Stars Without Number: Revised Edition by Kevin Crawford is a role playing game supplement published by Sine Nomine Publishing. The supplement is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result. This is the core book for the system, and is revised over the prior edition, and is also available in a free version that has less content.
The supplement is available in electronics form from DriveThruRPG for $19.99, as a print on demand hardcover standard heavyweight for $59.99, as a print on demand hardcover premium heavyweight for $79.99, as both standard heavyweight and electronic form for $59.99 and premium heavyweight and electronic form for $79.99. It is also available in printed form from sites such as Amazon. The electronic version comes in different forms. There are two PDFs, both with 325 pages. One is classed as lightweight and lacks the illustrations and colour borders of the other, making it easier to print and read on electronics devices. There are also epub and Kindle versions of the file and a two-page form fillable PDF character sheet. The electronic version is the version reviewed, although it was purchased at a reduced price. Two pages are the front and rear covers, one page is the front matter, one the Table of Contents, two pages the character sheet, one and a half pages the Index and six and a half pages are Kickstarter backers.
Into the Waiting Night is a brief, one-page introduction to the supplement. It explains that the system falls into the OSR category and these games are broadly compatible with each other. This version is also backwards compatible with all the material for the previous version of Stars Without Number. There isn’t a lengthy section on “What is an RPG?”, just a brief sidebar; it’s assumed that most will already be familiar with RPGs.
Character Creation starts with what players need to know and that this system is designed to support sandbox play. A sidebar explains that it also follows an older style of play, where characters are “rolled” not “built” with random rolls determining what a character is; players don’t start out with a firm idea of their character concept, they instead create the character using random rolls. However, characters can be created using the more modern approach if desired.
There is an 18-step summary of character creation, with the numbers marked on a copy of a character sheet to make them easy to follow. These steps are then gone into in more detail. Attributes are the standard six seen in many games and would normally be generated by rolling 3d6 for each. Skills have five levels, from 0 to 4 (0 is basic competence; skills that lack level 0 are not known), and how skill checks are done is covered in this section. The skills themselves are listed, split into two sections. The first section has the normal skills; the second the psychic skills.
Characters have backgrounds, which are rolled using 1d20. Each background has a free skill and two more are picked from an associated table. Each of the backgrounds is then covered with the associated details. There are four different character classes; Expert, Psychic, Warrior and Adventurer. The first three classes are more specialised; Adventurer is more general and has two of the other three classes as partials. Each character also has a focus which is an additional knack that character has, and there are twenty-five to choose from. Each focus can be level 1 or level 2. Final touches determines various derivative stats. There are also a number of premade equipment packages that can be chosen instead of starting credits. This is then followed by a random method of creating characters that can be used to generate characters randomly or by choosing results.
Psionics covers psionic powers and starts by giving some background details on how they came to be in the setting, together with their training, skills, powers, techniques and attitudes towards psychics by others. Psychics can also push the boundaries of their skill, but with consequences. The different psionic power categories then follow; these are Biopsionics, Metapsionics, Precognition, Telekinesis, Telepathy, Teleportation and Precognition. The last is perhaps the power that has the potential to be the most difficult to run in game, due to its ability to predict the future. Each power has a core skill followed by a number of powers, from level 1 to level 4.
Systems are the mechanical nuts and bolts of the game. It starts by explaining the basic mechanics; skill checks, saving throws and combat rounds. The last also states that combat in Stars Without Number is very dangerous and doesn’t have the sturdier or narratively shielded characters seen in more modern games. It then explains that the game is intended to support sandbox play and the systems do not favour the PCs or allow them to bypass poor decisions and the consequences of such, thereby making the game unbiased. However, a group may choose to play it in other ways if they wish.
Combat is then covered in more detail, with rounds, initiative, different types of actions, hitting a foe and common modifiers, common actions in combat, complications and manoeuvres. Injuries, how characters can die (comparatively easily) and healing are covered.
There are details on how to hack things, and tools that can make this easier, along with some example hacking actions. How characters advance and gain a level is next; hit points are handled a bit differently. Each time a level is advanced, hit points are rolled again; if the new total, with modifiers, isn’t higher than the old one, only one hit point is gained. A number of environmental hazards are next; falling, poisons, diseases, radiation and hard vacuum. Finally in this section is a quick reference sheet.
Equipment and Vehicles starts with how encumbrance is handled, then moves onto money, which is the credit, illegal equipment, which varies from world to world, and forbidden science. Technology Levels explains the six tech levels; TL4 is the common current highest, TL5 was the fallen Mandate and TL6 is described as being indistinguishable than magic. TL3 is essentially current tech levels. There is not a huge amount of granularity in tech levels, unlike some systems.
Equipment is the first to be described, starting with armour and weapons. Weapons are divided into ranged, melee and heavy, and there are slug types and energy types. General Equipment covers ammunition, power, communications, computers, pharmaceuticals, tools, medical gear and field equipment. Lifestyles, Employees and Services are the cost of living, hirelings and services. Vehicles covers ground vehicles, aircraft and grav vehicles. Drones are different types of drone vehicles, with some details on piloting them. Cyberware explains the difficulty and cost of getting such, together with the problems of using it, then has details on different types. Artifacts is pretech technology from the old Mandate. It starts with armour, which describes specific items. Weaponry describes a number of weapon manufacturers and what advantages their weapons had. Equipment is smaller items of anything that isn’t armour or weapons. There are rules on modding and building equipment, which can add extra features though these features may be somewhat prone to degrading.
Starships starts out by considering starships, how they are acquired and navies and piracy. Characters are unlikely to be able to obtain military hulls, as worlds capable of building such typically don’t sell them to civilians. Even buying a host of armed merchant hulls can cause problems. It starts with how to create a starship, with hulls, starship fittings, defences and weapons. A few example starships are covered after this. Modifying starships is next, along with space travel, how sensors work, maintenance and repair of starships and space combat, which has some unusual features, one being choosing for a ship to have a crisis instead of something immediately bad happening.
The History of Space starts with the invention of the spike drive, a curious incident which resulted in several religions being founded, through the eras of expansion, the creation of the Terran Mandate and the collapse following the Scream and the destruction of the jump gates. This is accompanied by a timeline of events.
Sector Creation is on creating the game universe. It starts out with what sectors are, how to map them by placing the primary stars and the worlds, with notes as to distances as some worlds would be out of reach with current technology if placed too far away. Politics, trade routes, important worlds, factions and relations are next.
Following this are 100 world tags; one or two should be rolled for each world. Each tag has a description of what it generally means, plus a list of suggested Enemies, Friends, Complications, Things and Places related to that tag. After this, Atmosphere, Temperature, Biosphere, Population, Tech Level and Additional System Points of Interest.
Adventure Creation starts by considering the GM’s, and players’, needs for this adventure, whether it be part of an ongoing campaign, starting a new one or something created to fill a gap. There is a process for creating adventures, from an outline to NPCs. Other elements of adventure creation follow; rewards, creating problems, people and places, each of which has various tables to roll on for inspiration. Adventure Seeds is a d100 list of these and the section ends with an example adventure being created.
Xenobestiary starts by explaining that enemies chosen should be appropriate for the area. It notes that does not mean an appropriate challenge for the party (as is often the norm in modern systems); an appropriate encounter could be fatal. It also says that combat is dangerous and adventures should not be a series of unavoidable firefights. This is followed by a reaction role that can be used to determine starting attitude, and that the result might not mean the party gets attacked, just whoever they are dealing with reacts as negatively as possible for example.
First up is Humans with a table of different humans and an explanation as to what the stats mean. Explanatory text states that an NPC’s combat ability is not necessarily related to their social position; a tribal leader is probably better at combat than a corporate CEO.
Next is Robots and VIs. Robots can use expert systems and, in some places, VIs – which are not true AIs – can function. There are some sample robots, explanations of the difference between VIs and expert systems, using robots in a campaign and some rules on VI player characters.
Beasts are next and there are instructions on crating them and why it can be a good idea to start with a Terran referent, so it can be described in a familiar manner. There are several broad beast categories, details on swarms and an explanation that most monsters from old school games can be used in Stars Without Number, just converting attack bonus and Armour Class. There are a number of tables for randomly determining beast traits.
Aliens considers using aliens in the game, dividing them into Like – very similar to humans in many ways – and Others – pretty incomprehensible. Biology is followed by Lenses, which is a list of emotional or social traits, each with a paragraph of description, with each alien species having one or two (they could also be called “Hats”). Social structure, technology, role in the sector and motivations are next. Finally, there is a section on alien PCs, with several traits they could have.
Factions covers organisations and groups that characters could encounter, one way or another, or even create. It starts by explaining how to use factions in a game. They can provide prompts for adventure ideas and show how the setting reacts to characters’ actions. How factions are defined and what their stats are is next, followed by the actions a faction can take during their turn, how they can buy and use assets, goals the faction may have and how their stats can be raised. The different types of faction assets are then described, followed by faction tags, which follow a similar principle to world tags. How to use factions in campaigns, including the effects of adventures on them and characters starting their own, is followed by some example factions and an example of faction play.
Game Master Resources starts with some tips for playing, the first being that the GM is creating play for their group, who they know, not the generic gamer, and should therefore create material their group likes. It also states that this game is built on Old School play and is built on a tried and tested chassis that can take a lot of abuse without breaking. It then continues by considering death, which is a very real chance in the system, even for comparatively powerful characters, and the use, specifically avoiding the overuse, of skill checks. With combat being dangerous, characters should be able to set it up on their own terms, and whether to use the Talk skill, or to allow role playing – it depends on the players – is considered. There are tips on running investigations and on salvaging for those characters who take everything remotely of valuable. Interstellar trade and some quick rules on running it is followed by instructions on how to convert content from the first edition of Stars Without Number to the revised edition. Using house rules is next, given this game is devised from a tradition when such were nearly universal, with some example rules.
Name Generators has suggestions on how to generate names, including alien names, followed by d100 tables for male, female and place names. There are a number of one roll generators – one roll doesn’t mean rolling one die but one of each type: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20. These are then used on the tables which can generate NPCs, patrons, urban encounters and wilderness encounters.
Transhuman Campaigns covers those regions where metadimensional space allows intellects to body-swap. In some regions multiple copies can be made; in others, only one copy at a time can exist. These consciousnesses, called souls, can be installed into artificial creations, called shells. Some areas of transhuman space can also have devices called grails, which can manufacture goods. In some places, buying these goods doesn’t require money, but a reputation-based system. Different types of shells are covered, starting with organic and moving onto mechanical. Each has advantages and disadvantages. The Net enables the use of digital shells, which can come with programs, and digital combat is covered. Finally, there are some details on creating transhuman polities, one-roll polity missions, using the same methods as previously, and rewards for transhuman polity missions.
Space Magic covers the use of magic in this game. There are guidelines on inchoating magic and the suggestion that the game could be used as the basis of a fantasy system. The first step is choosing the spells to use; it’s recommended not going beyond level 5 in power as spell casters would become too powerful compared to non-spellcasters. There’s a new skill, Magic, and two different types of magic, spells and invocations. Spells take time; invocations are faster. How to learn them is next. The first spellcaster is the Arcanist and they all share the same spell list. Partial Arcanist is an option for those who don’t want a full-fledged caster. The Magister class uses a limited number of spells and their familiarity allows them to cast them quickly. Again, there is a Partial Magister class. The final class is the Adept, which is intended to be used to bring in classes that have special abilities, rather than spells. There’s a Partial class again and an example Adept; Adept classes are built onto a framework, so there can be many different ones. Arcane Foci are abilities for characters with magical abilities.
Heroic Characters has rules for creating characters who are far more capable than the standard ones. Normal games feature characters who are still quite vulnerable; the options in this section make them rather less so. Heroic characters have higher ability scores, more hit points and the ability to wipe out lesser foes as an afterthought whilst attacking more dangerous ones using a mechanism called the Fray Die. With them being more powerful, there are some rules on creating foes and adventures that can challenge them.
True Artificial Intelligences explains the creation of AIs and their abilities, and how they are “braked” to stop them going insane. True AIs have various abilities, but are not necessarily smarter than a human. They can just do stuff more quickly. There is an AI class for players and these have routines, essentially computer programs that function as abilities.
Societies covers these. The GM is only recommended to build these if and when they are needed, and there are various one roll tables, like earlier ones, for determining origins, rulers, the ruled and flavour.
Mechs explain how and why these were created. There are details on piloting and maintaining mechs, as well as using them in combat. Fitting, defences and weaponry are followed by various mech designs.
Stars Without Number: Revised Edition in Review
The PDF is bookmarked with major and minor sections linked. The Table of Contents only covers chapters, but is hyperlinked. The Index is in more detail. Navigation is good. The text maintains a two-column colour format and appeared to be almost free of errors. There are a lot of colour illustrations, up to full page in size, all of which appear to be custom. Presentation is good.
As is stated in the text, with some minor adjustments, this system is backwards compatible with the previous material. This is useful, as it means that there is already a decent amount of material on hand to use, not counting other OSR material, which will require more tweaking but can often still be used.
For an OSR game, this is a pretty substantial rulebook. Characters do have more abilities than in the very oldest games, but a lot of the material is optional. Transhuman campaigns, mechs, psionics, magic; none of these or other subsystems necessarily have to be used. The framework appears to be pretty sound for adding and removing components. Though removing one element, such as psionics, will alter other areas – mechs won’t have psionic-related equipment, for instance – the secondary changes appear to be pretty obvious. Even those who don’t want a more lethal OSR game can use the heroic options to make characters that are far more capable and deadly.
The system is definitely aimed more at a sandbox way of playing than anything else. The various world and adventure building sections are all aimed at sandbox, but it doesn’t have to be played like this. Just because the adventure and worldbuilding is sandbox doesn’t mean you can’t use existing adventures or settings. Not every GM can, wants to or has the time to build stuff on the fly, and Stars Without Number could certainly be used with something existing.
The best way of approaching this system is probably to treat it like a large toolbox. There is the basic system, and various different elements can be added onto it, to run the sort of game you want. Though it is aimed at a certain type of play, neither that type, nor, for that matter, the genre, are fixed in stone. Stars Without Number: Revised Edition is an interesting and modular system and it can be found by clicking here.
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