Another RPG Bundle - Stars Without Number
Dec. 28th, 2021 12:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ffutureshttps://bundleofholding.com/presents/SWN2022
This revived March 2019 Stars Without Number Revised Bundle (originally named "More Stars Without Number") once again presents the Stars Without Number SFRPG from Sine Nomine Publishing. The lead star in this lineup is the complete Deluxe version of the expanded, refined, full-color 2017 Revised Edition rulebook funded in designer Kevin Crawford's spectacular August 2017 Kickstarter campaign. Backward-compatible with all previous SWN supplements, the Revised rulebook adds more character options, hardware, ships, and psionics, plus new world tags, adventure creation tools, and support for sandbox starfaring across the Galaxy of AD 3200. This revival is also "Revised" in that we've added two titles (Suns of Gold and Skyward Steel) that were previously part of the original October 2013 SWN offer. All previous purchasers of this Revised lineup during its March 2019 run also receive the two new additions on their Wizard's Cabinet download page and in their linked DriveThruRPG Library.
Stars Without Number is one of the best, most characteristic examples of the Old School Revival philosophy of "sandbox" setting design. SWN offers toolkits, not plotlines. In a default SWN game there is no "campaign arc" -- just a reasonably detailed background, a group of player characters, and their motivations and ambitions. The campaign is simply what those PCs do to achieve their goals. At the end of each session the GM asks the players what they're planning for next time, then turns to the adventure creation chapter and cooks up a scenario based on their plan. The players bring the goals, and Stars Without Number helps the GM give them ways to accomplish those goals.
We provide each title complete in .PDF. Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these ebooks have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their devices.
Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to the charity designated by SWN designer Kevin Crawford, Benzie Food Partners, a food bank serving Kevin's home county in Honor, Michigan.
The total retail value of the titles in this revived offer is US$80. Customers who pay just US$7.95 get all three titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $32) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete Stars Without Number Revised rulebook (retail price $20); Sixteen Stars (popular sf scene backdrops); and the SWN Revised GM Screen.
Those who pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $19.95 to start, also get this revival's entire Bonus Collection with five more titles worth an additional $48, including the supplement Dead Names: Lost Races and Forgotten Ruins and four system-neutral campaign sourcebooks: Starvation Cheap (ground warfare and mercenary campaigns); Skyward Steel (the Stellar Navy); Suns of Gold (merchants and traders); and Polychrome (cyberpunk).
Last time I said: I'll be honest, I looked at this and really didn't feel incredibly interested. It's another "Mankind has expanded to the galaxy then things went badly wrong" setting, this time the problem is development of psychic powers, followed by technological dependence on them and (inevitably) things falling apart when psionics goes blooey. Yet another setting where nobody has heard of redundant systems and backup plans, like the Virus in Traveller, Chaos in WfRP, etc. One of these years I'd love to see a setting where mankind expanded to the stars and things went spectacularly RIGHT, but utopias are a sod to GM so I doubt it'll happen any time soon.
As usual, you're getting a lot for your money if you need it; my personal feeling is that I don't, I already have some excellent SF RPGs, but tastes differ and the games I like may not be your cup of tea. Recommended subject to all of the usual provisos.
I don't really see any reason to change this.
