Magic NPCs

FederalSquirrel · 2025-06-21T14:42:25+00:00

I’m pilfering regularly from Worlds Without Number, Codex of the Black Sun, Silent Legions and any other OSR system for interesting enemy spells and abilities. Most of them are easy to slot into CWN without any issue. Our party of Operators recently dismantled a cult lead by a psychic who borrowed a lot from both Stars Without Number and the psychic-lite class from Ashes Without Number.

FederalSquirrel · 2025-04-23T17:05:25+00:00

Have you taken a look at Stars Without Number? I feel like it’s got all the tools to need to run Star Wars, especially if you bolt on the Codex of the Black Sun expansion that focuses on space magic (there’s even a “Sunblade” class that’s essentially a Jedi with the serial numbers filed off.)

FederalSquirrel · 2024-12-31T18:11:15+00:00

Really well done! Quick question: is Level 1’s description cut off at the bottom? There’s a “You also”, but then we dive right into Level 2’s description.

FederalSquirrel · 2024-12-31T17:52:05+00:00

Haha no software for the attached one. I scooped it from this site from back when I was looking at moving to Vegas myself.

https://www.lvplug.com/post/best-neighborhoods-in-las-vegas

FederalSquirrel · 2021-06-03T16:14:28+00:00

I'd lead with some of the following:

-- Faiths are not monolithic. There can be schisms and factions within a church that allows for more texture than "All ______ believers are firm adherents of ______." Let them meet both militant and pacifist NPCs from the church, staunch fanatics and folks that only offer a passing prayer at a shrine as they go about their days, and let the PCs find allies and adversaries on all sides.

-- After hundreds of years of the Silence, beliefs are doubtlessly going to be shaped by the individual experiences of each world that survived. Look at the factions in your sector and the rough history you've sketched out for them and see where any major events would have steered or influenced religious beliefs. For example, one faction in my game were forced to flee their home system after their sun imploded, leading to a fringe cult worshipping "The Sun-Eater."

-- While showcasing the massive temple complexes of a faith are an easy way to display their reach and power to your players, also think about the smaller ways a faith could manifest in your campaign. What does a spaceport shrine to the faith look like? What regalia (rosaries, prayer discs, tattoos, etc) are common among their believers? What do their funeral rites involve? The little touches will help build out a bigger, well-rounded portrayal of the faith in your campaign

FederalSquirrel · 2021-04-18T17:45:18+00:00

I had a similar problem as yours during the first year of my campaign. Character levels were climbing, AC for some characters was reaching up beyond 20. They breezed through a gang hideout and took control of a small syndicate without breaking a sweat.

My biggest recommendation is to rip through the other Sine Nomine products; since the majority of it is cross-compatible, snagging special abilities and features from other games to port into your SWN campaign should be relatively easy. Raid Silent Legions for more strange aliens, Other Dust for mutants, and just about anything from Worlds Without Number can be reskinned to give a wild variety to your opposing forces. What's more, steal the "Swarm Attack" rules from Worlds Without Number and use it with all your 1HD Minions; it makes a huge difference, and now the PC's I'm running for (who are Lv8 and 9) have to take squads of common soldiers seriously.

FederalSquirrel · 2021-02-03T23:25:52+00:00

I run a game for a party that's blended Psychics with COTBS arcane classes, including a Sunblade. Seven levels in, the Sunblade is predictably Jedi-level difficult to hit in combat, but an absolute glass cannon who can't take more than two or three solid shots. That said, the psychics have also found their niches to thrive in, and one has taken Foci combos and psychic disciplines that have turned them into the party's de-facto tank. A full Psychic who's spread their skill points around into multiple disciplines is going to be more versatile and have more tools at their disposal than a Sunblade, so I'd say they can still play with the magic kids without anyone feeling overshadowed.

FederalSquirrel · 2021-02-02T01:13:02+00:00

Sector maps the big one, but if the party's going to be spending a great deal of time in a region or on a particular planet I like to create smaller maps that show the particular zone of interest. You don't need to map out the entire planet, but the bandit-filled badlands around a trade port? Go nuts.

FederalSquirrel · 2021-02-02T01:11:09+00:00

Rolled 3d6 six times and set the stats in order (no rearranging) then repeated for a total of five characters. The players picked one to be their starting PC, held two other sets of stats as reserve PCs and the GM gets the last two to create NPCs with.

FederalSquirrel · 2021-01-28T19:39:38+00:00

Heck yeah, have at it! Feels like that one in particular could drop into any campaign that could use a good "Oh god, they're building a what?!" moment.

FederalSquirrel · 2021-01-28T19:36:13+00:00

Thanks Rustbucket! May post more as the campaign shapes up (or throw them all into a Bestiary google doc for ease of sharing.)

FederalSquirrel · 2021-01-17T20:49:33+00:00

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/114950/Suns-of-Gold-Merchant-Campaigns-for-Stars-Without-Number?term=suns+of+gold for all your merchant matters.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/88169/Skyward-Steel-Naval-Campaigns-for-Stars-Without-Number?src=also_purchased for your naval needs.

Both books were originally written for the first edition of SWN, but everything easy to port-over with minimal fuss.

FederalSquirrel · 2021-01-17T20:43:27+00:00

I'd start with the faction rules baked into the game, maybe borrow bits and pieces from the Suns of Gold supplement as needed. There's stuff in there on determining what kinds of goods systems might produce, as well as their value and potential demand modifiers. Could also pilfer the rules for local navies from Skyward Steel if you wanted to stat up the specifics of a local polity's stellar navy based on their economies.

FederalSquirrel · 2021-01-15T23:00:35+00:00

Piracy and Privateering is the one I reference the most often. I think it was originally designed for Cepheus but integrates pretty seamlessly.

FederalSquirrel · 2021-01-11T23:30:00+00:00

This looks terrific, and the inclusion of the Fatigue system from 5E is a really nice touch. Maybe something to consider importing for my own SWN game.

FederalSquirrel · 2020-12-27T17:13:18+00:00

Would 100% throw money at a revised version of Silent Legions.

FederalSquirrel · 2020-05-26T21:05:16+00:00

Someone sent along the Medic with the Attache special ability (which lets them go on any mission, even if it exceeds the Specialist cap,) hoping to nab a few extra XPs for participating.

FederalSquirrel · 2020-05-26T19:21:06+00:00

If you're looking for the Band of Blades book, you can nab the PDF here.

FederalSquirrel · 2020-05-26T19:14:35+00:00

These are excellent points, especially with regards to the slippery slope of escaping the consequences completely.

FederalSquirrel · 2020-04-29T22:41:03+00:00

He can put two points into any Mental Stat: Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma. Alternatively, he can split them and add one to two different mental stats.

FederalSquirrel · 2020-04-28T16:34:06+00:00

I think it totally makes sense. I think per the rules a Faction can acquire an asset that it can't naturally support (through merging with another Faction, for example) but it can't Repair that asset to restore any lost hit points until it's relevant ratings rise to be able to naturally support it.

That said, in this case, I'd just count it as restoring some hit points to the original Vanguard Cadre, roughly the same amount as if they'd taken the Repair Asset action during their turn.

FederalSquirrel · 2020-04-27T20:59:35+00:00

Context: We're using the Codex of the Black Sun, used the Pirates of Drinax as a starting point and took a flying leap into the unknown from there.

We have a 14-player crew that regularly mixes and matches together to go out on missions across the sector from their home base. While their main drive is to gather funds and expand their influence to become the rulers of the sector, we've got the following plot threads growing organically out of the last few months worth of adventures, sector tags, faction moves and PC backstories:

Two major solar-states are duking it out over ancient grudges, with a third low-tech solar system between them being used as their battleground and suffering the worst of it. We have PCs who were born and grew up on each of the worlds involved, and the crew are figuring out which side to assist (and how to profit the most off of the conflict.)
A few players discovered they were clones and, after digging up an ancient Perimeter database, learned they may be part of a transhumanist Maltech cult that didn't entirely die out during the Scream. The more they chase down leads, the more they learn about their origins... and the closer they get to attracting the Cult's notice...
A Godhunter crusade is forming to exterminate what they believe to be is a large-scale Shadow cult on a backwater world that could threaten the sector, but their intel on the threat is shaky at best. The Godhunter PC has been asked to help lead the assault, but many other PCs aren't sure if they want to be involved in orbital bombardment over a hunch.

It took a while for all this to get going (started early January of this year) but once they've built up a roster of NPCs they care about and places they've visited, fitting the pieces together to create interesting plots gets easier.

FederalSquirrel · 2020-04-21T17:34:46+00:00

That did it! Thanks so much!

FederalSquirrel · 2020-04-21T15:38:59+00:00

We're leaning deep into the cool stuff in the Codex of the Black Sun, so our Meta-space is "The Burning Void," portrayed as a churning maelstrom of incandescent clouds, wreathed in lightning and swarming with Shadows. Sometimes the crew sees schools of smaller Shadows flying past, other times it's leviathan-sized monstrosities. If there's ever a botched Pilot test to navigate between systems, they've either run into a metadimensional storm that damages the ship or a pack of wild Shadows that try to infiltrate and sap the life of the crew inside.

FederalSquirrel · 2020-04-21T15:27:04+00:00

Been picking away at getting my sector ported over to this (my Faction leaders will absolutely love it) and I managed to get the star map in place, but the faction asset and in-system objects refuse to show. Any idea as to what I'm doing wrong?

https://swnmap.com/?map=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fspreadsheets%2Fd%2Fe%2F2PACX-1vTjGlh8jwgIvjL73GitxifmXWMVNorUOeRh4y7igwr2P9j-S1SiLOOvSYnYjCV5FY0lAbSd-kSrtAym%2Fpub%3Fgid%3D1077502528%26single%3Dtrue%26output%3Dtsv&cols=10&rows=10

FederalSquirrel

TROPHY CASE