Wicked Ones vs Worlds Without Number
Compare Wicked Ones and Worlds Without Number side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Wicked Ones | Worlds Without Number | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Tags | Base-Building, Domain Management, Faction Play, Sandbox, Playbook-Driven, Fiction-First, CC-Licensed Rules | Sandbox, Exploration, Faction Play, Strong GM Support, Gritty, Classic Fantasy, Random Tables, Hexcrawl, Low-Prep, Domain Management |
| Core Mechanic | Build a pool of d6s equal to your action rating and keep the single highest die: a 6 succeeds, a 4 or 5 succeeds with a consequence, and a 1 to 3 fails. Before the roll the GM sets position and effect, which fix how bad the consequence can be and how much the action accomplishes. Stress can be spent to push a roll or resist a consequence. | Skill checks roll 2d6 plus the relevant skill level and attribute modifier against a difficulty. Attacks roll d20 plus base attack bonus, combat skill, and attribute modifier against the target's Armor Class. A missed melee attack can still inflict Shock damage when the target's AC is low enough. |
| Dice | d6 dice pool | 2d6 / d20 |
| Complexity | High | Medium |
| Availability | Free core rules | Free core rules |
| Runnability | 5 of 5 book tools | 5 of 5 book tools |
| License | CC0 1.0 | CC0 1.0 Universal (SRD 1.0); proprietary core books |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Commercial publishing allowed — Worlds Without Number System Reference Document (SRD 1.0) under CC0 1.0 Universal |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | Bandit Camp | Sine Nomine Publishing |
| Year | 2020 | 2021 |
| Languages | English, French | English |
| Best For | Groups who like the fiction-first Forged in the Dark engine and want to flip the dungeon crawl: instead of raiding a dungeon they build, grow, and defend one as its monstrous residents across a long campaign. It rewards tables that enjoy a strategic hoard-and-tier economy layered on villain-POV roleplay, and that are willing to set tone and safety expectations up front given the evil-protagonist premise. | Groups who want an open fantasy sandbox where their own goals drive play. Faction turns and campaign-building tools keep the world moving between sessions. |
| Highlights | Players design their own dungeon during downtime and later roll its traps and defenses against invaders, which turns base-building into the game's central strategic layer. Giving in to a monster's Dark Impulse earns a Dark Heart to spend for a bonus die, so playing to your character's worst instincts is rewarded rather than left as flavor. The four-phase cycle feeds each raid's fallout back as calamity and blowback that summon heroes to your door, so the campaign escalates its own stakes without the GM inventing threats by hand. | The campaign chapter turns worldbuilding into procedures, with tags and tables that keep sandbox preparation to one session ahead. Faction turns let rival powers act between sessions, so the setting changes even when the players are elsewhere. Shock damage keeps melee misses meaningful and makes armor and shields matter in close combat. |
| Considerations | The three magic disciplines have no fixed spell lists, so a spell's power is decided by the GM in the moment. During a dungeon invasion the player characters cannot leave the sanctum, so most of the defense is run through minions and traps until the heroes reach the final room. There is no published setting, so each group must build its own region and factions before raiding can begin. | Combat resolution is deliberately simple, with positioning and Shock carrying most of the tactical weight. The rules assume a sandbox campaign and offer little structure for pre-planned story arcs. Social conflict is handled by skill checks and GM judgment rather than a dedicated subsystem. |