Cities Without Number — Cyberpunk sandbox from the SWN designer

"The world is neon and dust. Everything you need belongs to someone else — for now."

Free B/X

Diced20 (combat) + 2d6 (skills)

Players3–6

Prep~30 min

Foundry VTTCommunity

Complexity

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What is this system

Cities Without Number is Kevin Crawford's cyberpunk RPG, built for sandbox play in a dystopia of chrome and misery. It runs on the same chassis as Stars Without Number and Worlds Without Number and is fully compatible with both: d20 in combat, 2d6 for skills. There are no classes, though. You build a character from Edges and Foci, then add cyberware, hacking that doesn't need its own mini-game, drones, and tools for building your own city.

Is it for your table?

Pick it if

you want a cyberpunk sandbox of mercenary jobs in a corporate city
your GM wants generators for gangs, corps and districts
players like lethal firefights where any gunfight can end in the morgue

Skip it if

you want a slow detective story; Blade Runner fits that better
your table prefers narrative dice to d20 and 2d6 checks
you want a ready-made metaplot to follow

Setting

The default setting is the City: a ready-made metropolis where corporations buy everything that can be bought and gangs fight over the rest. You play operators, street mercenaries who risk life and flesh to take what this world would keep from them. The real heart of the book is its generators for gangs, corps and districts, so you can just as easily build a city of your own.

What it looks like at the table

The operators slip into a corp warehouse. A guard rounds the corner and the shooter fires first: d20 + attack bonus against AC, and it hits. The weapon's Trauma Die is rolled with the damage: 7, against the guard's Trauma Target of 6. Trauma: the damage is multiplied by the weapon's Trauma Rating and the guard goes down. But someone heard the shot. Local Heat creeps up, and the crew has minutes before corp security arrives.

Playstyle

Sandbox Combat Cyberpunk

Key mechanics

Edges and Foci, not classes

No classes. You build a character from Edges such as Hacker, Wired or Hard to Kill and refine it with Foci. Want a chromed-up hacker or a street fighter who won't die? Just take the Edges that fit.

Trauma

Every weapon has a Trauma Die and a Trauma Rating. If the Trauma Die meets or beats the target's Trauma Target (usually 6), the damage is multiplied. Hit points are low, so any firefight can end in a clinic or a morgue.

Cyber, hacking, drones

Cyberware and high-tech gear for the most demanding cyborg. Hacking is built for playability: the hacker does things that matter without pulling the table into a separate mini-game. Drones and vehicles have their own rules.

Build your own city

Generators for gangs, corps and districts, fifty Mission Tags, and step-by-step procedures for facility infiltration, managing local Heat and fencing loot. None of it is tied to the system, so it works for other games too.

What people say

If you want something designed to handle all sorts of weird little subsystems, the Without Number games are perfect at this.— J.R. Zambrano, Bell of Lost Souls

Art & materials