For those who have analyzed the system, what are Stars Without Number's problem areas that should be looked at by a GM before running it? What rules are a bit wobbly?

One thing that springs to mind for me is the default life support duration for a ship- two weeks for max crew. While most PC groups will be significantly smaller and pro-rate that time, it still doesn't leave a whole lot of leisure to go out and explore, especially if you're making drills at the limit of your spike drive rating- since each of those takes about a week. It's particularly awkward for military vessels that can be expected to fly with a full crew, obliging them to either take extended stores or just have very short operational leashes. I'd consider bumping the default life support loadout time up to a month at the least.

Another thing is skill points. Default SWN skill point allotments are very parsimonious. This is okay for groups where there are 4-5 PCs who can be expected to cover most of an adventuring group's necessary skill bases, but it can get constricting if you've got a smaller group or want to use more skilled PCs. I bumped the default skill points gained by advancement up 1 per level in Other Dust and Spears of the Dawn, and I'd do it for SWN too.

Healing can be hinky too in a small group. If you don't have a biopsionic or pretech healing drugs on hand, any PC reduced to 0 HP is going to be out of it for a minimum of 1d4 days before he can start healing up, assuming you get a lazarus patch on him in time to save his life. If you don't want to slow things down that much, you might just declare that a stabilized PC can get back up at 1 HP after ten minutes or so.

Wow you pretty much covered the big ones.  Yeah extending life support for the ships and boosting skill points will fix the vast majority of problems.  If you can I would also try to get the martial arts pdf as it will give my depth to the warriors of the group.

In a game I once ran I had two warriors.  One was a sniper and the other was a unarmed spy.  Guess who can go into places while the other one had to sit outside in the cold?  When the two handed sword fighter got into the mix things got even more interesting.  Sadly the game ended before he can jump in.  It generally made combat skill interesting and a worthy skill to buy.  To this day I am still wondering why bother with a attack bonus when you have a skill that does the same thing?

Quote from: SineNomine;728186One thing that springs to mind for me is the default life support duration for a ship- two weeks for max crew. While most PC groups will be significantly smaller and pro-rate that time, it still doesn't leave a whole lot of leisure to go out and explore, especially if you're making drills at the limit of your spike drive rating- since each of those takes about a week. It's particularly awkward for military vessels that can be expected to fly with a full crew, obliging them to either take extended stores or just have very short operational leashes. I'd consider bumping the default life support loadout time up to a month at the least.

Another thing is skill points. Default SWN skill point allotments are very parsimonious. This is okay for groups where there are 4-5 PCs who can be expected to cover most of an adventuring group's necessary skill bases, but it can get constricting if you've got a smaller group or want to use more skilled PCs. I bumped the default skill points gained by advancement up 1 per level in Other Dust and Spears of the Dawn, and I'd do it for SWN too.

Healing can be hinky too in a small group. If you don't have a biopsionic or pretech healing drugs on hand, any PC reduced to 0 HP is going to be out of it for a minimum of 1d4 days before he can start healing up, assuming you get a lazarus patch on him in time to save his life. If you don't want to slow things down that much, you might just declare that a stabilized PC can get back up at 1 HP after ten minutes or so.

I like how open and accessible you are as an author.

By the way, the burst damage table note and descriptive entry contradict each other on page 37 of the PDF. Does it add +2 to hit AND damage or only to hit?

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;728394I like how open and accessible you are as an author.

I always enjoy seeing people getting use out of my books. It helps give me some clues as to what needs more work for my next effort- and there is always a next effort.

QuoteBy the way, the burst damage table note and descriptive entry contradict each other on page 37 of the PDF. Does it add +2 to hit AND damage or only to hit?

+2 to hit and damage. I cleaned that up in Other Dust, I believe, but I'll put that down for an edit fix in SWN for whenever I get to a revision. I've learned so much about layout and design since I made the book that I think that if SWN ever gets a revised edition, 80% of the reason will just be so I can go back and fix some of the typography and layout mistakes I made.

I kinda wish that combat skill would just replace attack bonus.  Is there a way to do that like just increase the skill, or give warrior class a bonus to hit?  Yeah it is a fairly minor pet peeve, but as I said before.  What is the point of having attack bonus and combat skill?

Quote from: Snowman0147;728574I kinda wish that combat skill would just replace attack bonus.  Is there a way to do that like just increase the skill, or give warrior class a bonus to hit?  Yeah it is a fairly minor pet peeve, but as I said before.  What is the point of having attack bonus and combat skill?

Several reasons, really.

First, if non-combat skills apply to a random range of 2d6 and combat skills apply to a range of 1d20, then combat skills can't use the same skill scaling. You have to provide different rules for acquiring and boosting them if you want them to be providing the full +7/+8 that a midlevel fighter-type usually swings in an OSR-based game. At which point you've basically just reinvented the attack bonus in a less familiar form. A flat class bonus to hit for a Warrior also runs into the problem of scaling as weapon skill levels increase- and if it's not a static bonus, well, again, you've got your attack bonus under another name.

Second, suppose you keep the skill system and put attack rolls on a 2d6 distribution? It can be done, certainly, but you then sacrifice a huge chunk of compatibility with existing content, and compatibility was Job #2 when I designed the system. If you've no interest in importing other OSR content into your game then it can be less important, but I wanted the basic numbers of SWN to integrate smoothly with any B/X-derived game.

Third, it's about what skills and attack bonuses represent. A high-level warrior is deadly with anything he puts his hands on, because that's his basic class shtick. He may be especially good with a mag rifle, true, but he's not crippled if he's suddenly forced to pick up an axe. If each of those weapon classes had their own skills, he would either have to spend significant pointage on his non-favored weapons or suddenly turn into a klutz when deprived of his chosen weapon. If he does this, then he's just reinvented the attack bonus again, because he's generally competent at everything. If he doesn't do this, does he get to spend those points elsewhere on other skills or on boosting his favorite weapon even higher? He has to be able to do something with them or the design makes it into a non-choice. If he can spend those points on other skills, he probably will, because 9 times out of 10 a fighter can pick his weapon usage. In that case, he starts stepping on the shtick of the Expert. If he can spend them on his favorite weapon to boost his score even higher, then it creates a potentially huge competence gap between him and the rest of the party in combat- and ensures that he's borderline useless without his weapon of choice.

With those considerations in mind, I decided to make weapon skills a garnish on top of a character's basic combat competence. An Expert or Psychic who focuses on a single weapon can get reasonable levels of competence, but by mid-levels, a Warrior is going to clearly outclass them, especially in non-favored weapons. And if the time comes to haul in a sheaf of space monsters or aliens from other OSR material, the GM can do that without worrying about assigning skill numbers to his imports.

Hey Sine, while we've got your attention and since you seem to be keeping a list of eventual fixes somewhere, I don't suppose you could provide that text so I can use it as errata? You wouldn't have to edit it or anything, just a list of what you know is out of whack in the current PDF.

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;728632Hey Sine, while we've got your attention and since you seem to be keeping a list of eventual fixes somewhere, I don't suppose you could provide that text so I can use it as errata? You wouldn't have to edit it or anything, just a list of what you know is out of whack in the current PDF.

This is the copy-paste of the list. It leaves out all the typographic issues, but it covers the the numbers glitches I've found so far. As for outright changes, I'd add "+1 skill point/level to all classes", and "Base spaceship life support duration is one month".

Change the movement in the Movement Systems section to 20 meters.
Fix the "Wis or Cha" goof in the creation summary for psychic power points
Fix the corporate rumors table to put 50-53 back in.
Core: +1 modifier to +2 in the attack example, check the line where I compare bots to warriors and eliminate the double "skill" wording there
Page 21 following space among the paras
DM's Advice chapter check for paragraphs not having proper following between them
Page 80 fix the "1d100" to generate world tags
Erase double saving throw bookmark in ebook
Fix sensor damping disparity between table and entry- it's +3, not +2.
Rectify the grenade damage from text to table- it should be 2d6
Page 37, fix burst fire definition to make it clear it's +2 to hit and damage

Quote from: SineNomine;728634This is the copy-paste of the list. It leaves out all the typographic issues, but it covers the the numbers glitches I've found so far. As for outright changes, I'd add "+1 skill point/level to all classes", and "Base spaceship life support duration is one month".

Change the movement in the Movement Systems section to 20 meters.
Fix the "Wis or Cha" goof in the creation summary for psychic power points
Fix the corporate rumors table to put 50-53 back in.
Core: +1 modifier to +2 in the attack example, check the line where I compare bots to warriors and eliminate the double "skill" wording there
Page 21 following space among the paras
DM's Advice chapter check for paragraphs not having proper following between them
Page 80 fix the "1d100" to generate world tags
Erase double saving throw bookmark in ebook
Fix sensor damping disparity between table and entry- it's +3, not +2.
Rectify the grenade damage from text to table- it should be 2d6
Page 37, fix burst fire definition to make it clear it's +2 to hit and damage

What about the fact that there are no surprise penalties described in the book even though the slowtime window item says it removes surprise penalties?

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;728674What about the fact that there are no surprise penalties described in the book even though the slowtime window item says it removes surprise penalties?

I seem to recall just stating that a surprised side loses one round of actions, but I may not have actually explicitly said this anywhere. I'll tack that onto the list to check.

Quote from: SineNomine;728702I seem to recall just stating that a surprised side loses one round of actions, but I may not have actually explicitly said this anywhere. I'll tack that onto the list to check.

I'm pretty sure it's not in there (might be in ship rules, but not standard combat rules).

Quote from: SineNomine;728186One thing that springs to mind for me is the default life support duration for a ship- two weeks for max crew. While most PC groups will be significantly smaller and pro-rate that time, it still doesn't leave a whole lot of leisure to go out and explore, especially if you're making drills at the limit of your spike drive rating- since each of those takes about a week. It's particularly awkward for military vessels that can be expected to fly with a full crew, obliging them to either take extended stores or just have very short operational leashes. I'd consider bumping the default life support loadout time up to a month at the least.

Hmm, stuff like this is the kind of thing I'd tend totally ignore.
Anyways, I think that if we get interstellar travel in the future, its going to be set up so that long-term voyages will be practically self sufficient. I imagine that most ships of medium size and up will have significant hydroponics on board.

Quote from: SineNomine;728411I always enjoy seeing people getting use out of my books. It helps give me some clues as to what needs more work for my next effort- and there is always a next effort.

This is exactly why I appreciate Stars Without Number - I may not like the actual mechanic, but the publisher is a stand-up guy.

Well done!

Well thank you for answering my question.  That actually makes a lot of sense with how you do attack bonus and combat skill.