Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier vs Atomic Robo RPG
Compare Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier and Atomic Robo RPG side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier | Atomic Robo RPG | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Historical | Scifi, Modern, Historical |
| Tags | Simulation, Crunchy, Deadly, Gritty, Sandbox, Classless, Career-Based, Tactical, Lore-Heavy, Strong GM Support | Pulp Action, Licensed IP, Investigation, Cinematic, Tag-Based, Fiction-First, Narrative, Collaborative, Improvisation, Superpowers |
| 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. | Roll four Fate dice and add a skill rating, then compare the total against a fixed difficulty or an opponent's roll on the adjective ladder. Matching the opposition is a tie, beating it by one or two shifts is a success, and beating it by three or more is a success with style. Spend a fate point to invoke an aspect for +2 or a reroll. Accepting a compel earns a fate point in exchange for a complication. |
| Dice | d20, d100 | 4dF (Fudge dice) |
| Complexity | High | Medium |
| Accessibility | Medium | Medium |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | All Rights Reserved | CC BY 3.0 or OGL 1.0a (SRD); core book All Rights Reserved |
| Third-Party Publishing | No verified route found | Commercial publishing allowed — Open license |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $ | $ |
| Publisher | Kenzer & Company | Evil Hat Productions |
| Year | 2007 | 2014 |
| 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 to play Action Scientists in pulp adventures against super-science conspiracies, jumping between eras of a century-long secret history. Its Brainstorms suit tables that like solving mysteries together during play. |
| 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. | Brainstorms turn a mystery into a group procedure: each winning roll adds a fact as an aspect, and the final hypothesis must build on every fact. Invention rules build a gadget from a function aspect, a flaw aspect, and stunt benefits, then charge for it in narrative catches like rare materials rather than money. E-Z No-Math creation starts a character from a concept and three rated modes, so players can make characters on the fly and fill in aspects and stunts during play. |
| 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. | Custom weird characters take longer to build, because modes and skill improvements are bought from a 30-point budget instead of picked from the E-Z options. The campaign rules assume the PCs belong to a faction, so a group playing freelancers has to build its own organization or run without the faction support and advancement rules. A Brainstorm's winning hypothesis becomes the truth of the situation, so a GM cannot count on a planned explanation for a mystery surviving play. |