Stars Without Number (Revised Edition) - The Wandering Black [Closed]

Hi all, I've had a setting for Stars Without Number cooked up for a while and I've been itching to try it out. If you don't know, Stars Without Number is a FREE OSR sci-fi game set in scattered remains of a vast interstellar empire that was shattered by a psychic cataclysm. The system takes after Traveler in a lot of ways, though I personally get a lot of inspiration from stuff like Firefly, Cowboy Bebop, and the Expanse.


The campaign will be set in a fragment of the Terran Mandate called the Caliban Sector. Most of the adventuring will be centered around a sparsely populated region of space called the "Blackshear-5 Cluster" or simply "the Black". Isolated for centuries, the past hundred years or so have seen a gold-rush from the densely populated "Cradle" worlds. The campaign will explore political (and possibly military) conflicts between factions vying for control of the Black, as well as hopefully philosophical conflicts such as ambition vs duty, authority vs anarchy, transhumanism, and the limits (or lack thereof) of technology.

I'm open to many different sorts parties. You could start as free traders, or as agents of one of the large factions. We can decide on that together once a few players get on board. The game supports a wide range of playstyles like mercantile, military, espionage, exploration, etc.

A few starting factions for your consideration:
-The Church of Divine Sacrament: A Neo-Catholic religious order that has achieved para-governmental status in the Cradle Worlds. They believe firmly in the sanctity of the human form, and oppose technology that makes a mockery of it such as gene-sculpting, transhuman technology, and artificial intelligence. Pilgrims from the Church flood to the Black in hopes of adding more to the flock, not always welcomed by existing planetary governments.

-The Niflheim Compact: A loose affiliation of extrastellar magnates and scientists that formed in response to the Church of Divine Sacrament's increasing power and aggression against those who studied "maltech". Operating behind layers of secrecy, shell companies, and clandestine cells, the Compact works tirelessly to push beyond the boundaries of existing technology. The Blackshear-5 cluster provides an ideal area to operate far from the watchful eyes of the Church.

-The Sokolov Union: A small cluster of cybercommunists, who's system of governance is based on an incredibly sophisticated algorithm that distributes resources based on need and merit. It has lasted far longer than similar attempts at cybercommunism in part due to its heavily automated public workforce and population planning program. The powers that be see the Black as a den of corruption and injustice, and is making moves to liberate workers from oppressive governance.

-The Cornucopia Corporation: Corna-Corp, colloquially. An agricultural megacorporation that has transformed the inhospitable world of Batagis into a veritable paradise of vertical greenhouse farms that stretch for miles. Their interest in the Blackshear-5 cluster is purely financial; more mouths to feed means more demand for their products. Which is not to say Corna-Corp is a passive player in the political struggle. More than one pirate vessel has been caught off guard by the skill of their security "Cowboys".

...and many more small republics and corporations that already exist within the Blackshear-5 cluster.


Let me know if you're interested and feel free to message me on LINE if you have any questions!

Colour me interested! I've been reading through the SWN deluxe corebook for a while now and would love to give it a whirl in play.

Excellent! I'm in the same boat, I've only been able to play a couple one-offs but its super easy to run and encourages rp heavy play.

My thought on initially setup would be for the party to begin as relatively independent contractors, with the possibility of aligning with one of the major factions later.

Im interested in the cybercommunists, a throwback to AT-43.

I've never played, although that looks like a great place for me to plunder ideas from lol

Kobras_Aquairre wrote:

Excellent! I'm in the same boat, I've only been able to play a couple one-offs but its super easy to run and encourages rp heavy play.

My thought on initially setup would be for the party to begin as relatively independent contractors, with the possibility of aligning with one of the major factions later.

Wicked! I have all the supplements too, including the new Codex of the Black Sun.
I quite like the idea of playing an independent security contractor, pilot or agent of some kind. Quite open to most things though, including random char gen!

Oh yeah I also have that one, its a really impressive expansion. I'd be open to some space magic in the game for sure.

I got it thinking that it'd be useful for a Shadowrun hack I was considering. Or Dragonstar. Or Spelljammer...

I'd be really interested in this. I've played a campaign in it once before a couple of years ago, but I don't seem to have any copies of the rulebooks any more.

Fortunately the core rules are free on Drivethrurpg! I can share any supplements we need with you, but the core rules encompass the majority of situations you'll encounter.

Ah thanks for tip. I've got the core rules now.

Awesome!

Pendraig and Sylphilis, are you guys still interested?

Definitely still interested!

Hello. I'm interested. Do you need more players?

I've grabbed the free book and have started to have a read. No idea what I'd play yet if you've a free spot.

Absolutely! Plenty of room, and we haven't even started discussing characters yet so you're right on time. I'll add you to the group chat.

Bumping this recruitment thread. We're down a couple players so there's plenty of spots open for a "debt-runner" style game on the space frontier.