The Sci-Fi Space Opera You Always Wanted There's really not one thing about Stars Without Number I dislike. I've run several science-fiction style campaigns before, including a planet-hopping space opera (my favorite I have ever run). SWN is the best possible toolkit for those types of sci-fi sandbox games. Emphasis on the word toolkit, it's a very inspiring and versatile ruleset that gives you room to breathe. SWN achieves this unique balancing point of so many competing ideas of game design, about OSR, indie RPGs, sci-fi games, and more. It also clearly pulls inspiration from D&D and Traveller, yet is not burdened by any of these influences.

SWN feels remarkably familiar and accessible, but still refreshing. Kevin Crawford has not reinvented the wheel, instead he has taken recognizable sci-fi mechanics, and polished them to a shine. I find sometimes OSR type games can be skewed by nostalgia, upholding sub-optimal mechanics in the name of "authenticity", but SWN does not fall into this common pitfall. It is just a great standalone game, I'm truly impressed by the consistency and quality throughout the book. It is not just super fun, it is super well-made.

My players and I love the system, it's got a great deal of depth, yet the logical consistency of the game makes the core rules quite easy to follow. I think a complete beginner could pick this game up in a few sessions, but there's enough nuance that it does not feel stifling to veteran players. As much as I loved learning with DnD 5e as my first game, I think a SWN or Worlds Without Number game would have probably been a better introduction to RPGs in general. It neatly intersects with so many ideas and playstyles, and I can't help but think the games of the next 5-10 years are going to owe a great debt to Kevin Crawford.

We have not encountered a common trope that is not addressed in the mechanics, from ship-building, to funky space magic, fighting mechs, cybernetics, aliens, etc. All of the key information is packed into the front, so the density of the book is not a major issue when you can really use the first third to get things up and running. Gameplay also strays away from the archetypical hack-and-slash playstyle and into a (I think more interesting) realm of problem solving and exploration. Despite being a single text, it feels almost modular in that you can pick and choose which parts are relevant to your game with ease.

The character customization was also surprisingly rich, with 4 options I feared it would be restrictive but found it was quite the opposite with the versatility of character foci. The skills are easy and intuitive, the XP system helps direct player goals. There's enough goodies in one book to cover years of play, and the canon storyline (which I usually disregard in RPGs) is actually quite compelling. On top of that, the random sector generation is the best I've seen in any game, the tags system combines two common scifi tropes into unique reformulations. It's such a simple and elegant solution, and I've generated an entire in-game sector with just a few dice rolls. Hours and hours of prep time saved!

Building things in SWN is also a blast, I have so much fun assembling unique and zany aliens, tech, etc. that it feels like a mini-game within the game. Can't recommend enough for any sci-fi fan out there, I guarantee SWN has got something for you to chew on.

Despite how concise & short Scarlet Heroes is compared to other retroclones, I have been using it at almost every one of my gaming sessions for several years now and I have yet to exhaust using it. It has become one of my most heavily used & favourite products from this store.

It has many possible uses & it tends to excel in everything it does.

But above all else, it has become an indispensable tool in most of my solo & GM-less gaming.

This is because:

1) Instead of just faithfully cloning B/X at-length as most retroclones do, Scarlet Heroes tweaks B/X's traditional rule mechanics & other content into something which is still B/X-compatible, but it is much more tight & concise for optimal use in solo & GM-less gaming. Plus it integrates adjustments into that for playing with just a single player-character or two. No further adjustments are needed to play a single player-character with it. (This would also make it a good choice for one-on-one gaming.)

2) It also includes many random tables throughout it, which essentially cover almost everything that I might ever need in any of my solo & GM-less gaming. Among other things, this includes an excellent oracle, as well as many tables for NPC traits & behavior, urban/wilderness/dungeon encounters, adventure seeds, plot twists, & much more.

3) It also comes with its own self-contained setting, bestiary, & spells. Plus it is a wonderfully exotic setting to play in... Even just some of its fantastically Junji Ito-esque monsters alone would make it worth recommending here.

In other words, Scarlet Heroes has everything that I need for OSR-styled solo gaming in a single book.

My only caveat here is that if you are looking for a standard B/X setting with classic B/X monsters & spells in it, you won't find much of that in Scarlet Heroes. You would have to find that stuff elsewhere if you want to include it. Then use it alongside Scarlet Heroes while you are playing.

That being said, Scarlet Heroes works extremely well in-combination with other B/X-compatible games & supplements.

E.g. I often use it to augment some other B/X-compatible solo-gaming products, such as Ruins of the Undercity & Mad Monks of Kwantoom.

Plus I use its random tables a lot with some non-compatible games, such as Four Against Darkness & Ironsworn.

The bottom line: Scarlet Heroes is my main go-to resource for most of my solo gaming now. No matter what game I am playing, I seldom play without it.

You can use the toolset here for sectors and factions in pretty much any science fiction setting. On those merits alone, this is a toolbox to carry with you (and cheap too). A GM's friend.

Great tools for faction-play but the epic scale is a tricky fit for classic D&D gameplay.

Awesome game, if not a tad bit complicated. Had loads of fun running games with it.

Solid d20 based fantasy with well thought out mechanics, a fascinating setting and what must be the gold standard for DM tools. Those tools are worth a download by themselves regardless of what system you are actually running.

Best Game Master advice you can find combined with a system that anyone coming from D&D will find deeply familiar and accessable. I've been running Kevin Crawford's Without Number games for a long time and I can easily recommend them without caveat. This game is fun, easy to run and gives you an enormous amount of tools for an open world / sandbox style of gaming that my players love (thought you can easily use this for more story-arc gaming without changing anything).

10/10. So good. Check out his other stuff. It's all cross-compatable.

I got injecteded into the OSR scene after picking up Elden Ring and enjoying it immensely. When I found out the entire Souls gaming environment is modelled after old-school D&D I investigated several systems and landed on Worlds Withoiut Number (and Stars Without Number). WWN is everything I want in a tabletop game: it's simple without feeling lacking yet streamlined.

Some high points:

• Statistics you recognize: Strength, Dexterity, Consitutition, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma
• D20 attack rolls
• 2d6 skill rolls
• Ascending Armor Class
• Three classes (warrior, export and mage) but a fourth "adventurer" class that can be a partial class of the other 3
• Magic follows the Vancian system BUT there's alternate spellcasting rules if you hate Vancian
• A buttload of tables for worldbuilding
• Streamlined combat without tons of rules for edge cases (designed to allow GM's to make rules calls)

Overall this is now my favorite non D&D fantasy system.

The book itself is horrendously produced. The ruleset is fine and works flawlessly as a sci-fi ttrpg system.

My biggest complaint is the quality of the physical print. It is by far the worst quality book I have ever purchased. There are air pockets in the back between the board and cover art.

For $60, the quality was well under my expectations. Which is super disappointing because I genuinely planned on buying Worlds Without Numbers. Now I will be staying away, perhaps even from the PDF version.

This little gem of seven pages has a great set of rules for solo play that can used by any OSR, d20, etc... game.

This gem has some great rules for solo play that can be adapted to most osr, d20, etc.. games

I am not a fan of the system but this is a BOUNTY of ideas for a GM running any space fairing game.

Received my printed copy. Beautifully done, excellent condition. Nice thick pages, lovely colors. The binding is reasonable. I am slightly worried about how it will hold up, but the main core rulebook held up well so I'm sure this is going to hold up well for me too.

Product is about 2/3 or so content on the Latter Earth and about 1/3 or so toolbox for homebrew fantasy. A lot of the Latter Earth stuff is super easy to tailor to your own stuff too.

Gorgeous art. Evocative writing.

Normally I regret spending a lot of money on printed supplements.

I don't regret a single penny spent on this. This was worth it. I'm not financially well off but...this is something that made me feel I'm getting my money's worth and will get years of entertainment with my gaming group from it!

Yet another outstanding Kevin Crawford product. WWN has become not only my preferred OSR game, but also my preferred RPG overall. This atlas is loaded with fantastic information and evokative ideas. Even if you don't plan on playing in a Latter Earth campaign, the rich world is worth mining ideas and inspiration from at the minimum or even moreso wholesale lifting nations and background from Latter Earth for your preferred campaign world. Well worth the money, and the best RPG writer currently producing material!

I really loved this system! I know that most of the buyers will use the system agnostic part of this book (really a treasure trove of ideas), but let me tell you: in my opinion this is the best D&D derivative system out there. The classes are boiled down to bare minimum where you can customize them with foci and some really flavorful half classes. In conjunction with the recently released Atlas of the Latter Earth, there are sooo many character ideas (and I mean ideas, not builds). All the most iconic tropes are there, in a system that in my opinion fixed the combat slog with the chock damage and low hit point rules. Has a really reliable skill system that makes possible for really cool non combat types. Also has the most interesting implementation of the vancian magic in conjunction with arts (while the spells are the ancient half understood formulas that are recovered from past ages, the arts are less powerful effects developed by magic users and so are used more frequently and fueled by effort, not slots). I could praise a lot more, but I'll just recommend you all to give it a try.