Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier vs Atomic Highway

Compare Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier and Atomic Highway side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.

	Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier	Atomic Highway
Genre	Historical	Post-Apocalyptic
Tags	Simulation, Crunchy, Deadly, Gritty, Sandbox, Classless, Career-Based, Tactical, Lore-Heavy, Strong GM Support	Rules-Light, Survival, Career-Based, Sandbox, Gritty, Resource Management, Classless
Core Mechanic	Gunfights run on a Count Up measured in tenths of a second instead of turns or rounds. Each character rolls d10 and adds Speed for a Starting Initiative, where lower is better, then adds each action's Count cost to find when it happens. To shoot, place the Shot Clock overlay on the aimed point of a Target Silhouette and roll d20 plus Accuracy modifiers. A 25 or higher hits the exact spot and 14 or less misses. Totals in between draw a poker card whose suit sets the direction the shot drifts from the aim point. Skill checks roll d100 and succeed at or above a mastery number that falls as the skill improves, while ability checks roll d20 at or under the score.	V6 Engine: roll a number of d6 equal to the relevant attribute (rated 1–5). Each natural 6 is a success and is rerolled for a chance at additional successes. Skill points (rated 1–5) can then be spent to boost individual die results up to 6, generating further successes. Most tasks require one success; harder tasks require two or more. When all dice show 1, something goes wrong regardless of skill. Fortune points allow players to add successes, reduce opponent successes, or introduce narrative twists.
Dice	d20, d100	d6 dice pool
Complexity	High	Low
Availability	Paid	Free core rules
Runnability	5 of 5 book tools	5 of 5 book tools
License	All Rights Reserved	Proprietary (Free PDF)
Third-Party Publishing	No verified route found	Not yet researched
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Publisher	Kenzer & Company	Gallant Knight Games
Year	2007	2009
Languages	English	English
Best For	Groups who want a long-running, town-centered Western campaign where characters build careers and reputations, and where gunfights are rare, precise, and often fatal.	Groups who want a lightweight Mad Max–style post-apocalyptic game with fast-resolving vehicular combat, quick character creation via background templates, and a setting that supports road warriors, mutants, and wasteland scavengers without heavy rules overhead.
Highlights	Shots target specific locations rather than an abstract opponent, so a near miss can still strike nearby and hit location feeds a detailed wound and healing system. Profession Paths award Building Points for career objectives such as opening a business or winning an election, so a banker or rancher advances as surely as a gunfighter. Cattle drives and jury trials run as complete mini-games with their own daily checks or juror track, so frontier work generates play outside combat.	Core PDF is permanently free with no barriers to entry. Character creation uses Rearing and Pursuit templates that provide skills and starting gear in minutes. Detailed vehicle customization and chase rules support the road warrior fantasy as a core gameplay loop. Scavenging system with random tables generates loot from categorized ruin types.
Considerations	Running the full game takes the Player's Guidebook plus its separate GM Addendum PDF, along with a poker deck, the Shot Clock overlay, and Target Silhouettes for gunfights. Characters die at 0 hit points with no recovery from death, and slow healing, infection, and incurable disease can sideline a character for weeks of game time. The alternate-history setting presents slavery and period racial attitudes as setting facts with mechanical effects, such as a higher literacy cost for freed-slave characters.	No structured social encounter mechanics beyond opposed skill rolls. Mutations and psychic powers are brief appendix options rather than fully developed subsystems. The publisher has not actively developed new content for the line since acquiring it in 2018. Setting material is deliberately generic, requiring GM effort to build specific locations and factions.