Some mechanical comparisons of a few RPGs
Year Zero Engine (Games: Alien, Coriolis, Mutant Year Zero, Forbidden Lands)
Core Mechanic:
There are some variations on implementation depending on the genre.
The general bit is you have attributes and skills. When you need to make a roll, take a number of d6 dice equal to the sum of your skills ,your attributes, and any gear bonus.
In some versions you roll a different color of dice for your skill, attribute and item dice.
Each 6 counts as a success. If you get no successes it is an explicit failure.
Each version has a mechanic where you can push your roll (reroll) which either involves taking any of the dice that rolled 1s on your gear dice or attribute dice as gear degradation or physical/mental harm, paying the GM a metacurrency they use against you later, or start building psychological stress.
Example:
Sophia wants to climb a cliff.
She has a Move skill of 3, and the related attribute is Agility which is a 2.
Her climbing gear has a gear bonus of 1.
The GM asses a 1 dice penalty against the climb which comes off of her move skill.
When she rolls, she gets no successes, but her gear dice shows a 1. If she pushes the roll, she know her rope will break, and any other 1s will take effect as well.
Rolling again she gets one 6 on her attribute dice, and one 1 on her attribute dice as well.
She makes the climb, but suffers one point of attribute damage due to the climb, and the rope breaks, but not until after she finishes the climb.
Additional:
Core Mechanic:
All skills/attributes are denoted by die type, up to d12, with ‘average’ being d6.
Rolls are Skill die plus a d6 if the character is a Wildcard (PC, major character) or just Skill die if it is a mook.
If rolling multiple dice, you take the highest of the dice rolled.
The target number is generally 4, or target number based on an opponent’s trait such as Parry for close combat.
Dice explode in an open ended fashion. (i.e. rolling a 6 on a d6, means roll and add until you don’t roll a 6…)
Degrees of success and damage are measured in Raises. (Number of times your roll exceeds the target number by 4).
Narrative currency exists in the form of Bennies, which are like light Fate points. Bennies may be used to reroll trait rolls, damage rolls, get a new initiative card or dictate minor story points.
Initiative is card based.
Example:
Sophia wants to climb a sheer cliff in the rainstorm. The default difficulty is 4, but there is a -2 penalty due to the weather.
She has climbing gear, so receives no penalties for that.
Sophia is a Player Character (Wildcard), and has an Athletics skill of d6.
She rolls d6 for her skill and a d6 for being a Wildcard. Her ‘Wild Die’ lands on a 6, and she rolls again, getting a total of 10, which is one Raise, so the climb is faster, or perhaps she helps one of her teammates in the process.
Additional:
Core Mechanic:
All tasks (combat/skill) have a difficulty ranging from 1 to 10. Players may lower the difficulty by applying levels of training (up to 2), assets (up to 2), and effort (up to two levels, spending from their strength, speed or intelligence pools). Once the difficulty level is bought down, roll 1d20 with a target number equal to three times the difficulty level. Natural 17-20 have additional impact.
The GM can exercise Intrusions to make interesting things happen at the cost of XP, or if a player rolls a 1.
Players may also use Intrusions at the cost of XP.
There is a loose class/archetype system for characters.
Example:
Sophia wants to climb a sheer cliff in a rainstorm. The default difficulty is 6.
Sophia is Trained in climbing (drops the difficulty to 5), has a rope (this is an asset that drops the difficulty by another point to 4), and is spending 2 levels of effort from her Speed pool (dropping the difficulty by another 2 points to 2, and dropping her Speed pool by 3).
The final difficulty is 2, which multiplied by 3 is 6, so she needs to roll a 6 or better on a d20 to succeed.
Additional:
Core Mechanic:
As seen in the Expanse, Modern AGE, Fantasy AGE and Dragon Age…
Roll 3d6 and add your attribute. If you have a focus add 2.
One of the three dice has a different color, this is the Dragon Die (or some variation in Modern Age) If you roll doubles, the number on the Dragon Die become stunt points that are used to buy a list of special effects, or just to measure degree of success in extended tests.
The Expanse variation does away with hit points, replacing them with Fortune Points, that act similarly to Cypher System pools in that they can be spent to make rolls better, or absorb damage.
Modern Age and the Expanse are both ‘classless’, while Fantasy Age and Dragon Age have broad classes.
Example:
Sophia is again wanting to climb a cliff. She has a Strength of 4, and a focus in Climbing.
Rolling 3d6, she gets a 10, plus 4 from her attribute, plus 2 from her focus for a total of 16.
Additionally, she rolled 4,4,2 which since she rolled doubles, she has 2 stunt points to spend.
Additional:
2d20 (Star Trek Version)
2d20 has several variations (Mutant Chronicles, Star Trek, Conan, John Carter of Mars and Infinity), with varying degrees of crunch.
Star Trek is one of the lighter variants.
Core Mechanic:
Characters consist of Attributes (similar to approaches from Fate Accelerated), Disciplines (broad skill sets) ,Talents (Feats, special racial features etc.) , Focuses (Specialty areas such as Hand Phasers, or Klingon Opera) and Values (These define who you are, and you can challenge or abide by them as the game progresses with mechanical effect.)
To make a roll, you roll 2d20 and try to roll UNDER your combined Attribute/Discipline choice. This is not a hard pairing as Security/Control may be used to shoot phasers, while Security/Daring may be used for punching a Gorn.
If you roll under your Discipline value, and you have a relevant Focus, it counts as two successes.
There are multiple meta-currencies in play:
Momentum - If you roll more than enough successes, you may ‘bank’ the extras for others to use. Similarly to AGE, you can buy effects from a list. One of the most common is to buy extra dice.
Threat - Momentum for the GM. The players can always pay the GM in Threat if they don’t have momentum. Certain action such as using Photon Torpedoes in ship combat , or loading up your away team with phaser rifles also grants Threat to the GM.
Determination - You can use this when you do something in accordance with a Value. I believe you can also get determination back when Values are challenged or invoked in inconvenient ways.
Sophia needs to climb a cliff as there is too much MetaPlottic radiation in the area for the transporters to get a lock on her position.
Example:
She has climbing gear to make the attempt possible, and she has the Focus: Avid Mountaineer.
She is in a hurry to avoid the Klingons that are in pursuit, so states that she is going to free climb as quickly as possible.
This is a Daring/Conn roll (Conn is all about moving stuff around, so it is a rough fit)
Her combined score is 13, and she has some banked momentum from her previous roll assessing the best way up the cliff and buys an additional d20.
She rolls 3d20 and gets a 2, a 14 and a 20.
The 2 is under her Discipline rating, and she has a matching Focus, so this counts as two successes!
The 14 is no help, and the 20 introduces a complication.
Sophie scrambles up the cliff, but makes such a racket that the Klingons spot her and open fire just as she clears the top.
2d20 has several variations (Mutant Chronicles, Star Trek, Conan, John Carter of Mars and Infinity), with varying degrees of crunch.
Star Trek is one of the lighter variants.
Core Mechanic:
Characters consist of Attributes (similar to approaches from Fate Accelerated), Disciplines (broad skill sets) ,Talents (Feats, special racial features etc.) , Focuses (Specialty areas such as Hand Phasers, or Klingon Opera) and Values (These define who you are, and you can challenge or abide by them as the game progresses with mechanical effect.)
To make a roll, you roll 2d20 and try to roll UNDER your combined Attribute/Discipline choice. This is not a hard pairing as Security/Control may be used to shoot phasers, while Security/Daring may be used for punching a Gorn.
If you roll under your Discipline value, and you have a relevant Focus, it counts as two successes.
There are multiple meta-currencies in play:
Momentum - If you roll more than enough successes, you may ‘bank’ the extras for others to use. Similarly to AGE, you can buy effects from a list. One of the most common is to buy extra dice.
Threat - Momentum for the GM. The players can always pay the GM in Threat if they don’t have momentum. Certain action such as using Photon Torpedoes in ship combat , or loading up your away team with phaser rifles also grants Threat to the GM.
Determination - You can use this when you do something in accordance with a Value. I believe you can also get determination back when Values are challenged or invoked in inconvenient ways.
Sophia needs to climb a cliff as there is too much MetaPlottic radiation in the area for the transporters to get a lock on her position.
Example:
She has climbing gear to make the attempt possible, and she has the Focus: Avid Mountaineer.
She is in a hurry to avoid the Klingons that are in pursuit, so states that she is going to free climb as quickly as possible.
This is a Daring/Conn roll (Conn is all about moving stuff around, so it is a rough fit)
Her combined score is 13, and she has some banked momentum from her previous roll assessing the best way up the cliff and buys an additional d20.
She rolls 3d20 and gets a 2, a 14 and a 20.
The 2 is under her Discipline rating, and she has a matching Focus, so this counts as two successes!
The 14 is no help, and the 20 introduces a complication.
Sophie scrambles up the cliff, but makes such a racket that the Klingons spot her and open fire just as she clears the top.
Additional:
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