Action Movie World vs Hunter: The Reckoning
Compare Action Movie World and Hunter: The Reckoning side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Action Movie World | Hunter: The Reckoning | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Modern | Horror, Modern |
| Tags | Playbook-Driven, Cinematic, Fiction-First, Short Sessions, Comedy, Martial Arts, Player-Only Rolls, Pulp Action | Investigation, Mystery, Character-Driven, Gritty, Deadly, Atmospheric, Social Combat, Strong GM Support, Lore-Heavy, Urban Fantasy |
| Core Mechanic | Roll 2d6 + stat. On a 10+ the move succeeds completely, on 7–9 it succeeds with a catch, on 6 or less it fails and the Director makes a move. Players choose an Actor Playbook (their star persona across all films) and a temporary Script Playbook (the genre of the current movie), gaining moves from both. Only players roll dice: the Director never rolls. | 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 | 2d6 | d10 dice pool |
| Complexity | Low | Medium |
| Accessibility | Medium | Medium |
| Runnability | Medium | Very High |
| License | Powered by the Apocalypse | All Rights Reserved |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Commercial publishing allowed — Storytellers Vault |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $ | $$ |
| Publisher | Flatland Games | Renegade Game Studios |
| Year | 2015 | 2022 |
| Languages | English | English, French, German, Italian, Spanish |
| Best For | Groups who want short, high-energy sessions that celebrate the cheesy action movies of the 1970s through 1990s, playing actors whose careers span multiple genres of film. | 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 | Dual-layer playbook system: Actor Playbooks define a star's brand while Script Playbooks define the genre of each movie, so campaigns shift between kung fu, cop, barbarian, and other action subgenres. Lead actor mechanic grants one character plot immunity per movie, mirroring action film conventions. Star Power and experience track an actor's career across multiple films. Movies run in 2–4 sessions, making each one a self-contained arc within a longer campaign. | 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 | Meta-narrative framing (playing actors playing characters) requires buy-in and may confuse groups expecting straightforward genre play. No free rules or quickstart available. Script Playbooks in the core book cover six subgenres: groups wanting genres outside those six must create custom scripts. | 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. |