u/StevetheHunterofTri

Hello again,

The title says it all for this one, folks. As a fun post to share ideas with each other, tell us some interesting examples of alien wildlife found in your sectors! Be they cute little pets or lurking scavengers or rampaging apex predators, feel free to share whatever comes to mind!

The title gives the gist of my question. In trying to make things (particularly new kinds of shadows from the Codex of the Black Sun), the thought occurred to me: What game systems have content that is most compatible with Stars Without Number?

I know the most obvious answers are the other Without Number games (Ashes, Cities, and Worlds), but I want to know what other people might know of?

Hello everyone, I wanted to share with the good people here something I have been working on in preparation for running an adventure set in the Ember Expanse (a community-created sector organized by Star Master Jeff, for those who might not know)!

In trying to make some more substantive stuff for the various factions, I came to an interesting point for The Carcinoa. Their description reads as follows:

>Culty, very willing to be all smiles and free tech but failure to show the proper zealotry will see you branded a heretic and scapegoated into a justification for more violence against non-cyborgs. Their goal is to convert organic life to cyborgs through proselytizing and crusade.

This alongside their faction relationships and the description for their homeworld of Stalnoy Medved provides a good foundation for what their religion is like, but it isn't a very substantiative. Since I am endlessly fascinated by religion, I took it upon myself to take the time to expand on it! As I am also a massive fan of Pathfinder (particularly 2E), I in part went off of the stat blocks for religions in that system with the whole "Edicts" and "Anathama" parts. This is by no means "canon", of course, that is not my decision after all, but I do hope people find what I have written interesting:

The Carcinoa is among the most prominent religious groups in the Ember Expanse. One of the two major machine cults in the sector, they have found themself a rival in the Tavarrn Clergy of Pointe Machina. Where the Tavarrn find holy meaning through the ritual use of their technology to create, The Carcinoa's beliefs center around their primary directive: The fusion of flesh with machinery is the key to achieving an enlightened state of balance and, ultimately, the Unification.

As an atheistic religion, much of their doctrine focuses humans— "shackled souls" as they call them— and their conversion into cyborgs. To members of The Carcinoa, there is no cause more just than dedicating their life to the endeavor of converting every human in the sector through proselytizing and, in times of particular strife, outright war. The Unification is the endpoint of this endeavor. According to the Silver and Gilded Proselytes of The Carcinoa, the Unification is a state of being for individuals and the collective simultaneously, where all minds are connected to blur the line between self and society so that humanity achieves balance and enlightenment. Free of inequality, free of inequity, free of the limitations of individuality.

The Carcinoa is known to be remarkably inclusive, more than willing to welcome those from all walks of life and provide generous charity with their cyberware, but unforgiving to any of their own whose actions fall below their standards of faith. Simply being judged as having insufficient zeal can result in being pronounced a heretic and made into an example for further fanaticism.

Structure. The Unification is not only a religious ideal, but a reality far less idealized than the preachers say. Composed of a pseudo-hivemind of hundreds of Carcinoa monks connected to Stalnoy Medved's planning system through pretech-modified spinal implants, they act as the guiding force for not only the religion, but the entire planet. For those faithful tasked with spreading and fighting for The Carcinoa beyond Cimeter, these proselytes are ordered as follows: Gilded, Silver, Bronze, Steel, and Iron. No proselyte is of truly higher authority than another, instead separated by specialization and prestige. In spite of this, Gilded and Silver Proselytes are granted superior cyberware and clandestine knowledge the others cannot possess.

Edicts. Become a cyborg, expand the Carcinoa’s influence over “shackled souls”, join the Unification

Anathema. Disobey the Unification, fail to show proper zeal, remain fully organic

I have been a fan of AOTD for a while, featuring Vaults of Knowledge, Dreams of Past, and Seats of Powers in my mod list for a while (I never had the slightest interest in Question of Loyalty since I don't do faction commissions). I admit that I haven't kept up with the mods' devlogs and such too much, so the new Theory of Toolbox mod is mostly unknown to me. I know it's all about economics from reading the description on the website and that it's a dependency for Vaults of Knowledge and Seats of Power. While I have always been all-around satisfied with how the in-game economy system has worked and don't feel compelled to modify it, I really don't want to be without the other two mods, especially as they update and gain more content.

What I'd like to ask those who have played with it is how Theory of Toolbox is to actually have in a playthrough? Is it fun? Does it make the game harder? A lot more micro-managey? Does it interfere with a playstyle that leans towards a "sector conqueror" like mine? Those sorts of things.