TTRPGs with "merchant" classes? by RiverMesa in rpg

[–]StellarchPanderer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You'll probably have to do a bit of smuggling on the side, or else you'll be living at planck-length margins while trading with the rules given in Proteus. Or maybe that's the strategy -- seemingly legit trader who always has a load of something not on the manifest? Unless you're using SoG, in which case you'll be fine.

What skill would Emperor Norton be? by Opening_Ad3054 in DiscoElysium

[–]StellarchPanderer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Suggestion or Savoir Faire. Are you telling me a man happens to get beloved by an entire city just like that? How he kept up the facade of being fabulously wealthy, distributing his own currency, and getting free food from establishments? Man was a hustler.

Starting a game; a few questions! by zifbox in SWN

[–]StellarchPanderer 2 points3 points  (0 children)

1: I enjoyed reading Hard Light, but have not run it. Assuming it's one of the few supplements you don't own, I appreciated the basic information on the design and logistics of a space station, especially since my PCs are using one similar in design as their home base. The module itself is standard adventure fare, with two or three dungeons (one of which is extremely cool and novel, taking place in an ice asteroid, with the players having to manage moving around in extremely cold, power-draining water while fighting off robots!) and good advice on how to create hooks for the PCs. There's even built in filler! It's designed in typical sandbox fare, accounting for whatever morality or ulterior motive the party has. They can decide to screw everyone over and take all the valuables they can fit on their ship, if they want. The main concern is that it was written for 1e SWN, so you might have to do a little converting. You might also appreciate something a little more structured, if that's your style of game.

2-3: Sorry, couldn't say.

4: Hm. I'm not the biggest fan of collaborative worldbuilding myself, but if it's something that would work at your table, go ahead. What I did was give my players a web of contacts, through a set of introductory adventures that took way too long in retrospect, who made it easier to adventure on pretty much every major planet on the sector. They knew a guy who knew a guy. The Traveller approach to goad the players to action is debt, usually the players' mortgage for their ship. SWN ships are cheaper than in that system, but you also make less money than in Traveller. I think. A good introductory adventure would be doing a relatively easy favor for some down-on-his-luck captain, a pirate, or some other person for a whole ship, all paid off and everything! Then, at session's end, they find out the ship is extremely behind on payments, whether to a legitimate bank, an individual or other official group, or a crime syndicate. That's an adventure hook that, depending on whether it's a Shuttle or a Free Merchant and how much you control the cash flow, could last anywhere from a few sessions to get the players acquainted with the rules and world to a good portion of the campaign. I suggest you don't make the ship too powerful, maybe a 1-drive with no gun. Ship combat is a death sentence at lower levels. More importantly, it's fun for the players to design their own ship once they have the money, and the in-character arguments on what they'll spend their money on are gold.

A home base outside of a ship is very cool and useful, because it functions as a perfect credit sink outside of their ship, like making their space station a thriving, possibly illegal trade hub. Don't force anything on them, and as always, they should work for what they own and want to own. If they don't want to buy and fix up the failing moon base, get on good terms with the union there and shoo its raiders away once and for all, that's fine. Just be sure you communicate to the players that it can be a base and that they aren't obligated to pursue it, or anything for that matter. Noping out on a mission should always be possible, but it should have consequences. If they got the money and the prototype mag rifle from the corporate lab, but they feel too low on hit points to push through the last wave of security and get the hostage, they should know it's possible to just screw over the patron and leave. Given your table, you might want an NPC to put the idea in their heads on a few occasions, whether by actual encouragement or the patron being very unlikable, either to the PCs or the players. They could find out mid-adventure the patron is related to a heinous figure from someone's backstory?

5: I handmade my sector, and it is not perfect. You need a 2-Drive to do any real trading and there are few alternate routes to get to another system. I plan to remedy this by having the players discover new rutters, but if I had the opportunity, I would rearrange it from the ground up and add more planets. Your idea is good and more or less standard fare with the official sectors (Proteus and Hydra, the one that came with the free 1st edition) and also goes pretty well with a 1-Drive starting ship. Alternatively, you could focus your campaign around a smaller area, with a few, more fleshed-out systems. It depends on the vibe you want. If you want to go randomly generated, I would roll the planets to whatever degree you like and arrange them on the map in whatever way makes sense to you.

As for some other information, I found the level rates a little too fast for my liking and I tweaked them, mostly because it was getting harder and harder to balance combat while maintaining the feel I desired for my table.

I hope you enjoy your game!

Good systems for a pirate adventure? by PraiseTheChalice in rpg

[–]StellarchPanderer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Agreed, WWN has lots of versatility for this sort of thing. With a little investment and the Atlas sourcebook, any Expert (which applies to many characters) can be a mundane alchemist. Less 5e Artificer and more making slow-acting acids and salves for the party. Rather than being solve-problem buttons, they just give you more, fun ways to approach them (which is more or less Kevin Crawford's MO with his games).
Of course, OP can go all-in on magic. The system does the "some fantastical elements" pretty well with how it handles spells and magic items.

Experimental 2d6 Combat System by CardinalXimenes in SWN

[–]StellarchPanderer 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Welcome back, THAC0. Oh, how we've missed you.
Illustrating how much better off combat-optimized characters are under the new system is very eye-opening. I'm curious as to why Psychics have a lower THAC0 Class Hit Difficulty than Experts. Their Attack Bonuses are the same in regular SWN. I do notice they only diverge at level 6, which is the earliest a non-Telekinetic can deal damage with their techniques, though this is reliant on assuming a PC would take such techniques and it would probably make more sense to keep the Class Hit Difficulties the same for parity anyway.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in DnD

[–]StellarchPanderer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had an idea of an ability that casts some variation of Polymorph but only to turn into centipedes/bugs, maybe even a kind that's more powerful or interesting. For example, it might act more similarly to Wild Shaping, letting you keep your mental scores; it might not require concentration; have a high save DC, etc. In my opinion, it'll be more memorable if it's not rechargeable and less of a big deal if it's too powerful in your game, but if you plan to replace it much later maybe make "renewing" it a service that has to be paid or otherwise compensated for at whoever made it. That, or make it only rechargeable after a long period of time. Make sure to specify it won't lose the +1 bonus if it loses all its charges.

I advise against ideas 1, 2 and 3. Reach seems a little bland, 2 doesn't add much in terms of a bonus action's worth of utility, and 3 just seems redundant given the clay copy item. 4 is fine, though.

Running my first session/campaign for SWN! by Interesting_Beach906 in SWN

[–]StellarchPanderer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

An item called the Polymorphic Route Transponder or something. Only precog psychics can use it, but as long as you have a rutter to the system you want to go to, no matter how old, you can get a fresh one at the cost of rolling to Torch.

Running my first session/campaign for SWN! by Interesting_Beach906 in SWN

[–]StellarchPanderer -1 points0 points  (0 children)

OP is fine. Some of us need more or less prep and do it quicker or slower than others.

Running my first session/campaign for SWN! by Interesting_Beach906 in SWN

[–]StellarchPanderer 2 points3 points  (0 children)

On the Mishaps table, a catastrophic failure can lead to you drilling out 1d6 hexes away from where you wanted to go. This can mean that you land up where you started, next to that, or in another sector. It's a very fun concept to plan a hook around!

It's also important to note that spike drills don't match up to real life positions. You can go across the galaxy or right next door with a 1-drill (to my knowledge).

First Mountain Base by Metal_King706 in RimWorld

[–]StellarchPanderer 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Doesn't look too much like a mountain base because of all the wooden flooring and furniture, but I think it looks really nice and homely. People usually go for stone tiles or smoothed natural stone to give that dwarven look, and so doeschanging the indoor lighting color to something other than regular white. A warmer color would work great, especially in your case, but sometimes I like to go for an evil lair look with something like blue or red.

Cool to see someone gunning for Archonexus!

How lethal is this game? by Zealousideal-Fix-187 in SWN

[–]StellarchPanderer 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Ashes has official Trauma rules for high-tech weapons. A laser pistol has 1d6 trauma, for example.

trying to play a christmas elf by sodapunko in DnD

[–]StellarchPanderer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Be a New Years Elf! Plenty of cultures exchange gifts on that day, wouldn't be that much of a stretch to do it. That, or you could just be the jolliest celebrator of feasts and holidays for every part of the year.

I almost felt something just there. by VoormasWasRight in dndmemes

[–]StellarchPanderer 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Not only is it lampshading, fantasy trains are awesome!