Started weekly Roll20 Campaign of SWN a couple weeks ago. Now a few sessions in.
I present you the Petunia Ceti Star Sector. Based on my warped brain and players input of
- Dune
- Akira
- Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy
- Ringworld
- and this
Hot takes:
- Like sector creation tools. Esp how they (and rest of book) is made and explicitly encourages "just in time" milieu creation.
- Don't like the ship combat. Too structured/mechanical. Too much effort required by all to make it cinematic. Think it would be better face to face.
- The system is fine. But I don't know it. Close but just different enough from OSR D&D to make harder to keep straight.
After 35 years, I can run D&D from memory, drunk, making up entire (not half bad) adventure. Developed the instincts to know what works, decades of experience to pull encounters, monsters, items, and rulings from. D&D is so broad, common, and replayable, it's been worth mastering it. I don't feel same for SWN. It's a one-off campaign type game. I'm not gonna run this enough to even get good with it.
Characters are currently exploring a derelict space liner, The Flotsam Paradise. Who's AI, Caravaggio, was an early prototype of Paradise's Friend Computers. Who are always right and where happiness is mandatory.
