Age of Adventure RPG vs Shadowrun

Compare Age of Adventure RPG and Shadowrun side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Age of Adventure RPG	Shadowrun
Genre	Fantasy	Cyberpunk, Fantasy
Play Style	Rules-Light, Beginner-Friendly, Classic Fantasy, Heroic, Player-Only Rolls, Roll to Cast, One-Shot Friendly, Low-Prep, Theater of the Mind, Random Tables, Open Source	Crunchy, Tactical, Combat-Heavy, Heist, Character Building, Faction Play, Lore-Heavy, Skill-Based, Mission-Based, Urban Fantasy
Core Mechanic	Each Hero picks a single Proficiency number from 2 to 5. MIGHT actions (physical, martial) count d6 results equal to or under that number as Successes; MIND actions (mental, complex) count results equal to or over it. Roll 1d6 by default and add bonus dice for being Skilled, Prepared, Helped, or carrying the right Item. Rolling the Proficiency number exactly on a successful check earns a Hero Point, spendable for extra dice, rerolls, +1 damage, or a true in-world answer from the GM. Only players ever roll — enemy attacks resolve as automatic player Reaction Checks against the same Proficiency, with Block (1 less damage) or Dodge (no damage) chosen by the defender.	Roll a pool of d6s equal to attribute + skill, counting 5s and 6s as hits. Meet or exceed a threshold to succeed. Situational advantages generate Edge points rather than modifying dice pools directly; Edge is spent on tactical effects like rerolling dice, adding successes, or imposing penalties on opponents.
Dice	d6 dice pool	d6 dice pool
Complexity	Low	Very High
Accessibility	Very High	Medium
Runnability	Medium	Medium
License	CC BY 4.0	No open license
Cost	Free / $	$$$
Publisher	Adrian Young Games	Catalyst Game Labs
Year	2025	2019
Best For	Groups who want a complete heroic fantasy game they can start playing the same night — everything from character creation to campaign play fits in a twelve-page zine, with classic fantasy races and class archetypes already built in.	Groups who want cyberpunk-fantasy heists with deep mechanical subsystems for hacking, magic, and combat.
Highlights	A single Proficiency number from 2 to 5 defines a character's physical-versus-mental lean in one decision — high favors MIGHT (roll under), low favors MIND (roll over) — so building a Hero is a thirty-second commitment rather than a stat-by-stat exercise. Only players roll dice, even on defense: every enemy attack triggers an automatic Reaction Check from the targeted Hero, so the GM is free to narrate threats while every die at the table belongs to a player. Encounter Levels are calculated as Size × Actions × Challenge plus armor and shield bonuses, then summed across the party, giving the GM an at-a-glance balance number to scale opposition without writing statblocks.	Unique cyberpunk-fantasy setting blending megacorporate intrigue with magic and metahuman races. Dedicated subsystems for Matrix hacking, magic, rigging, and astral space. Edge system replaces many situational modifiers with a spendable tactical resource. Decades of published lore spanning in-world history from 2011 to the 2080s.
Considerations	Magic is limited to six Arcane and six Holy spells that Wizards and Clerics know in full from creation, with no spell progression, new spells, or list customization across a campaign. Damage caps at 2 points per hit and Stamina maxes at the Proficiency number plus armor, so combats resolve in a few rounds without granular HP attrition or extended tactical play. Character advancement between adventures is limited to gold rewards and a +1 starting Hero Points carryover — there are no levels, experience tracks, or stat increases that meaningfully change a Hero over the course of a campaign.	Matrix hacking runs as a parallel subsystem that can leave non-decker players waiting. Multiple supplemental rulebooks needed for full coverage of magic, Matrix, and rigging. Published books have documented editing and layout issues.