10,000 Swords Against Heaven vs Hunter: The Reckoning
Compare 10,000 Swords Against Heaven and Hunter: The Reckoning side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| 10,000 Swords Against Heaven | Hunter: The Reckoning | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy, Scifi, Horror, Post-Apocalyptic, Cyberpunk | Horror, Modern |
| Tags | Martial Arts, Tactical, Character Building, Classless, Fiction-First, Survival, Resource Management, Sandbox, Dark Fantasy, Weird | Investigation, Mystery, Character-Driven, Gritty, Deadly, Atmospheric, Social Combat, Strong GM Support, Lore-Heavy, Urban Fantasy |
| Core Mechanic | Roll a pool of d6s equal to the relevant Cultivation rating, adjusted for the circumstances. Each die showing 4–6 counts as a Strike. Meet or exceed the action's Demand to succeed; opposed checks compare Strike totals. | Roll a pool of d10s, usually an Attribute plus a Skill. Each 6 or higher is a success. Meeting the Storyteller's Difficulty wins. Each pair of 10s counts as four successes. On tests within their creed's Field, Hunters may choose to add Desperation Dice equal to the cell's shared Desperation rating. A 1 on any Desperation Die turns a win into a choice: keep it and raise the cell's Danger, or fail and enter Despair. A failed test with a Desperation 1 always causes Despair. |
| Dice | d6 dice pool | d10 dice pool |
| Complexity | High | Medium |
| Accessibility | Very High | Medium |
| Runnability | Low | Very High |
| License | Third Party License | All Rights Reserved |
| Third-Party Publishing | Commercial publishing allowed — Core rulebook Third Party License | Commercial publishing allowed — Storytellers Vault |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | Free | $$ |
| Publisher | JK Saavedra | Renegade Game Studios |
| Year | 2026 | 2022 |
| Languages | English | English, French, German, Italian, Spanish |
| Best For | Groups seeking cultivation campaigns with reactive tactical combat and open-ended exploration. The setting centers communist revolution against divine and capitalist rule. | Groups who want investigation-heavy modern horror in which a cell of ordinary people researches, plans, and confronts a monster at real personal risk. |
| Highlights | Two-stage Interrupt cascades let combatants spend Actions to respond before an opponent's declared action resolves. Licenses from fifteen Sects combine with limited Meridian slots to support changeable martial and magical loadouts. Magnetite is both currency and a source of XP, making cultivation compete with equipment purchases. | Desperation rises after the cell's setbacks, so mounting trouble adds both dice and risk to later Field tests. Overreach lets a player keep a win by raising the cell's Danger, which escalates the quarry's response against the whole cell. Monsters have weaknesses Hunters can discover, so research pays off as concrete advantages in the final confrontation. |
| Considerations | Characters start fragile by design; the book expects many to die at Stage 0 before cultivation takes hold. Casting Magick prevents Defense Checks, making positioning and allied protection important. The premise centers communist revolution, and the book warns of sexual violence and body horror. | Desperation Dice apply only to tests within a Hunter's creed Field, so a character's signature boost sits idle outside that specialty. The book recommends ending most conflicts after about three turns, which leaves little room for extended tactical combat. The content warning covers themes such as sexual violence and torture, so groups should calibrate boundaries before play. |