I will buy any Sine Nomine Publishing books unseen for their amazing worldbuilding tools, but I'm not particularly fond of OSR rules as a whole. I can deal with D&D 5E or Pathfinder 2E, but beyond that I have little interest in level-and-class systems.
this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2026
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Its probably the class system holding it back. I think its cool when its like a soda machine style system. You just pour in however much you want of that thing. But it seems most people like to "choose an archetype". They want to see wizard, mage, warrior, druid, all that stuff as something to pick cause thats easy and they know they get what they want (or close). They dont want to cook it from scratch.
Yeah, I think there's a lot of truth in that. It was probably a mistake to make tha class system like it is... It's sort of hard for a beginner to figure out of they can make a druid or monk as it is now...
Nah dont ever say that this class system is so fuccen sicc it makes me cry.
Why do you like it?
I like to be able to pick what I want and only what I want. I think the classical way of doing it like in DND is extremely restrictive and forces everyone into boxes. This way offers nearly infinite diversity in infinite combinations and I dig it.
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.
I also love the way that the galaxy keeps going outside of what the players are doing.
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.
Not sure how foci is pronounced, but in my head I'm hearing 'fuck eye.'
Foe-kai, like cacti or fungi.. A plural of focus
It's a normal English word taken from Latin: the plural of "focus". The O is a long O in both words.
Yeah great game. People prefer old TTRPG philosophies I guess which bring them to DnD
At least in my local community, with 50 % of the games being D&D/pathfinder
D&D/Pathfinder >> Local games >> Other big names RPG (Vampire/Chtulhu) >> PBTA >> OSR and not being translated make it even less popular
I like it, and I'll suggest to my group when we finish our Pathfinder campaign in a couple of years.