Cities Without Number vs NewEdo
Compare Cities Without Number and NewEdo side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Cities Without Number | NewEdo | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Cyberpunk | Cyberpunk, Fantasy |
| Play Style | Sandbox, Classless, Noir, Ascending AC | Cinematic, Character Building, Crunchy, Classless, Faction Play, Heroic, High-Power, Urban Fantasy, Tactical |
| Core Mechanic | 2d6 + attribute mod + skill for skill checks; d20 + modifiers vs. AC for combat. Edge and chrome (cyberware) add abilities and complications. Faction turn system runs corporate, gang, and government power struggles between sessions. Tag-based city generation creates districts and neighborhoods on the fly. | Contests use a dice pool combining Core Trait d10s plus Skill dice (d4, d6, d8, or d12 depending on Focus) against a Target Number, with d10s exploding on 10s. Before each contest, the player Rolls their Fate on a d100 and resolves any matching lines on their personal Fate Card, which fills up with triggered effects as the character develops through Path abilities and in-game choices. Legend is the character's reputation and acts as a resource pool: spending up to 5 points of Temporary Legend per Round adds that total to a dice pool for cinematic stunts, and Legend is regained by doing memorable things. |
| Dice | 2d6 / d20 | d4–d12 dice pool |
| Complexity | Medium | High |
| Accessibility | Very High | Medium |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | Proprietary | All Rights Reserved |
| Cost | Free / $$ | $$ |
| Publisher | Sine Nomine Publishing | Salty Games |
| Year | 2023 | 2022 |
| Best For | Cyberpunk sandbox campaigns with comprehensive GM worldbuilding tools, faction turns, and noir-tinged urban adventure: fully compatible with Stars Without Number and Worlds Without Number. | Groups who want deep character customization across magic, cybernetics, and skills in a near-future city drawn from Japanese folklore and samurai fiction, with heavy factional politics and larger-than-life heroes fueled by their growing reputation. |
| Highlights | Free version is very generous, comprehensive sandbox and faction tools, seamlessly compatible with SWN/WWN family, noir investigation mechanics, detailed city generation system | Priority Buy character creation distributes uneven resources across Backgrounds, Magic, Augmentations, Skills, and Core Traits so that no two builds share the same shape. Ten playable Lineages are drawn from Japanese folklore (bakeneko, kappa, karasu, kitsune, oni, saru, tanuki, usagi, human, and the cybernetic half-machine hisanaka), each with two Cultures. Seven Factions and their Paths tie every character to a political stance in the Empire. Magic is built around Shinpi and Rotes granted by tiers of kami: casters negotiate with spirits rather than memorizing spell slots. |
| Considerations | OSR combat can feel basic, cyberpunk genre may overlap with Shadowrun expectations, less support for narrative/story-arc campaigns | Dense interlocking subsystems (Legend, Fate Card, Trait Noise, Shinpi, Priority Buy, Derived Traits, Wound tiers, and four Soak types) take significant time to internalize before first play. Core rulebook runs over 300 pages and is paid only, with no free quickstart or SRD. The setting mixes cyberpunk, samurai fiction, and yokai folklore in a single package, which may not suit groups looking for a pure take on any one genre. |