Editing Stars Without Number (section)

== How Does It Play? ==
If you've played D&D, you know.  D20 dice rolls for combat resolution, with 1e using Descending AC and 2e using Ascending.  Characters have skills like Traveller, which are resolved on rolls of 2d6.

There are <strike>three</strike>four classes: Warrior (fight stuff, turn failed attack or dodge rolls into successes), Experts (double skill points, turn failed skill rolls into successes), Psychics (use psychic powers), and Adventurers (pick two of the above, dip into their skillset).  Combat is highly lethal, thanks to low HP upgrades and high powered weapons.  This is backed by one change from the classic formula: Shock Damage, which evens the odds for melee characters by making sure that even on a "miss" they inflict damage if the enemy isn't wearing sufficient armor.  This means a swarm of mutant hicks with sharp sticks is just as deadly as a bounty hunter with a plasma repeater if you let them close in. So don't do that. PCs can make a "Snap Attack" in the middle of an enemy turn if they haven't gone yet, but it gives you a pretty big penalty to-hit.

Beyond that, the game's simple.  Crawford wants you to be able to translate your B/X stuff into this and replace the orcs with space pigs, liches with crazy AIs, et cetera.

Like many of Crawford's books, there's more random tables than you may know what to do with. This is a very good thing, since it's optimized for sandbox campaigns.