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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.

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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.

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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.

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Jeff sits down with Scott to talk through Episode 30, You Broke the Ship, Robert, and quickly regrets giving him only one listen's worth of credit. Scott answers a full round of pop quiz questions about Felix's fight to keep the Scapegoat's engine together while the rest of the crew handles their own mess topside, and gets nearly all of them right. The two get into how the ship-to-ship combat was built as a puzzle instead of a straight dice fight, using the house rules Brian just covered on SWN Rules Explained. They close out the episode with a spoiler-filled tangent about Edge of Tomorrow.

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

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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 house rules in Stars Without Number: why a group might want to introduce them, examples straight from the rulebook's house rules section on page 237, and what to watch for when you start changing things. Brian pulls his case study from the crew's escape from Patrol Boat 6 in Episode 30, "You Broke the Ship, Robert," where the group dropped command points from ship combat so every department gets a single action each round instead of spending it on duty rolls. He walks through the ripple effects of that change, plus a few other house rules the table has tried, from cutting shock damage to borrowing mechanics like clocks from Blades in the Dark.

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

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Patrol Boat Six catches up mid-flight, weapons hot, and the Scapegoat barely has an engine left to run on. Felix spends the whole episode losing a fight with a redlining engine room. Robert pushes the throttle past where anyone told him to. Down in the cargo hold, Froggy finds a book he shouldn't have, and decides it's a job application. Somewhere in the middle of all of it, Haleyy finally figures out what's been wrong with her gun since Episode 1.

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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.

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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

Jeff sits down with Doja to talk through Episode 29, Eleven Rounds, and the puzzle-combat built around it. They get into why the fight had no clean shot for anyone to just point and pull the trigger, what it meant for Robert Ross to head for the pilot's seat instead of joining it, and the long history behind Lokipon. The conversation wanders into real life too, from Doja's first year as a new dad to Jeff's plans for a pottery studio, before closing with a rapid-fire round and a look at what Robert's afraid of heading into next session.

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

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This episode of SWN Rules Explained looks at space travel in Stars Without Number: spike drives, how travel times work within and between star systems, and how ships find or lose each other through detection locks and chases. Brian uses the crew's escape from Causeway 3 in Eleven Rounds as the case study, working through what it takes to clear a switching station's defense drones and stay ahead of the Viridine Security Patrol once they're back in open space. He walks through the math behind spike drive ratings and drill checks, then explains how pursuit and evasion play out mechanically at the table.

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

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Eleven rounds. That's the clock Felix is racing when the crew gets pulled back into Causeway 3's server room mid-hack, three swarms of electro-beetles closing in from every angle while a Virodyne patrol boat spins up to intercept. Thorne throws a flare. Haleyy sweeps them back with her bare hands, twice. Robert drops his gun, pulls a knife, and rolls across the floor covered in bug grease rather than take a hit standing up. All three of them are buying Felix time to pull the one thing they came for: confirmation of where Strake took Voss. He gets that, and something else nobody asked for, buried four subsystems down under a name that means nothing to any of them yet. Getting out of the room turns out to be the easy part.

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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.

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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 Scott, who plays Felix, for episode 28, "I'm Not Angry, I'm Disappointed." They talk through Felix's idolization of Dr. Voss and what it would actually take for him to give up on Petey. Scott walks through how he built Felix's cantankerous streak on purpose, then closes out with a rapid fire round: one-word takes on the rest of the crew and whether Buddy will ever earn a real place on the ship.

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

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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 covers starships in Stars Without Number: hull classes, fittings and hardpoints, crew requirements, and the maintenance costs that keep a ship flying between sessions. Brian pulls his case study from Episode 28, "I'm Not Angry, I'm Disappointed," where the Scapegoat has to dock at the derelict Causeway 3 station and Felix spacewalks out to hack the exterior control panel by hand. He breaks down what a ship's stats actually mean at the table, what happens when repairs get skipped for too long, and why a GM can usually just grab a pre-built ship instead of designing one from scratch.

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

Three days in the fuel queue, and Felix hasn't left his data slab. When he cracks open what Voss left buried in Strake's transmission, the crew punches in the coordinates and doesn't look back. Eighteen days of transit, one unmarked station in a dead red system, one ship AI with a gift for fake names, one convincing Victor Strake impression, and a server room full of things Virodyne doesn't want them to read.

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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.

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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, who plays Captain Thorne, joins Jeff to talk about Episode 27. They get into how Thorne's role as captain took shape through play rather than any plan, and what it's actually like to give orders to a crew that sometimes does something completely different. The conversation also covers the Thorne and Haleyy relationship, and closes with a speed round where Brian makes a few things permanent canon, including one he might already regret.

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

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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 week's SWN Rules Explained covers drones, cyberware, and equipment mods. Brian uses the security drone spotted at the Helium Dock in Life Is Unfair as the case study, then walks through drone stats and combat rules straight from the Stars Without Number revised rulebook. He also gets into system strain and cyberware installation, plus how the Fix skill covers modding and maintaining gear.

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

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The crew leaves the Omnitech ship with a name, a lead, and no answers. And now: a midnight heist at the Helium Docks, a hacked security gate, one fake employee named Gregory Overton, and 3am waiting in the dark.

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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.

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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

Jeff sits down with Doja, the player behind Robert Ross, to talk through Episode 26: You're a Good Person, Robert. Doja gets into his first steps in the hobby, the moment Robert stops waiting and starts planning at the spaceport, his take on why Robert hates other clones, and what it actually costs Robert to hear Haley call him a good person.

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

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Brian walks through Stars Without Number character creation from scratch, covering attributes, backgrounds, skills, classes, and foci. Inspired by the events of "You're a Good Person, Robert," he builds a Robert Ross clone as the worked example, rolling randomly for background and attributes, and ends up with a telepathic courtesan built for assassination.

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 crew tracks the assassin back to a docked Omnitech ship at the spaceport. What they find inside is a face they know. Dr. Iso gets her revenge. And Robert and Haleyy have the conversation they've been circling for years.

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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.

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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

Starting with Episode 25, the Star Master Log gets a new format: Jeff sits down with a rotating cast member for a spoiler conversation about the episode that just dropped. First up is Stephanie, who plays Haleyy with two Y's, breaking down Rock Tumor: the Spigot arc premiere and the episode that introduces Iso.

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

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Brian breaks down the Adventurer class, skill checks, grenades, and saving throws in Stars Without Number, using scenes from Episode 25 "Rock Tumor" as a case study. The Adventurer is SWN's hybrid class — a way to mix any two of the three core classes and build something new, at the cost of each class's signature ability. Brian covers how partial classes work, how the Star Master picks attributes and skills for any given roll, how grenades function as an area-of-effect attack, and how saving throws are calculated and used.

He covers:

• (00:00) - Intro
• (01:37) - The Adventurer Class
• (03:37) - Skill Checks
• (07:04) - Grenades
• (08:20) - Saving Throws
• (10:17) - Outro

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 crew is nursing Haleyy's mystery condition and racing a ticking clock: they need a black market ship module or they're grounded forever. A visit to an old military contact brings medical answers no one wanted and an enemy neither of them saw coming.

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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.

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