2300 AD vs OneDice Abney Park’s Airship Pirates

Compare 2300 AD and OneDice Abney Park’s Airship Pirates side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.

	2300 AD	OneDice Abney Park’s Airship Pirates
Genre	Sci-Fi	Post-Apocalyptic, Sci-Fi
Tags	Career-Based, Skill-Based, Simulation, Combat-Heavy, Tactical, Crunchy, Ship-Based, Exploration, Random Tables, Strong GM Support	Pirates, Ship-Based, Licensed IP, Skill-Based, Cinematic, Pulp Action, Random Tables
Core Mechanic	For a task, roll d10 and add modifiers from applicable skills and characteristics; meet a difficulty target from 2 for Simple to 18 for Impossible to succeed. A natural 1 fumbles, while failed checks use a separate roll to determine whether the character may retry or suffers a mishap. Hasty, hazardous, uncertain, and cooperative tasks modify time, failure risk, information, or group participation without changing the core check.	Roll 1d6 plus one relevant ability and an applicable skill if any, then meet or beat the Gamekeeper’s target number. Opposed checks compare totals, while Doubloons can secure non-combat success, turn a hit into a miss, or power swashbuckling stunts.
Dice	d10	d6
Complexity	High	Medium
Availability	Paid	Paid
Runnability	4 of 5 book tools	3 of 5 book tools
License	All Rights Reserved	All Rights Reserved
Third-Party Publishing	Noncommercial only — Mongoose Publishing Fair Use Policy	Not yet researched
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Publisher	GDW	Cakebread & Walton
Year	1988	2014
Languages	English	English
Best For	Groups who want career-shaped crews exploring a politically divided interstellar frontier where starship operations and hard-science constraints drive missions.	Groups who want fast, cinematic campaigns about a shared airship crew, with boarding actions and procedurally generated Skyloft destinations.
Highlights	Career terms turn pre-play service into skills and organizational ties, giving each crew member a practical history that feeds later missions. Space combat uses hex movement and signature-based detection, making maneuver and sensor discipline as important as weapon range. Linked world-generation and mapping procedures build planets down to regional terrain, giving exploration campaigns playable locations instead of setting prompts.	Doubloons refresh each session and turn danger into player choices by averting harm or enabling cinematic stunts. Airship combat uses abstract range bands to structure chases and boarding actions for the whole crew. Random Skyloft tables generate aerial settlements with distinct economies and local customs.
Considerations	Character creation can end when a turning-point roll fails, leaving a concept in its current career before the player intended. Combat routes each hit through location and damage-type tables, adding several lookups to a fight. The future history assumes a World War III and French hegemony, so campaigns are tied to a specific 1980s vision of the 24th century.	The Gamekeeper sets target numbers and many situational modifiers, so table consistency depends on shared expectations. Player pirates reduced to zero Health by lethal damage die unless Medicine succeeds within three combat rounds; a Doubloon instead leaves them unconscious. The setting includes authoritarian oppression and slavery.