I have combed through CWN to find sections and mechanics that are helpful to me in my WWN game, ahoy:

Cities Without Number

• Contacts (Page 14)
• Vehicle Combat. (Page 42)
• Chases and Pursuit: Foot, Vehicle, Hybrid. (Page 43)

Creating and Running Missions (Page 132)

• What is a Mission?
• Schemes and Missions
• Creating Your Schemes
• Missions and Schemes
• Scheme Goals and Milestones
• NPC Operator Teams (Page 138)
• NPC Scheme Results (Page 140)
• Example Scheme and Hook (141)
• How to Create a Mission (Page 142)
• Mission Tags (Page 144)
• Mission Types (Page 158)
• One-Roll Fixer Generation (Page 168)

Creating an Intrusion Mission (Page 169)

• First Steps. 
• Developing  the Map. 
• Adding Security Devices. 
• Staffing and Scheduling. 
• Make a Reaction Countdown.
•  Final Touches. 
• Playing the Mission (Page 172)
  • The Setup. 
  • Negotiating with NPCs. 
  • Getting Favors from Contacts. 
  • Moving around the City. 
  • The Run
  • Fleeing the Scene
  • Example. 
• Mission Rewards and Experience
  • Base Mission Payout
  • Mission Experience
  • Optional Rule: Cash for Levels
• Heat (Page 178)
• Consequences of Heat
• Heat Gains
• Shedding Heat
• Reaction Rolls and Morale (Page 182)
• Morale and Morale Checks (Page 183)
  • Morale Check Situations
  • Failing Morale Checks
  • Morale and Common Sense

Magic Items (Page 246)

• Magic Item Origins
• Identifying Magic Items
• Linking With Magic Items
• Using Magic Items
• Obtaining Magic Items
• Magic Items and Mission Rewards.
• Magical Weapons (Page 248)
  • Magic Weapon Qualities. 
  • Weapon Powers
  • Magic Weapon Types
  • Example Magic Weapons
• Magical Elixirs (Page 252)
• Magical Cysts (Page 254)
• Magical Wands (Page 255)

I'm currently running a WWN campaign in which one of the PCs is a newbie cat burglar seeking to make a name for themselves.

The player likes crunchy mechanics, and so I wondered about introducing some kind of "wanted level" progress bar, to track their infamy.

The core WWN rulebook has systems for tracking renown, but these don't quite map onto the types of consequences I'd like to present to my player, to create a more interesting decision environment for them.

Ideally, attaining higher levels of infamy would confer escalating levels of benefits and disbenefits, e.g., higher social bonuses with criminal types or common folk, as well as a greater risk of being betrayed by NPCs as their bounty grows larger.

Does anyone have any experience of running systems with this type of mechanic? I'm aware that I can always fall back on tracking infamy qualitatively, and implement consequences via roleplay, but thought that adding a "wanted level" mechanic would give my player scope to make the types of crunchy mechanics-driven choices which I know they enjoy.

A (kind-of) brief and (very) incomplete overview and history of combat in Dungeons and Dragons and adjacent games (Including Worlds Without Number).

I also made some damage calculators for each game I covered, so it might help GM's and the game design oriented out.

I want to run a campaign in my fantasy world but well after the normal middle ages setting I've been doing for my players. I'll be doing one kind of set in the mid 1700s-style tech, so muzzle loaded muskets and very little armor. I'll mix WWN and AWN, but which do you all think is better for it as the "base" book? And should I use the nerf to warriors in AWN's combined system section (book page 68) or not?

If a skin shifter wearing medium or heavy armor melds that armor into one of their forms, does it still apply a penalty to sneak and exert?

Normally a heavy armor applies a penalty to sneak and exert equal to its encumbrance, and a medium armor normally applies a penalty to sneak equal to its encumbrance

Logically to my brain, it makes sense that your chainmail which is now absorbed into your body and part of your skin would NOT make any noise. It's still heavy costing you encumbrance.

It's a bit of a stretch to for me to imagine a plate mail melding into your body and not affecting your exert rules.

However, it feels like a cheat to do it. I cannot find any rules or any comments suggesting that any armor melded into one of a skin shifters forms would still apply the penalty to sneak (and exert)

Mechanically encumbrance is already built in as a restriction, preventing you from using too many items. That encumbrance limit stays.

We are using the cities without number optional Rule of adding armor soak onto WWN armors. Thus, if I'm in the form of a large rat with melded plate mail, it seems to suggest that I am as stealthy and agile as normal and have an additional 10 armor soak and 17 AC.

Here are the references, world without number deluxe book page 346

"The belongings carried by a Skinshifter meld into

any new form unless the PC decides otherwise, granting any benefit to Armor Class or other worn advantage they may normally give. Melded objects can be manifested and dropped as an On Turn action, but cannot be re-melded again unless the PC changes form with them again."

And the notes on light medium and heavy armors, page Worlds Without Number page 34:

Light armor may be decidedly heavy, but it is loose and flexible enough to offer minimal hindrance to the wearer’s actions. Some varieties are also discreet enough to be worn politely in common society.

Medium armor is significantly noisier and more overt; it cannot be worn discreetly and applies its encumbrance as a penalty to any physical Sneak rolls made by the wearer.

Heavy armor is the thickest, toughest panoply available on the market, and its bulk and noise make its encumbrance apply as a penalty to Sneak or Exert checks made by the wearer.

Just want to clarify a few things:

1. Does a magical +1 weapon add its plus to shock as well? I feel like I saw that no, it’s only to hit and damage, but I can’t confirm.

2. How much encumbrance does a Calyx take?

3. We have a player with the gifted chirurgeon 2 focus. If he uses just the on turn stabilizing action of GC 1, does it still count as magical healing? Or is it the standard stabilizing of “saving” them from the dying state and they are still incapacitated for 10 minutes?

I have been combing through the other books to find stuff that I would probably also use in my WWN campaign.

This is what I pulled from AWN:

Ashes Without Number

• Mounted Combat (Page 50)
  • Mounted Combat Requisites
  • Types of Combat Mounts
  • Mounted Combat Benefits
• Chases and Pursuit (Page 51)
  • Foot Chases
  • Vehicle Chases
  • Hybrid Chases
• Disease (Page 54)
  • Disease Checks
  • Resisting Infection
  • Effects of Disease
  • Disease Duration and Recovery
  • Medical Intervention
• Tracking (Page 59)
• Overland Travel and Scouting (Page 60)
  • Hexes and Terrain
  • Exposed and Stealthy Travel
  • The Travel Day
  • Travel Encounters
  • Travel Times
  • Scouting a Hex
  • Going Astray
  • Water Travel
• Hunger, Thirst, and Supplies (Page 62)
  • Food, Water, Shelter, and Fire
  • Pack Animals and Vehicle Loads
  • Starving, Thirsting, and Freezing
• Foraging During a Collapse (Page 63)
• Tech Levels and Scrap (Page 72)
  • Tech Levels
  • Tech Scrap and Salvaging
• Damaging and Repairing Gear (Page 73)
  • Gear Condition
  • Broken Loot
• High-Tech  Weapon Types (Page 80)
• Heavy Weaponry: Weapon Types (Page 81)
• Survival Gear (Page 84)
• Vehicles (Page 88)
  • Acquiring or Building Vehicles
  • Repairing Vehicles
  • Vehicle Overland Travel and Fuel
  • Vehicle Loads and Encumbrance
  • Vehicle Statistics
  • Modern Vehicle Types
  • Sci-Fi Vehicle Types
• High-Tech Tools &  Consumer Goods (Page 94)
• Identifying Mysterious Tech (Page 102)
  • Placing Mysterious Tech
  • Identifying Tech
  • One-Roll Gear Appearance and Usage

Creating Adventures (Page 190)

• Starting the Campaign
• Making an Introductory Adventure
• Points to Remember
• Crisis Adventures (Page 192)
• Exploration Adventures (Page 194)
• Social Adventures (Page 196)
• Raider Band Courts (Page 197)
• Survivor Camp Courts (Page 198)
• Village Courts (Page 199)
• Adventure Rewards (Page 200)
  • Experience Rewards
  • Loot Rewards
  • Alternative Experience Rewards
  • Patron Rewards and Payments
• Animals (ft. Horse)  (Page 207)
• Trading in the Zone (Page 246)
  • Buying Gear in the Zone
  • Selling Loot
• Weapons of the West (Page 247)
• The Cowboy (Page 252)

Can I create a world where stars, cities, and worlds without numbers exist at the same time and players from the three societies would feel roughly balanced?

Or are the guns in stars way overpowered compared to a worlds warrior?

The Shatter a Shield combat action says that a Focus-improved unarmed attack can be used to break a non-magical shield. And after you hit, you make an opposed Str/Stab check.

Shouldn't somebody who uses some sort of enhanced unarmed attack rather use Str/Punch instead?

Also, can a Vowed's unarmed strike be used for this combat action?

I realized I was being way too precious with my color hardbacks of these. So I printed some beater copies on Lulu, adding a few blank pages at the beginning and end of the pdf. (Accidentally added an extra page at the front of Worlds so the decoration ended up in the spine rather than on the edges, oh well)

Great for marking up and throwing around.

So the text of the spell:
"The animal gains a telepathic bond with the caster, obeying any non-suicidal command and allowing the mage to perceive everything it perceives.

The mage must focus to share the beast’s senses, requiring a Main Action and leaving the mage unable to act physically while so focused. The spell lasts until the mage releases the beast, it is dispelled, or it is cast again."

The mage in question has been making frequent use of the Ineluctable Shackles of Volition
spell as well. In this case, they had used it on a large mountain cat that was attacking the party. Afterwards, they went to use the cat as a scout on a different day through CSIO. I didn't catch this the first time, but reading it again; the bond and the sharing senses are from the same spell, but as separate effects, it seems. That is, once the mage has cast CSIO on the cat, at any point in time after, short of dispelling, deliberately releasing, or casting again, they can pop in and out of the cat's senses? I had initially thought it was a sort of one-and-done puppet thing, that once they leave the beast's senses, they'd have to recast it, but on closer attention I don't think that is the case. Is this multiple sharings for a single cast the right interpretation?

I have some questions about this. My players are getting into higher levels of magic, so here's the dilemma: Why would a Necromancer want to invest in Grave Knight as one of their level 4 spells that first become available to them at level 7 at the earliest to create a 4 HD soldier, when they could just use Ineluctable Shackles of Volition (a level 1 spell) to pretty likely enthrall a 7 HD person to fight for them? So long as the mage doesn't abuse the thrall and treats them as a loyal soldier and doesn't try to get second thrall, isn't that just strictly better than Grave Knight except for the initial save?

This especially becomes important because the mage in question is an Invoker, so if they "miss" with Ineluctable Shackles of Volition, they can just try again next turn. This person is being screened by strong PCs, so it's not so simple as merc the mage. Like, why spend the level 4 spell to have a max of one single 4HD soldier when you can use a level 1 spell to have a 7HD soldier, possibly more than one? I’m not talking about stronger HD enemies. I’m strictly talking about equal to or lower than the casting mage. I'm curious what others think

Hello!

I'm a long time Rifts (Palladium Books) fan, going when the main book was published in 1990! Since then my fantasy campaigns have always had a touch of sci-fi and sci-fantasy. Reading the Without Number series, I think the game mechanics will allow me to create an interpretation of the Rifts system.

For you long time players of Without Number, which books would you recommend? My goal is to create a hex-crawl campaign in a Rifts-like setting using real world locations, or what remains on them (the campaign hub may start in the built-over ruins of Pittsburgh). I want to keep the game as simple as possible without too many variables, I can always add them later.

TIA

I'm considering running a game with an All Wizards party where the general Theme of it is learning magic, exploring, and working your way up from being Wizards Apprentices to Arch Wizards, and I'm having a hard time deciding between Worlds Without Number (Which encourages spellcasters to craft various magical items, develop new Spells, and eventually create Magical Workings), and Vagabond (a game with more flexible magic, but not much in the way of developing new magic).

Has anyone ran WWN with a party of all mages before? Does anyone have any tips on how it could work? What sort of things should I look out for?

My players want to do a lot with ships and sailing, but I've ran across the issue that it seems like the majority of the ship hull types in Atlas of Latter Earth are Age of Sail ships, not Medieval Ships, and my settings is medieval. I'll try converting them on my own, but I don't really know what these ships even are and am not sure how to compare them to medieval ones. Has anyone already happened to do this?

Disclaimer: English is not my native language so it is a bit difficult trying to explain exactly what is on my mind, hopefully what I wrote makes sense

I have an idea for a middle-eastern/Arabian campaign setting set out on a somewhat isolated continent, think Australia but smaller in scale. The idea is that there is world outside of this vast continent, with even a medieval kingdom who has a colony in the region, but the rest of the world is outside of the scope of the campaign.

The general premise is that the Sultan has been murdered and the throne has been claimed by his vizier who is a tyrant sorcerer akin to figures like Jafar. The other factions in the setting are the prince and his army of loyalists who want to reclaim the throne, a rebel force who is against both the vizier as well as the royal family and the colony of outsiders, the medieval colony who essentialy want good relations with whoever is in power and the rest are indepentants who don't partake in the political landscape but just live their lives.

While trying to create the setting I have a difficult time following the guidelines; it feels too abstract. I don't seem to have the same issue when making campaigns for something like CWN. For context, when I created my Cities setting I already had an idea for a city that is very similar to Night City from Cyberpunk. The book does a good job of guiding you step by step to creating a playable world. I knew what the game meant by "world" and it's tags; it's the general status of the world and it's something that I shouldn't put a huge effort into since it only serves as a general guideline. Splitting up my city into districts and applying tags to each one also is something easy to understand. With the general outline of the city being created, it is then very easy to generate some Megacorporations and some gangs using the tools in the book. The whole process is very fluent and the book even recommends the number of districts and other factions to make.

The same "fluidity" doesn't seem to exist in WWN and I have a very difficult time using the tools provided to create the general backbone of the world before i go all creative and fill in the blanks. My first issue is that I don't understand how the concepts of "World" "Region" and "Kingdom" apply to my setting. Is the "World" the whole world or is it the playable continent? Or is the "Region" the playable area? How do "Kingdoms" come into place? Most of the continent is essentialy run by the Sultinate, the rebel force is probably a few hidden settlements that are constantly on the move and the Loyalist force is something like a small city state.

My second issue is that i can't seem to find a good "workflow" for creating the backbone of my world. As I said, it feels very abstract, unlike something like SWN or CWN where a series of procedures can be followed in order to create a rough sketch of the setting before filling in the details.

So, in YOUR interpretation of The Legacy, would it prohibit the development of a (wooden wheeled, presumably) bicycle?

Thanks!

J

If someone has a +3 dexterity, +3 magic suit of grand plate or great armor, and a large shield, can you go to 23 AC with grand plate or 26 AC with great armor? And does the immunity to shock-under-16 that grand plate has go up to 23?

Hi all it's been awhile since I last posted! A new update for Characters Without Number https://characterswithoutnumber.app/ has been put out, featuring character portraits and implementation of the Worlds Without Number ruleset which is one of the most requested feature I receive 😄

I am using this opportunity to test an updated version of the builder which has a better flow and save states, so if it works well I will implement it for the SWN and CWN versions too. For fans of Ashes - don't worry that will be coming in the near future!

Also, enough folks have requested for the inclusion of the deluxe character options that I'm now thinking of doing that, though I'll need to discuss with u/CardinalXimenes on some ideas how this could be implemented. Kevin if you're reading this please DM me and we can have a chat!

Finally you can now add a portrait to your character — it shows on the sheet and on the exported PDF. The app comes with a set of 200+ portraits courtesy of GatlingArt (they just added another 100 Elven portraits! please keep the attribution if you redistribute). You can also drop in your own image or link one by URL.

As always bug reports and feedback are very welcome. Thank you for using it!

I've been using the faction rules from the book to set up some really cool stuff for the multiple campaigns that I'm running to help make the world that I'm running feel very alive.

​

I'm already kind of breaking convention from the book by running up to 10 turns for each faction to establish that when the players join the campaigns these factions are already somewhat settled or set up.

​

I'm curious what other house rules or homebrew or variations using faction rules you guys have played so I can take in some really cool ideas and continue developing how I want to use the rule set.

​

Big thanks.

I'm a little unsure if players are allowed to take the good ones from that list and if it would replace the trait you gain from Level 2 of the origin. Can you take them at level 1, or do you have to use them as your trait pick for level 2, or not take any good ones at all?