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Revision as of 20:21, 8 February 2020

Prismatic Spray is a Stars Without Number (Revised) game using the Codex of the Black Sun supplement.

Setting

A Moresnet Gazetteer

Looks like this. 40 million people, breathable atmosphere, hybrid biosphere, temperate-to-warm climate, TL4. Reestablished contact with the wider sector about a decade ago.

  • Picture humid air, three moons in the sky, rocky coastlines and underground rivers, jungles dense with hybrid ecosystems and nonhuman others, pastel-colored settlements connected by silent maglev train, cloaked sages meeting with hard-hatted technicians in a rural factory courtyard, revelers holding colorful glass cups to feel the bass-heavy music at an outdoor festival, teens in padded armor practicing stick fighting until their teacher raises the flag, and megalithic pretech installations looming on the horizon.
  • The common language is Wika, which grew from Filipino Sign Language, and many other signed and oral languages are used at the community level. The main written language is Novesperanto. It is considered polite to sign or use text in public settings, out of consideration for language variation and widespread deafness. Filipino names are typical.
  • Moresnet has no central government and does not use credits. Communal assemblies representing dozens to hundred-thousands of people by area or trade are a vehicle for collective decision making, resource management, and mutual aid. Conflict between communes is usually resolved without serious violence. The communal assembly system has been widely established on the planet for about two centuries, after several governments of varying levels of tyranny were dismantled.
  • Magic and psionics are widely-known (with misconceptions: like ska musicians, or mayors), and it’s not difficult for the rare user to find training by joining the appropriate commune-school. Like deafness, MES is generally seen as a different way of experiencing the world, not a mysterious gift or curse. Individuals have a right to their own magic, but like other valuable skills, there is a strong sense of community obligation. In bygone days, magicians were associated with martial rebels and tyrants, but today the stereotype is a new-wave artist or performer. Psychics have consistently been seen as disciplined community workers: telepathy, healing, and disaster preparedness for example.
  • Jungles, river caves, and the hidden corners of cities have hosted magical beings called Shadows (and sometimes their mortal followers) since the time of the Weave. Not all Shadows are malevolent, but they usually aren’t part of public life. Some communes and individuals have long-established patron or guardian Shadows, or other ritualized relationships. Others ask strong fighters and canny magicians to clear out the cruel spirits that bedevil them.

Prismatic Spray Sector

Characters

Character Creation

As per the 2E/Revised rulebook (Page 4), with these changes.

  • Roll 3d6 for attributes, arranged as you like. If you don't like your rolls, feel free to take the array instead.
  • Instead of rolling HP at level 1, set your first d6 to 6 and modify with Constitution as normal. When you reroll HP on level up, continue using 6 in place of that first d6. Reroll further hit dice that roll 1.
  • All PCs know Novesperanto, the auxiliary and technical language of the old human polity. You also know the language(s) of your home culture(s). You may know additional languages as per page 24.

Character Options

You can spend one of your starting foci to play a posthuman character, like a Harpy or Nereid, or a nonhuman Prismatic AI.

Human

Adaptable folk who live on many different worlds. Humans may or may not modify themselves with magic, cybernetics, or gengineering, but more often as individuals than whole cultures. They effectively have one extra focus to spend however they like.

Harpy

Winged folk from Ventaxa who live among diverse and squabbling floating islands. In their home societies, cybernetics are a sign of social role: wings are given to travelers, messengers, and explorers. Harpies can fly under normal gravity conditions with their move action and never take more than 1d4 falling damage while conscious. They have integral low-light and thermal vision, as per Panspectral Optics cyberware.

Nereid

Sea-dwelling folk from Ondoj who are connected to a powerful psychic group-entity in their home ocean. They prize their collective and rarely travel alone, but some have the urge to leave. Nereids can breathe and move freely underwater as well as on land. They can naturally communicate telepathically with one willing person per scene, as per Telepathy-1: Transmit Thought. They are automatically aware when their minds are targeted by psi or magic.

Prismatic

Purpose-built minds from the Prism who move between bodies. They take colors as their names, which reflect their personality and function within the stratified Prism. Some poorly-programmed Prismatics leave their post to "protect organic life" and "pursue peace and love," if you can believe that. True AI are created as per Revised Edition page 285. Choose Jack or Synth (page 257) as your starting armature.

Classes

Available classes are (Arcane) Expert, (Arcane) Warrior, Psychic, Arcanist, Magister (any), Sunblade, Yama King, and Adventurer (combining any of the above). Note that Arcane Expert and Arcane Warrior are exactly the same as the core versions of those classes, just with the option to choose Arcane Foci to represent minor magical talents.

Prismatic characters are True AI, or may be Adventurers with Partial Expert or Warrior. Partial Psychic or Arcanist isn't impossible, but let's talk about your concept first.

What's Your Deal?

Write about 150 words of backstory. It can be a bit more or less. It's usually more fun to expand and improvise once we start playing and know the world, anyway. This should be a seed you can look back on for inspiration, not a full biography. Concise doesn't have to mean humble or mundane origins!

Style and Posting

  • When taking action, post both what you want to do and how you want to do it. The Wyzard wrote a great guide to this here.
  • Aim for concise posts that focus on things that other people can see and respond to. Inner monologues and flashbacks aren't verboten, but try reframing them as things that are said or done out loud.
  • Be bold! To do it, do it! Play to find out what happens! Take action and narrate up to the point that you don't know what happens next. Avoid if-then instructions. If you're not sure whether the group will want to do something that affects everyone, ask in the OOC thread first - but if it fits, plunge ahead and drive the action forward.