Free OSR - Worlds Without Number (Core Rules and SRD)

Kevin Crawford / Sine Nomine Publishing is well known for the various "Without Number" titles, all of which have a "Free Version."  If you don't yet own Worlds Without Number, Kevin's fantasy ruleset, here ya go ;)

Want the Worlds Without Number SRD so you can design your own ruleset? Look no further.

The stars gutter and the skies fade and the earth grows weary with years. Ages of men and of Outsiders have ascended and been forgotten, and only the bones of their cities and the dust of their dreams remain upon this tired world. The Legacy of their laws is woven deep now, the edicts of dead gods and fallen sorcerer-kings made to trace patterns of power we no longer understand. We are heirs to their unseen empires, and our lives are built upon their ashes.

Worlds Without Number is a fantasy role-playing game, one fully compatible with the hit sci-fi game Stars Without Number. It's built from the ground up to provide gritty, hard-edged adventure in the fathomless future of the Latter Earth, a fantastic realm of time-lost sorcery, savage foes, and barbaric splendor. The cold steel in the fists of your heroes and the half-understood sorcery in their tomes must suffice to overcome the monstrous remnants of ancient alien rulers and the present depredations of ruthless lords and hideous beasts alike. The riches of lost ages await in the subterranean Deeps that once held their kingdoms, and even the heavens above are not beyond the reach of the recklessly daring.

Worlds Without Number isn't just a savage game of steel and sorcery. It's packed solid with system-neutral GM tools and worldbuilding support, with hundreds of pages of useful tools, tags, tables, and practical advice usable by any GM, regardless of their favorite setting or system. The well-loved sci-fi tools of Stars Without Number are reworked here to support fantasy gaming, whether in the provided setting of the Latter Earth or in your own carefully-crafted homebrew world. Even GMs who don't prefer the OSR-compatible game system of WWN will find more than half the book dedicated to tools they can use in the systems they like best.

So what do you get in this book?

• Sword and sorcery heroes of blade, cunning, and spell. The proven OSR-compatible character creation system of Stars Without Number is redone here for a fantasy world of blade and black magic.
• OSR-compatible rules, allowing you to plunder decades of existing adventure material for your play. You can even pull in Stars Without Number content, as it's fully compatible.
• The Gyre region of the far-future Latter Earth, a premade sandbox for quick play. Venture forth to clash with the sinister powers that gather in the shadow of the waning rule of the Reaping King.
• Worldbuilding tools crafted to the renowned Sine Nomine standard. Did you like the hundred different world tags in SWN? Then have two hundred inspirational tags to help you build ruins, courts, communities, and wilderness points of interest. Grab a wealth of tools for building histories, societies, governments, religions, and geography, all written with a keen eye toward producing good, playable content for your adventuring group.
• Adventure creation tools to soothe the pangs of a working GM, with guides for building adventures out of combat, exploration, social, and investigative challenges. Use the tags you picked in the worldbuilding section to speed up your creation of a good night's gaming.
• Faction rules for fantasy worlds, with dark cults, fierce lords, grasping abbots, and greedy merchants all serving to keep your world in motion even when the PCs aren't on the scene.

 

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Time to Prep for OSR Christmas 2024!

Yep, it's that most wonderful time of year. It's when OSR Santa gets together with the OSR Elves to ensure there are 12 Days of OSR Christmas goodies for good (or bad) boys and girls of all ages.

If you are a publisher of OSR-related products, or simply a generous member of the gaming community, and you want to provide gifts for OSR Christmas, hit me up at tenkarsDOTtavern @ that Gmail thing (doing what I can to avoid the scrub bot s;) Please put "OSR Christmas 2024" in the subject. Let me know what you are looking to gift to the community, and we will make it happen.

Santa requests that physical gifts be sent from the gifter directly to the giftee and that you tell Santa if there are restrictions on the physical gift (US Only or similar). PDF gifts using DTRPG coupon codes or similar are also great.

OSR Christmas started in 2013, over a decade ago, and has had a strong showing every year.

Thanks to all in advance.

Let's try to get all offers in by the end of November :)

Tenkar

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumble or YouTube - Tenkar

Kickstarter - Ashes Without Number (Sine Nomine)

I'm a huge fan of Kevin Crawford and his Tag System. I own all of Kevin's core books in print and his non-core books in print and/or PDF. Ashes Without Number brings post-apocalypse roleplaying to the "Without Number" RPG Engine.

It should cover settings from Fallout to The Walking Dead and everything in between.

Ashes Without Number is $25 in PDF, $40 for at-cost POD and PDF, and $80 for PDF, a Smyth-sewn, offset-print hardback copy of the game. I'm in for the latter.

Ashes Without Number is a tabletop role-playing game for the end of the world. Whether as a civil collapse, alien invasion, zombie uprising, or post-apocalyptic wasteland, the game is built to give a GM the tools they need to carve out their own special slice of Hell.

Campaigns set amid radioactive dunes and savage mutant perils are supported in these pages, along with near-future tales of civil collapse, global plagues, and horrific shambling hordes. Just as with all Sine Nomine games, however, the book is built to support a GM in fashioning their own personal apocalypse, building worlds and settings to explore the kind of games they want to run.

Ashes Without Number is built on the same sturdy old-school game system as its sister-games in the Without Number line. Whether the fantasy adventures of Worlds Without Number, the sci-fi explorations of Stars Without Number, or the cyberpunk desperation of Cities Without Number, the game within these pages is built to interface smoothly with all these resources. The old-school framework also allows easy importation of other OSR games and content to help flesh out your own campaign.

A classic framework of six attributes, hit points, saving throws, and other traditional elements is supported by genre-specific rules and tools for bringing the right flavor of ruin to the table. Gritty perils of disease, traumatic stress, lingering wounds, and starvation are pointed up for campaigns set in a tragic near-future chaos, while wasteland marauders have support for mutations, scrap-built gear, and enigmatic ancient tech. These systems are built to snap smoothly into place in your campaign, letting you pick the ones that fit the feel you're aiming to create.

But at its heart, Ashes Without Number is shaped around the same system-neutral Sine Nomine tools that have won the other Without Number games such a warm place in the hearts of working GMs. Tools for building adventures, ruins, survivor enclaves, looming crises, horrible mutant creatures, and a host of other useful content are all designed to be system-neutral and usable with your own game of choice. Need to put an exploration-worthy ruin into your game? Just follow these tables and guidelines to get a quick, playable chunk of gaming fun, from the site's first-glance impression to the useful salvage still left amid the rubble.

Genre-specific rules for supporting three different campaign genres: post-apocalyptic Mutant Wasteland games, zombie-infested Deadlands, and near-future societal collapse in After the Fall campaigns.

 

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumble or YouTube - Tenkar

Limited Time Sale - Dungeons & Dragons - the Making of Original D&D: 1970-1977 (50% off)

Yep, Dungeons & Dragons - the Making of Original D&D: 1970-1977 is currently 50% off at Amazon (Limited Time Sale - ticker on the page) with "potentially" an additional 10% off coupon. If they properly stack, the price would be down to 45 bucks. Note: Some folks do not see the coupon - its a good price either way.

Ignore the preface and enjoy the contents, at least at this price :)

The holiday season is sneaking up...

Unearth the very first draft of original D&D, never released to the public until now. Crafted on Gygax’s home typewriter, this 1973 document contains handwritten notes by both Gygax and Arneson.

Discover approximately 30 early articles and rare documents that lay the foundation for modern D&D, including unpublished correspondence between Gygax and Arneson.

Peruse a remarkable collection of magazine and fanzine articles, many of which are no longer publicly available or remain undiscovered by D&D historians and fans of classic D&D.

Flip through facsimiles of all the first printings of Original D&D, compiled in a single book for the first time in D&D’s publishing history.

Explore the creation and development of the original 1974 game with insightful commentary by Jon Peterson, one of D&D’s foremost historians.

Commemorate our 50th anniversary with this homage to D&D's past. We invite you to look back on D&D’s history with a discerning eye as we celebrate how far D&D has come. Here’s to 50 years, and 50 more!

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumble or YouTube - Tenkar

Deal of the Day - BX Advanced Bestiary, Vol 1

I really enjoyed the "Ecology of..." series in the classic era of Dragon Magazine. It made common - or even rare - creatures more than just a set of stats to kill or be killed by.

Today's Deal of the Day, BX Advanced Bestiary, Vol 1, appears to do that and more for a selection of creatures from the Old School Essentials Basic Book. I liked what I saw in the free preview and picked up a copy. Peek at the preview and see if the BX Advanced Bestiary, Vol 1, would fit your campaign.

Volume 1 of the BX Advanced Bestiary takes the monster entries A-D from the OSE Basic book and expands them with options, added details, use for monster parts, additional monsters, and playable classes based upon the same theme. A sample preview of the book can be foundhere. Each entry is illustrated. 

It includes rules for monster and animal training, several new race-as-class options (advanced cave locust, changeling, cyclopskin, dragonborn, and genasi), as well tables showing the monsters organized by HD, terrain, and type.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumble or YouTube - Tenkar

Deal of the Day - Twilight: 2000 (2.2e)

I remember running a handful of sessions of Twilight 2000 back in the 1980s when the Cold War was on everyone's mind. My gaming group was more focused on D&D and other Fantasy RPGs than modern or sci-fi genres, so we never stuck with Twilight: 2000. I think it would have been fun.

Today's Deal of the Day is Twilight: 2000 (2e). Normally, 20 bucks in PDF; until tomorrow, Twilight: 2000 (2.2e) is on sale for 10 bucks.

Newly updated to be fully compatible with Traveller: The New Era

The War has raged for years The high-tech ammo is almost gone. High-tech equipment is failing, piece by piece, with no spares to fix it. The front lines are held by a few grim, desperate soldiers.

The US 5th Division holds the line in Poland. Now, a Soviet encirclement has cut it off in a province ruled by ambitious warlords, local militias, and bands of marauding deserters. HQ is 200 klicks to the rear and powerless.

Your last order sets you free...

"Good Luck. You're on your own."

Here's What You Do

• Generate Your Character: You select your nationality, chracter type, and your military and nonmilitary backgrounds.
• Equip Yourself: use your money for weapons, ammunition, equipment, vehicles and spares.
• Start Moving: You're in hostile territory. Your next encounter may be a friendly farmer, a frightened refugee, or a dangerous deserter. You pick your course of action; you decide your own fate in the chaos of World War III.
• Twilight 2000's award-winning game rules provide the foundation for role-playing in the chaos of World War III.
• Combat: Fast-playing, easy-to-resolve comabt system gives the feel of modern battles.
• Travel: Types of travel, time scales, vehicles, encounters, maintenance, fuel, repairs.
• Encounters: Dangerous environments, radiation, disease, contaminants, reasons for encounters and typical adventures.
• Equipment: Weapons, supplies, vehicles, munitions, costs, availability.
• Danger: Places to go and reasons to go there. Plus reasons you wish you hadn't.
• Background:Chronology and history of World War III
• Twilight 2000. The adventures are fast and furious. The prize is survival, and maybe, just maybe, a safe place to spend the night.

 

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumble or YouTube - Tenkar

Deal of the Day - Trilemma Adventures Compendium Volume I (System Agnostic)

It is rare that anything achieves a 4.8 rating on DTRPG with nearly 150 ratings to its name. Trilemma Adventures Compendium Volume I is one of those rare beasts. I own it already and plan to liberally borrow and steal from it for my next campaign, as it is not only "that good" but highly inspirational. Perfect for the DM who enjoys running campaigns "by the seat of their pants—sandbox style!"

Typically 15 bucks in PDF, but until tomorrow morning, you can grab Trilemma Adventures Compendium Volume I for $9.

This book brings together the award-winning Trilemma Adventures: 48 one- and two-page adventure locations for fantasy role-playing games. 2020 ENnie Award winner for Best Adventure (silver) and Best Cartography (gold)!

Each location is written to be usable separately, perfect for one-shot sessions, side quests, or to help populate your home grown campaign setting.

All have been lavishly illustrated and laid out to make them easy to run, straight from the book.This book is packed with caverns, castles, underworld cities, labyrinths, mansions, flying tombs, hidden temples, and fallen shrines.

Also inside is more than 60 pages of new material:

• an illustrated bestiary
• an appendix of magical items
• ten solid pages of hooks, rumors and secret lore
• six regional gazetteers tying the adventure locations into a ready-to-use campaign setting
• a full-color regional map, in GM and player versions
• a complete index
• a bonus location, set in the aftermath of the Kickstarter invasion scenario

This compendium is an essential part of your GM kit!

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumble or YouTube - Tenkar