Faster Than Light: Nomad - A Sci-Fi Toolkit That Gets It Right

Stella Gamma Publishing keeps impressing me. I covered Quantum Starfarer a while back and loved it. Now they’ve released Faster Than Light: Nomad, and it’s a beast of a book - 277 pages of sci-fi goodness.

The Dice Mechanic Is Brilliant

Roll 2d6, equal or beat 8. Simple, right? But here’s where it gets clever.

Advantage? Roll 3d6, take the two highest. Disadvantage? Roll 3d6, take the two lowest. They stack and cancel out. If you’ve got +2d from advantages and -3d from disadvantages, you’re rolling with -1d (three dice, take lowest two).

At first I wasn’t sure about this. After playing with it at the table? It’s incredibly intuitive. Everyone just gets it. No looking up modifiers - you just say “that’s an advantage” and grab another die.

Build Anything You Want

No classes here. You pick an archetype (Agent, Pilot, Scout, whatever) that gives you general competency in related areas. A Pilot doesn’t need to roll to land a ship in normal conditions - they just can.

Then you layer on talents, skills, and equipment. The character fits on an index card, but there’s genuine depth there.

The alien creation rules are dead simple too. Insectoids get bonuses to stealth in dim light and resist poisons. Done. No pages of racial abilities - just clear, flavourful traits.

The Toolkit Approach

This is both the strength and the potential weakness. Nomad gives you everything:

• Cybernetics with humanity loss mechanics
• Psionics with self-limiting cooldowns
• Vehicle combat with positioning systems
• World generation that’s simpler than Traveller
• Trade and cargo rules

You don’t have to use any of it. Pick what fits your campaign. But if you want a complete setting handed to you, this isn’t that book.

Personally, I love this. I’m already thinking about what Stella Gamma settings I’d run with these rules.

Combat That Makes Sense

Stamina absorbs damage and comes back fast. Once it’s gone, you’re wounded and rolling on a triage table. Push your luck by fighting wounded? The penalties stack.

The wound table goes from “flesh wound” to “you’re dead” with critical injuries in between. Real consequences without tracking hit points forever.

They Give It Away

Here’s what sold me completely: they include an SRD as a Word document under Creative Commons. Full system, free to use with attribution.

In a hobby where people cling to their mechanics like they’re made of gold, Stella Gamma just… shares. That deserves recognition.

Bottom Line

Nomad is a sci-fi toolkit that respects your intelligence. The dice mechanic would be fantastic at a physical table (probably trickier online where I play a lot). The 277 pages might intimidate, but the examples throughout make every system crystal clear.

If you want a complete, setting-included game, look elsewhere. If you want a flexible engine to run whatever sci-fi you can imagine? This is exactly what you need.

Get it. Faster Than Light: Nomad