Campaign 1: The Night Knights

Three heroes uncovered a plot by a secret organization to overtake the cluster, starting with the planet they all met on. They gathered their allies and raced against time to use alien technology to save their homes.

Their Story

Jareth, Tag, and Hua had their own reasons for joining the Unchained Armada, but they all related to desperately wanting to leave Talmar. Along the way to their own goals, they started to notice unusual things. Sightings of a ship of unknown make. An engineer destroying their own work before dying of an aneurism. A criminal they'd apprehended, sprung from custody by mystery persons and forced to do their bidding.
It wasn't until they met Tavari Zima on Astronius that they heard the name "The Emerald Legion". The enigmatic group had taken over Tavari's home planet, one yet unknown to the Talos Sector, having used subtle means to sway people to their side before enacting a full invasion. They'd been laying the groundwork for their next invasion for years, and the Knights had precious little time to stop them.

Their investigations brought them back to Talmar, where the Legion had been manipulating the Armada, the Yellow Jackets, and the government to keep the planet isolated and at war with itself. Three Legion battleships guarded the planet and landed an army down below. With their allies distracting the Legion, the Knights secured the alien superweapon on the planet's surface and used it to destroy the Legion's ships and break the siege.
With Talmar defended and the rest of the sector warned against the Legion's machinations, the invasion was stopped. Jareth remained on Talmar while Tag rejoined the Syndicate and Hua kept control of their ship, rebranding the Night Knights as Legion hunters

Other Accomplishments

Resolved issues preventing a trade deal for Mirasoil, helping Talmar's food production to survive the harsh winters.

Stopped sabotage of shielding equipment on board Lusca on Torm, saving the city from disaster during a Joining.

Helped a member of Mohalian royalty collect survey data from the ruined city of Monhal to aid in safe settlement expansion.

Activated a pretech ship manufactory on Astronius, creating a ship for civilians to use to evacuate the dying planet.

Stole a corvette ship from the Emerald Legion.

Survived Geotera.

GM Notes

This was the first campaign I ever ran, and the first time any of us used the Stars Without Number system. The campaign started in-person just before the pandemic hit, transitioned to online, and lasted just long enough that we had the final session in person again. Since it was my first campaign, my starting intentions were just to figure things out, with no goal other than to have fun. It led to a bit of a wandering story and some odd decisions on my part.

Things I learned

Say yes more. I rejected some fun player ideas during the campaign because I had no idea how to implement them.

Be more willing to let time pass. All these events happened in 6 in-game months, which is a bit nonsense.

Have ideas for a central conflict before starting. This won't always apply, but it can help to know what to build toward.

Night Knights logo by Rin Garnett

Player Characters

Key Allies

Pirates

Alice
Maria
Captain Hawk

Unchained Armada

Ryker Derrix
Desi Codac

Yellow Jackets

Jui Dawson
Sarah Martal
Isaac Song

Other

Tavari Zima
Josh
Loren Codac
Brian Evers