I prefer using set/average HP anyway.I've been looking up the probabilities for rolling hit points in AnyDice, and I'm really not seeing an improvement of replacing 1d4 with 1d6-1 and 1d10 with 1d6+2.
The average amount of hit points for characters remains exactly the same. However, the odds for very high and very low results change quite significantly.
For mages, rolling 1d6-1 means they have a chance to roll a 5, but also a chance to roll a 0, which also counts as 1 hp.
1d4 with a +1 Con modifier means a spread of 2 to 5. (1d6-1)+1 results in a spread of 1 to 6.
Mages get a chance to get higher hp than on a d4, but this comes with a much greater chance to get only 1.
For warriors it's the opposite. They end up with a deceased chance to get very high hp, and a decrease chance to get very low hp.
I feel that this hurts mages a lot more than it helps warriors. And increases randomness for low level characters, while higher level characters are trending closer to an average anyway. (Fewer dice means more outliers, more dice means closer to average.)
A fighter with only modest hp isn't great, but at least it has some hp to work with. A mage with almost no hp is having a much worse day. This seems like a bad change to me.
So as a follow-up:Thanks to @Yora's threads, I may whip up a more S&S inspired setting for WWN.
One thing that QB says is that the system feels like a stripped down 3e. I wonder if it would be a good OSR-ish game for people who like 3e and pathfinderQuesting Beast is doing a review of it. 30 minutes for part 1.
I would propose True 20 as a transitional form that likely influenced Stars Without Number.That would greatly depend on what people like about 3rd edition. I really started with 3rd and WWN does feel very familiar to what I'm used to as the default for D&D. I believe Ben also got into D&D later, so that might also be his perception.
But there's really not that much that is specifically like the main distinguishing elements of 3rd edition. There's only three classes (with five mage traditions) and you're locked into your initial pick for the whole campaign. Foci are like feats, but those are in 5th and I believe 4th edition as well. There are skill points, but they work quite different from 3rd edition. And the whole magic system is almost entirely different.
I really don't know where the similar feel to 3rd edition comes from, but I'm with Ben on this that it seems taking influences from that system.