Everywhen
Everywhen is a classless universal TTRPG built on Barbarians of Lemuria's fast 2d6 chassis. It is best for GMs who want a pulpy action toolkit they can point at different genres without moving to a heavier generic system.
Universal 2d6 action toolkit • Broad careers instead of skill lists • Classless and streamlined • 2-5 players + GM • Medium prep • Paid core book with free support files
Everywhen is a good fit for groups that want one light-to-medium universal engine they can bend toward pulp fantasy, weird west, occult modern, or science-fiction adventure without moving to a heavyweight toolkit. It is a worse fit for tables that want a complete setting or strong genre procedure out of the box, because the GM still has to decide what the campaign is actually about.
Because the game grows out of Barbarians of Lemuria's descendant line, play stays fast once the table is rolling: characters are defined by broad careers rather than long skill lists, the math stays small, and Hero Points keep the tone cinematic. The tradeoff is that Everywhen gives you a chassis plus optional modules, not a finished campaign identity.
What the game is
Everywhen is a standalone universal TTRPG built on Simon Washbourne's Barbarians of Lemuria framework. The current support site describes it as a 2d6 pulp-action game for campaigns in any era or background, and the later line backs that claim with genre books rather than a single default setting. If your table wants one engine that can carry swords-and-sorcery one month and weird science or occult noir the next, that is the appeal.
Published in 2018, the line is still being maintained: the support site notes a core update to version 1.06 and later releases beyond the original book. This is not a zero-prep universal engine, but it is a deliberately hackable one.
Publication history and editions
Everywhen emerged as the genre-neutral branch of the Barbarians of Lemuria family rather than a separate design tradition. The Bundle of Holding line overview summarizes the added support clearly: the core game expands the Lemurian chassis with vehicles, chases, investigations, social conflicts, psionics, and mass-battle support. That matters because the core identity is not fantasy with the serial numbers filed off; it is a pulpy action toolkit with extra procedures when the campaign needs them.
There is no clear public evidence of a replacement second edition. The live signal instead is iterative support: a maintained core book, a support site, and supplements that push the engine into specific modes instead of rebooting the rules.
Product line and what you need to play
The core book is the only required purchase, and the official support materials point new groups toward that book first. The line also has free support material, including Weapons and Armour, The Fomorian, and character sheets, which makes it easier to sample the system before building a larger campaign.
From there the line branches by genre. Pulse-Pounding Pulp leans into two-fisted serial adventure; Blood Sundown applies the chassis to the Weird West; the 2023 bundle highlighted Anywhen Adventures, Wyrd Sails, Neonpunk Crysis, Red Venus, and Darkness: Supernatural Creatures; and Space Pulp shows the line is still expanding rather than sitting dormant. In practice, Everywhen works best when you pick the core book and then grab one genre book or scenario collection that narrows the table's expectations.
Major settings, adventures, and supplements
The setting books are useful partly because they show how much work the GM would otherwise have to do. Blood Sundown is a good example: it translates the system into a specific weird-west mode with themed rules and assumptions. Pulse-Pounding Pulp does the same for globe-trotting action, and Space Pulp pushes the game toward rockets, aliens, psionics, and pulp science-fiction careers.
Anywhen Adventures is the most practical support if you want ready-to-run examples rather than another genre toolkit. The scenarios span multiple eras and premises, which is a better showcase of Everywhen's strengths than any one setting pitch.
Community and support
Everywhen does not have the giant ecosystem of a dominant generic engine, but it does have a visible support site and a line of focused supplements that demonstrate how the core wants to be hacked. That makes it a better fit for GMs who want examples to imitate than for groups hoping a huge third-party library will do the work for them.
Core rules and play structure
The basic roll is simple: roll 2d6, add an Attribute and either a Career or a Combat Ability, and aim for 9+. Careers are broad descriptors rather than narrow skills, so a character's background also functions as the practical skill list. That keeps the sheet compact and pushes rulings toward fiction-first common sense without becoming a full story-game.
Around that chassis the game adds optional support for opposed rolls, projects, success at a cost, chases, investigations, social conflicts, vehicles, and other genre modules. The result is not rules-minimal so much as rules-selective: the core loop is fast, but the game lets a campaign thicken where the GM wants more structure.
Characters, careers, and advancement
Characters start from four attributes, four combat abilities, four careers, and optional boons and flaws. That classless structure is one of the game's clearest strengths. Instead of asking players to choose from rigid archetypes, Everywhen lets them describe history and competence in broad strokes, then cash those choices in during play.
That flexibility is also why the GM has to set expectations early. A career list tells the table what kind of campaign this actually is. A weird-west game, a grim occult thriller, and a retro-future pulp serial may all use Everywhen, but they need different careers, gear assumptions, and supernatural options to feel distinct.
Signature mechanics
Hero Points are the game's main tone-control lever. They let players bend odds, survive bad luck, and push toward a more cinematic pace than the modest 2d6 math alone would suggest. Boons and flaws reinforce that by adding or subtracting dice and changing which dice count, which is more expressive than a flat modifier without becoming hard to teach.
The other signature choice is the absence of a normal skill list. Cannibal Halfling Gaming called out how much that reduces front-loaded complexity: careers carry both history and competence. If that clicks with your table, Everywhen gets out of the way quickly. If your players want fine mechanical distinctions between adjacent specialties, the abstraction will feel too loose.
What play feels like
At the table, Everywhen feels best when the group buys into competent, proactive protagonists solving genre problems with broad abilities and pulpy momentum. The math is fast enough that scenes can move, but the system still has enough procedure to make chases, hazards, social pressure, or supernatural resource tracks feel different from one another.
It does not create tone for you. The session rhythm depends heavily on the campaign frame the GM chooses. That makes Everywhen versatile, but it also means the first pitch, career list, and optional rules package matter more than they would in a strongly themed game.
Running the game
Running Everywhen is easier after the campaign brief exists than before it. Cannibal Halfling praised how easy the engine is to teach and to write for, while Stargazer's World saw the opposite side of the same design: the book expects the GM to do real curation, and its generic support is thinner than its marketing pitch suggests. Both readings are accurate.
If you already know the campaign you want, Everywhen is efficient. If you want the book to tell you what adventures to run and what assumptions to use, it is less helpful. Prep is not high because the resolution system is hard; prep is medium because the GM has to choose genre boundaries, careers, optional subsystems, and tone before the first session.
Campaign fit
Everywhen is better for short-to-medium campaigns and ongoing custom settings than for totally casual drop-in play. It can run one-shots, especially if you use an existing scenario or narrow the premise hard, but its real strength is letting a group stay with one adaptable engine across different campaign frames.
It is also a good fallback system for GMs who enjoy tinkering but do not want the engineering workload of a heavier toolkit like Cortex Prime. There is enough space to tune the game, but not so much that campaign setup turns into its own hobby.
Reception and reputation
Public reception is favorable but not evangelical. The current DriveThruRPG listing shows a strong customer rating average, and the most useful long-form reviews point in the same direction: reviewers consistently praise the game's flexibility, teachability, and quick core math, while cautioning that the GM must do more assembly work than a setting-specific game demands.
That makes Everywhen easier to recommend to experienced GMs than to brand-new facilitators shopping for a first campaign-in-a-box. The people who like it tend to like it because it lands between stripped-down freeform play and heavy universal-toolkit simulation.
Where it is strongest
- GMs who want a lighter universal engine for pulp, weird-west, occult, or science-fiction campaigns
- Players who like defining characters through broad careers instead of classes and long skill lists
- Tables that want fast resolution but still want chases, social conflicts, investigations, or other optional procedures
Where it can frustrate groups
- You want a ready-made setting or genre-specific campaign structure straight from the core book
- You want crunchy tactical combat or very fine mechanical character engineering
- You want the lightest possible story game with almost no GM curation or subsystem choices
Content and safety notes
Everywhen has no single fixed content profile because the line is explicitly genre-flexible. The core engine can support pulp violence, occult investigation, weird-west horror, science-fiction psionics, or lighter swashbuckling adventure depending on the supplement or campaign frame. That makes expectation-setting important: the table should agree early on whether it is playing high-action serial adventure, horror-adjacent weird fiction, or something closer to fantasy adventure.
Best starting path
Start with the core book and the support site, then decide whether your table needs a ready genre frame. If you want to see the system doing exactly what it was built to do, Pulse-Pounding Pulp is the cleanest next buy. If you want a more specific campaign proof-of-concept, Blood Sundown or Space Pulp will tell you faster whether Everywhen's toolkit-first approach excites your group.
If you are uncertain, use the free support material and a short scenario before committing to a long custom campaign. Everywhen rewards clarity of premise more than sheer amount of prep.
Research notes
Last checked: 2026-07-12.