Does anyone have this RPG? What is it like? From the description on Drivethru I thought at first that the OSR had finally produced a traveller-clone, but then it seems like its actually an OD&D clone, in space. In the description on rpggeek, it even says that "wizard" is a class.

So, thoughts and opinions?

RPGPundit

I downloaded it  off Lulu. The core book is free so I thought I'd take a look at it. It's pretty awesome actually, makes me glad I switched gears a bit with Derelict Delvers, because it is far closer to what I wanted than what I was writing.


It has three classes and several "Secondary" professions/backgrounds. The classes are Warrior, Expert, and Psychic. (Similar to True20 in that regard)

The psychic is of course the wizard in many ways, but has psionic powers, it is only called a "wizard" in a discussion of how warrior's and psychics play a bit in comparison to one another. Even then its just a term for the play element of psychics growing in power and widening pool of capability, but work in spurts, while the warrior is more linearly consistent.


It is a pretty OD&D like Sci Fi game that is quite well done. I'm impressed, and really like it.

Quote from: Silverlion;430878I downloaded it  off Lulu. The core book is free so I thought I'd take a look at it. It's pretty awesome actually, makes me glad I switched gears a bit with Derelict Delvers, because it is far closer to what I wanted than what I was writing.


It has three classes and several "Secondary" professions/backgrounds. The classes are Warrior, Expert, and Psychic. (Similar to True20 in that regard)

The psychic is of course the wizard in many ways, but has psionic powers, it is only called a "wizard" in a discussion of how warrior's and psychics play a bit in comparison to one another. Even then its just a term for the play element of psychics growing in power and widening pool of capability, but work in spurts, while the warrior is more linearly consistent.


It is a pretty OD&D like Sci Fi game that is quite well done. I'm impressed, and really like it.

I agree, I feel the same way about it after reading through it. The setting is not too bad either. I might even pick up a print copy of it.

Quote from: RPGPundit;430851Does anyone have this RPG? What is it like?

As the creator, I'm naturally biased on this account, but I can give a few pointers as to what's different. Mechanically, it's essentially similar to B/X D&D with a few tweaks. The only really consequential ones are the addition of a skill system and the introduction of psionics, and perhaps also my take on the healing system. What really motivated me to do it was to try and leverage a D&D-style game's loose, open structure to give a GM tools for creating and running a sandbox sci-fi campaign.

For skills, you choose a background package of skills representing your past, and a training package of skills representing your training in your particular class. An Expert might be a criminal, or an explorer, or a pilot, or a xenoarchaeologist or whatnot, with a background as a con man/peasant/soldier/spacer/etc. The training packages emphasize the skills important to that class, while the background packages can be freely chosen to give your psychic something of a military history, or your warrior a bit of technical acumen. If you don't care for the packages, you can just choose the "adventurer" option for Background and Training, which allow you to freely pick your skills at the cost of slightly fewer selections.

Skill resolutions are 2d6+skill+attribute modifier versus difficulty, -1 if you have no relevant skill at all. The skills are all scaled along conventional Traveller axes; level-0 for basic trainees, with best-in-the-sector high-level PCs topping out around 4. If skills give you a rash, the system lets you drop them entirely and just give a flat +1 bonus, +1 more per 3 levels on checks relevant to a character's class and background.

Psionics are exclusively the preserve of psychics. They're split into six disciplines with 9 levels each, each level conferring its own power. Psychics get 2 points to buy disciplines each level, with one point required to go into their primary discipline, and no discipline bought above their level. Using psychic powers requires points, and when a psychic runs out, he can channel the metadimensional energies through his tender brainmeats at the cost of probably losing permanent points of Wisdom or Constitution. If a psychic has a favorite power, he can "master" it by permanently dedicating a portion of his power to it, allowing him to use it freely. Powers must be mastered in order in a discipline, starting with the first, and a psychic can't master a power unless it's of a lower level than he is. The way the power points work out, a psychic can fully master one discipline, but it's going to seriously cut into his available reserve for using any other powers. Psychics have the fewest HP of the three classes, but they're not much worse off in combat than Experts, and can contribute respectably.

The real point of the game is in the latter sections, in the creation process I give for sectors, worlds, and factions. Making a sci-fi sandbox game is hard. Unlike an earthbound one, you have to deal with the party's ability to simply decide to leave the planet at any time, and you need to have an entire sector at least minimally fleshed. Trying to build a new adventure from scratch between each session in order to accommodate the party's ramblings is more than most GMs want to manage. By weaving specific elements of the the adventure creation process into the work of creating the sector, the game's designed to leave a half-dozen plot hooks hanging from every world you make, for quick insertion later into an adventure you generate or pull off the included list of 100 plot seeds. I've stuck about 20 pages of random-table resources in as well to help it out, with names divided by culture, political parties, religions, heresies, minor NPCs, architecture, and a number of other things available for quick generation.

Quote from: SineNomine;430938As the creator, I'm naturally biased on this account, but I can give a few pointers as to what's different. Mechanically, it's essentially similar to B/X D&D with a few tweaks. The only really consequential ones are the addition of a skill system and the introduction of psionics, and perhaps also my take on the healing system. What really motivated me to do it was to try and leverage a D&D-style game's loose, open structure to give a GM tools for creating and running a sandbox sci-fi campaign.

For skills, you choose a background package of skills representing your past, and a training package of skills representing your training in your particular class. An Expert might be a criminal, or an explorer, or a pilot, or a xenoarchaeologist or whatnot, with a background as a con man/peasant/soldier/spacer/etc. The training packages emphasize the skills important to that class, while the background packages can be freely chosen to give your psychic something of a military history, or your warrior a bit of technical acumen. If you don't care for the packages, you can just choose the "adventurer" option for Background and Training, which allow you to freely pick your skills at the cost of slightly fewer selections.

Skill resolutions are 2d6+skill+attribute modifier versus difficulty, -1 if you have no relevant skill at all. The skills are all scaled along conventional Traveller axes; level-0 for basic trainees, with best-in-the-sector high-level PCs topping out around 4. If skills give you a rash, the system lets you drop them entirely and just give a flat +1 bonus, +1 more per 3 levels on checks relevant to a character's class and background.

Psionics are exclusively the preserve of psychics. They're split into six disciplines with 9 levels each, each level conferring its own power. Psychics get 2 points to buy disciplines each level, with one point required to go into their primary discipline, and no discipline bought above their level. Using psychic powers requires points, and when a psychic runs out, he can channel the metadimensional energies through his tender brainmeats at the cost of probably losing permanent points of Wisdom or Constitution. If a psychic has a favorite power, he can "master" it by permanently dedicating a portion of his power to it, allowing him to use it freely. Powers must be mastered in order in a discipline, starting with the first, and a psychic can't master a power unless it's of a lower level than he is. The way the power points work out, a psychic can fully master one discipline, but it's going to seriously cut into his available reserve for using any other powers. Psychics have the fewest HP of the three classes, but they're not much worse off in combat than Experts, and can contribute respectably.

The real point of the game is in the latter sections, in the creation process I give for sectors, worlds, and factions. Making a sci-fi sandbox game is hard. Unlike an earthbound one, you have to deal with the party's ability to simply decide to leave the planet at any time, and you need to have an entire sector at least minimally fleshed. Trying to build a new adventure from scratch between each session in order to accommodate the party's ramblings is more than most GMs want to manage. By weaving specific elements of the the adventure creation process into the work of creating the sector, the game's designed to leave a half-dozen plot hooks hanging from every world you make, for quick insertion later into an adventure you generate or pull off the included list of 100 plot seeds. I've stuck about 20 pages of random-table resources in as well to help it out, with names divided by culture, political parties, religions, heresies, minor NPCs, architecture, and a number of other things available for quick generation.

Welcome and thanks for joining us It's great to have your input on the game, it's a dang nice effort. Good job

Downloaded the free .pdf earlier and im enjoying it alot so far, love the simplistic yet detailed rules andthe way they interact with each other to make a really fun game that i may have a go at hacking for Mass Effect at some point(since psionics seem pretty close to biotics in the way they work especially biotics in the first game).
I think im gonna buy a print version next week when i get paid its just that good.

Quote from: Broken-Serenity;430974Downloaded the free .pdf earlier and im enjoying it alot so far, love the simplistic yet detailed rules andthe way they interact with each other to make a really fun game that i may have a go at hacking for Mass Effect at some point(since psionics seem pretty close to biotics in the way they work especially biotics in the first game).
I think im gonna buy a print version next week when i get paid its just that good.

I'm glad you're enjoying the game and that the print product looks interesting to you. Off the top of my head, here are a few suggestions for "Mass Effect"ifying Stars Without Number:

Use the Mass Effect classes, with Soldiers using Warrior stats, Adepts using Psychic, and Engineers using Expert.

Vanguards, Sentinels, and Infiltrators use the dual-class rules given in the Designers Notes section on page 158. Vanguards are Warrior/Psychics, Sentinels are Expert/Psychics, and Infiltrators are Warrior/Experts. If you don't want to start the game at 2nd level, just let them be 1st level in one of their two classes and give them a +1 to hit/an extra skills/1 psychic power and 2 psi points depending on whether their other class is Warrior/Expert/Psychic. This bonus goes away once they take their first level in the other class.

Use the combat rules as normal, but apply a -2 penalty to hit with weapons inappropriate to their Mass Effect class. Most energy weapons don't exist in the ME world; just reskin them as different, more accurate but less damaging models of projectile weapons. Reskin ammo and power cells as cooling cartridges if emulating ME 2. If emulating ME 1, on a hit roll of 1 your weapon overheats and you can't shoot it next round. For each round you fire it, this minimum threshold goes up by one; after five rounds of shooting, rolling 6 or less on the hit roll means an overheat. If the weapon is left unfired for one round its threshold is reset to 1.

If emulating Mass Effect 1 armor limitations, restrict light armor users to combat field uniforms, deflector arrays, or armored undersuits. Medium armor users can also wear woven body armor or assault suits. Heavy armor users can wear anything. If you restrict armor, you'll want to be careful- SWN assumes that characters are going to move pretty quickly for armor when they expect trouble, and the comparatively better AC of most SWN characters is intended to offset the greater lethality of assault rifles over longbows.

Psychics do not have a primary discipline and can spend both of their 2 points per level as they wish. The disciplines of Biopsionics and Teleportation may not fit in a ME universe, however, and you may want to axe them. If you kill Biopsionics, however, make sure you read the Designer's Note section on page 159 so you know what that's going to do to the game. If you do it, be lavish with "pretech" medical supplies. Consider making medigel do the same thing as a lazarus patch, plus heal 1d8+Con damage, plus add 1 point of System Stress. Consider making it relatively cheap and easily available.

Most human tech is tech level 4. Alien or exotic Cerberus tech might be tech level 5.

For spaceships, spike drive rating now only represents how quickly a ship moves, and not its maximum range. A given sector map now merely represents a close star cluster, and might just have a half-dozen worlds in near proximity. Place a mass effect jump gate somewhere in the sector. A standard fuel load is enough to move a ship freely around a star system, but moving from star to star in a cluster requires one fuel load to move a number of hexes equal to the ship's spike drive rating. Need more fuel? Buy extra fuel bunker ship fittings or hit up a deep-space refueling post on the way.

Quote from: SineNomine;430938As the creator, I'm naturally biased on this account, but I can give a few pointers as to what's different. Mechanically, it's essentially similar to B/X D&D with a few tweaks.

Thank you for a fine game. If I ever get enough money (nbeing a game designer myself..) I'll pick up a print copy and the supplements. It's that worthwhile to me.

Cheers for the help with the Mass Effect hack, i think im gonna give it a try this weekend and see how my newly formed group takes to the system.

Quote from: Broken-Serenity;431036Cheers for the help with the Mass Effect hack, i think im gonna give it a try this weekend and see how my newly formed group takes to the system.

Write it down and share it

I'd love to game in the ME universe with friends; been looking at the FATE Diaspora hack, but like Starblazer Adventures better

Strangely thats my other idea for a system for Mass Effect, i figured i'd use a mix of the diaspora system(with the hack stuff) with bits bolted on that work better from Starblazer Adventures like the Space combat and organisation rules.

Quote from: SineNomine;430938As the creator, I'm naturally biased on this account, but I can give a few pointers as to what's different. Mechanically, it's essentially similar to B/X D&D with a few tweaks. The only really consequential ones are the addition of a skill system and the introduction of psionics, and perhaps also my take on the healing system. What really motivated me to do it was to try and leverage a D&D-style game's loose, open structure to give a GM tools for creating and running a sandbox sci-fi campaign.

For skills, you choose a background package of skills representing your past, and a training package of skills representing your training in your particular class. An Expert might be a criminal, or an explorer, or a pilot, or a xenoarchaeologist or whatnot, with a background as a con man/peasant/soldier/spacer/etc. The training packages emphasize the skills important to that class, while the background packages can be freely chosen to give your psychic something of a military history, or your warrior a bit of technical acumen. If you don't care for the packages, you can just choose the "adventurer" option for Background and Training, which allow you to freely pick your skills at the cost of slightly fewer selections.

Skill resolutions are 2d6+skill+attribute modifier versus difficulty, -1 if you have no relevant skill at all. The skills are all scaled along conventional Traveller axes; level-0 for basic trainees, with best-in-the-sector high-level PCs topping out around 4. If skills give you a rash, the system lets you drop them entirely and just give a flat +1 bonus, +1 more per 3 levels on checks relevant to a character's class and background.

Psionics are exclusively the preserve of psychics. They're split into six disciplines with 9 levels each, each level conferring its own power. Psychics get 2 points to buy disciplines each level, with one point required to go into their primary discipline, and no discipline bought above their level. Using psychic powers requires points, and when a psychic runs out, he can channel the metadimensional energies through his tender brainmeats at the cost of probably losing permanent points of Wisdom or Constitution. If a psychic has a favorite power, he can "master" it by permanently dedicating a portion of his power to it, allowing him to use it freely. Powers must be mastered in order in a discipline, starting with the first, and a psychic can't master a power unless it's of a lower level than he is. The way the power points work out, a psychic can fully master one discipline, but it's going to seriously cut into his available reserve for using any other powers. Psychics have the fewest HP of the three classes, but they're not much worse off in combat than Experts, and can contribute respectably.

The real point of the game is in the latter sections, in the creation process I give for sectors, worlds, and factions. Making a sci-fi sandbox game is hard. Unlike an earthbound one, you have to deal with the party's ability to simply decide to leave the planet at any time, and you need to have an entire sector at least minimally fleshed. Trying to build a new adventure from scratch between each session in order to accommodate the party's ramblings is more than most GMs want to manage. By weaving specific elements of the the adventure creation process into the work of creating the sector, the game's designed to leave a half-dozen plot hooks hanging from every world you make, for quick insertion later into an adventure you generate or pull off the included list of 100 plot seeds. I've stuck about 20 pages of random-table resources in as well to help it out, with names divided by culture, political parties, religions, heresies, minor NPCs, architecture, and a number of other things available for quick generation.

Welcome to theRPGsite! And thank you for this detailed post.

RPGPundit

I should add that having looked at the free core book, this game is definitely NOT the "osr traveller-clone".  It is, rather, something far more interesting.  It is one of those very few truly innovative games that far-too-rarely come out of the OSR; and maybe the most brilliant one yet.

Well done.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;431193I should add that having looked at the free core book, this game is definitely NOT the "osr traveller-clone".  It is, rather, something far more interesting.  It is one of those very few truly innovative games that far-too-rarely come out of the OSR; and maybe the most brilliant one yet.

Well done.

RPGPundit

I agree with you Pundit, I'm really enjoying reading this gem and can definitely see myself running it with pleasure. I've already started thinking about what I can port over from my old Traveller stuff. Still reading the fluff and so far I have found nothing to complain about with this game. Payday will see me ordering a print copy no question.

As an aside, Pundit, I was wondering if you had checked out the S&W Complete Rules book. I bought it on Benoist's recommendation and am immensely pleased with it. I'm going so far as to consider it my go-to old edition clone now even over LL. It's a very polished and attractive printing of S&W that IMO completes the game, giving all kinds of options and add-ons without adding complexity, and in reading it is feeling to me very much like Stars without Number, which is why I bring it up here. Not looking for any responses really as I don't want to derail the thread or distract from this awesome game, just wanted to mention it because of my opinion with regards to the similar high quality and great design of both products.

Quote from: Broken-Serenity;430974Downloaded the free .pdf earlier and im enjoying it alot so far, love the simplistic yet detailed rules andthe way they interact with each other to make a really fun game that i may have a go at hacking for Mass Effect at some point(since psionics seem pretty close to biotics in the way they work especially biotics in the first game).
I think im gonna buy a print version next week when i get paid its just that good.

My group has been playing it for a little over a month and have voted it the preferred Science Fiction game replacing Traveller after 33 years. I never thought that would happen.