Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier vs Cities Without Number

Compare Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier and Cities Without Number side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.

	Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier	Cities Without Number
Genre	Historical	Cyberpunk
Tags	Simulation, Crunchy, Deadly, Gritty, Sandbox, Classless, Career-Based, Tactical, Lore-Heavy, Strong GM Support	Sandbox, Classless, Noir, Ascending AC, Gritty, Deadly, Mission-Based, Heist, Random Tables, Strong GM Support
Core Mechanic	Gunfights run on a Count Up measured in tenths of a second instead of turns or rounds. Each character rolls d10 and adds Speed for a Starting Initiative, where lower is better, then adds each action's Count cost to find when it happens. To shoot, place the Shot Clock overlay on the aimed point of a Target Silhouette and roll d20 plus Accuracy modifiers. A 25 or higher hits the exact spot and 14 or less misses. Totals in between draw a poker card whose suit sets the direction the shot drifts from the aim point. Skill checks roll d100 and succeed at or above a mastery number that falls as the skill improves, while ability checks roll d20 at or under the score.	Skill checks roll 2d6 plus the relevant attribute modifier and skill level against a difficulty. Attacks roll 1d20 plus base attack bonus, combat skill, and attribute modifier against Armor Class, and a melee miss can still inflict Shock. Lethal hits roll a Trauma Die, and a result at or above the target's Trauma Target multiplies damage.
Dice	d20, d100	2d6 / d20
Complexity	High	Medium
Availability	Paid	Free core rules
Runnability	5 of 5 book tools	5 of 5 book tools
License	All Rights Reserved	Proprietary
Third-Party Publishing	No verified route found	Commercial publishing allowed — Cities Without Number System Reference Document (CC0 1.0)
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Publisher	Kenzer & Company	Sine Nomine Publishing
Year	2007	2023
Languages	English	English
Best For	Groups who want a long-running, town-centered Western campaign where characters build careers and reputations, and where gunfights are rare, precise, and often fatal.	Groups who want a lethal cyberpunk sandbox where the players pick their own jobs and work for or against the city's factions.
Highlights	Shots target specific locations rather than an abstract opponent, so a near miss can still strike nearby and hit location feeds a detailed wound and healing system. Profession Paths award Building Points for career objectives such as opening a business or winning an election, so a banker or rancher advances as surely as a gunfighter. Cattle drives and jury trials run as complete mini-games with their own daily checks or juror track, so frontier work generates play outside combat.	The complete core rules are free in a separate PDF, so a table can start play without buying the deluxe edition. Mission tags and one-roll tables generate patrons, jobs, and complications without long prep. Faction schemes and the Heat system give the city and the team's notoriety mechanical momentum between missions.
Considerations	Running the full game takes the Player's Guidebook plus its separate GM Addendum PDF, along with a poker deck, the Shot Clock overlay, and Target Silhouettes for gunfights. Characters die at 0 hit points with no recovery from death, and slow healing, infection, and incurable disease can sideline a character for weeks of game time. The alternate-history setting presents slavery and period racial attitudes as setting facts with mechanical effects, such as a higher literacy cost for freed-slave characters.	Combat stays on a light OSR frame, so groups wanting granular tactical combat will find it thin. The game expects a GM to build a city and improvise its consequences, and it offers little support for scripted story arcs. Hacking and cyberware add bookkeeping through Access pools and monthly maintenance.