October 13, 2020 by juddthelibrarian

Putting SWN Sectors to Use

Stars Without Number written around a black hole.

Razornet Away Team

Not as in, an Away Team but as in, a team that has been away for a while. There are plenty of reasons to have been out of the loop for a while. Here are a a few:

Armed Forces Service
Incarceration
Medical Cryogenic Hypernation
Shipwreck survivor
Pilgrimmage
Refugee

Whatever the reasons you were away, you’re back and either knew the other players from a past crew or job and now were put togther as a Freelance Team in Razornet’s app for enterprising freelancers on the edge of legality.

We’ll talk about what kind of game we want to see. Do you want to have all known each other from you previous enterprise? Maybe you all know each other from time in some Void Marine unit or all survived a shipwreck caused by a malicious alien intelligence…

Terran Mandate Envoy Team

You have just entered the system with a checklist in hand and a vague authority that might or might not be recognized by the governments in this sector. Can you bring the sector back to the bosom of Olde Earth’s government?

Do you want to?

Your commanding officer is jumping to another sector but will be back with the full weight of (TMB) Terran Mandate Battlecruiser Serengeti’s weapons and marines in a year (you hope).

We’ll discuss how your characters all feel about the Terran Mandate government and make an Engagement roll to see how well equipped you are to start. I’m thinking I’d make a roll or two behind the screen to know when the Serengeti will actually arrive and what state it will be in once it does.

Far Traders

Your team just jumped into this system in a rare ship equipped with an Event Horizon-Gate Engine, designed to harness the energy of black holes and turn that energy into jump-gate coordinates that will send you to another black hole near a different sector.

Naming starships is fun.

We’ll make an Engagement roll to see how the ship is doing and how valuable your goods are in the hold and move from there. You’ll stay in this sector for as long as it is profitable to do so before moving on with whatever you can carry. I love the idea of jumping to different sectors, each sector as its own chapter or book or season…

Scrappy

You are representatives in a scrappy government that wants to stay self-governed. Maybe it is a moon or a orbital station or a science station whose original mission has outlasted the government that put it there. Either way, you are a team looking to represent and stay independent in the face of powerful forces all around you.

We’ll look at the map, talk over the Sector’s situation and put your home in a spot that makes sense.

To the Table

I’m thinking about how I might use these SWN Sectors (I’ve got a few more in my drafts section that aren’t quite ready yet) and how I’d pitch those games. The Burned Over playbooks are looking really good to me and so many of SWN’s worlds are in various stages of apocalyptic decline/ascension. Air and water are still a big deal. I don’t think we’d have to change much to make that work.

I’m reading through my Traveller LBB and I’ve got some vague ideas about using that chargen to get background and then Burned Over Playbooks to show what kind of physical shell the character is downloaded into but that all might be too much work.

I’d rather just throw playbooks on the sector map, maybe make up a love letterish (article about Love Letters from a decade ago by John Harper…sure) engagement roll (like in Blades in the Dark) to see what kind of situation the players are starting in and get to playing.

Original picture from 12019 on pixabay

If you’d like to see more designs like this please check out the Science Fiction Collection…

https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/collections/science-fiction

September 4, 2020 by juddthelibrarian

Finishing Touches on Circe Theta

The sector is about ready to roll. I’d fiddle with things as characters were made, fine-tune it to fit the Star Gods at hand a bit. Right now it is fine for a SWN game but I want a few more big things for a Star Gods game.

Godbound has a few cool tables. Let’s roll a few and see what inspirations shake loose.

Ruins

We’ve got some ruined orbital stations and the dead ships around Usaus.

I get the following

Vault or Treasury of some Mighty Relic
Temporal Lock
Useful Ally who could be useful or reactivated

Interesting, Temporal Lock means the ruin is only accessible at a certain time (unless there is a Star God with the Time sphere). I’m thinking an old Hegemonic starship that went too close to the black hole and occasionally appears as it tries to break free of the event horizon’s brutal grip (Does that even make sense? I don’t know. Sounds cool).

There is a Star God-level entity aboard who was lost and they had an amazing weapon, a legendary blade made by the smiths of Gordie Pria…maybe they even got caught in the black hole’s pull trying to grab the blade after it was forged there.

That was fun. Let’s go again.

Fortress or Military installation
Toxic Atmosphere
Valuable Map to treasure or lost ruin (rolled Useful Ally again and chose this one instead)

I’m thinking a capital ship Usaus, where bio-weapons blew up and left the ship a dangerous toxic mess. This ship was called in during the hegemon’s last days but before that it had guarded a research station that was dedicated to turning the Black Hole into a stargate.

Fun, let’s try an aristocratic court for one of our Alldish Noble Houses.

Court Mood: Decadent, obsessed with exotic pleasures
Major Actor: Honored General
- Minor Actor: Foreign artist
Conflicts: Dispute over Heir
- Consequences of Destruction: A much worse set of replacements are waiting

Love it. I’m thinking the foreign artist is a director who makes amazing movies about Olde Earth, painting ancient battles as current events. We’ve got an heir of an honored general and the general’s staff would be even worse if they took power.

I’ve got vague ideas about the General retiring after a century of war, becoming a saint-like demi-god. For some reason I’m picturing the general as George Washington – powdered wigs, Revolutionary War sabers and laser muskets.

I’d make up a Time Angel from the Black Hole as some kind of Parasite God.

Techno-undead in the ships floating above Usaus.

I want something keeping Kordie Pra’s quarantine, something that can take on several gods. Maybe a Nanite Cloud in low orbit that becomes a monster designed to destroy whatever attempts to get through. I’ll let that marinate.

If I was feeling it, I’d make up the factions using the SWN rules, though I might go with the looser Godbound faction rules, roll some dice, see how the factions are doing as the Star Gods step into the Sector.

September 2, 2020 by juddthelibrarian

Factions of Circe Theta

Aeonine Pilgrims

These are warrior nomads who traverse the sector, either on merchant ships of their own make or as cosmonauts aboard other ships. They make frequent pilgrimages to the planets and research satellites surrounding the sector’s black hole, Mb 05561, though they refer to it as the Vantablack Mirror or the Holy Mirror.

Temporal Anomalies that surround Mb05561 are seen as holy visions and scientists who study the physics of the black hole are seen as science-prophets and granted tremendous respect.

Robot Union of Cymodec

Cymodecci synthetic engineering made self-aware robots more than two centuries ago and the robot union is dedicated to safeguarding their personhood and freedom.

Debran Ancients

These ancient posthuman entities were never meant to last forever and are nearing the end of their meticulously engineered existence. Existing somewhere between the physical realm and realms of pure energy, these posthumans guard ancient technology. The use of this technology was lost in the Scream.

Red Sand Settlers

(Alldish Warlord Noble House)

Said to be descendants of the first humans to leave Earth and settle on another planet, this noble house is known for having a brutal navy and unparalleled space marines.

Olde Earth Siblings

(Alldish Warlord Noble House)

A noble house led by warlords who claim to be descended from the boldest warriors-poets and philosophers of Earth’s history. The genetic science is hazy myth and propaganda carefully engineered to bolster their claims.

Alldish Soldiers Minor

(Alldish Warlord Noble House)

Veterans of this decades long war who either saw the ugly side of Red Sand Settlers and Old Earth Siblings or wanted to forge their own path because they realized there was only so high they could rise have formed their own houses. They are a shifting mess of alliances and betrayals.

Alright, next step is to use Temple Courts and Ruin tables from Godbound to build a few cool things and think about some big cosmic monsters might be feeding around the black hole and some giant robots that Alldish Warlords might be using in their neverending war.