The map is drawn, the combatants are stated up, and the pieces are in place. It's finally time to begin the Redshirts Stars Without Number faction game for the Ptolemy sector. I am sad, though, that I did not think to include an ASTEROID WITCH.
For those who have come late, or never paid attention and suddenly want to, here are the blog entries detailing the setup (but you probably don't need to really know any of it):
Galactic End Game
SWN Factions: The Begining
SWN Faction Game: Movement and Geography
SWN Factions: The Alliance of Independent States
SWN Factions: Aquila Union
SWN Factions: Almagest Rebellion
SWN Factions: Skorpios Empire
The Redshirts campaign began on Groundhog Day, 3200 CE, and has been going on for at least ten months in game. That's a lot of travel time while they have been frozen scout-sicles. I'll start the faction game one month earlier, and take it in one month turns until we've caught up with the PCs.
In the faction game, the first bit is initiative. That's page 113 in the fancy (core) Stars Without Number rule book. There are four players, so a d4 will do. The order of the factions will be (dice roll please,)the Alliance of Independent States, the Almagest Rebellion, the Skorpios Empire, and last, but not least, the Aquila Union.
Alliance of Independent States - They AIS gains four FacCreds for this month, and has no maintenance charges, giving them a total of four FacCreds in the bank.. The Alliance decides to take the action of Use Asset Ability, sending their Demagogue, Surveyor, and stealthed Psychic Assassin assets from Atlas to Cicada via their Covert Transit Net. This moves almost all of their assets out of their realm of control, but their intelligence is good and the Alliance knows that the Aquila Union will be busy with Skorpios for a while.
NEWS BLURB - Labor leader, human-rights activist, and well know seditionist Harry Freedonia arrived at the Cicada system on the January 5, 3200. "I'm simply here to speak to the natives - the so-called Klakkers - about their unalienable rights to freedom and self expression.," he told the PXL news service. The Aquila Governor's office on Cicada issued a statement shortly thereafter, indicating that they had detained Harry Freedonia upon his arrival, but had released him and his staff within hours after they were unable to find official links between him and the Alliance of Independent States.
Almagest Rebellion - The Rebellion scrounges up two Fac Creds in January, and has no bills to pay. Looking at the Goals, I think I assigned one that is far too unrealistic - that of seizing the planet. I'll reassign a goal that is more plausible, without punishing the poor rebels. Blood the Enemy requires eight HP of damage to be done to the enemy, which is far more doable. With that, the rebellion chooses the Attack action, sending their Zealots and Vanguard Cadres into battle vs. the Skorpios Postech Infantry on Almagest. They must come out of stealth to do the attack.
In the Vanguard Cadre battle, d10 + rebel's cunning vs d10 + empire's cunning result in 2+4 vs. 1+7 or 6 vs. 7 in favor of the Skorpios Empire. The Postech Infantry's d8 counterattack did 6 hp to the Vanguard Cadre, leaving it with 6 hit points. The zealots lost as well, 8 to 16, and took 2 hit points. As zealots, they damaged themselves with a d4 resulting in 1, leaving them with only 1 hit point. In seeking to do eight points of damage, the rebellion's assets took nine points instead, and exposed their positions.
NEWS BLURB - Scattered reports from Almagast City over the first two weeks of January indicate a major offensive by the Skorpios Empire into the city's sewage infrastructure. On January 12, Scientist-Theologan Yuri Azov announced via The Mouth of Truth News, "The womb-born slave malcontents of Almagast made a paltry and pathetic attack on the Chernobyl Barracks, but were massacred where they stood. We've taken the liberty of gassing the sewers to root those maggot-eaten rats out of their fear holes. All is calm now, and we are in control. Praise Emperor-Scientist Andropov!"
Skorpios Empire - The most powerful faction in the sector pulls the biggest income at 6 FacCreds for January. Like Almagest, I probably chose an unrealistic immediate goal, and will pick Expand Influence instead. The Alliance decides to take the action of Use Asset Ability and sends the stealthed assets Surveyors and Treachery from Argo to Aquila held Corvus via it's Beachhead Landers for 2 FacCreds.
This movement sets off the Tripwire Cells that Aquila had placed on Corvus. Rolling vs. Cunning against each asset, The tripwire ties with a 4+5 vs. 2+7 against the Surveyors, and looses to the Treachery at 4+5 vs. 6+7. So, the Surveyors and the Treachery land stealthed on Corvus, safe and sound.
NEWS BLURB - The PXL news service had learned that due to a complete lack of suspicious activity along the Corvus/Argo border, military leaders are relaxing protocols, calling for a parade in the capital, followed by a planet-wide leave on January 21st. "While we will still be on high alert," said General Wallace McKenzie, "I've got a feeling that the Skorps don't have much fight left in them. After all, they've been getting their nose bloodied by the rebels on Almagest. I think we'll be perfectly safe.
Aquila Union - The union gains 5 FacCreds this round. While I would have normally had the union continue to build up militarily against the Skorpios Empire, I am going to go with the Tripwire Failure above and have Aquila turn its attention to the Demagogue Harry Freedonia who is making trouble on Cicada with the alien Klakkers. Aquila will decide to buy an asset, specifically the Saboteurs asset on Cicada for 5 FacCredits. This will probably cost them against Skorpios in the long run.
NEWS BLURB - On January 30th, the Aquila Governor's office on Cicada announced the formation of the Inland Relationship Service, a governmental organization tasked with improving relationship with the native Klakker populations. "Its been centuries since the Terran Mandate put down the Great Klakker Rebellions," said Governor Alice Vidalia. "The Klakkers left on Cicada mean us no harm. They live in their little mud heaps out in the jungle and get on with their lives. I think they are perfectly safe, and have no intention of building another Death Fleet intent on wiping humanity from Known Space. We've assembled some highly talented teams to teach them the art of papier mache, how to perform classical theater, and each Klakker will receive a Rubik's Cube which will spray them with Happy Pheromone F-3000c when they complete the puzzle successfully. I think these are excellent building blocks for an improved relationship with our impoverished alien hive-mind neighbors."
This has actually been pretty damn enjoyable. It's pretty quick and simple once you get the hang of it. The abstractness of the system lets me use my imagination in ways I wouldn't have expected, and writing up those news blurbs has been really fun.
So, that's it for the month of January. Three days after the Klakker announcement was released, the Redshirts blasted out of a surprise Skorpios Naval Blockade on the Schwarzkopf Rim and began their adventures in The Void.
Oh, for those that have read down this far and still have some sort of clue as to what is going on - and care - here is a sector map detailing the large scale movement assets of the factions and some places of interest.
- Ark
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Monday, November 12, 2012
SWN Factions: Skorpios Empire
The last of the major factions in the Ptolemy sector is the Skorpios Empire. When settlers arrived on Skorpios, they discovered that it was dominated by a single type of organism - an alien fungus that would destroy or eventually choke out every other type of life. High technology kept the fungus at bay, but after the Silence, desperate researchers discovered how to prevent the fungus from killing humans by adding the alien fungal DNA to the human genome.
The hybrid offspring had a tendency to be stronger, smarter, and a bit more crazy that regular humans. The scientists decided that they had stumbled upon the secret to human perfection, and executed everyone who refused the upgrade.
Six hundred years later find the humans of Skorpios unable to naturally reproduce, requiring automated vat systems to produce new generations of crazy little supermen and women. Scientist-Emperor Leonid Andropov, a 300 year old short, bald, macrocephalic crazy man in a white lab coat, rules the empire with an iron lab glove, intent on enslaving all other humans in the galaxy, working them to death, and replacing them with his vat born children.
| Faction | Skorpios Empire |
| Attributes | |
| Force |
8
|
| Cunning |
7
|
| Wealth |
5
|
| Hit Points |
49
|
| Systems/Assets | |
Almagest
|
Planetary Government |
| Base of Influence HP:29 | |
| Postech Infantry/Force 4 | |
Apotelesmatika
|
Planetary Government |
| Base of Influence HP:12 | |
Argo
|
Planetary Government |
| Base of Influence HP:12 | |
| Postech Infantry/Force 4 | |
| Extended Theaters/Force 4 | |
| Beachhead Landers/Force 4 | |
| Treachery/Cunning 7 | |
| Stealth/Cunning 3 | |
| Stealth/Cunning 3 | |
| Surveyors/Wealth 2 | |
Belinski
|
Planetary Government |
| Base of Influence HP:4 | |
Dubyago
|
Planetary Government |
| Base of Influence HP:4 | |
Harmonics
|
Planetary Government |
| Base of Influence HP:4 | |
Optics
|
Planetary Government |
| Base of Influence HP:4 | |
Skorpios
|
Homeworld |
| Base of Influence HP:49 | |
| Tags | Imperialists |
| FacCredits/Turn |
6
|
| Goal | Planetary Seizure |
- Ark
Sunday, November 11, 2012
SWN Factions: Almagest Rebellion
The third, and weakest, of the factions in the Ptolemy sector is a covert military organization. The rebellion on Almagest has been taking place ever since ships from the Skorpios Empire invasion force landed there a generation ago. The empire has enslaved the population, ravaged the landscape, and pillaged the planets natural resources, but it has not broken the will of the people. The conquered populace has a tradition of giving one child per family over to the rebellion to be trained in the ways of combat and sabotage.
The Almaghest Rebellion has no visible leaders. It is divided up into small cells that commit covert acts of violence to the Skorpios Empire whenever they get a chance. In between one fifth and one sixth of the world's population goes to the movement, but in actuality, the empire finds and kills half of the cell members on a regular basis, leaving a very small and scattered organization left in operation.
The Almaghest Rebellion has no visible leaders. It is divided up into small cells that commit covert acts of violence to the Skorpios Empire whenever they get a chance. In between one fifth and one sixth of the world's population goes to the movement, but in actuality, the empire finds and kills half of the cell members on a regular basis, leaving a very small and scattered organization left in operation.
| Faction | Almagest Rebellion |
| Attributes | |
| Force |
3
|
| Cunning |
4
|
| Wealth |
1
|
| Hit Points |
15
|
| Systems/Assets | |
Almagest
|
Homeworld |
| Base of Influence HP:15 | |
| Vanguard Cadres/Cunning 4 | |
| Zealots/Force 3 | |
| Tags | Secretive |
| FacCredits/Turn |
2
|
| Goal | Seize Planet |
- Ark
Saturday, November 10, 2012
SWN Factions: Aquila Union
The next faction, alphabetically speaking, is the Aquila Union. It is an federation of two major systems, three average systems, and four weaker ones - founded and dominated by the Aquila System. Currently, the Union is led by two people. First is President General Moira Muldoon, instated by the Union's Congress of Planets as the Supreme Commander in Chief under the long standing Temporary Defense Initiative. The second is Prime Minister Charles Shaw, elected by popular vote and charged with keeping the Union strong economically.
The Muldoon-Shaw Administration is only three years old, forged out of the seven years of political chaos caused by the succession of Talus and the other members of the Alliance of Independent Systems. Shaw is desperate to stabilize the economy of the union and balance the budgets, knowing full well that Mulddon will need the wealth of the nation to combat the eventual invasion of the Skorpios empire.
The capital, Aquila, is well defended and hosts the bulk of the union's industry and market activity. The union's military is positioned towards Skorpios, ready to defend when needed.
- Ark
The Muldoon-Shaw Administration is only three years old, forged out of the seven years of political chaos caused by the succession of Talus and the other members of the Alliance of Independent Systems. Shaw is desperate to stabilize the economy of the union and balance the budgets, knowing full well that Mulddon will need the wealth of the nation to combat the eventual invasion of the Skorpios empire.
The capital, Aquila, is well defended and hosts the bulk of the union's industry and market activity. The union's military is positioned towards Skorpios, ready to defend when needed.
| Faction | Aquila Union |
| Attributes | |
| Force |
7
|
| Cunning |
4
|
| Wealth |
6
|
| Hit Points |
38
|
| Systems/Assets | |
Aquila
|
Homeworld |
| Planetary Government | |
| Base of Influence HP:38 | |
| Planetary Defenses/Force 6 | |
| PostTech Industry/Wealth 3 | |
| Venture Capital/Wealth 6 | |
Arachne
|
Planetary Government |
| Base of Influence HP:3 | |
Cicada
|
Planetary Government |
| Base of Influence HP:3 | |
Corvus
|
Planetary Government |
| Base of Influence HP:3 | |
| Postech Infantry/Force 4 | |
| Tripwire Cell/Cunning 4 | |
Locust
|
Planetary Government |
| Base of Influence HP:22 | |
Patton
|
Planetary Government |
| Base of Influence: 18 | |
| Postech Infantry/Force 4 | |
Pershing
|
Planetary Government |
| Base of Influence HP:18 | |
Ridgway
|
Planetary Government |
| Base of Influence HP:3 | |
| Strike Fleet/Force 4 | |
| Blockade Runners/Wealth 5 | |
Schwarzkopf
|
Planetary Government |
| Base of Influence HP:18 | |
Talus
|
Base of Influence HP:1 |
| Tags | Warlike |
| FacCredits/Turn |
5
|
| Goal | Peacable Kingdom |
- Ark
Friday, November 9, 2012
Player Portraits: Crazy Ass Tim
In my games, I not only subject my players to horrors beyond space and time, but I also torture them by attempting to draw them. This one is Crazy Ass Tim. I think I should start calling him Cray-Cray. Anyway, here he is, staring incredulously at a fellow player who just opened a closet and began digging through a sock drawer while the rest of the party fought off Cthullu's personal demonic guard dog Sparky-Of-The-Thousand-Eyes.
- Ark
- Ark
SWN Factions: The Alliance of Independent States
I am going to start outlining the four big players in the Stars Without Number factions game, starting with the Alliance of Independent States. As said before, this is a loose alliance of worlds that were wrested from the Aquila Union and the Skorpios Empire by regional warlords. The AIS is situated in the Wilds, far away from the travelled space lanes in the Ptolemy Sector, so it was easy to escape retribution for the rebellion. However, that distance also makes it difficult for the Alliance to bring much force to bear against their former friends.
The leader of the Alliance, Magistrate Popova, has decided to continue his already successful campaign of coercion, sabotage, and shit-stirring to disrupt the trade in both Aquila and Skorpios controlled space. He has built a covert transit net, giving him easy access to most of the planets of Aquila and a piece of Skorpios. Now he is prepared to send a wave of spies, assassins, and loud mouthed trouble makers out into the galaxy and make a base of operations where he can cause even more trouble and profit as much as possible.
The stats for Magistrate Popova's political machine are below:
| Faction | Alliance of Independent States |
| Attributes | |
| Force |
5
|
| Cunning |
6
|
| Wealth |
3
|
| Hit Points |
29
|
| Systems/Assets | |
Atlas
|
Planetary Government |
| Base of Influence HP:5 | |
| Covert Transit Net/Cunning 6 | |
| Demagogue/Cunning 6 | |
| Psychic Assassins/Force 5 | |
| Surveyors/Wealth 2 | |
Geographia
|
Planetary Government |
| Base of Influence HP:1 | |
Novikov
|
Planetary Government |
| Base of Influence HP:1 | |
Smirnova
|
Planetary Government |
| Base of Influence HP:1 | |
Talus
|
Homeworld |
| Planetary Government | |
| Base of Influence HP:29 | |
| Tags | Pirates |
| FacCredits/Turn |
4
|
| Goal | Expand Influence |
- Ark
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Redshirts: UFO Invasion!
In last night's Stars Without Number game, the scouts awoke to learn that they were going to an isolated human planet named Tunguska, with a technology approximating Earth around 1940-1970. Black and white TV, check. Radar, check. Sonar, check. Disneyland, check. Computers that could calculate PI to the 12th place that filled up a garage, check. Given the fact they would be going there in an ancient alien spacecraft that resembled a flying saucer, the session had The Day the Earth Stood Still written all over it. But strangely, it devolved into The Creature from the Black Lagoon.
I added a pack of rival scouts called the Omega team, headed by Lt. Chad Tarkinson. Lt. Chad was, of course, blonde, square-chinned, and arrogant. The crew found out that Omega Team had been going behind them and cleaning up the messes that they had left on various planets, and that Omega Team was jockeying for their jobs.
The players were PISSED. Plans of how to destroy the Omega Team immediately began to take shape.
Omega team took the Northern Hemisphere of Tunguska, and '"Alpha' Team took the south. A flyby revealed a huge structure sticking out of the sea near the only southern continent. Quickly they determined it was what was left of a kilometer wide Jump gate. What was above the water resembled the top of a giant "C." Along the ocean, boardwalk, piers, and even hotels had been built by the natives. The coral reef that had formed made the area excellent for fishing - which made stealth a bit more difficult for our intrepid crew.
Anyway, here are our dear Adelaide's notes for the night's festivities, the the traditional purple:
Stars Without Number (Bullet Points)
So, the team made some pretty good choices - and because they were so pissed off with the Omega Team - they stayed on task and completed one of the most important parts of the entire mission into the Void; obtaining a ship - other than the Reprieve - that could make a 4 hex jump.
Meanwhile, Omega Team found a museum, which they broke into, and only recovered some pretech walkie-talkies. Alpha Team rubbed their noses in it. :)
- Ark
I added a pack of rival scouts called the Omega team, headed by Lt. Chad Tarkinson. Lt. Chad was, of course, blonde, square-chinned, and arrogant. The crew found out that Omega Team had been going behind them and cleaning up the messes that they had left on various planets, and that Omega Team was jockeying for their jobs.
The players were PISSED. Plans of how to destroy the Omega Team immediately began to take shape.
Omega team took the Northern Hemisphere of Tunguska, and '"Alpha' Team took the south. A flyby revealed a huge structure sticking out of the sea near the only southern continent. Quickly they determined it was what was left of a kilometer wide Jump gate. What was above the water resembled the top of a giant "C." Along the ocean, boardwalk, piers, and even hotels had been built by the natives. The coral reef that had formed made the area excellent for fishing - which made stealth a bit more difficult for our intrepid crew.
Anyway, here are our dear Adelaide's notes for the night's festivities, the the traditional purple:
Stars Without Number (Bullet Points)
![]() |
| The newest player, Skipper again drew her character - Manna 'Doc' Davies |
- The group awakes from the freeze sleep once again with Lt. Commander Gonzales is standing creepily over them.
- Ken arrives with his band of plastic Barbie dolls (she's talking about Omega Team here - see how pissed off she is? -ark) and the dick measuring begins. Owlicious will forever be looking for an excuse to fire upon them.
- The group is given a crappy beat-up version of the UFOs from last time, pissing the group off further, and they leave.
- The group, while scanning their tiny part of the world, find part of a ship (pretech jump gate) sticking out of the ocean and they decide to investigate.
- The native people of the world have mined out a lot of the ship and are using it for like a Disney vacation spot.
- They go down deeper into the ship and they discover a giant eel the size of the UFO. It attacks the ship so they decide it would be best to fire at it with the heat cannon even though Owlicious advised against it. The heat kills the eel but also wounds the UFO and probably alerts the people up above them that something has happened.
- Doc Davies artfully awakens Kal Kek but Miles Obrian only manages to dissect Professor Ramapudi and Doc Davies is forced to try and stabilize him. She manages to keep him alive but he is now in a vegetative state.
- The group leaves Kal Kek and Professor Ramapudi behind and head on to the door leading into the giant ship. (jump gate)
- They come across a giant room that has a bar and dance floor as well as a giant window where the group can see sea creatures outside it. The tank, Titus Leandros, instantly runs to go get plastered and then loses himself on the dance floor. (Break dancing, strangely enough.)
- Lt. Taylor calls for a guide to take the group to the jump gate's barracks using the wifi he’s found and the guide takes the group to an elevator that then opens to water, wounding several of the members. The team then splits up, with the power-armored people leaving to go find any items that might still be okay.
- Owlicious, Lt. Taylor, and Desmond leave and return to the bar/dance floor area. The other party members manage to find some guns that they then load up on. Titus takes 22 stun-guns and 3 grav-harnesses. Doc Davies picks up 19 lifeboat survival packs.
- They then meet back up with the rest of the group and Owlicious casually lets Lt. Taylor know that Titus had consumed Methyl alcohol instead of alcohol. Doc Davies then is ordered to heal him and succeeds only in getting the toxins out of his body.
- Fish people suddenly come out into the bar and fire upon Titus and Lt. Taylor and they go down. Miles slaps a laz patch onto Titus and he comes back to consciousness. Doc Davies then laz patches Lt. Taylor and he is also up.
- Lt. Taylor hits one of the guns that knocks them all, except one, unconscious. Everyone else had missed with their guns. The last fish person then disappears into a grass door that opened underneath them.
- Lt. Taylor then gets angry and destroys all of them and Owlicious collects samples for SCIENCE.
- Lt. Taylor then makes the ship play the sonic sound all over the intercoms, which makes all the life signs on the scanners slowly disappear.
- They find jewelry and the females go crazy! Then they find a box with a little sphere in it. It opens up to show a small AI and Owlicious tells it she is a princess and claims him as her new companion. She names him Teddy.
- The group then leaves, Owlicious taking Teddy with her, and head to the hangar; which isn’t looking too well.
- They find pieces of great ships but no full ships themselves. Owlicious and Titus decide to test Teddy’s healing abilities and he cuts Titus open, then re-closes him and actually managed to not kill him.
- The group decides to attach a beacon to the spike drive so that they will know if it moves.
- They wake up Professor Ramapudi using Teddy, which surprisingly it works.
- The group decides then to stay for an extra month to build their own ship instead of trying to look for another one and lets Omega team know.
- They take off in their new ship but it has no cloaking which terrifies the natives and causes them to react badly. The team fires their ships gun as a warning and also to test it out, cause why the fuck not?
- They manage to make it back to the main planet with the ship and everyone is promoted! Yay!
![]() |
| Adelaide drew her character's new AI friend, Teddy the floating eyeball |
So, the team made some pretty good choices - and because they were so pissed off with the Omega Team - they stayed on task and completed one of the most important parts of the entire mission into the Void; obtaining a ship - other than the Reprieve - that could make a 4 hex jump.
Meanwhile, Omega Team found a museum, which they broke into, and only recovered some pretech walkie-talkies. Alpha Team rubbed their noses in it. :)
- Ark
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