Why Worlds Without Number?

17 Mar, 2025

I began playing 5e shortly after it was released, and soon after that began watching Critical Role and was ¹ a big fan of MCDM's The Chain. With these examples, it only seemed right to me that the GM's job was creating a Mad Libs story with blank spots for the player characters to fill in. After about six years of playing 5e nearly weekly, it was running a full campaign that made me realize just how many problems I had not just with the trad style, but with the rules of 5e themselves. I discovered the OSR through Stars Without Number by Kevin Crawford - I wanted to run something science fiction, and I knew even then that 5e was not going to fit no matter how hard I hammered it into place. However, at the time SWN was more of a diversion. I ran a rather successful one-shot, basically Die Hard in Space. My first SWN campaign was run a few years later during the lockdown in April of 2020, online, and we had a lot of fun.

In 2021 I ran my first long-term 5e campaign using Red Hand of Doom for 3e as a base. While I was running this campaign, I knew that Kevin Crawford was working on Worlds Without Number, but I had already started the campaign and I didn't want to change systems. The campaign ended earlier than I would have liked, but it ended in a satisfying enough way that I accepted it. But I knew that things had to change.

Some people say that SWN isn't OSR, and I'm not really here to make a value statement in that regard, but if it isn't then it sure is a gateway. The text of SWN is oozing with references to sandbox style play, which was revolutionary to me because of how I was introduced to the hobby overall. The idea that the game is not directed by the GM, but the PCs, and the GM only needs present an arena for the PCs to accomplish long term goals was revolutionary. Even more so was the idea that the dice are not merely responsible for determining the outcome of an action, but also that they represent probability and if there is 100% certainty that an action will be successful, there is no roll. Each page of SWN's GM sections are bursting with ideas that can fuel an entire campaign unto themselves. And of course, there's the famous tables - tables for everything you can possibly think of.

As I was beginning to think about what I wanted to do for my next campaign, I remembered SWN and began working on a future-Earth setting inspired by Destiny and Mass Effect among other things. As I was working on it, I found myself increasingly finding people referencing WWN and decided to download the free edition to see what Kevin had been up to. I was hooked, it was basically everything I had wanted 5e to be. For better or worse, my SWN game became a preview for what would eventually become The Third Dynasty. ² It helped that I was already familiar enough with the general idea of the "xWN" system due to my experience running SWN but the system just immediately clicked for me. The classes are somewhat basic but customizable, the assumption of the game was something closer to the works of Jack Vance or Fritz Leiber, and while not compatible out of the box with any pre-3e or OSR adventures due to the addition of Shock damage and the excellent, Travelleresque skill system, it's trivial to convert them over. There are other pros to the system, such as its emphasis on customization. Not that GMs need a clause in the rules to excuse tinkering, but pretty much from page one Kevin says that the game belongs to the GM. However, given the nature of the rules I was more excited to add things than to take away, as was the case with 5e. Even more than with SWN, Kevin lets the game speak on its own, relegating the setting material to its own chapter. And as with SWN, there are tons of excellent random tables and generators in the book.

Anecdotally, people have had a problem with the 2d6 skills. For whatever reason, people like to roll the d20 for "important" stuff, but I think I don't really have to explain to you the problems with a d20 if you're reading this. 2d6 creates a nice little triangular distribution, which is why it's also so great for reaction rolls. You can depend on the result likely being something around 7. So having Know-1, granting +1 to checks, is much more meaningful than having +1 Arcana in 5e. A character with the Physician background and Heal-1 is like a GP, for instance. As stated above, the game advises a GM to not call for a check if they should know something - so if a patient has an infection, it's not a check to prescribe an antibiotic. However, a rare flesh eating parasite that's never been seen before? Call for a DC 8 check.

Encumbrance is another nice subsystem that I enjoy - items aren't weighted, but have a score that corresponds to how hard they are to transport. It's not super exact, but carrying things still presents an interesting choice; its abstraction also means players grumble less, which is nice. I like the survival and management aspect of the game, and so Encumbrance is a nice medium between tracking pounds of gear and something like a Supply die. There are some other elegant systems, such as System Strain, that make it easy to abstract disease, or poison, or whatever you need.

Combat in xWN generally trends towards ultra-deadly at first level, with most PCs having as few as 1 HP and as many as 7 against damage dice of d6 through d10. However, PCs hit equally hard and generally tough monsters are going to get worn down faster due to Shock damage. Shock is one of the more brilliant additions to the typical B/X derived game because as far as I can tell a lot of OSR folks think of "an attack" as a series of traded blows, with success being a solid hit and failure being nothing more than deflected or avoided jabs. Shock makes this more clear, as merely being engaged with an enemy that has a weapon with a Shock score equal or greater to the AC, inflicts a small amount of damage. You can't sit there and trade blows back and forth all day! You get tired, and eventually the blade meets your weak point. This makes big beefy fighters up in the front lines much more useful, but also disincentivizes long, drawn out fights.

I am also a huge fan of the 10 level progression over the 20+ of other games. The power jump is a bit higher, but that's fine with me as most campaigns don't last long. There is also the beginning of a way to simulate the climb up through BECMI with Heroic and Legate characters, which could easily pair with Crawford's other game - Godbound - for something like Immortals. Personally, though, I dislike how much XP is dependent on GM fiat and use a modified version of 3d6 Down the Line's Feats of Exploration mixed with an old WotC UA. As I have said before, what I want in rules is something that's not just calvinball, but also isn't GURPS. No hate to GURPS fans, I just don't really understand you.

Finally, while I like D&D, and have read older editions for ideas, I was not alive for the time when the Old School games were being written. I have an affection for the style of play, and love the Appendix N materials I have read, I have no desire to adhere to the kludge of the classic editions. Not only that, but my friends and I like to customize our characters. There is much less crunch in WWN, and less weird magic superhero options than in 5e, but it is much easier to customize and differentiate your PCs from each other than in something clinging much closer to B/X. This somewhat prevents the issue discussed by LootLootLore in this recent blogpost, which was something I noticed after only a few games of OSE. I also really appreciate the fact that this system is basically 99% free, and the paid parts of it are extremely cool. I was ecstatic when the reprint kickstarter was announced in 2023 and while I'm happy to have a nice, stitch-bound copy I will always regret that my name isn't in the backer list.

What's your favorite system? What's something that draws you into a game system? Have you played WWN and liked it? Or maybe you don't, that's OK too. Let me know on Bluesky.

Until next time, keep your eyes on the skies.

Footnotes