...I pulled out all my "...Without Worlds" recently, including:
- Worlds Without Number
- Stars Without Number
- Cities Without Number
- Other Dust (soon to be an expanded edition Ashes Without Number)
Kevin Crawford is a genius in the gaming world, keeping the games simple and universal while delivering generation systems many other games struggle to reproduce. The games are written with the attitude of "play this game with the book's rules, or just use whatever rules you like."
The books are the best idea and setting generation books ever written and are also worthy games. They are White Box-style masterpieces of creativity and imagination.
I am searching for a great science fiction game, and there is no really getting any better than Stars Without Number. What I love about these games is how they borrow from B/X games, and the author says, "Go ahead; every B/X game you own is content for this game!" You can borrow monsters, magic items, races, spells, and even classes and powers.
Stars Without Number is also very easy to reskin. I can instantly transform it into Star Wars or Star Trek by changing a few weapon names and seasoning it with lore and flavor. This is much like the Cyber System's universality: it can be genre-neutral, X, Y, Z, or anything you want. This game could also easily create "game universes" like Traveller or Star Frontiers and any science fiction movie, TV series, or B&W serial.
SWN is also killing the new Traveller for me. I don't have the time to devote to a massive library of books, and for my needs, a simple, skinnable, d20 science fiction game that works with all my B/X books fits much better with my time and play preferences.
SWN is the Shadowdark of science fiction gaming, at least for me. This is my Star Trek, Star Wars, Starfinder, and anything else I need it to be.
I like the d20 vs. AC combat and 2d6 skill check systems. Some want "all systems on one die," but there is no reason. The skills feel different than "just another d20 combat roll" and give me that great-feeling 2d6 Traveller vibe while keeping the standard d20 combat system many are used to. Given their vast scopes and world-building tools, this uses the best parts of many classic games and mixes them into a game that is easier to manage.
All three of these games are the perfect jumping-off point into other genres from Shadowdark. You will get that "Shadowdark feeling" here, with a simple base system, level progression, parallel skill system, and straightforward gameplay. It is not 5E, but it is close enough you probably won't notice. If you like advantages and disadvantages, there is no reason not to use them. On a 2d6 roll, the A/D mechanic will roll 3d6 and then drop the highest or lowest die.
Oh, and all the "Without Number" games have free versions, so anyone can jump in and play without needing to buy a book. They have fewer tools (mostly gamemaster stuff) but are 100% rules-complete and playable. The free versions here are far more generous than Shadowdark's Basic Set, and the rules can be printed out on a two-page summary sheet players can print out and use during play.
Cities Without Number does Cyberpunk or Shadowrun-style games effortlessly and can put you more on a "street level" than either. The mission-generation system puts many other games in the genre to shame, and just one "gem in the rough" result from any of these charts can create a signature location, NPC, enemy faction, gang, or other element your campaign can latch onto for an entire campaign.
CWN introduces a "trauma" mechanic that makes gunplay dangerous and is a general advancement in the system for more gritty, realistic gameplay. If you want, you can back-port this to SWN and WWN; they will guide you through the process.
To do Shadowrun, just create a focus for your "fantasy race" and use the magic system in the book, one from another Without Number game or any from a B/X game. Equip your favorite B/X bestiary with monsters with body armor, implants, cyber-tech, and machine guns, and you are good to go for a cyber-fantasy game. Hit points and AC? Use them as-is.
Unique races are a focus pick. Still, I like how these games stick to a human base and let you interpret if there are fantasy races in your world at all. It is up to you. You don't need to accept a game that gives you a billion race choices and forces the game master to understand how the world works with all these cultures and kin. I just can't play some games because all the variety turns the game into a "junk soup" of everything in the pantry, cupboards, and fridge thrown into a pot.
Humans are incredibly wonderful and diverse—just look at our planet. Just humans in a setting are an excellent, diverse, player-engaging, and utterly representative game world.
If I want one or two unique backgrounds, they will be a part of the game's world, history, story, and factions. They will be "done right" and not just tossed in there because someone wants to cosplay a Tiefling dragon-born half-vampire again. I am done with the constant cosplay in some games; it distracts from the game, pushes out new players, encourages 'play as myself' behavior, and enables too many terrible player habits.
These games are the glue for building a million worlds.
Worlds Without Number is the game I feel the furthest from in the series since I already have a lot of fantastic fantasy games on my shelves. Still, there is no reason the toolboxes here could not be used to create worlds for Shadowdark, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Swords & Wizardry, OSRIC, Dungeon Fantasy, Old School Essentials, or any of my other go-to fantasy games.
The magic system in Worlds is a bit "movie-like" and not as mechanical and "sell list-centered" as I would like. Of all my fantasy games, the ones that "hit" on my ideas of what magic and classes are Swords & Wizardry or Dungeon Crawl Classics.
Magic use in this game is compelling but also very limited in scope and "casts per day," with most low-level mages only being able to fire off one or two significant spells daily. It is more "Conan" style magic, focusing on the melee and expert characters. There is an "art" system for lesser-magic spells that can be cast repeatedly, drawing from an "effort" pool that recharges daily. It is an interesting two-tier system that splits "big" spells (ones you see in the movie trailer) from the lesser spells (like throwing a magic bolt at an enemy).
If you want a "magic missile" spell, simply create art from it since it is minor. Make it create one 1d4 missile per level of caster, give it a range of 20' per caster level, and make it auto-hit.
Want a more high-magic game? Double the effort pool, or make a mana-potion resource to restore it. As it is, the game makes magic powerful but limits the number of uses to a few, which buffs the expert and melee classes. Too often in game design these days, casters take over the game, and those without magic are "why bother" classes that suffer because companies want to sell books full of spells and powers.
There are also options to create or borrow spells from other games. You either borrow profusely or use another game's class and magic system; it doesn't matter what you do if you keep consistent. I bet you could feel like a mysterious and powerful mage in this game if you put the time in to learn the system and how it works; as it is, the magic system in the game feels different and strange, which is a good thing.
You can't ignore your warrior and expert friends, which is good. Again, many 5E games and their clones put casters on a god-tier level of power, and the game goes superhero and never comes back. They feel like a waste of time, putting you in a "fake world" of "freely given power," and they divorce you from reality and any sense of challenge or "real world feeling." If you are doing things that make no sense in a realistic world, feel the rules protect you from what should happen, ignore your friends constantly, and live within a framework of magic powers instead of a realistic simulation - you are likely playing 5E.
Ashes Without Number is coming soon, too. It is a love letter to post-apocalyptic gaming, including Gamma World, Aftermath, Mad Max, gonzo-fantasy settings, and many others.
These are all some of the best genre games out there. They have super-generous free versions. They are straightforward games that are easy to play. These games are like Shadowdark; I can pick up and play with anyone at the drop of a hat.
If the industry sees a "Shadowdarkification" of gaming, that is a great thing since it means many more people will be able to pick up and play games with anyone else. Games like D&D, Pathfinder 2, and other complicated "cathedral gaming" heavy, multiple-shelf-spanning systems create "gaming cultures and cliques," which hurt the hobby. I don't want subscription websites or characters that must be made on computers. That isn't gaming that can be played with anyone, anywhere.
Complex games promote the lie that "I have more options. Thus, this is a good thing for me."
It is a selfish choice.
And yes, if this means my love of GURPS is a guilty pleasure, it means I accept that. I can't push GURPS on people who won't like it, be such a total fan that I can't enjoy anything else, or create pick-up games with others using systems everyone can join in on.
Shadowdark and games like it tell us, "It is more important to be able to play with everyone."
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