Mail Room: Ashes Without Number

I received my hardcover copy of Ashes Without Number the other day, and I am impressed. This is another amazing game from Kevin Crawford, easily an equal in greatness to the others in this series. This is a post-apocalyptic sandbox game that can be played three ways, with a few examples of each listed:

• Mutant Wasteland: Gamma World, Fallout, Mutant Epoch
• Deadlands: The Walking Dead, World War Z, I am Legend
• After the Fall: Aftermath, Twilight: 2000, Mad Max

Sine Nomine games are B/X compatible, so any adventure, monster, module, rules expansion, class, spell, gear, treasure, race, or other thing from any old-school B/X style game will drop right in. Want to borrow a bugbear from Old School Essentials as a mutant monster? It works; just give it a random mutation or two and call it something different - a furred bog-beast. Want that +1 sword to be an ancient nano-tech "ever-sharp blade," go right ahead. Want to port in an OSE drow racial template as an undercity "dark dweller?" Go right ahead. Want a monster from Swords & Wizardry or Adventures Dark and Deep? The books are there to pull from. Want that healing potion from OSE to be a super-science medical nano-injector? Reskin it and use it.

Your games have a massive amount of compatible resources to draw from.

And the games are compatible with each other, so you can borrow weapons and vehicles from Cities Without Number, sci-fi gear from Stars Without Number, magic powers from Worlds Without Number, and anything else you heart desires.

And those games can pull from the same resources, too, so OSE and any other B/X style game is an expansion for any of these games. Take an OSE giant mantis and make it an "alien mantis monster" for Stars Without Number, and throw a mutation on it from Ashes Without Number. That is what attacks the landing party in the away team shuttle and pins them in a nearby cave, so they can't return to the ship.  Now they need to fight the monster or explore the cave. There is your adventure, start it in media res and get playing.

Want fantasy races, magic, and monsters in a Cyberpunk setting? Use OSE and Cities Without Number, and there is a fun B/X-style Shadowrun game for you. It all just works. Want those same fantasy races in a post-apocalyptic setting, where the old world and new collide and destroy the world? Use OSE and Ashes Without Number.

And the charts in this game can create an entire world to play in. This is one of the best value and imagination resources in gaming, as it is infinitely usable with the game in the book or your own favorite game in the genre.

The highest recommendation: this one needs to be in your library if you enjoy the post-apocalyptic genre.