.

• Tech Level 0 - Neolithic. Before metalworking. Woven textiles, domesticated animals, bows, clubs, flaked-stone and carved wood tools. (Native American societies, prehistoric societies)
• Tech Level 1 - Pre-Gunpowder. Worked metals, wind and water power. (Everything from ancient Egypt through the Middle Ages)
• Tech Level 2 - Early Industrial. Gunpowder and firearms, steam power, internal combustion engines.
• Tech Level 3 - 21st Century. Primitive fission power, nuclear weapons, computers, modern telecommunications, primitive orbital/intra-system spaceflight.
• Tech Level 4 - Posttech. Interstellar spaceships, gravity control on large vehicles, Virtual Intelligence robots, cyberware, cloning/genetic manipulation, energy weapons
• Tech Level 5 - Pretech. True AI, small-scale gravity control, psionic tech, endless energy, planet-killing Maltech, fine-tuned force fields, nanotech, time control, immortality

The game assumes that chronicles begin with most worlds at TL4. Those at TL3 and below are called "barbarians" in the Background list.

In our game, the universe was at its pinnacle - at TL4 to advanced TL5 with stargate travel even between sectors - when a massive psionic-technology event event called The Scream happened. More on that below.

What is relevant here is that society has collapsed or is collapsing into utter chaos in the current generations. What was once possible (TL4/TL5) is now beyond reach, but humanity remembers it and knows what they've lost. They can now only produce TL2/TL3 goods, so your great-grandfather's still-working heirloom is likely precious indeed.

The Scream

The bloom of psitech development that followed and the wonders of jump gates and the Second Wave of human expansion are a matter of history. So too is the Scream that erupted six centuries ago and granted every living psychic in human space either violent madness or instant death. The interstellar societal collapse that followed and the centuries-long Silence between the stars has been a matter of living memory for many ill-connected frontier worlds. With the Scream and the death or madness of every potential psychic tutor, psionics became the horror it once was generations ago. Untrained psychics suffer under the lash of their own abilities, doomed to early death if they aren’t fortunate enough to fumble into a means of damping their own powers. Men and women of some worlds now fear psychics, not only for the ancestral memory of the Scream and the chaos that followed, but also because their only experience with these unfortunates has been one of uncontrolled power, madness, and death.

By default, the game is set 600 years later in an age of recovery. We are not using that setting. We are living through the "horror and chaos of uncontrolled power, madness, and death."

Key Terms
With psychics and sorcery both present in the game, their intersection is defined in the Black Sun suppliment.

MES - an acronym that means someone is born with the ability of psychic potential. Once these children were trained in academies to control their abilities, but now all of those people went mad and died horribly. Our house rules enhance that psionics are currently unstable - both more potent and less controlled, and available to any more people as the Scream still echoes.

SANIS - an acronym for the scientific process of spell memorization. A SANIS-compliant method allows an MES indvidual to learn to store temporary metadimensional energies in their brain tissues instead of hard-wiring their neurons to more typical psychic disciplines. (This is a scientific explanation for why spells need to be 'encoded' through memorization after a long rest.)

Shadows - the scientific exploration of metadimensional energy and science (above) eventually discovered other intelligences generally called Shadows. As metadimensional creatures, the metadimensional energy that allows them to touch this reality allows some control over them. (Why conjuring, binding, etc works in a sci fi universe.)

[Marullus]

For those debating if they need to get a copy of the Black Sun book, here's the class list summary:

Screenshot_20210126-215218_Drive.jpg (533.41 KiB) Viewed 2117 times

For those interested in classes that cast actual spells, here's the quick reference page:

Screenshot_20210126-215602_Drive.jpg (797.43 KiB) Viewed 2117 times

[Marullus]

You can proactively roll dice if you want to prompt something, or I may call for a roll, or I may just make a roll for you.

For example: If you establish "I've been watching these guys an hour" you can roll Notice and I'll add additional knowledge based on the result.

Most people will roll a [2d6] for a skill check, plus the skill level, plus a relevant attribute. (If you don't have the skill at level 0, then you roll with a -1)
Hansel is a Specialist at Notice (a trained people-watcher), so he rolls [3d6c1], plus one for Wisdom of 14+ and plus zero for Notice-0 skill.

Hansel Notice [3d6c1+1]=8+1=9

Particularly for the new players, I'm going to dump some info here. I'll explain the game turn and focus on things that support the western/gunslinger flavor.

So far, we've been a free, narrative structure. When something big happens (like potential combat) we move into structured time. As an OSR game, structured time happens in Rounds. In one round, each character gets 1 Move action, 1 Main action, and as many Instant Actions and On Turn actions as are appropriate. What falls in these categories is on pages 50-51.

Everyone rolls individual initiative. Initiative is 1d8+ Dex Modifier. Initiative order is not re-rolled - it will stick through combat.
Instants can happen any time as interrupts. Move, Main, and On Turn actions happen on your turn in the initiative order.

Normal actions include:

• Move - Run uses your move action to move your normal range (abstract in our setting, I'll adjudicate), or you can Stand Up (from Prone), or Take Cover (+2 or +4 AC v ranged, ignored by melee).
• Main - a ranged attack, a melee attack, or using a skill are normal Main options
• On Turn - Go Prone (prone grants +2 AC v ranged, -2 AC v melee)
• On Turn - drawing a readied item (like an openly holstered gun) is free as an On Turn action
• Main - drawing or stowing an item (i.e. that isn't readied) takes a Main Action (the Gunslinger focus allows drawing a stowed weapon)
• Dropping an item is an Instant action, picking an item up takes your Move Action
• Reloading is a Main Action

As explained before, skill rolls are 2d6 for non-combat actions.
As an OSR game, combat uses a 1d20 roll to hit against the target's armor class (AC). Add your Str/Dex modifier (as appropriate) and your skill level (0 or 1). Attacking with a weapon you aren't proficient in is a -2 penalty to hit. I already calculated most of these with you when reviewing your sheets.
All ranged weapons have two numbers. You can shoot to the first range normally and to the full range at -2 to hit.

Special rules exist for interaction of ranged and melee combatants (unique to SWN Revised from other OSR games):

• A rifle or two-handed ranged weapon can't be used if a melee combatant is in melee range (they're too easy to interfere with)
• A revolver or one-handed ranged weapon can be used if a melee combatant is in melee range but at a -4 penalty
• "Clubbing Up" a ranged weapon to use it in melee takes your Move action, but you can then attack as Main as if it is a primitive bludgeon.
• Melee weapons list normal damage and Shock damage - shock damage is what they do on a miss.
• No action is needed to withdraw from an opponent with a ranged weapon.
• It takes a Main Action to do a Fighting Withdrawl to get out of melee range with a melee opponent.

Hansel is watching the room and preparing for trouble. I'll allow him an action prior to the first round. This can mean:

• Setting up a prepared firing position under the table, getting +2 to hit on the first shot against a pre-specified target. (This can only be done in narrative time, and is normally more akin to five minutes of sighting in your sniper rifle, but I'll allow the "Han Solo under the table" option here if he picks who he is going to shoot before action starts.)
• Hold an Action. This consumes your Move action to let you turn your Main Action into an Instant action. You can then save your main action for a trigger event later in the initiative. (Since he has a round before any combat may start, I'll allow him to save it to trigger at the top of the first round if he specifies that trigger.)

For anyone who didn't pass the Notice check (like Taavi), they can still react. If they wait for their turn in the initiative order, they act normally. If they want to also use an Instant Action to react quickly when something goes down, they can Make A Snap Attack as an instant action if they already have a weapon narratively in-hand. This consumes your main action for the round to fire before your initiative with a -4 penalty to hit. (You still have a Move action remaining when you get to your own initiative.)

So, when we enter structured time, I'm going to set up the round. Everyone will narrate, rolling initiative, rolling to hit or skills and specifying actions. I'll then put them together into initiative order and adjudicating. You will need to be explicit in specifying actions to act out of initiative order.

[jemmus]

Thanks GM, very helpful. If you're new to SWN like me, I'd recommend checking out the rules about Actions on p. 48 about Main, Move, On Turn and Instant. They're not complicated, but they aren't 100% intuitive either. It looks like SWN gunslinging/bar fighting could (will?) be really fun, if we have the gist of how to do it the way it's set up.

[Marullus]

Glad it helped! I hoped it would clarify rather than confuse. I'm glad for people to ask questions and get answers on this thread.

another topic...
Punching People / Barfights
Hansel and Farraday have Stab-0, nobody has Punch skill.

Combat Basics:
To Hit: The to-hit roll adds base attack bonus (at level 1, +1 for warriors, +0 for others) plus either STR/DEX modifier, plus skill level. If unskilled, it is -2.
Damage: All Damage rolls add the attribute modifier (but not the skill)
Punch Damage: Punch has a special rule, that it always adds your Punch skill to damage (so, coming into effect at Punch-1)
Shock Damage: If you have a melee weapon that does shock damage, it does shock damage +STR/DEX on a miss.

• If you punch someone in a bar fight it is 1d20 +Punch skill + STR/DEX. Its damage is 1d2 + STR/DEX + Punch skill.
• It takes a Move action to pick up an item or "club up" ranged weapon to hit as a melee weapon. You can have narrative freedom in making up sensible environmental objects you want to pull into use in a scene.
• If you pick up an improvised weapon, it uses Stab skill like a "small primative weapon" doing 1d4 + STR/DEX damage, and no shock. (Shock is only for intentional weapons, per the 'club up' action.)
• If you pick up a chair or other large item, it uses Stab skill like a "large primitive weapon" doing 1d8+1 + STR damage, and no shock.
• If you 'club-up' and pistol whip someone, it also does 1d4 +STR/DEX damage and no shock.
• If you 'club up' and hit someone with a rifle/longarm, it does 1d6+1 +STR/DEX damage and no shock.

If you want to disarm someone:

• You declare disarming as your main action while in melee range (no shooting it out of their hand).
• You succeed in a melee attack roll (either punch or stab), but do no damage.
• Both attacker and defender roll a 2d6 skill check (plus attribute, plus combat skill) with defender getting a +3 bonus. Compare the results.
• If Attacker wins, defender drops the weapon. If attacker wins by 3 or more, he ends up holding the weapon. If it's a tie, both are disarmed.