This rules breakdown was released two weeks early for patrons. To skip the wait on every episode, Star Master Log, and rules breakdown, join us at https://www.patreon.com/DarkStarAdventurecast

This episode of SWN Rules Explained looks at how alien species work in Stars Without Number, from the alien design chapter starting on page 202 of the revised rulebook. Brian walks through the book's split between recognizable aliens and the stranger, harder-to-parse kind, then covers the lens tables on page 204 that shape a species' psychology and the social structure table on page 207. From there he gets into building a playable alien character, picking perks from page 209 to construct an origin focus from scratch. It's the final SWN Rules Explained of Season 1, timed with the crew's time-loop escape from Prometheon Station in Episode 33, "An Acceptable Loss."

New SWN Rules Explained episodes drop every other Thursday, breaking down the mechanics behind the adventure.

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This episode was released two weeks early for patrons. To skip the wait on every episode, Star Master Log, and rules breakdown, join us at https://www.patreon.com/DarkStarAdventurecast

The gyroscope is eating Prometheon Station one ring at a time, and there's no next loop to fix what goes wrong this time. Thorne gets locked in an office with the one enemy he can't decide whether to trust. Felix runs a hack under a ten-second gas countdown with three lives riding on it. Haleyy finds out exactly how many members of an Unhallowed horde one very angry woman can throw. And somewhere in the wreckage, the crew has to decide what an acceptable loss actually looks like.

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Meet the Crew:

• Jeff as Star Master
• Brian as Captain Thorne
• Stephanie as the warrior Haleyy
• Doja as the wildcard pilot Robert
• Scott as the transhuman hacker Felix

Special thanks to Brad and Holly, our Scapegoat Syndicate members!

They're keeping the lights on, and the airlocks sealed.

This Star Master Log was released two weeks early for patrons. To skip the wait on every episode, Star Master Log, and rules breakdown, join us at https://www.patreon.com/DarkStarAdventurecast

Brian joins Jeff to talk about episode 32, Twenty-One Loops, the one where the rest of the crew starts treating death as a formality and Thorne is the only one still keeping score. They get into why he's sitting on two separate secrets from Felix right now, and Brian makes his case for Thorne as the reluctant Malcolm Reynolds of the Scapegoat. Then Brian tries to sell Jeff on competitive Pokemon, and it does not go well.

New Star Master's Logs drop every other Tuesday, bridging the gap between our main adventure episodes.

Buy us a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/darkstaradventurecast

This rules breakdown was released two weeks early for patrons. To skip the wait on every episode, Star Master Log, and rules breakdown, join us at https://www.patreon.com/DarkStarAdventurecast

This episode of SWN Rules Explained looks at how NPCs work in Stars Without Number, from the Xeno Bestiary chapter of the revised rulebook. Brian walks through the general NPC table on page 195 and how to read hit dice, armor class, attack bonuses, and morale scores, plus when the Star Master should actually call for a morale check. From there he covers robots and virtual intelligences, including the rules for playing a VI as a character, and wraps up with beasts and how to run a swarm of them as a single NPC. He frames it against the crew getting looped back in time right as they arrive at Prometheon Station in Episode 32, "Twenty-One Loops," racing to get inside and save the Doctor before the loop resets again.

New SWN Rules Explained episodes drop every other Thursday, breaking down the mechanics behind the adventure.

Buy us a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/darkstaradventurecast

This episode was released two weeks early for patrons. To skip the wait on every episode, Star Master Log, and rules breakdown, join us at https://www.patreon.com/DarkStarAdventurecast

The crew wakes back up on the bridge with no idea how they got there, except that they remember dying. Prometheon Station resolves out of the dark exactly like it did the first time, gyroscope still sparking. Behind one locked office door: a dead man's switch, and a data chip stuffed with files, and a photograph shows a face Thorne wasn't expecting to see.

Buy us a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/darkstaradventurecast

Meet the Crew:

• Jeff as Star Master
• Brian as Captain Thorne
• Stephanie as the warrior Haleyy
• Doja as the wildcard pilot Robert
• Scott as the transhuman hacker Felix

Special thanks to Brad and Holly, our Scapegoat Syndicate members!

They're keeping the lights on, and the airlocks sealed.

This Star Master Log was released two weeks early for patrons. To skip the wait on every episode, Star Master Log, and rules breakdown, join us at https://www.patreon.com/DarkStarAdventurecast

Star Master Jeff sits down with Stephanie to talk about Episode 31, You're Arriving Very Late, and the dread of playing Haleyy through a fight with no visible way out before the time loop kicked in. Stephanie talks about how three different factions closed in on Haleyy all at once, and where her own theories about the character's void-touched biopsionic powers go from here. Jeff also debuts a new closing segment, Sell Me On It, where Stephanie tries to convert him to the extremely specific hobby of filling out baseball scorecards.

New Star Master's Logs drop every other Tuesday, bridging the gap between our main adventure episodes.

Buy us a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/darkstaradventurecast

This rules breakdown was released two weeks early for patrons. To skip the wait on every episode, Star Master Log, and rules breakdown, join us at https://www.patreon.com/DarkStarAdventurecast

This episode of SWN Rules Explained looks at how to build a sector in Stars Without Number, the map of star systems where a campaign takes place. Brian walks through the setup from the revised rulebook: an 8-by-10 hex grid, a d8 and a d10 to place 20 to 30 stars, and the three-hex limit that keeps systems close enough for ships to reach. From there he covers world tags and the enemies, friends, complications, things, and places each one points to, plus the short list of questions that turns a planet from a dot on the map into somewhere the players actually want to go. He frames it against the crew's arrival at Prometheon Station in Episode 31, "You're Arriving Very Late," the far end of a sector map the Star Master drew up well before the campaign started.

New SWN Rules Explained episodes drop every other Thursday, breaking down the mechanics behind the adventure.

Buy us a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/darkstaradventurecast

This episode was released two weeks early for patrons. To skip the wait on every episode, Star Master Log, and rules breakdown, join us at https://www.patreon.com/DarkStarAdventurecast

Eighteen days of drift end at Prometheon Station, a spire turning around a five-ring alien gyroscope the size of a city, with a Virodyne fleet hanging dead in the black around it. The crew came for Dr. Voss. What they find is an empty station that isn't empty. Automated drones. People in gas masks and thigh-high rubber boots who call themselves the Listeners. A crowd of workers with the wrong color in their eyes. Voss is here, wired to a pedestal behind a sealed door, and there's gas coming into her lab. Somewhere above all of it, Viktor Strake is watching through the glass, and he seems to think they're late.

Buy us a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/darkstaradventurecast

Meet the Crew:

• Jeff as Star Master
• Brian as Captain Thorne
• Stephanie as the warrior Haleyy
• Doja as the wildcard pilot Robert
• Scott as the transhuman hacker Felix

Special thanks to Brad and Holly, our Scapegoat Syndicate members!

They're keeping the lights on, and the airlocks sealed.