Adventurer Conqueror King System vs Pendragon
Compare Adventurer Conqueror King System and Pendragon side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Adventurer Conqueror King System | Pendragon | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy, Historical |
| Tags | Crunchy, Sandbox, Domain Management, Character Building, Simulation, Dungeon Crawl, Ascending AC | Character-Driven, Domain Management, Lore-Heavy, Deadly, Simulation, Crunchy, Social Intrigue |
| Core Mechanic | Roll d20 + modifiers vs. a target value for attack throws, saving throws, and proficiency throws. 18 classes across core (Fighter, Explorer, Thief, Mage, Crusader, Venturer), campaign (Assassin, Barbarian, Bard, Bladedancer, Paladin, Priestess, Shaman, Warlock, Witch), and demi-human archetypes. 110 proficiencies and 378 spells. Characters progress from adventurers to domain rulers with integrated systems for strongholds, realms, mercantile ventures, criminal syndicates, armies, pitched battles, and sieges. | Roll d20 against the relevant skill or attribute: a result equal to or under its value succeeds, a roll exactly equal to the value is a critical success, and a natural 20 is a fumble. Opposed actions have both sides roll under their value, with the higher success winning and a beaten-but-successful roll scoring a partial success. Personality traits and passions use the same numeric scale and are rolled the same way when a knight's character is put to the test. |
| Dice | d20 | d20 |
| Complexity | High | High |
| Availability | Paid | Paid |
| Runnability | 4 of 5 book tools | 4 of 5 book tools |
| License | All Rights Reserved | Proprietary |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Not yet researched |
| Publisher | Autarch LLC | Arthaus |
| Year | 2024 | 2005 |
| Languages | English | English, French, Spanish |
| Best For | Groups who want a B/X-rooted OSR game that seamlessly scales from dungeon crawling to ruling kingdoms, with deeply integrated economics, domain management, and mass combat. | Long-running Arthurian campaigns where a knight's aging, death, and dynastic succession are part of the genre, and where playing out a character's traits, loyalties, and passions matters as much as winning fights. |
| Highlights | Detailed domain and kingdom management rules, economics and mercantile systems are integrated throughout, mass combat scales from skirmishes to wars, 18 classes with quick-start templates, builds on B/X foundations | Thirteen opposed pairs of personality traits and a set of named passions are rated numerically and rolled like skills, and a passion roll can leave a knight inspired to heroics, disheartened, or maddened beyond the player's control: the heightened behavior that drives Arthurian drama. Every chivalric act (combat, generosity, romance, piety, holding a title) feeds a single lifelong Glory total that sets social rank and rewards embodying knightly ideals over simply winning fights. A yearly Winter Phase resolves aging, estate income, and family events between sessions and passes the line to an heir on death, so a campaign can span generations from Uther's court to the fall of the Round Table. |
| Considerations | 540+ page rulebook is intimidating, tightly coupled subsystems, fantasy-only with narrow genre support, very high GM prep for domain-level play | Core rules restrict player characters to knights, with no mechanics for playing magicians, priests, or commoners, which narrows the cast to the warrior aristocracy. The Winter Phase's multi-step annual procedure adds meaningful between-session bookkeeping to every campaign year. High-damage attacks such as a couched lance or great sword can end a fight in a single exchange, making disadvantaged or improvised fights disproportionately dangerous. |