Stars/Worlds Without Number (General Thread)

[kenada]

I am trying to understand the system for Renown and major projects, which turns out to be quite difficult because the actual rules are hidden within walls and walls of examples.

This is an unfortunate and pervasive problem with WWN.

What's the difference between the difficulty and the renown cost for a project? In some paragraphs they seem to be the same thing, but in other places they are mentioned as two separate things the PCs have to deal with.

There are two ways PCs can go about acquiring enough Renown to complete a project. They can earn Renown by adventuring, but they can also take steps to decrease the difficulty. The “Decreasing the Difficulty” section describes several ways PCs can go about doing that. The reason for the distinction is that Renown gained towards decreasing the difficulty of a project does not affect the PCs’ own Renown.

For example, while trying to establish a trade route, the PCs spend 50,000 sp buying off bandits and recalcitrant officials. That’s enough sp to purchase 17 Renown, which reduces the difficulty of the project accordingly. If the PCs had 10 Renown before they started bribing everyone, they’d still have 10 Renown afterward (plus whatever they earn normally per “Renown Rewards” on pages 254–255).

 

[Yora]

Rules question: When a character goes from mortally wounded to frail, is he only unable to regain hit points from natural healing, or does he also not recover any system strain while being frail?

 

[TwoSix]

Rules question: When a character goes from mortally wounded to frail, is he only unable to regain hit points from natural healing, or does he also not recover any system strain while being frail?

Characters who are frail do not recover (although I suppose reduce would be more accurate) System Strain. Page 48, first column, under the Natural Healing header.

 

[Yora]

wipes glasses

Ah, there it is.

Wall of Text strikes again.

 

[kenada]

The offset print version of the book is available on Sine Nomine’s web store.

My copy came today. I also have the PoD version. The offset print version is much nicer. The cover is sized correctly, so it lays flat properly when open. It also doesn’t suffer from the “gray” text problem with PoD when black text is printed on top of images — like in tables with alternating white and non-white row backgrounds. It also appears to include the errata, which my PoD copy does not.

We still haven’t done a second session. I’ve needed to push back a couple of times due to not being ready. That’s somewhat on me. I was falling into old habits for prep, which was just too much. If things go well, we should have our second session on August 7th.

And now a question for everyone here: how large are your groups? We had four players, but one decided to take a break, leaving us with three. WWN is all about old-school, so encounters aren’t balanced for the PCs, but do things keep working more or less with smaller groups? We’ve got a warrior, a healer/partial-necromancer, and an expert. It seems like the major roles are covered.

 

[TwoSix]

The offset print version of the book is available on Sine Nomine’s web store.

My copy came today. I also have the PoD version. The offset print version is much nicer. The cover is sized correctly, so it lays flat properly when open. It also doesn’t suffer from the “gray” text problem with PoD when black text is printed on top of images — like in tables with alternating white and non-white row backgrounds. It also appears to include the errata, which my PoD copy does not.

We still haven’t done a second session. I’ve needed to push back a couple of times due to not being ready. That’s somewhat on me. I was falling into old habits for prep, which was just too much. If things go well, we should have our second session on August 7th.

And now a question for everyone here: how large are your groups? We had four players, but one decided to take a break, leaving us with three. WWN is all about old-school, so encounters aren’t balanced for the PCs, but do things keep working more or less with smaller groups? We’ve got a warrior, a healer/partial-necromancer, and an expert. It seems like the major roles are covered.

I DM for a group of 3 players, a group of 5 players, and a group of 7 players. I'm planning on doing my Dark Sun WWN game with the 7 player group.

 

[Yora]

I'm working on a new campaign right now and aiming to start with five players. So when one drops out I still got four left, and when one can't make it it's still three players and we can play.
I am planning for something with a smaller group, so the fifth player is really mostly the margin of error, since I expect there to be some rotation of players at the start until you have a group of four established regulars who are in for the long haul.

While much of the game is based on OD&D and B/X, the main factor that made those old games tailored for large groups was the XP for treasure mechanic, which isn't in WWN by default. When the game isn't so much about the constant hauling of loot taken from beneath the butts of sleeping dragons or pried from the hands of a hibernating lich, large parties with a fast overturn of PCs aren't really a necessity.

If such a thing is desired, I would definitely through out the Henchkeeper focus. It requires way too much of an investment for very little gain. The henchpeople suck and aren't worth 2 foci. I'd just replace those with the henchmen rules from Basic Fantasy (which is completely free).
If PCs having henchmen is desired, then locking them between two foci really isn't the way to go. They should be free and much stronger. (Though I guess with the WWN XP system, having them get a share of the fixed amount of XP does no longer work as an incentive not to have a whole entourage of them at all times.)

I wrote down some notes to give players an idea what they can expect of WWN as a game when I start looking for players. Maybe this might be useful to some.

 

[kenada]

Thanks @TwoSix and @Yora. It sounds like we should be okay. My players didn’t seem particularly fond of retainers in OSE, so I won’t really push that as an option.

If such a thing is desired, I would definitely through out the Henchkeeper focus. It requires way too much of an investment for very little gain. The henchpeople suck and aren't worth 2 foci. I'd just replace those with the henchmen rules from Basic Fantasy (which is completely free).

As I understand it, Henchkeeper doesn’t stop you from getting hirelings the normal way (see the intro on page 24 and also page 34). It just guarantees you’ll find someone, won’t have to pay them, and they’ll be loyal unless you put them in “unacceptable danger”. If you don’t want to spend 2 foci on that, you should be able to hire someone (subject to their being available and willing to work for you).

I wrote down some notes to give players an idea what they can expect of WWN as a game when I start looking for players. Maybe this might be useful to some.

Are there some house rules in there? The initiative rules look like B/X.

 

[John Desmarais]

I wrote down some notes to give players an idea what they can expect of WWN as a game when I start looking for players. Maybe this might be useful to some.

That's keen. My copy arrived today and I'm all excited to run something with it (a big solid book creates more excitement than big ephemeral PDFs) - but I need to bring one of my current games to a graceful conclusion first, then convince one of my groups to give it a try. Your doc will help.

One note though, if you use the rules in the Demihumans of the Latter Earth chapter, then race does have a mechanical effect (in the form of predefined foci).

 

[TwoSix]

I wrote down some notes to give players an idea what they can expect of WWN as a game when I start looking for players. Maybe this might be useful to some.

This is a really nice document, thank you! Very succinct (which is not WWN's strength).

Are there some house rules in there? The initiative rules look like B/X.

This looks like the initiative rules I have in my book. 1d8+highest Dex mod in the party, group initiative.