First I'll summarize my opinion on the game. It's great! You should get it. That being done here's a quick list of pros and cons followed by my, likely rambling, opinions on some of the highlights.

Pros Flexible character creation. Huge number of character options. Simple, flexible psionic rules. Variety of gear to cover many sci-fi universes. Fairly simple space travel. Star ship combat that involves multiple PCs on one ship. 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 The options could be overwhelming for new gamers. There are only a few sample space ships.

This is the best sci-fi toolbox system I've ever used. You can build a very wide range of universes, or multiverses, with N.E.W. A GM can choose what technology advancement level everyone has access to, choose where on the scale of hard/soft sci-fi the game will be, decide if psionics or cybernetics are present, and set the PC species and careers to make whatever they want. You can really make the game your own.

Character creation is great in this game. You choose your species and then a series of career grades. Each grade increases your abilities and age. You build your character's history while you build your stats. I love the range of character options. There are several species to represent iconic alien types and a ton of careers, but better than that there are good guidelines for making more of your own. N.E.W. provides you with star knights (think Jedi), pilots, medics, star marines, drifters, smugglers, psi-cops, and many others. If you think of some other career your setting needs you have the tools to make it. Species and careers are made up of attribute increases, skill increases, and exploits (like feats and class abilities in D&D). All of those parts combine to define what your character can do. The guidelines in the Building A Universe chapter tell you how to put those parts together to create even more options. That chapter also has guidelines and tips for everything else you might need to make your universe as detailed as you want. There's a section that has guidelines and tables to build star systems and worlds. It gives you plenty of detail without being overwhelming. It seems quite a bit of homework was done for this section of the book. Different types of stars and planets are described, as well as various space phenomena to keep travel interesting.

Once you get done playing with all the building blocks and actually start playing the game it's really fun. All those various choices you can make to build the setting and your characters make them unique and make them feel different in play. Each PC will likely play quite differently, unless they tried to match up their abilities. The system uses a dice pool mechanic with six-sided dice. You add dice from attributes, skills, and high quality equipment. Then apply situational modifiers. That basic routine is the core of basically everything. It's easy to get a grip on and it's flexible. Combat includes a variety of tactical choices that apply modifiers to attacks and defenses. Position plays an important role in any combat. Holding still for long periods makes you an easier target. So moving and taking cover tend to be important. Of course, if you want to be a melee character there are character options that can make that very effective. I've seen an android marine with a titanium two-handed sword in play. It darted and wove between space pirates, laying them low while they tried to shoot blasters at it. The game includes these tactical elements, but surprisingly it doesn't bog down game play. Combats run quickly, and the tactical choices aren't just abstract game mechanics. They follow logic that's easy to grasp.

It's also worth mentioning that this book looks great. The art is fantastic. There are illustrations showing a wide range of characters, futuristic tech, space vistas, and more. It makes just looking through the book interesting. The overall presentation and layout are quite good as well. The presentation of this game is on par with the biggest RPGs.

All in all this is a great game. I highly recommend it, and the next time I have a cool sci-fi idea this'll be the game I run. The only downsides are that a multitude of options sometimes overwhelms newer RPG players and there aren't many star ships. These problems are pretty minor. The first is common in games with a lot of options and , I think, best handled by guidance from more experienced players. The lack of ships is understandable given that books typically have constraints on length. There are enough ships to get by for a little while and to make up some others by modifying those, but if you want detailed rules for building ships you need a companion piece to this, the Starship Construction Manual.

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.

Pros Detailed ship building. Lots of options. Beautiful art.

Cons Detail may be too much for some. Sloppy bookmarks.

This book allows you to create and modify starships for N.E.W. These ships are just what you need to fully use the Space book for WOIN.

There are step by step instructions for choosing all the parts. You choose hull size, FTL engines, sub-light engines, shields, weapons, crew recreation facilities, and more. There's an impressive variety of options for your own personal starship. A GM could populate an entire universe with this. There are also several example ships that are good standard ships for common roles in a game.

This book is great for players into building and customizing things in their games. Each part of a ship interacts with other parts to form the final stats for the ship. For example, the range of your weaponry is influenced by how good your sensors are. If you're overwhelmed by huge lists of options this book might be a bit much for you, but if options are what you want it's just about perfect.

The art in this book is phenomenal. I've mentioned art in reviews for other WOIN products. It has been great in all of them. There's a variety of excellent starship and space themed art, and a lot of art throughout.

The only complaint I have with this book is that the bookmarks are sloppy, but there are bookmarks and a hyperlinked table of contents. It's still quite easy to navigate.

This book is an excellent resource for space faring games. There's also a ship building online app at woinrpg.com that works with these rules. You can build a ship on the website to get all the stats. The book and the app are very useful combination.

Pros Fairly simple space travel. Star ship combat that involves multiple PCs on one ship. Great art.

Cons No bookmarks or hyperlinks. Only includes a couple of sample ships.

This book covers what you need for space travel in a game of N.E.W. The rules cover a lot of scientific anomalies to spice things up, but the rules are fairly simple. There are rules for faster than light travel and sub-light travel. The rules are easy to follow. The speed of travel depends on the ships and technology levels of the setting. There are tables to help keep track of the information, and random tables for inspiration. There are several types of FTL drives discussed. They don't really change the game mechanics, but they greatly help in defining your setting. The space combat rules are quite detailed, but similar enough to normal combat to follow easily. There are options to play with or without a grid. Both options seem equally usable depending on your groups preferences. Ships get multiple actions, leading to each PC on the ship having a part in each round of ship combat. For actions the PCs aren't personally handling there are simple rules for crew. All in all, I think this is a good book for the inevitable space travel, and space combat, in most sci-fi settings. To make the most of this book you'll need the Starship Construction Manual for WOIN to populate your space with vessels. There are just a couple of sample ships. As I've mentioned in my reviews of other WOIN books, the art is excellent. The pieces are lovely and convey the wonder of space very well.

Pros Variety of gear to cover many sci-fi universes. Easily customized. Great art.

Cons No bookmarks or hyperlinks.

This is one of the essential books for futuristic games in the What's O.L.D. Is N.E.W. system. I highly recommend this game. There's a good variety of gear for different kinds of sci-fi adventures. There are advancement levels and genre categories. The GM selects both of those for the campaign. The full details are in Building A Universe, but there's enough info here for the players. Those markers help give you the flavor of your game. From near future hard sci-fi to far future science fantasy, you're covered. There are weapons from clubs to phasers, armor from leather to powered armor, and a variety of non-combat gear. There are rules for cybernetics, vehicles, and drugs. A GM can pick and choose which categories of equipment are available and how advanced each category is. Whatever choices the GM makes players will still have plenty of choices for their PC's equipment. The various weapons and armor have enough variation in stats and special features to make them feel distinct from each other. You also have the option to buy higher quality equipment and add upgrades to make your gear more unique. This book also has great art representing the equipment, and other sci-fi scenes. The art in all the WOIN books is top-notch. Overall this is a very good book. I think it would have been better if the information was organized a bit better between books. For example, the advancement level stuff could have been better explained here. The biggest downside for me is the lack of bookmarks to aid in navigation.

Pros Flexible character creation. Huge number of character options. Simple, flexible psionic rules. Excellent art.

Cons The options could be overwhelming for new gamers. Navigation is not optimal.

Short version of this review: If you're an experienced gamer looking for a sci-fi system that's fun and easy to customize buy this book and the other components of WOIN that suit your ideas. Longer version to follow.

There are a multitude of character options in this game. There are several species reminiscent of aliens from various sci-fi media. There are a few dozen careers to choose from. Each career has several abilities, called exploits, to choose from. The species and careers roughly correspond to race and class in D&D style games, but the careers are far more granular and flexible and you're not expected to be in one career forever. Grades in a career give you attribute bonuses, skill ranks, exploits, and increase your maximum dice pool. The careers in the book cover a wide range of sci-fi careers, and some would work well in modern or even older era settings. There are star ship pilots, psionic investigators, space marines, police, criminals, and many more. Exploits further increase customization. Exploits serve the same function as class abilities, feats, or edges in other games. Each career has a selection of exploits you can only take as part of a grade in that career. Then there are universal exploits that anyone can take. All of this leads to an exceptional degree of character customization. Then there's the ability to spend XP for attributes, skills, and exploits in addition to taking grades in careers.

I've played several RPGs and this one has my favorite character creation system. As you layer on the various options you get a real feel for the character and its history. I've never played a game that got me that involved and invested with a character even before play begins.

This book also contains the psionics system for WOIN. As with everything else in this system you can use or ignore the psionics portion of the game without hurting the rest of the game. Psionics are represented as exploits. There are several careers with psionic abilities and there is an array of universal exploits. The universal exploits use a point system to fuel the various abilities, while the career exploits are usually more specialized and cost no points to use. If you want to keep psi simpler just limit it to the careers. You can have just the career exploits, just the universal exploits, or use both for maximum options. The psionic exploits themselves cover a wide range of abilities. Telekinesis, telepathy, teleportation, and more are covered. You can totally have your own version of Jedi running around your universe if you want, along with many other types of psi characters.

If you want to customize even further there's a companion tome called Building A Universe that has guidelines for making species, careers, and more. They combine very well to make your game universe your own.

I feel that the art needs specific mention. The art in this book, and others in the line, is wonderful. There's a lot of art and it's all good. The various pieces could fit in many different types of sci-fi, but they all fit together well. I'd say that this game line rivals the D&D and Pathfinder lines visually.

The only downside to this book, for me, is that it's not very easy to navigate. There are no bookmarks or hyperlinks in the pdf. You just have to look at the table of contents and navigate the old fashioned way.

Pros Flexible mechanics. Solid examples for rule implementation. Engaging gameplay. Easy customization. Excellent art.

Cons A bit of a learning curve, especially for new gamers. Navigation and organization are not optimal.

This book provides the rules and guidelines to use what's in the other WOIN books. The core mechanic is a pool of d6's against a target number. It's simple and flexible. Future Core provides all the info you need to form and use your dice pools with guidelines for skill uses and suggested target numbers. There's also an interesting countdown mechanic for things with uncertain timing, such as the progression of diseases or damaged ships exploding. The various rules have useful examples included, but the real strength of this game is as a toolkit to make the game your own. You can use the rules here to represent myriad things not specifically mentioned. Combat is oriented toward using good tactics, utilizing your character's abilities and the environment. It may be a little complex for those new to RPG's, but once you learn how things work combat flows well and is a lot quicker than I expected in just reading the rules. There's a bit of a learning cuve for this game, but that's true of any of the "crunchy" games. I've been having a lot of fun running my first campaign in this system. What keeps this from being a five star book for me is the difficulty in finding things when questions arise. There are no bookmarks or hyperlinks in the pdf. You just have to look at the table of contents and navigate the old fashioned way. That is further complicated by the organization of information. For example, to fully understand the rules for maximum dice pools you read a few paragraphs on pages 8 and 9 for the basics then find the "Making An Attack" sidebar on page 31 for the details. The information is all there, but not always easily found. Aside from the srengths of the rules and the drawback of organization I feel that the art needs specific mention. The art in this book, and others in the line, is wonderful. There's a lot of art and it's all good. The various pieces could fit in many different types of sci fi, but they all fit together well. I'd say that this game line rivals the D&D and Pathfinder lines visually. Overall this is a rather good book for an excellent game.