What's next

2026-06-01

Recent events make me wonder if I should perhaps take a break from fantasy RPGs and switch to sci-fi. I had an old project to run a Stars Without Number (SWN) campaign but with a few modifications. I want to use a mix between the SWN setting and the Star Frontiers (SF) setting. I'll use the extended Star Frontiers map, for example, and I'll use the races from SF. I ran SF a long time ago and it was very fun.

I need to make some adaptations, though. The SF map shows distances between stars in Light Years (LY) while SWN, like Traveller, shows distances in parsecs, or more precisely, in "jump distances." If you have a jump-1 drive (called a drive-1 spike drive in SWN) you can jump one hex away. A jump-2 drive lets you jump two hexes away, etc. It's been around since Traveller was first released, and it works very well. One thing that has always bothered me with this system is that there is no way for a jump-1 ship to reach stars beyond that one-hex range. The other problem that I have with the SWN system is that all ships have an abstracted amount of fuel that lets them do exactly one jump. There are fittings to add a second jump capability, but even that is abstracted. So while I was considering how to use the SF map and setting along with the SWN rules, I came up with this adaptation.

  1. Spike drives are the same as in the SWN rules: ships have drive-1 to drive-6 spike drives.
  2. The drive rating indicates how many LY the ship travels in a day.
  3. A ship uses one ton of fuel per day, whatever the drive rating.
  4. It costs 100 cr per ton for fuel.
  5. There is a minimum of 1 day for any trip. So a 2-LY trip with a drive-4 spike drive doesn't take only a half-day; it takes a full day.

In SWN any jump takes exactly 6 days, whatever the distance, and the fuel costs 500 cr for the abstracted one jump. Here are a few comparisons with this adaptation:

  • A drive-1 ship can jump 6-LY in 6 days and will use 6 tons of fuel at a cost of 600 cr. Similar to SWN if one hex is about 6 LY, with a bit higher cost of fuel.
  • A drive-2 ship can jump 12 LY in 6 days and will use 6 tons of fuel at a cost of 600 cr. Similar again to SWN except for the cost.
  • A drive-2 ship can jump 6 LY in 3 days, using 3 tons of fuel at a cost of 300 Cr. This would take the same time in SWN but the fuel cost would still be 500 cr, and it would take the whole fuel available on the ship.
  • A drive-1 ship can jump 8 LY if it can hold 8 tons of fuel. It would take 8 days and cost 800 Cr. This is impossible with the SWN rules, as it is beyond the reach (6 LY) of a drive-1 ship.

I think this adaptation works very well and opens up a number of possibilities, like lower drive ships holding more fuel that can reach more distant stars, although taking a longer time to reach them. It also adds the possibility of a ship making multiple jumps on a single fuel tank.

I will keep the requirement for a “rutter” (course record) and the effects of not having one or the age of the rutter on navigation. I think with this and my adaptation, space travel will be fun and challenging.

I will use this extended map of the Frontier as a base for my setting.

I have a history outline that includes parts of the default setting for SWN, and parts of the SF setting, mixed with a few additions.

I've started an application project. It's very basic at the moment, but encouraging.

More on this soon.