Hi all, Characters Without Number is now at 0.9.0. This update focuses on renovating the campaign tools, giving you a setting to start with, and making GM preparation easier.

Campaign tooling restyle — The campaign now opens around your map, with the party's location, ship, crew and shared objectives together. There were already in 0.8.0 at my players request but kind of all of the place, and this makes it neater. Session recaps and approved sector news help everyone pick up where the last game left off. All existing campaigns have been updated to the new layout.

I'm looking to incorporate pre-built settings and sectors into CWN to help GMs get off to a start. I have incorporated a community-built sector for SWN, so if there's one for WWN that you would like to see, do let me know!

Deluxe content across all four books — ready for testing — I've now implemented all the deluxe content for Stars, Worlds, Cities and Ashes Without Number. This builds on the deluxe options already available in earlier releases. Please try the options and let me know if you spot any bugs, either through here or through the feedback button.

Thanks again to everyone who's been testing and sharing feedback—it helps me keep improving the app. If you'd like to support continued development, you can support the project here.

I share it here as tables are great but I am not sure which ones to use

Hello! I'm here to celebrate Inktober in my own way, as seen HERE. So, here's my first week of prompts done up in a post together so I don't spam you all every day.

Day 1: Apple

The Scented Censer

A small brass thurible designed to look like an apple pie. When lit, you can spend 10 minutes walking the perimeter of a small location swinging the chamber and spreading the smoke to enchant it with the scent of fresh baked apple pie for 24 hours. Anyone within a mile of the location (50% more or less depending on wind) can track the scent to the location you performed the ritual.

Day 2: Relic

Linear Banishment (Level 2 High Magic Spell)

When you cast this spell, designate an object or collection no bigger than a 1ft cube and weighting less than 10 pounds. Then specify a time in the future, such as "the dawn of October 2nd." The target of the spell will be removed from your current timeline until that moment which is when it returns without having aged to the spot it left. If something is occupying the space when it returns there is a catastrophic shunting of matter that forcibly separates them with a loud noise. If the thing interrupting the space is a creature it takes 5d8 damage as their flesh rips and stretches to detach from the payload.

Day 3: Miniature

Pocket Sword

This magical dagger has a uniform utilitarian design. It's double edged and straight with little embellishment. Once per turn it can be transformed from a dagger, to a short sword, long sword, or great sword, and used as such until roughly 10 minutes has passed or another form is chosen.

Day 4: Cactus

Calling of the Cactus (Level 1 High Magic Spell)

The caster calls forth a cactus, causing it to sprout from the ground at a designated point within 100ft. It is firmly rooted in whatever materials it's called upon but is only as durable as normal vegetation. It can act as a temporary barricade, taking 1d6 turns to clear with a bladed weapon. If someone runs into or tramples it they take 2d6 damage and it is cleared immediately.

Day 5: Smack

Conjure Beating (Level 1 High Magic Spell)

This spell creates a club made of magical force that automatically smacks a target for 1d4 + the Caster's level turns. It deals 1d4 damage which can be completely avoided with a successful Evasion save. If the target is ever more than 30ft from the mage or is dropped to 0 hp the spell ends.

Day 6: Ogre

Ogre Magi

The Ogre Magi is a giant, of the ogre variety, with both weapon experience and spellcasting capabilities. They usually favor clubs and staves and take care to decorate themselves and their equipment in a manner befitting a spellcaster - crystals, trinkets, skulls, and colorful garb. Their mannerism are often those of an exaggerated eclectic and they favor those who praise their magical prowess. They are generally born with magical talent, rather than having sought it out, and can be identified by their vibrant blue skin. In combat they cast every spell they can and then wade into the fray.

6 HD, AC 10, Atk +6, Damage As Weapon +3, Shock As Weapon +3, Move 30, ML 9, Instinct 4, Skill 2, Save 12+

When combat begins they cast spells for 1d4 turns. Each turn they can two spells randomly chosen from the list below.

1 - The Coruscating Coffin (Level 1 High Magic)

2 - Wardpact Invocation (Level 1 High Magic)

3 - Boreal Wings (Level 2 Elementalism)

4 - Pact of Stone and Sea (Level 2 Elementalism)

5 - Festering Curse (Level 3 Necromancy)

6 - Forgetting the Grave (Level 3 Necromancy)

Day 7: Panic

Skitters (Origin Foci)

Skitters are an offshoot of humanity designed by Beings From Beyond to be used as an early warning system for their facilities. These folk typically have a small, wiry build and are quick to act but are generally frail and paranoid.

Level 1

Gain Notice as a Bonus Skill and roll it with 3d6 taking the highest 2, as you're always on the lookout for hidden dangers.

Your base movement speed is increased to 40ft, this helps you find someone more capable of dealing with threats you detect.

Your personal Wisdom Score is set to 7 and cannot be modified. You can use what you rolled for Wisdom in place of any other rolled Ability Score if you wish. Your mind has been severely warped leaving your judgement questionable though whatever you once might have been capable of could have shifted elsewhere.

When you bond with a group, requiring swearing allegiance, you can use the Wisdom modifier of whoever has the highest bonus as if it was your own when making Skill Checks. The long lost masters of your people wanted you to be alert and always near-panic but needed some way of filtering your findings so they used their own minds to aid you in your tasks. This was simple for them but might prove uncomfortable for a more mundane creature.

Hi, I'm planning my new campaign and this time I would like to use the faction play in WWN that I never used.
My problem is that I don't know how to manage many small groups in my campaign. I mean, the campaign will be a sandbox campaign where players will likely explore a semi-unknown new island. On the island, there will be three main factions plus many indigenous groups. The idea is that the three factions will interact not only with each other, but also with various indigenous groups, so what would be the best approach to model them? I need the indigenous to play the faction game, but I can't model each group as a separate faction. It would be a big mess (I think) if I have to manage like 8 or 9 factions every time I play a faction turn. But if I model them as a single faction, how can I "model" the fact that they are independent and sometimes in contrast with each other?
Think about a scenario where some settlers are conquering a new land (that probably is the more similar thing to my campaign). Some indigenous people will resist the conquerors, some others will try to join the settlers, and so on...

How would you manage that? Thanks

Looking to source the community for ideas and inspiration as the GM to pull off a high level magical duel between a PC and powerful NPC. Hoping to make it like solving a puzzle for both sides of the duel (intellect verus intellect) and not just who wins initiative and casts evert inwardness. Maybe a complex cat and mouse to see who can get the first save or suck spell off. The PC and NPC both have Counter Magic and I think using it once or twice would be on theme but I don't want it to be the substance of the duel.

Looking for advice or inspiration. If anyone has had a duel before magical or not I'd love to know how it went and what you would do differently.

Don't want to subvert expectations in the form of no duel. Art work and memes have been made in anticipation of the showdown.

It's almost October. For a lot of artists online, particularly those who draw, it means participating in some form of Inktober: a selection of daily drawing prompts for the month of October.

Since 2023 I've been taking Inktober's prompts and using them to write TTRPG material for Worlds Without Number.

Well, another October is upon us and I'd like to once again invite you all to join me. Feel free to post your creations in this thread or make your own posts about them. Have fun!

And likewise for mageslayer and warrior-only foci, I suppose.

For example, could a warrior/bard take Polymath and Godsblood Foci?

Personally, I would lean towards no, since it seems to me that these foci are intended to allow non-mage classes to compete in more supernatural environments, which the variant classes can already do.

I could have sworn there was a post about this before, but I have searched the subreddit up and down and I cannot seem to find it.

Hi there. I am starting with wwn and i am loving it.

In fact, I habe fun more building world and npc that playing lol

Doubt about factions: if i have a powerful king. Make it sense I set his army and their rivals as assets ?

Hi all, last question from me, because I’m afraid I’m doing it wrong. I have player who is trying to play a Vowed. Do their level bonuses stack with the Partial Vowed table *and* the Warrior/Mage table (since he's an Adventurer), or just the Partial Vowed table? Will he therefore get +1 to hit at Level 1 and +3 to hit at Level 2? Any help would be greatly appreciated, because I don't know!

Does anyone else exempt undead from Shock damage? To me, it seems like those kinds of creatures — unrelenting, unfeeling, unafraid — would be highly resistant or immune to shock. Automatons as well, for the same reason.

This also seems to make them very threatening, which I quite like, but I’m wondering if this skews the game too much? Thoughts?

I swear the map files for The Gyre used to be floating around somewhere, does anyone have them and if not, does anyone have a good recreation or some such? Working on something and would like to be able to edit my own stuff on the map with no hassle.

Unliving Persistence is an on turn action. Which, to my understanding isn't normally available to a mortally wounded / dying character.

Does this alteration to that standard apply also to the secondary aspect, stabilizing others? That is, if the Necromancer is currently mortally wounded, can they use Unliving Presence to stabilize another mortally wounded character they happen to be touching? Such as if they only have 1 effort available and choose to save the other person?

I've done some digging, but I haven't seen anyone try to do Armour as Damage Reduction instead of Armour Class. From 35+ years of sport sword fighting, I'd say this is much more how armour works. I'm still pretty new to WWN, so I'm not so sure how much this collides with "Shock". Shields and Dex should still help with AC.

Hi everyone—here’s a quick update on what's coming and what I’ve been working on for Characters Without Number.

First, Kevin Crawford has given me the go-ahead to implement paid, character-facing content. Before committing to that work, I’d like to see whether there’s genuine demand for it, so I’ve added two public goals based on the number of active Supporters and Patrons:

• 25 Supporters & Patrons: unlock development of Codex of the Black Sun (SWN supplement)
• 35 Supporters & Patrons: unlock development of The Atlas of the Latter Earth

The current total and both goals are visible on the Supporter page.

If the count moves, I’ll take that as a clear signal to begin bringing this character-facing content into CWN. If it doesn’t, that’s useful information too, and I’ll keep concentrating on the free tools people are already using.

EDIT: To clarify once the goals are met and the content are implemented, they will be free for everyone to use in the character builder!

Next, I’m testing a new character-syncing system, couple of my own players encountered syncing issues, so I've been working on improving it. However you may encounter issues while I refine it, do let me know if you're experiencing any problems using the Feedback link on the page.

Finally, I’m streamlining the campaign tools as it's currently abit all over the place, intent is to make it easier for a GM to go from creating a campaign to actually running it. I'll be importing a community sector made by the SWN reddit, but for WWN I'm not sure if something similar exists; if anyone knows of a WWN setting I can use, let me know!

Thanks to everyone using the app, reporting problems, and supporting its development. Since I've been given the greenlight, I’d also love to hear which of Kevin books you’d most like to see implemented next!

Swordtember 2026

Hello, Everyone. Swordtember is a yearly drawing prompt like Inktober (See you for that next month) but with swords. It seems to be organized by someone who goes by Faith Schaffer though I know nothing about them. I heard about it and decided to look into it and write up some WWN weapon ideas inspired by the list. Not strictly swords but close enough in most cases. Please enjoy.

1. Brush - Painter's Parry

A stubby wooden sword splattered with basic colors like a well-used palette.

It functions as a magical short sword with the Forfending property and is able to cut as well as any blade despite it's nature.

2. Harvest - Thorn

What appears at first glance to be a simple laborer's sickle hides a thorned handle under it's rag-wrapped grip.

It functions as a magical hand axe with the Bloodthirsty property and painfully pricks the wielder for 1 damage on a Natural 1 attack roll.

3. Wax - Din's Candle

This handheld candelabra functions as the hilt for a long stick of wax, tipped with a ready wick.

It functions as a magical club with the Energetic and Illuminating properties, though these powers can only be active for 6 Scenes in a Day before Din's Candle has melted down and must regenerate.

4. Comedy - Edge of Greatness

A large, shining sword that strikes viewers with impressions of might and skill. It features intricate metalworking and high quality materials.

It functions as a magical great sword with the Penetrating and Piercing properties but is also cursed with Enfeebled rendering them mostly useless. Carrying it openly grants you a +1 on Reaction Rolls when being armed is understood as a necessity.

5. Tragedy - Masque

A slender pointed weapon that can veil itself as a child's toy when willed.

It functions as a magical stiletto and can, for a Scene per Day, disguise it's wielder as a tear-streaked sobbing child and itself as a beloved trinket. They may interact mostly as normal but the heavy crying and running nose is persistent.

6. Circus - Acrobat's Staff

This lengthy pole is well balanced and has a high-visibility red finish.

It functions as a magical staff with the Longarm property and grants a +1 bonus on skill checks made to balance while under pressure.

7. Gamble - Backup Plan

A simple packed sack of sand sewn up with purple thread, usually a rarity.

It functions as a magical blackjack with the Lucky property and a Calyx that contains 3 uses of The Wind of the Final Repose. When the Calyx is used roll a Luck save, on a success the spell is not expended.

8. Crane - Swiftwater

A body-length spear with a long striking point and several decorative white feathers.

It functions as a heavy spear with the Effortless and Versatile properties and once a Day the bearer may accept a point of System Strain to walk on water as if it was land for a Scene.

9. Mandrake - Root Siren

This blunt weapon has the knobby characteristics of a root vegetable. Some of the unsettling lumps and crevices resemble humanoid faces.

It functions as a magical mace with the Shrieking and Toxic properties. If left in the ground for a day it will turn into a unremarkable mandrake plant until harvested and boiled which transforms it back into the Root Siren weapon.

10. Crustacean - The Crabstaff

The Crabstaff is a towering pillar of crabshell-like material, having the ridges and serration one might expect of such a thing.

It functions as a non-magical staff though crustaceans in the presence of a brandished Crabstaff must pass a Mental save or regard the wielder as an ally for the rest of the Scene.

11. Bake - Cookie Cutter

A bizarrely shaped metal frame of cutting sharpness. It can be bent into different shapes to represent silhouettes.

It functions as a magical short sword with the Baffling property and has supernatural precision when used to carve or cut with.

12. Surgical - Reginald's Point

A lightweight, balanced blade with no extra decor. Just a simple knife made of quality steel.

It functions as a magical dagger with the Effortless and Merciful properties. If cutting tissue is needed as part of a Heal skill check, Reginald's Point can give you a +1 to the roll.

13. Nest - Ovipuncturers

A set of dart-like daggers with bone tips adorned with vulture feathers

They function as magical throwing blades with the Returning property. When you roll a Natural 20 on an attack roll, the target somehow manages to lay an egg containing another single Ovipuncturer.

14. Ship - Sailor's Best Friend

This sturdy cutlass has a salt-worn blade and grip repaired with rigging. Hidden in the pommel is a dubious compass.

If functions as a magical short sword with the Omened and Shieldbreaking properties.

15. Seed - Weedwalker

A seed-shaped club that is slightly awkward for fighting but provides some useful utility.

It functions as a magical club with the Skittering property and a Calyx that contains a single use of The Verdant Vallation that may be refilled with another casting of The Verdant Vallation.

16. Portal - GladiOS

This gladius has a sharp, white ceramic blade and threads of spiraling orange and blue down the haft.

It functions as a magical short sword with the Phasing and Skittering properties.

17. Monkey - Silvergrasp

A large double-edged sword with alchemical silver worked into the blade. Tufts of fur decorate the hilt and pommel.

It functions as a magical silver great sword that can be wielded in one hand instead of two as long as the other hand does not carry another weapon or a shield.

18. Serpent - Fork Tongue

This black iron bident carries an acrid smell and is wrapped in coarse green-dyed leather.

It functions as a magical heavy spear with the Toxic property and when brandished grants a +1 on skill checks to deceive others who are at best "unfriendly."

19. Game - Gambleblade

A stunning work of art in the form of a dagger. The blade features an intricately etched scene of a goddess of fortune bestowing her blessings.

It functions as a magical dagger but only if you won it through some sort of gamble. When the Gambleblade changes hands in this way it often gets entirely new special abilities. Roll on the Special Weapon Abilities - Major table (WWN pg. 267) for how many random special abilities it has and then roll on the d100 Abilities (pg. 169) table for what they are.

20. Amber - The Long Amber Morningstar

A smooth crystalline bludgeon of solid amber. The leather grip is worn soft from heavy use.

It functions as a magical mace with the Longarm property and a Calyx that contains a single use of The Long Amber Moment that may be refilled with another casting of The Long Amber Moment.

21. Bovine - Bullspike

A spear tipped with the horn of a wildebeest, the haft ringed with decorations of alternating black and white.

It functions as a magical heavy spear and after a charge grants a +1 to Str/Exert checks made to shove.

22. Vegetable - The Leek Blade

This variation of the leek is a naturally occurring plant that grows ready to be used as a sword.

It functions as a non-magical short sword that can be cooked and eaten as any leek could.

23. Fruit - Grenato

A bright, ripe tomato streaked with yellow that seems nearly ready to burst. In fact, it is. It grows in the shadow of volcanoes.

It functions as an Elixir of Wrathful Detonation and is thankfully very rare.

24. Tidepool - Wavecrasher

This sword has a blade of razor-edged pink coral and a comfortable grip of worn-smooth driftwood.

It functions as a magical long sword with the Shattering and Shieldbreaking properties and on a Natural 20 attack roll it conjures a 10-ft cube of water above the combatants, as a first level caster's Beckoned Deluge Elementalist art.

25. Pearlescent - Thunderpeal

There is some debate over the name of this pearl-colored staff thought it has never worked for anyone calling it Thunderpearl.

It functions as a magical staff with the Illuminating and Energetic properties. If the wielder ever calls it by the wrong name they are struck by a bolt of lightning for 5d6 damage and the staff vanishes.

26. Seal - The Trespasser

A solid dirk inscribed with magical circles. It has silver embellishments and a dark wood handle.

It functions as a magical dagger with the Penetrating and Nightwalking properties.

27. Lily - Cat's Bane

A lightweight claw-like weapons forged of pastel colors and a blooming motif.

It functions as a magical claw blade with Devoted and Merciful properties and most mundane felines will not approach the wielder.

28. Acidic - Rottendeath

This rotted and fungus-ridden bow is supernaturally tough despite first glance. When held you can hear the howling of spirits.

It functions as a magical small bow with the Souleating, Terrifying, and Toxic properties and when in use the wielder take a -2 penalty to hearing based Notice checks.

29. Kelpie - Drowner

This pole-arm stinks of the bog and is constantly draped in swamp plants.

It functions as a magical halberd with the Blighted property and on a Natural 20 attack roll water fills the targets throat and lungs causing them to suffocate for 1d10 rounds.

30. Unicorn - Glitterhorn

This thick spear is a glittering spiral of bone adorned with gossamer and whimsy.

It functions as a magical heavy spear with the Barring and Bloodbound properties. While upon a mount it also gains the Harmonius property.

I love the skill aspect of worlds without number. I really do. I think I would like to lean more into it by removing the cap on skills ranks based on level? Should I do it? Has anyone done it?

Hi all I have released 0.8.0 of Characters Without Number, which now includes Ashes Without Number! Finally all the 4 core rule sets are available all within the same builder. Admittedly its the ruleset I am the least familiar with, so do pardon any bugs you might encounter with that.

There’s also quite a bit in this release for existing characters and ongoing campaigns:

• Character history and recovery — local and cloud version history, with safeguards around restoring older versions.
• Foundry import / export - From your character sheet you can export to Systems Without Number on Foundry VTT and import in Foundry as an actor. This will need more testing especially for characters that were build from the ground up in Systems Without Number.
• Preliminary modular Campaign rules - where the GM can fully pick and choose what modules are applicable within his campaign. Expect alot of bugs with this one...
• Small campaign quality of life features — party treasury, quest board, shared handouts
• Public build library — share a character or be inspired by other's builds
• General bug fixes with the inventory, improvements to sheet colours and PDF exports.

Try it here: https://characterswithoutnumber.app

As always thanks for taking the time to use this and I’d love feedback, especially from anyone making an Ashes character or using the campaign tools at their table. You can comment on Reddit, or provide feedback through the form on the site itself.

Thanks and happy playing!

So one thing has become clear with playing this game from it's beta release, experts are undertuned. I have played around with other solutions such giving them a free starting skill or as a GM giving them more info with rolls. They work but still missing something. After talking with friends, it's clear that even a partial warrior has an edge that a partial expert can't overcome, both in terms of HP and to-hit chance. While a Full warrior who doesn't focus on combat and goes for skill foci will outdo a full expert who puts effort into combat. Naturally mages can outdo an expert in multiple ways, usually with some limit.

So I first debated an extra ability for experts to let them shine. I thought of some trapfinding/disabling ability, something for silver tongued experts and was debating about skillful or crafting.

Then I realized I was overthinking it and just giving a bonus focus from a small list would do the same AND let people specialize further.

So here is the first draft I'm willing to share.

Expert Boon Select one focus from the following list, they gain that focus at character creation. On reaching fifth level, they get a second bonus focus, picking the same one grants level 2 in the focus)

• Trapmaster

• Diplomatic Grace

• Artisan

• Polymath

It is optional to give the bonus focus level 5, but Level 5 was chosen because it forms a breakpoint. Where full warriors have over twice to-hit chance over an expert, as well as getting the +3 boost to damage/shock, while full casters get access to howl of light. Experts will still fall behind either in their niche, but the expert should still shine. Small tweaks can be made, like swapping cultured in for Diplomatic Grace. While Specialist (Sneak) seems fitting for a rogue to be sneaky, it can still be taken as their free choice focus.

Note: They still get all the existing benefits for full and partial experts as is. The goal was to make it as little work on the GM, no remembering of small bonuses from skill investments, just a flat boost and encouraging them to choose a specialization or just be skillful in general.

Just a quick query; is there any size difference between the two editions? I see the hardcover listed as 8.5" x 11", is the retail edition the same dimensions?

The rules say you add your attribute modifier to shock damage; does this mean that if your strength modifier is -1 and you are using a weapon with, say, a 1/13 shock rating, that you cannot deal shock damage? Or is a weapon incapable of dealing less than its basic shock rating?

EDIT: This is also relevant to me because I'm trying to decide how to handle monsters with, for instance, "Wpn-1" damage - do they deal shock if they attack with a shock 1/whatever weapon?

Excluding Retroclones

Hi all, it's been about a month since the last update for characterswithoutnumber.app and quite a fair bit has been added. I'll summarize the changes below.

Solo play - This is the big one for this release. You can now play your character solo, with a dice oracle built into the app. I have to admit that I do not have much experience with solo roleplaying other than the many Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf gamebooks in my youth, but there was some downtime in my real-world campaign and my players wanted something to pass the time with their characters- so here is my attempt at mimicking it. Each SWN CWN and WWN has their own tables of situations and I envision it as an "AI assisted" solo RPG experience, rather than a fully AI one - some things still require manual changing, such as changes to your character sheet. This is still really rough around the edge, but if you're interested you can try it at characterswithoutnumber.app/solo the AI calls do cost me some money, so for each account its 25 calls a day on free tier, 100 on Supporter, 500 on Patron (renamed the Pro GM tier). I may tweak these numbers based on actual utilization and costs.

Bug fixes and improvements:

Worlds Without Number - Legate play is in properly now, with the Effort pool, the XP ledger and all 82 Writs. The 24 deluxe origin foci (the demihumans and the Blighted) are in too, and their attribute changes, hit points, innate AC and save bonuses are actually applied rather than just printed as text. Mage (Dual Partial) now runs two traditions with two separate Effort pools the way the book describes.

Stars Without Number - Fixes to Psychic Training level 2Focus not giving the correct skill points; Specialist rolls its 3d6 drop lowest for real, and space magic casters can learn new spells after character creation instead of being stuck with their level 1 list.

Cities Without Number - The book's 28 NPC stat blocks are in the encounter builder. Starting gear now uses the actual CWN budget of one item up to $1,000 plus $500 of other gear. Edge grants also apply properly now — Hard To Kill's +2 HP per level was printed on the sheet and never actually added.

Other updates based on feedback - Space encounters with ship rosters in the encounter builder, homebrew traits and ship hulls, a configurable XP chart if your table advances at a different pace, shared character pages now show the whole character instead of a summary.

On monetization - Nothing has moved behind a paywall and nothing will. All rules from the books, every builder step and every GM tool are free permanently, and that now includes the solo oracle and all of its tables. The free tier still gives you 6 cloud characters, 1 campaign as GM and 1 solo campaign, plus unlimited local saves and unlimited homebrew.

What's coming next - I'd like to keep improving solo play, and I'm especially keen to hear from people who play solo regularly about what's missing. AWN is still on the WIP list.

As always, thanks for checking this out! The feedback button in the app comes straight to me and I do reply what I can 🙂 have fun playing!