Character Creation Project 4: Stars Without Number

[neologue]

Game: Stars Without Number
Publisher: Sine Nomine
Familiarity: None, except for having played AD&D 2nd edition
Books used: The free corebook. This is a bit of an audition for the very well-reviewed (and reasonably priced) expansions.

Edit 6/1: a couple of revisions after unprompted and wholly welcome clarification from the author (Sine Nomine's

Comments

Character generation

[anonymous]

Thanks for giving SWN's character generation a spin- as the author, it's always a pleasure to see someone making use of it. There are a few points that might be helpful to note in the character generation, however.

In the character creation summary on page 8 and in the "Choosing a Background and Training Package" section on page 11, both note that "If a skill appears in both your background package and your training package, you gain it at level 1 instead of level 0." That's why seemingly consistent background/training combos like "Soldier" and "Ground Forces" double up on certain skills- they ensure that a tightly focused PC starts with level 1 in them, and a significant +1 bonus on 2d6 bell curve skill checks.

There's also a quarter-page skill level chart on page 14, immediately after the skill list, to explain what each level means.

In terms of attributes affecting secondary attributes such as attack bonus, the Combat section notes that the relevant attribute adds its bonus to both the attack bonus and damage of the weapon. For monoblades, the attribute is either Strength or Dexterity at the player's choice, so Ceron would have a +2 to hit and do 1d8+2 damage with her monoblade. Assuming she had Combat/Primitive-1, she'd be rolling +3 to hit, which is five points higher than an untrained normal civilian.

The default setting is provided in chapter five, right after the systems chapter. (Why there? So the GM can print out the prior 64 pages and have the entire table-relevant part of the book to hand around or take to a game.) The Hydra Sector in the back of the book is just a worked example of the sector generation system.

Thanks for giving character generation a try. Hopefully you'll be able to make some general use of the world tag tables and other GM resources in the back of the books.

Re: Character generation

[neologue]

I appreciate the the unexpected and quick reply! I had pondered adding a bit this afternoon -- there's much to be said for the sheer speed of SWN character generation. The Traveller entry took me a good week and I knocked this one out in a couple of hours. That bodes well for actually running it.

I missed the "Pick a training package from your class" step entirely the first time around, so it's only fair I should miss the end, huh? ;) That handily obviates my chart rant, so thanks for that.

As far as the default setting goes, I did page through it a little bit. I guess there just wasn't much impetus to do so -- a perverse effect of the ink-saving, easily fudgeable rules, classes, and equipment lists. On the other hand, characters are very seldom created in a vacuum, so I'm sure as a player I'd be directed where I ought to go setting-wise. A character creation example (mentioned during chargen and tucked in the Resources section, perhaps) could help prevent some of the problems I encountered, as well as nudge the curious reader towards setting material. Conversely, swooping in to clarify a wayward blog post could accomplish pretty much the same thing.

I'll revise the entry and take a crack at the other generation systems. Thanks again for your comment! Easily the best product support I've received -- for a free product, no less, and without any prompting. Props indeed.