Pros Guidelines for making a setting. Useful scale for technology levels. Rules for making star systems. Useful guidelines for making your own everything. Random tables for inspiration. Great art.

Cons No bookmarks or hyperlinks.

This book has guidelines for creating anything you need for your N.E.W. games. WOIN is very much a toolbox kind of game. You use the pieces that make your setting what you want it to be. Building A Universe tells you how to make those pieces. This book is vital for anyone starting a sci-fi campaign for WOIN. Several parts would also be useful for other systems.

There's a detailed section for creating star systems. It's surprisingly detailed and if you're stuck there are random tables. You can tell the author did his homework for this. There's a variety of star and planet types and other astronomical features. This part would be good even you were running another game entirely.

Among the world building guidelines there's a useful scale for technology to determine what kind of ships and gear will be used. You combine the advancement level with a genre rating, from hard sci-fi to science fantasy, to get a rating to use with the Starship Construction Manual and Future Equipment. Future Equipment also had rules for being in organizations. This book has rules for making those organizations. It covers everything from small teams to empires.

My favorite parts of the book are the sections on creating species and careers. I think making your own options for the players goes a long way toward personalizing a setting. There are good guidelines for making these game components and others.

There's also an in depth creature/NPC creation section. I find this an important thing in any game. The guidelines are pretty detailed, but not too complicated.

This book has suggestions and guidelines to make almost everything in the game. It doesn't cover vehicles or starships. Those are covered in their own books. The upcoming Redline for vehicles and the Starship Construction Manual, already available.

There are a lot of suggestions and random tables to give you inspiration. The campaign building guidelines ask questions to help you fill in the blanks for your game.

All of this is enhanced by excellent art. This seems to be a standard for EN Publishing, and certainly adds to the value of an already great book.

The only flaw is a lack of navigational aids. There are no bookmarks or hyperlinks.