Numenera vs When Sky & Sea Were Not Named

Compare Numenera and When Sky & Sea Were Not Named side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.

	Numenera	When Sky & Sea Were Not Named
Genre	Scifi, Fantasy	Fantasy
Tags	Exploration, Weird, Resource Management, Character Building, Narrative, Theater of the Mind, Low-Prep, Strong GM Support, Lore-Heavy, Atmospheric	Tactical, Theater of the Mind, Resource Management, Faction Play, Lore-Heavy, Base-Building, Exploration
Core Mechanic	Roll a d20 against a target number equal to three times the GM's task difficulty. Training, helpful assets and Effort reduce that difficulty before the roll. Effort spends points from Might, Speed or Intellect Pools, with Edge reducing the cost. Reducing difficulty to zero makes the task automatic. Players roll attacks and defenses against creature difficulty.	Each hero has four action dice, one for each action type (Attack, Brace, Compel, Maneuver), with the die size set from d4 to d12 by the relevant attributes. To act, roll the matching die and read it against two thresholds. Against an obstacle, the Guide sets a failure threshold and a struggle threshold. Against a foe, the target's attribute is the failure threshold and its defense is the struggle threshold. Beating the higher number is a Success, beating only the lower is a Struggle that costs something, and beating neither is a Failure. Attacks deal damage equal to the roll minus the target's Guard and Armor, so one roll settles both the hit and its severity.
Dice	d20	d4–d12
Complexity	Medium	High
Availability	Free quickstart	Free core rules
Runnability	5 of 5 book tools	3 of 5 book tools
License	Proprietary	All Rights Reserved
Third-Party Publishing	Noncommercial only — Fan use policy	Not yet researched
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Publisher	Monte Cook Games	Purple People Games
Year	2018	2023
Languages	English, Italian, Portuguese	English
Best For	Groups who want discovery-focused science fantasy and changing tools for solving unusual problems. It suits campaigns about exploring ancient ruins and deciding how to use their technology.	Groups settling in for a multi-session campaign who want combat built on resource trade-offs, spellcasters that each play differently, and a Guide comfortable improvising rulings. The island-hopping rescue-and-rebuild structure rewards tables that enjoy both tactical fights and settlement-scale stakes.
Highlights	Single-use cyphers give every character temporary powers that can change their approach to an obstacle. Discoveries earn experience points, giving characters a reason to explore beyond combat. Combining a character type with a descriptor and focus supports distinct mechanical specialties.	Each of the four defenses both resists incoming actions and doubles as the resource a hero spends to power abilities, so every turn weighs guarding against acting. A hero rolls a different die size for each of the four action types, so strengths and weaknesses live in which die they pick up rather than in numeric modifiers. Invoking an Ideal after a roll spends Spirit for an advantage die the Guide sizes to how dramatic the moment is, linking vivid roleplay to a mechanical boost.
Considerations	Effort draws from the same stat Pools that absorb damage, so increasing the chance of success can reduce a character's resilience. GM intrusions let the GM add complications to successful actions, so players need to be comfortable with negotiated setbacks. The Ninth World's unexplained technology leaves many answers for the GM to invent.	The three spellcasting callings each run a separate resource economy, creating a real skill gap between players who take a magical calling and those who do not. The Shinarian origin locks Agility at 0, which bars the Wanderer calling and leaves those heroes unable to evade, outflank, or hide effectively. Sizing invoked Ideal dice, setting challenge thresholds, and reading the Dreamshape table all rest on Guide judgment rather than fixed numbers, which favors improvisational Guides over those who want firm procedures.