Stars Without Number (No…Really!)

Last weekend I was down at Gary’s, browsing the used game section (as I am wont to do) where I found not one, not two, but THREE copies of Dark Heresy in the bin. What the heck?

I went and asked Tim about this: Is there a 2nd edition coming out or something? No. Is the game going out of print? No…in fact there was a new published adventure for Dark Heresy on the display shelf. Did the people that sold the game SAY anything about why they were returning it? No…in fact there were several postings on the bulletin board looking for Dark Heresy games. Why the sudden exodus from the hot, young system then? A mystery, certainly.

Maybe those people have recently discovered Stars Without Number.

Even though it takes place in the year 3200, the game feels more like the Warhammer 40K RPG than any game I’ve yet seen…and that includes the Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, and Death Watch books. Beautifully produced as those GW volumes are, if *I* were going to run a space opera game set in the 40K universe, Stars Without Number (SWN) would be the way to go. It just needs rules for titans and possession by warp entities.

SO…that’s a good thing. But for me, it’s about ten to 15 years too late…or more. Back when I first discovered 40K (in the late 80s) or when I RE-discovered it (in the late 90s) I would have leaped through hoops of fire to get an RPG like SWN. These days? Not so much. My tastes in RPGs and gaming have changed somewhat over the last decade, especially with regard to game design, and there are more than a couple red flags for me here.

Not that the game isn’t an amazing piece of work. Kevin Crawford has put together something every bit as good as Proctor’s Labyrinth Lord and offered it for free on the internet. Scratch that…what Crawford has done is even more astounding, as Labyrinth Lord is really just a rehashing of B/X D&D (and an adaptation of AD&D to B/X with the Advanced Edition Companion). Crawford isn’t “retro-cloning” anything at all. He’s created a SciFi themed RPG using the rudiments of the D&D system.

And I mean REAL rudimental. You’ll find the following familiar terms: class, level, XP, the Big Six ability scores, hit points, saving throws, initiative (using a D8 dice)…aaaand that’s about it. Most everything else is pretty darn new. Especially, SWN’s approach to adventure design and the designer’s objectives in the matter (more on this in a moment).

So back to my “red flags” (since I’m sure I piqued some folks curiosity). Let me first start by admitting up front: I am not a science fiction fan. Not really, no. I enjoy the hell out of “space fantasy” like Star Wars. I enjoyed Asimov’s Foundation because it’s a good yarn, NOT because I enjoy Asimov’s real physics approach to SciFi (for the most part, I’ve dislike Asimov’s writing for many, many years). Planetary romances like Stirling’s recent books? Good. Military SciFi with emphasis on the non-SciFi aspects (Starship Troopers, Armor)? Great. Visual storytelling (i.e. movies and TV)? My usual cup o’ tea.

But I am NOT into cool technology or “technobabble,” or even pseudo-technobabble. My buddy Steve-O is a reader of SciFi literature and combs the internet for the latest breakthroughs in computers and alternate fuels and space travel. When I started writing my space opera game he wanted me to include all these actual and theoretical technologies like plasma rockets and solar sails and a bunch of other stuff that I really didn’t bother to retain in my memory. I’m more of the “Lucas School” of SciFi terminology: blasters (they blast things), transports (they transport things), speeders (they speed around). I don’t need no dilithium crystals to power MY spaceship (I don’t even care how it’s powered…so long as it gets around!).

Crawford appears to be more like Steve-O.

The book is stuffed with cool technology, pseudo-scientific terms, and hard SciFi jargon. Me? I have a hard enough time saying “Griffon’s Crag Keep” in my weekly D&D game…I am just too lazy (or too unconcerned with specifics) these days to worry about the difference between mag pistols and rail guns and spike throwers. Now if YOU are like my buddy Steve in your love of nano-tech and whatnot, SWN does a pretty bang up job…I definitely give it a thumbs up over A LOT of SciFi games with extensive gear lists (better than or on par with ShadowRun, CyberPunk, Blue Planet, and Mongoose Traveller). For me, I find it incredibly tedious to the point of stupefaction.

Let’s see, other Red Flags for me personally…I didn’t bother reading the psychic section extensively, but it appears to be done well enough (Crawford takes a similar approach to my own game, though his categories are more classic SciFi: see WH40K or Mongoose Traveller for examples powers. Of course he uses Big Words for powers (even if the titles aren’t very intuitive, this is fine as there are a lot fewer psychic powers than types of tech). However, he uses a point (resource pool) system for psychics which is just one more record-keeping exercise I don’t find terribly interesting.

[oh, yeah…there’s also a lot of other tracking in the tech section regarding cost, availability, ammo, power clips, etc…ugh! I am too old and lazy for this kind of book work!]

Another red flag is the inherent skill system, though (and I found this to be very cool) Crawford provides optional rules for junking it! Neat…but with skill packages such a major part of character distinction, I’m not sure what chargen looks like without it.

Ah, chargen…you could sneeze a hole through a 1st level character in this game. From where I’m reading, the game combines some of the worst pieces of Old School and New School. Character creation is pretty long/cumbersome (New School) and character mortality is pretty near the surface (Old School)…the worst of both worlds! To make up for characters fragility you’ll find some metagame mechanics (combat re-rolls for warriors), high (i.e. good) armor classes, “Lazarus patches” (resurrection tech) and psychic healing, plus an admonishment to GMs to encourage playing smart, setting ambushes, and hiring meat shields.

Now this isn’t totally bad…again, I think the rules as written would be of great use in modeling Warhammer 40K (where life is cheap, and space marines are the most likely to make it through with their power armor, psykers, and apothecaries… though they still get wasted, too). But not everyone wants to play 40K…and I’m not sure the game works as well for, say, Star Wars or Firefly or Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica.

And advancement is its own weirdness.

But rather than talk about THAT, I want to talk about the new and innovative part of the game…at least new and innovative from a design perspective. That is, new to ME. Crawford’s main objective (other than writing a cool SciFi RPG that uses D&D as a base)…his MAIN objective appears to enable real and useful “sandbox” play. Several chapters of the game (including the GM Section, Factions, Adventure Creation, World Creation, and Aliens) are all written in aid of enabling the GM to run an organized sandbox campaign right out of the box.

I won’t beat around the bush…it’s a lot of work. But if you don’t mind the work AND you aren’t really feeling especially creative yourself AND you want to run a sandbox saga, then this is the game for you.

Sector creation, world creation, alien creation…all these feel very similar to Traveller (for me anyway), save that there are key words and phrases associated with various choices designed to act as indicators and hooks. “Factions” are a bit different, being a way for the GM to create influential power organizations (from pirates and cultists to Imperial hegemonies and rebel alliances), all of which are tracked in their own mini-game (complete with phases and turns) so as to keep third party action occurring on the sidelines, even when the players’ actions/attention divert them elsewhere.

It’s all very interesting. While Crawford acknowledges different ways to play SWN, I infer from his writing that he prefers (or at least idealizes) the old school “let the chips fall where they may” sensibilities. His text cautions GMs not get attached to favorite NPCs who might get dropped at any time, and players are cautioned the same about their own characters. It would appear that the faction system is a way to bring the neutrality and impartiality of The Rules to the GM’s management of the game universe. Factions have X number of resources and Y number of “hit points;” player actions deplete these resources, possibly disrupting or demolishing the faction…all as governed by the rules. It IS interesting and I’m curious to know how it plays in practice.

Not that I have an interest in practicing it. Running a game is as much an art as a science, and GMs of SWN are still expected to artistically integrate all the faction, planets, and alien hooks/key words along with player motivation.

And that last bit is where the whole house o cards starts collapsing for me. Players are supposed to give their characters motivations, something that drives them forward into adventure…but no hard and fast rules are given for this. Nor is there any game mechanic that manages it. Nor is it tied in any way, shape, or form to a reward mechanic (the main motivating factor for long-term play of an RPG). GMs have this huge swath of tools that allow them to craft and manage the sandbox universe (with a lot of work), all so the characters can putz around, maybe get the gumption to go do something, or maybe sit around doing nothing and saying, “huh what do we do now?”

I look at this game, the way it’s written (and it’s written well by the way; you definitely won’t find typos the way you would in the first printing of my book!)…I look at this game and I get this image in my head of the author. I see him as a highly creative individual, a person with a deep passion for his subject matter and his ability to create worlds, who has decided to codify his normal GM actions/prep-work, designing a game that will make his life easier in the future. He has put together a system that will allow him to manage (and micro-manage) vast galaxies of stars without number, so that no matter what the players in his game do, his created universe can continue on and on...sometimes behind the scenes, sometimes out in the open.

Man, I hope he has players that appreciate it. I sure hope they are down with his type of game and don’t whine “Ugh! You can sneeze a hole through my first level character!” My players bitch when I don’t let clerics have a spell at 1st level.

I hope they appreciate it because that is a CRAZY level of work to run a giant, galaxy-spanning sandbox that operates in such semi-independent faction. It’s like wanting to create (not play, but design and program) an MMORPG for the table-top…a living one with constant updates based on the actions of the NPC characters/groups. It’s like playing “Sim-Civilization” on a galactic scale.

Crazy. But GMs and game designers have been known to have a certain level of “crazy” in ‘em (look at that Tekumel guy).

Okay, the last thing I want to write about is the advancement system. Character behavior is often shaped and almost always influenced by reward mechanics present in a game…I don’t care if it is a game designed to facilitate a simulationist creative agenda. If anything clued me in on this being a sim-style game it was the scant attention paid to rewards (at least compared to other sections of the game).

Characters gain levels through experience points (XP). XP awarded are determined on a “per mission” basis, based on the highest level party member and the total number of player characters. Per the XP guidelines, at least half of the XP that would be awarded should be “hidden,” contingent on the performance of the player characters. From the writing, it would appear the XP reward = treasure found/awarded though this isn’t explicit in the text…it simply says here’s the reward (number) and that only profit from this (number) awards XP to characters.

Whatever…it appears that there are various ways to profit in SWN, but only a set number of points per mission will provide XP…and that number can be adjusted arbitrarily by the GM depending on the GM’s whim/preference per the text.

What is the net effect of this? Um…that PCs don’t know how or when or what they’ll do to advance. Level is tied to both effectiveness (in combat and skill use) and survivability (hit points and saves), but characters impetus to adventure is supposed to be some chosen “drive” that is unenforceable and unmanageable by the rules as written. And the reward mechanic doesn’t promote a particular in-game behavior because PCs are simply being rewarded for showing up at the table…if then (depending on the whim and designs of the GM).

This IS sim gaming, but it is pretty weak. That is to say, the drives of the characters are only going to be as strong as what the players bring to the table based on their own investment in the game. The detailed chargen system will help provide some initial investment (assuming players have at least some character concept to begin), but since a 1st level character has a maximum 10 hit points (warrior with max hit points and an 18 Constitution) and even a greatsword does 2D6 damage (not to mention a non-energy rifle which does D10+2), it’s hard to believe players are going to want to invest TOO much in their characters.

Now this post is not really a review of the game: I don’t really do reviews. I just talk about my personal likes and dislikes and thoughts and feelings. If a lot of this sounds negative, it’s because I’m explaining why the game doesn’t work for ME. A lot of these things…skills, technobabble, 220 page books with pretty pictures…are going to appeal to people besides me. Do I think the game is any worse than other SciFi RPGs that have been published? Not really…and it’s quite a bit better than some.

But it certainly wouldn’t work for ALL types of space opera and SciFi fantasy. I would certainly use SWN for any game modeled on the Warhammer 40,000 universe (the included setting knocks off more than a bit of the 2nd edition fluff). I found myself drooling a LOT at the thought of using it for a series that modeled Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover series (at least the later books with the interaction between the Terrans and Darkoverans).

I would NOT use it for Firefly or Star Wars or a Heavy Metal-inspired mutant mash-up, nor for planetary romances like S.M. Stirling’s recent Venus and Mars books, and it’s a little limited for trying most military SciFi (like Starship Troopers and Nu-BSG). I mean, you could use it…but I would think it needs some hardcore tweaking to model certain serials effectively.

As for whether or not it can model hard core SciFi literature, I really couldn’t say. I don’t read that much, probably because I’m not a big SciFi fan.
; )