Stars/Worlds Without Number (General Thread)

[kenada]

Amusing conversation with one of my players while I work on prepping for Saturday.

Me: I’m working on factions. Finland Expeditionary Forces has the “Useful Idiots” asset. Can you guess what that is?
Player: That better not be us lol
Me: Not exactly, but it is “adventurers”.

Yeah, the local military leadership views adventurers as disposable. It just felt so right to give their faction that asset when I wrote them up.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I’m not sure about that. The player archetypes in Numenera fit its setting incredibly well. While there is a lot of fantasy in Numenera, the game also leans more into some of the science-fiction with its foci: e.g., Talks With Machines, Fuses Flesh and Steel, Dances with Dark Matter, etc. WWN has a lot of science-fantasy, but Numenera is more overt with its “sciency” aspects.

Also, IME, I have seen so many different opinions - from my players and online - about what would have been a “better” system for Numenera than its native Cypher System: e.g., Fate, Cortex, WWN, PbtA, etc. I think that what one considers the “best” system for Numenera often says more about one’s expectations for what the Ninth World should be or what one wants it to be rather than what it is.

That said, one could definitely run the Ninth World using WWN, but that would also move the game closer to D&D style fantasy than it already is.

Fair.

Here's what I liked about Numenara. The setting. The description of the character "I am a robust Glaive who drives really fast cars" (not a real description). The art. The science/fantasy meld. The character advancement system.

Here's what I didn't really like. XP as currency to change role outcomes. The "tiers" of success based on 3 - just so we can continue to use a d20. Unnecessarily fiddly imo. Poor/No social rules.

 

[Aldarc]

Fair.

Here's what I liked about Numenara. The setting. The description of the character "I am a robust Glaive who drives really fast cars" (not a real description). The art. The science/fantasy meld. The character advancement system.

Here's what I didn't really like. XP as currency to change role outcomes. The "tiers" of success based on 3 - just so we can continue to use a d20. Unnecessarily fiddly imo. Poor/No social rules.

I can sympathize with the dissatisfaction people may have for the Cypher System when it comes to playing the Numenera setting, as some of my own group have expressed similar issues. I have no desire to steer you towards or away from the Cypher System, or WWN for that matter. WWN is hackable enough that one should manage to fill in the gaps of more tone-appropriate abilities, spells, and options for the Ninth World. My own preference, however, is to build the world from or around the options in the system and see where that takes me.

 

[kenada]

Is the Relocate Assets action the same thing as a Move Assets action? There are several asset special abilities that refer to the former, but it’s not defined anywhere.

 

[kenada]

After doing my first round of the faction game, I’m not sure. It feels super clunky, and the book’s explanation and organization of things is confusing.

A few observations:

• It sucks to be a small faction. You start out with no assets, so your only option is to generate treasure for awhile and hope no one notices you or acts against you.
• It’s probably a good idea to run a few turns prior to the start of the campaign. Otherwise, everyone starts out with no treasure and all their assets back at their base of influence. I guess? It’s not specified. (I did the latter.)
• It’s not really clear how overt conflict is supposed to work. If I want to charge in and smash your base, I can’t just go hit it. I have to establish access to it. So I guess you really want something to infiltrate because there are no siege assets (Siege Experts just give you treasure).
• I wish “in the same location” was better defined. The game uses a freaking hex map! Why not use it to simplify faction movement and position? SWN just assumes you can attack any world. This part feels really ill-defined and/or considered.
• Why was asset type removed from SWN? Some assets don’t really make sense as something that can move. Why should Cooperative Businesses, which are subtle, be able to just mosey over to someone else’s cities and subvert them?

I also dropped one faction because none of the mechanics make any sense for it. The party brought a vampire back with them when they returned from the iterum where I ran Halls of the Blood King. She’s going to eventually want to create more of her kind and expand her influence. None of the assets really make sense though even though it seems like she should develop into a faction.

 

[Aldarc]

Is the Relocate Assets action the same thing as a Move Assets action? There are several asset special abilities that refer to the former, but it’s not defined anywhere.

I will look, but I think that for a lot more rule specific questions like this, I would almost recommend the WWN Subreddit more. You are likelier to even get an answer from Kevin Crawford (aka Cardinal Ximenes).

Edit: From what I can tell (pp. 324-326), yes, it's the same thing.

 

[kenada]

Ran today’s game. Things went very well, though I ended up needing NPCs I hadn’t converted to the new format yet. I need to add an exploration activity for tracking, but I have an idea for how that should work. After mulling it over, I think I’m going to replace the faction game with something that’s more useful to my needed.

My current thinking is factions can engage in a number of Operations equal to their Wealth. Ops are tracked with a countdown clock and are typically related to one of their attributes. If they engage in more than that, they have to pay upkeep in Treasure. To help reduce the burden of having too many Ops, they can obtain Assets that allow them to engage in more Ops or perhaps in certain specialized Ops. Progression in an Operation would be determined by rolling at the start of the round in faction game (like the fortune roll in BitD). When the clock completes, the faction gains XP. The more difficult the Op, the bigger the clock, but the more XP they get for fulfilling it.

What I dislike about the faction game is it doesn’t fit my conceptual model of a faction. I have a cult, but it’s not some evil doomsday cult. On the other hand, people may not want its influence to spread. I feel like it doesn’t model that very well. If I want to infiltrate and subvert or scout things, the units available just don’t feel all that great. It’s hard to know what you “should” buy. I would rather just be able to state what my goal is and have some guidelines for costing it out and managing it. If you’re going to force me to rely on fictional positioning for things like permission and location, then just let me go all the way. It’s fiddly in a way that feels at odds with the rest of the system.

 

[kenada]

Kevin Crawford posted a preview of the map from the upcoming Atlas of the Latter Earth supplement along with a nation writeup for Atlantis.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

The Zakathi sound like a nice candidate for use of an Athasian dwarf.

 

[Aldarc]

Kevin Crawford posted a preview of the map from the upcoming Atlas of the Latter Earth supplement along with a nation writeup for Atlantis.

A pre-Hyborian Atlantis style campaign actually does seem like a good fit for Worlds Without Number.