I sometimes hear Worlds Without Number being mentioned, but it’s usually as a world-building tool, since the main book has lots of good tables for that. I rarely hear anyone talking about it as a game.
I only really learned what it is recently. It’s a lot like Old School Essentials but with a proper skill system (you can choose which skills to increase when you level up, etc) and a feats system (although they call them “foci”) which you can use to customize your character.
It does have a weird class system, though. It’s based on three base classes: Mage, Expert, and Warrior. There’s also Adventurer, but what that basically means is being multiclassed. So from those three classes you customize your character to become more specialized. Want to be a monk? Sure, pick the Warrior class (or the Expert class if you want more skill points) and then pick the Unarmed Combatant feat. It gives you better unarmored AC, and makes your unarmed attacks basically as good as a sword, etc. There are other foci which basically turns your Mage into a cleric, and so on.
I also find the combat to be better than, say D&D 5+E, with more types of actions to choose from in combat.
So, like the title says - to me, this game is great. And it surprises me that I see so few people talking about it. The basic edition, which has about 90% of the content of the full edition I think, is free on DriveThruRPG (non-affiliate link).
Stars Without Number is the equally solid Sci-Fi equivalent. My players like their fantasy as DnD, but I plan to win them over with this.
I love the ship combat mechanics - everybody mans a different station according to their skills.
I also love the way that the galaxy keeps going outside of what the players are doing.
Yes, I love that Worlds Without Number have tools for deciding what factions and important NPCs do in the background while the PCs are doing other things. It’s been my intention to create my own tools like that, but I think I’m going to try these tools first - both for my own solo play in WWN, but also for my Pathfinder 2E campaign that I run in the same world.
Is Stars Without Numbers packaged with rules to facilitate this, somehow?
Because that’s just something a good GM should be doing, regardless.
I’m not the one you replied to, but yes, I believe it is. At least Worlds Without Number - which is based on Stars Without Number - has such tools.
Can you recall any specific examples of those mechanics? Not an interrogation, just curiosity.
Also not who you replied to, but I had a quick look at what I could find online.
It is a pretty deep system, where factions take their actions in the background in turns every ingame month or adventure. They all have their own stats, bases of operation, assets, goals, etc. and can attack each other, expand, gain influence or wealth and a whole lot of other things.
Basically its a “the GM plays a strategy game by themselves behind the scenes” approach. Personally, I think its a bit too involved for its purpose unless you really enjoy playing that solo game in addition to all the other game prep.
Hmm, yeah, sounds bulky. I like simulating the world but I’m more ad hoc with it.
On page 324 in the base Worlds Without Number book, there’s the “Factions and the Faction Turn” section which has mechanics for keeping track of factions, their resources, and what they do.