General/OOC

[Faanku]

A thread for all things out of character.

[Marullus]

Woot woot!

So, what's the story pitch?

[Faanku]

Here is a brief recent history of the sector we'll be playing in. I'll update some things as and when they occur to me, but for now it should hopefully be enough to go on for making characters. Here is the Sectors Without Number link with basic info on a lot of the planets. Please excuse any unfinished blurbs or missing planet descriptions, I've been coming back to this page in short bursts for the past few days and haven't properly sat down and finalised it. If you guys have any questions about any of the planets or polities etc please feel free to ask and I can go into more detail.

A couple of questions I had for you guys:
1. How open do you want the game in regards to things like making the planet tags visible, seeing trading rules from Suns Of Gold, open dice rolls etc? At the moment I've kept the planet tags hidden for instance, but if you guys wanted a more "open game" style over a "narrative" one then I can change that.
2. If there any style of game of system that you want to favour or at least make sure is included? I have tried to keep the sector varied enough to accommodate anything; trading, exploring, bounty hunting, etc. so that we can have the complete sandbox experience, but if you all want to focus on one certain aspect of the game then that's fine too.

[explosiveghast]

Thanks for hosting this game!

The hidden tags for the sector provide intrigue and some possible surprises, I think. If we do end up as star traders or pirates, you could face the relevant info to us as it becomes known to the group. Great descriptions there already.

There looks to be ample potential for all sorts of adventure and styles of play. I am open to the group's decision there.

A knee-jerk reaction I had upon seeing the Sunflower Institute was to make a Perimeter (Sleeper?) Agent who is tasked with something on that slime world or a Lorinian gearhead who lost his/her family's ship in a race. We could use a Sarokoulon warrior, for sure!

[Faanku]

Those concepts both work well. I've updated the chargen rules with everything you need to get started, but it might be better for everyone to hash out a concept before proceeding too far. Overlap isn't too bad a thing in SWN but everyone likes to have their niche!

I'll have a "Current Events" thread up later today that will act as a catch-all for planetary newsfeeds, Exchangebook social network posts and overhead gossip in the space bars. If you can think of any other threads you'd like to see, please let me know.

[Enoch]

I'm an inveterate character creator, so I have about a dozen ideas bouncing around. It looks like a neat sector. As far as tag secrecy goes, I'm sure there are some that would be common knowledge, but the idea of secret factions and things we just don't know about systems is great for me!

[eirei]

Hey guys, first time poster here.

The dice decided I'd be your pilot for the night (should we survive that long). Working on a Warrior/Expert hybrid with a focus in flying between stars and slinging guns. I'll post the WIP in the sheets thread.

As for the story vs sandbox focus, I prefer some sort of overarching narrative, but I'm fine with whatever.
I also like the idea of keeping the tags hidden.

[explosiveghast]

Welcome eirei!

So gang, I have a skill and a foci left to choose for my character. I randomly generated a Barbarian BG and Warrior Class. He has Sneak, Lead and Survive for skills so far and probably Stab too. It seemed a good fit to choose the Armsman Focus for a Barbarian Warrior. With Lead, I can imagine him as an assault squad leader or something.

Faanku, is it possible that his barbarian background was spent on Sarokoulo? Perhaps he was part of an isolated family that recently emerged from a shelter in a remote area? After being discovered in his youth he was conscripted into a Sarokoulon mercenary company.

[Faanku]

So thus far it seems we have:

• Pilot/Gunslinger Adventurer from eirei
• Sneaky Hacker Expert from ybn1197
• Sarokoulan Assault Leader from explosivegahst
• Mysterious Stranger from Enoch

Depending on how much time you guys need we should be able to get things rolling by this weekend.

Faanku, is it possible that his barbarian background was spent on Sarokoulo? Perhaps he was part of an isolated family that recently emerged from a shelter in a remote area? After being discovered in his youth he was conscripted into a Sarokoulon mercenary company.

That's absolutely fine. People from Sarokoulo tend to be rugged and physical, engaging in games like future-boxing or cyber-kendo for the sport of it; you wouldn't even need to be from a particularly isolated part of the planet to justify a barbarian background, but you can roll with that if you prefer.

[Marullus]

I am looking at either a psychic or psychic/warrior of some kind. What kind depends on what kind of crew we are growing into. Are we shady and gray? Are we rougish good guys? Are we legit good guys? Are we sanctioned agents of some power?

Thoughts?

[Enoch]

I'm really not sure. I love psychics in general, but I'm not that impressed with them in this system (at least by themselves; they look a lot more interesting as part of an Adventurer). Given the characters we have already, maybe a merchant working with the Exchange Consulate (assuming they have a presence in the sector)? Or some sort of Expert working with a Preceptor Archive, though why they would be adventuring I don't know (though we haven't identified what our party will actually be doing, yet). I guess we could use another combatant? I don't really know.

Honestly, without any idea what we're going to be doing in this campaign, I'm finding it hard to come up with a character that would fit.

[Marullus]

Has anyone read Starvation Cheap? Running a mercenary company or legit military unit is interesting. Perhaps we are a special ops crew against Antakis Empire?

I am at least equally inclined, however, to be morally gray scoundrels. (Or straight up filchers/pirates.)

[Enoch]

Starvation Cheap is cool, as is Suns of Gold (admittedly, I have a thing for merchants, but a trading campaign won't be to most players' taste).

EDIT: Even if we have zero interest in merchant-type activities, SoG is a great resource for quick adventure generation.

[Faanku]

Honestly, without any idea what we're going to be doing in this campaign, I'm finding it hard to come up with a character that would fit.

This is my fault. I tried to give you guys as vague a start as possible so you could decide what kind of game you wanted, but I should have offered a few suggestions at least. Suns of Gold is my favourite supplement as well, so if you want more focus on trading I'm happy to implement the subsystems.

I am at least equally inclined, however, to be morally gray scoundrels. (Or straight up filchers/pirates.)

Kal Kasama. An information broker based in Mejo's Sleepless Market with ties to just about everyone in the sector (or so he boasts), Kal is who you go to when you need a job done and don't want any questions asked. In the past, you have all had the (mis)fortune of working for Kasama, and though the jobs you took may have all been wildly different they all had one thing in common; they paid very well. Which is why, in need of credits, you find yourself meeting with Kal in the backroom of Madam Chen's Noodles alongside several other people, some you may know, some you have never seen before. When the fixer seems content that everyone has arrived, he starts talking in his usual smug manner. "Got a little job for you all. Nothing too taxing for such capable people, and the money's so good this is practically a favour from me to you."

Would a start like this work? I had intended you to start slightly down on your luck and in need of a well-paying gig, and if you're OK with skirting the law somewhat then Mejo is the definition of morally grey.

[Marullus]

Sure, I can work with that. How about others?

I like the charismatic barbarian armsman as our notional Captain or boarding party leader. Sine you asked for suggestions on a second Focus, I recommend Henchkeeper. I was thinking of that role myself if my CHA had come up different. I think that Focus is exceptionally suited for play-by-post and would like to see someone have fun with it.

With pilot and hacker also covered (as well as a swordsman and a gunslinger), I am looking for absent roles. There's a space for a Face (Connect/Talk, especially with Diplomacy focus). A Mechanic (Fix). The hacker has sneak, but another wetwork variant could work. A Doctor.

I am considering a psychic or partial-psychic. Perhaps a grifter with precognition or teleportation. Perhaps an Expert with Fix to act as mechanic or with Heal as Ship Doctor, or a gritty Close Combatant/partial warrior who solves problems kinetically. Suggestions welcome.

[Enoch]

Sure, that works. I apologize if I came off as overly negative--I know some players absolutely love a completely sandbox game (in fact, the last major campaign I was in the players specifically requested no information about why we were even in the same room). For myself, I find that I just need a little something to hook onto so I don't make a merchant in a combat-centric game or an illiterate soldier in a game of court intrigue.

I'm happy to play a charismatic merchant-type who's not above crime if times are tough, or some scavenger/mechanic if that would work better, or just about anything.

Right now I'm leaning toward the merchant concept, because it will fit a variety of adventure types: either an Expert or an Expert/Psychic Adventurer (with precognition), with a Focus of either Specialist (in Trade, to be a great merchant) or something like Connection or Diplomacy (which would create more of a "face" character who happens to have a merchant background).

[Faanku]

I apologize if I came off as overly negative--I know some players absolutely love a completely sandbox game

It's all good. I've never run anything like this before, the closest thing to a sandbox I've been involved in was probably Kingmaker, so I didn't want to start off on rails. To expand on the proposed start, Mejo is a humid planet with a sprawling, multi-layed metropolis selling everything and anything a person could possibly ever want or need. It also has incredibly generous trading laws in regards to what can be bought and sold; recreational drugs, rocket launchers, rare pretech artefacts and plenty of other things that would be heavily restricted on any other world are traded with very little intervention by the Mejo government. I imagined something like a cross between Nar Shaddaa and Amsterdam when writing it, and inspired by the Free Port colonies from Starsector. Hopefully that gives you a rough idea of how lively and commercial the planet is.

[eirei]

Morally grey works just fine. My guy won't mind getting his hands slightly dirty as long as it furthers his cause (getting back to Antakis).
Also, his backstory includes a bit of trading (but evidently, not enough to warrant a skill level), so being involved with Mejo's markets makes sense.

[Enoch]

OK, I think I will go with a merchant/smuggler-type, then. This sounds like the sort of place he would have felt at home: either he's always been a smuggler, or he recently turned to smuggling and immediately got his ship impounded, and ended up here. Either way, the job that cost him his ship and everything else probably originated here.

I'll probably go with Specialist (Trade) as one of my Foci.

[Faanku]

I've updated the History of the Sector thread with the first batch of rumours, cast snippets etc. Hopefully these will help with chargen and getting a feel for current events in the sector.