Vess's Thought Corner

RPG Intro | The Last Job | 1000 words

This is a personal advertisement for a TTRPG campaign I’m running.

Flavor Stories

A boot thuds into mud, spraying the muck and bits of blood mixed into it outwards in a splash. The Commander above barks continued orders in a rapidly declining hoarse voice as she tries to instill a bit of order into the chaos of rampant death surrounding her. Her words fall on the deaf ears of corpses- and those soon to be such. With a harried look she frantically glances about the battlefield, trying to spot something to get her and her men out of this. All her eyes fall on is a gravtank: a hundred tons of pure alloy and spitfire laz guns. It swings the bore of its spiraled focusing rod towards her group. Vibrant streaks of green energy spark along the rod- and red hot death on a flash of light spews from the tip… And strikes faster than lightning through the meat and bone of ten men in the blink of an eye. The harbinger has come, and their souls are chafe to split from the wheat.

* * *

A starship, no bigger than a transport class frigate, caresses its cold steel belly along the sparkling cerulean dust of Syros’s third moon. A sight to behold- this sight seeker passed under the prying noses and pinging radars of three different deep space scanning stations to get here. A fringe world under the protection of the Terran Mandate, Syros was proclaimed a non-exploitable planet, in an effort to preserve its natural fauna and flora. But there were rumors, of course, rumors of a deeper reason. No shot’ that the Mandate would chuck 10 million credits at some hippie backwater planet in the pursuit of such a moralistic goal. No- no this freight junkie figured there was a deeper reason to all of it. Where others had failed he had succeeded. Equipped with the latest Divine piece of stealth tech he had slipped through their checkerboard walls and reached his goal… Syros. The planet of storms.

* * *

“Nar, nar, you dohn’t ever cheat yourself a Xel. Aye, they’s got the memory fors it- can remember every slight yew evar did pull on them, and the lifespahn to geht yew back fohr it.” The brutish and shrewd Glix leans over the table as his accumulated cybernetic plating along the rolls of fat clink and shimmer. He smacks his lips, clears his throat, and brings a fist up to assist with his jest. “Yew dohn’t ever do that if yew know hwat’s good for yew.” The two alien men continue for a time, trading hushed whispers as they peer at the cloaked being across the room. An oddity in this and every sector, the Xel sits silently and slowly gazes around with a piercing stare. They quiet as its look passes over them, and resume when it continues on. With a slow and pointed movement the Xel stands from its table causing them once again to stop. It leaves- but pauses at the door, and looks toward them for a split second.

Races

[Alien Races PDF Link]

Summary

A splash of Cowboy Bebop, a tidbit of Ghost in the Shell, and a smidgen of Trigun.

Christened with-

  • Deadly laz fire and space pirates.
  • Insane AIs and forgotten tomb worlds.
  • Planetary politics and galactic war.

All this and more in…

Stars Without Number: The Last Job.

Here’s the sitch. I want to run a deadly space-faring campaign with a group of 4-5 plucky adventurers. It will be serious- and it will treat players as competent beings in the world space.

You take a bullet to the heart? You die. Roll a new character. You enter a planet of ancient traps and fail a DEX save? You die. Roll a new character. You piss off a faction head? You get assassins sent after you? They find you in a tavern with your pants down? You die. Roll a new character.

Play competently. Spend time thinking about your actions and their consequences- and you’ll make it out alive. But for every derelict ship you happily root your looting hands through, remember… They were once like you. They had dreams. They had a life. They had goals and objectives and a future… And a mistake cost them everything.

The campaign will be in person, once a week, and will hopefully be for >= 3 to 4 hours. I would prefer to get 5 people involved, one for each station on a ship, but will accept 4. It will feature at times a dark and gritty tone, and at others a family-like crew puttering along the cosmos. There will be a general goal given to the party, but the stars are your sandbox. Ruin a good thing? Jump to a different planet and start again. Play as you like and see where the stars take you.

There will of course be a session 0 where I cover this in greater detail, but my general DM rules and expectations are:

  1. Please communicate amicably with everyone.
  2. If you need to cancel please give notice publicly.
  3. I retain final say as DM on anything and everything.
  4. Fights / thievery must be meta cleared first.
  5. There are consequences for your actions.
  6. Learn your character backwards and forwards.
  7. Learn how to play the game and readup if possible.
  8. No chaotic evil. No chaotic edgy. No chaotic stupid.
  9. Keep it serious in tone and in-character. No meta.
  10. No politics at the table. We’re here to play SWN.

Flags

From top to bottom, left to right, these are the flags of the 3 primary factions:

  • The Terran Mandate
  • The Divine
  • The Merchants League

Of which the Mandate and Divine have a Grail.

Extra Stuff:

6 alien races, 3 primary factions, 4 secondary factions, 30 planets, and 40 points of interest.

Humans, Aliens, VIs, True AIs, and Transhumanist Shells are permitted for player characters.

See you soon, spacer.

  • Vess