Another repeat bundle - Stars Without Number

[ffutures]

This is a repeat of a 2019 bundle for Stars Without Number, from Sine Nomine Publishing. It's described as a "Sandbox SF RPG", with an emphasis on creating the setting then letting the players loose on it, without imposing a tight plot on them.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/SWN2024




Last time I looked at this 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.

In hindsight I think I may have been a little harsh; on the whole it's a nice system, with some good ideas for GM-ing the more freewheeling approach needed for sandbox games. I don't particularly want to use it, but that's mainly because I'm not running campaigns any more and tend to prefer more focused plotting, with predetermined goals (stop an asteroid hitting Britain, kill Harry Potter, etc. etc.) that can be played in a single session.

Comments

[eledonecirrhosa]

I guess Sufficiently Advanced RPG is a setting where mankind went to the stars and everything went spectacularly right. It's just everyone's definition of 'right' is slightly different, so there is a diversity of weird 'utopian' future cultures, from Planet of the Historical Reenactors to the civilisation of Everyone's Uploaded their Mind into a Machine Body.

[ffutures]

Don't know that one, but it looks interesting. Does it offer much that e.g. Traveller or GURPS Transhuman Space doesn't?

[eledonecirrhosa]

I've only ever run a one-off game with 1st edition rules (2nd ed is allegedly smoother).

It offers a different PC motivation than Traveller - you are employed by the Patents Office and get messages from the future about inventions/incidents which need to be stopped or encouraged to make sure humanity survives in to the far future.

In terms of setting it is waaaaaaaaaaay higher tech than Traveller or Transhuman Space. There are skills/tech (they are kind of wrapped into one) which just let you shoot a ship out of orbit, or persuade the entire population of a city to take a vow of celibacy, or heal someone who was smoking boots a second ago. They are really riffing on the "sufficiently advanced tech is indistinguishable from magic". It states things like no-one carries a gun, because if you need one, you can replicate one in seconds. Which means NPCs assume anyone who IS carrying a gun intends to use it imminently.

There's also the Plot Immunity stat where you flag up specific things which don't affect your character or get glossed over in a sentence rather than dice rolls and lengthy RP scenes. So if I got ambushed in a darkened alleyway and had plot immunity to combat, then it's a "There's a fight - you miraculously escape - like to tell us how?" rather than dice rolling. IIRC you have to take a complication to invoke plot immunity.

I wasn't too keen on their system (1st ed involved the 13 times table on dice rolls) but there is lots of interesting setting stuff. I bought 2nd ed on pdf but haven't read it yet.

[ffutures]

Thanks, sounds like an interesting idea. Might work in a time travel context too, especially with incomplete data - Twelve Monkeys comes to mind.