In March 2018 we presented the WOIN Bundle featuring EN Publishing’s What’s O.L.D. is N.E.W., a system of crunchy, tactical roleplaying toolkits designed to work together: O.L.D. (medieval fantasy) and N.E.W. (far-future science fiction), along with many supplements and sourcebooks.
Designed by ENworld‘s Russ “Morrus” Morrissey and funded in an April 2014 Kickstarter campaign, the WOIN games let you play any kind of fantasy or science fiction character: an android engineer, smallfolk burglar, mutant vigilante, human marine, orc firemage, Augmented con artist, Sylvan Elf ranger, Borian starpilot, and many more. Tweak the system dials to handle low or high fantasy, hard or soft sf, and so on. Using each book’s extensive tools,create your own races, lifepath careers, planets, freeform spell-paths, starships, strongholds, martial arts, and monsters. Focus on one genre, or mix-and-match them to create urban fantasy, cyberpunk, or spells-in-space. Hack the system, mold it to your setting, and — because the free WOIN Rules Reference Document is designated Open Game Content — even publish your creations free or for profit.
Not a “universal” system as such, WOIN is designed specifically for medium-low-magic Tolkienesque medieval fantasy, ’80s action, and a Trek-ian to Wars-ian range of sf, with rules systems designed to replicate those genres well. Though characters become more competent and skilled over time, they never end up wading through armies of orcs. The system is a bit grittier than that, with combat tending toward tactical skirmishes, magic toward the subtle, and magical items quite uncommon. The avowed inspirations for O.L.D. ranges from the gritty medieval fantasy of Glen Cook to the works of David Eddings and David Gemmell, Robert E. Howard, Le Guin, Abercrombie, Rothfuss and, of course, Tolkien. N.E.W. is inspired by Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Babylon 5, the Alien franchise, and other media science fiction, along with the stories of Asimov, Niven, and Clarke.
This big collection included the latest versions of both O.L.D. and N.E.W. rulebooks, the new Modern Core, and lots of supplements and adventures. There werefive titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $43.50) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:
- O.L.D. The Fantasy Heroic Roleplaying Game Version 1.1 (retail price $20): The complete fantasy-medieval rulebook with versatile lifepath character creation, innovative freeform spell-point magic, fast but tactical combat, and tools for building any setting from Tolkien to Braveheart. Includes the free adventure The Haunting of Calrow Ruins.
- Three WOIN guides to contemporary fast-and-furious adventure: Modern Core, Modern Equipment, and Action Careers (retail $7 each).
- The Ills of Hengistbury (retail $2.50) and the free Holdenshire Primer: An introductory sandbox campaign adapted from the 5E adventure To Slay a Dragon.
- N.E.W. The Science Fiction Roleplaying Game Version 1.2 (retail $20): The complete 310-page rulebook for every style of science fiction adventure from Trek to Wars to Firefly and more. Includes the free adventure Death on Ascalaon.
- Xenomorphs: The Fall of Somerset Landing (retail $15): A N.E.W. sourcebook of sf survival horror on a terraforming colony invaded by predatory aliens.
- Two N.E.W. starship guides: Starship Construction Manual (retail $10) and Starship Recognition Manual (retail $9).
- Three N.E.W. articles from the official WOIN magazine, EONS: Racebuilding Engine (retail $7), Trappist (retail $4), and Real Solspace (retail $2)
- You’re All Doomed! (retail $9): An unapologetically deadly meta-dungeon crawl by Kiel Chenier (Blood in the Chocolate) for the O.L.D. RPG.
