Jan 24, 2022 5:52 pm
I’ve been thinking about running a SWN game using the revised edition, which you can get for free here.
Suggested soundtrack
The concept is to create something similar to an episodic TV show like Star Trek or Cowboy Bebop. After the introductory adventure, the characters end up with a small spaceship they can use to travel around the planets and solar systems of a specific space sector, each with their own situations the protagonists can get dragged into. Very much a sandbox hexcrawl (in spaaaaace!) built around exploring an existing universe and responding to its challenges rather than playing through a predetermined story built around the protagonists.
Plenty of videogames as reference/inspiration too, including but not limited to Stellaris, Galactic Civilizations, Endless Space, Sins of a Solar Empire and of course the grandaddy of them all, Master of Orion.
SWN is technically in the vein of Old School Renaissance/Revival (OSR) games, which besides sandbox play means a few other things, such as requiring player agency and motivation to drive the plot forward instead of waiting for the GM to throw stuff at you that you can respond to, using player creativity rather than character skills to resolve problems, highly lethal combat and a few more things the core rulebook does a great job of explaining, I’m just pointing them out here to more or less give you an idea of what you can expect.
Two more things I’d like to add: One, all player characters will be human. This is to maintain the excitement and mystery of aliens, robots and others instead of allowing them as playable races. Two, I’m aiming for a fast paced, minimalist game. This means that long posts full of description and roleplay are neither encouraged nor discouraged, something that also applies to GM posts. The idea is to keep things moving and focus on the important stuff. If there’s a trap ahead, you’ll be provided with a clue that something is amiss since the assumption is you’re always keeping an eye out without having to tell the GM you’re specifically alert for traps. If you’re negotiating with an NPC, they’ll tell you directly what they want without beating around the bush and if they’re insincere about it, the GM will let you know without calling for dice rolls. In short, the game cycle will be about being presented with a situation, coming up with a way to tackle the challenge at hand and moving on with resolving the outcome, if necessary by rolling dice. This won’t be about intricate backstories, deep lore and everything serving some specific storytelling purpose.
Lethal combat means frequent character death if you're not careful, which is why character creation is quick, minimalistic and often random. You're not coming up with a grand concept to play, but rather given a role, often randomly determined, which you explore and enrich as you play.
That said, it would be nice if everyone involved could check in daily and post something if required, even if it’s a single sentence along the lines of "Character X will thank the NPC and walk out of the room back to the party’s spaceship." A Discord server can be set up if required, complete with the new option that provides a notification each time someone posts in a thread.
This isn’t a grimdark or horror game, but there is a possibility that adult or controversial themes might come up. Organizations messing with cloning and eugenics to produce an army of slaves might be a thing, same goes for space dictatorships, torture, prostitution or ending up in the hallways of an abandoned spacecraft infested by murderous aliens who mount human corpses on meathooks as trophies. As a general rule, such things will be mentioned but glossed over and not emphasized or detailed. You have been warned that such things exist and how they will be presented, but don’t be afraid to speak up if something’s making you uncomfortable.
So something like this might happen, would be described but let's not get into the nitty gritty of what it's a metaphor for...
Speaking of which, LGBTQI+, minority or otherwise marginalized players and characters are welcome. Racism and any type of hate speech will not be tolerated.
The game is open to newbies. I myself will be reading/running SWN for the first time ever, so please be lenient :)
The initial goal is to gather a group of players and run them through an introductory scenario to familiarize everyone with the game system, ending with the characters somehow in possession of a small spaceship, then running another adventure as a second tutorial about managing spaceships, space travel, spaceship combat and so on. If there’s interest to expand from there, we can then discuss about turning this into an ongoing campaign.
Suggested soundtrack
The concept is to create something similar to an episodic TV show like Star Trek or Cowboy Bebop. After the introductory adventure, the characters end up with a small spaceship they can use to travel around the planets and solar systems of a specific space sector, each with their own situations the protagonists can get dragged into. Very much a sandbox hexcrawl (in spaaaaace!) built around exploring an existing universe and responding to its challenges rather than playing through a predetermined story built around the protagonists.
Plenty of videogames as reference/inspiration too, including but not limited to Stellaris, Galactic Civilizations, Endless Space, Sins of a Solar Empire and of course the grandaddy of them all, Master of Orion.
SWN is technically in the vein of Old School Renaissance/Revival (OSR) games, which besides sandbox play means a few other things, such as requiring player agency and motivation to drive the plot forward instead of waiting for the GM to throw stuff at you that you can respond to, using player creativity rather than character skills to resolve problems, highly lethal combat and a few more things the core rulebook does a great job of explaining, I’m just pointing them out here to more or less give you an idea of what you can expect.
Two more things I’d like to add: One, all player characters will be human. This is to maintain the excitement and mystery of aliens, robots and others instead of allowing them as playable races. Two, I’m aiming for a fast paced, minimalist game. This means that long posts full of description and roleplay are neither encouraged nor discouraged, something that also applies to GM posts. The idea is to keep things moving and focus on the important stuff. If there’s a trap ahead, you’ll be provided with a clue that something is amiss since the assumption is you’re always keeping an eye out without having to tell the GM you’re specifically alert for traps. If you’re negotiating with an NPC, they’ll tell you directly what they want without beating around the bush and if they’re insincere about it, the GM will let you know without calling for dice rolls. In short, the game cycle will be about being presented with a situation, coming up with a way to tackle the challenge at hand and moving on with resolving the outcome, if necessary by rolling dice. This won’t be about intricate backstories, deep lore and everything serving some specific storytelling purpose.
Lethal combat means frequent character death if you're not careful, which is why character creation is quick, minimalistic and often random. You're not coming up with a grand concept to play, but rather given a role, often randomly determined, which you explore and enrich as you play.
That said, it would be nice if everyone involved could check in daily and post something if required, even if it’s a single sentence along the lines of "Character X will thank the NPC and walk out of the room back to the party’s spaceship." A Discord server can be set up if required, complete with the new option that provides a notification each time someone posts in a thread.
This isn’t a grimdark or horror game, but there is a possibility that adult or controversial themes might come up. Organizations messing with cloning and eugenics to produce an army of slaves might be a thing, same goes for space dictatorships, torture, prostitution or ending up in the hallways of an abandoned spacecraft infested by murderous aliens who mount human corpses on meathooks as trophies. As a general rule, such things will be mentioned but glossed over and not emphasized or detailed. You have been warned that such things exist and how they will be presented, but don’t be afraid to speak up if something’s making you uncomfortable.
So something like this might happen, would be described but let's not get into the nitty gritty of what it's a metaphor for...
Speaking of which, LGBTQI+, minority or otherwise marginalized players and characters are welcome. Racism and any type of hate speech will not be tolerated.
The game is open to newbies. I myself will be reading/running SWN for the first time ever, so please be lenient :)
The initial goal is to gather a group of players and run them through an introductory scenario to familiarize everyone with the game system, ending with the characters somehow in possession of a small spaceship, then running another adventure as a second tutorial about managing spaceships, space travel, spaceship combat and so on. If there’s interest to expand from there, we can then discuss about turning this into an ongoing campaign.
Last edited January 24, 2022 5:52 pm
