Amazing Heroes vs Epyllion
Compare Amazing Heroes and Epyllion side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Amazing Heroes | Epyllion | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Superhero, Modern | Fantasy |
| Tags | Beginner-Friendly, Rules-Light, Family-Friendly, Superpowers, Narrative, Fiction-First, Cinematic, Theater of the Mind, One-Shot Friendly, Strong GM Support | Narrative, Beginner-Friendly, Family-Friendly, Rules-Light, Fiction-First, Character-Driven |
| Core Mechanic | Each hero has four traits (an occupation, a body attribute, a personality attribute, and a superpower) assigned a d6, d6, d8, and d10 at creation. When the outcome is uncertain, the player rolls the relevant trait die against a difficulty of 3 (easy), 4 (normal), or 5 (hard), adding +1 if a body or personality attribute fits. Rolls of 1 or 2 on a normal or hard test inflict a condition like 'tired' or 'hurt'; a repeated condition becomes 'really [X]' and imposes a –1 penalty, and a third hurt condition defeats the hero. Defeating a villain requires successes equal to the villain's level times the number of heroes. | Roll 2d6 + stat (Courage, Charm, or Cunning): 10+ is a hit, 7–9 is a partial hit, 6− is a miss. Friendship Gems are passed between players to reward virtuous behavior and spent to power moon magic. A Shadow Track measures the Darkness's hold: fill it and you become your corrupted Shadowself until friends pull you back. |
| Dice | d6–d12 | 2d6 |
| Complexity | Very Low | Very Low |
| Availability | Paid | Paid |
| Runnability | 3 of 5 book tools | 4 of 5 book tools |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary (PbtA) |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Not yet researched |
| Publisher | Amazing Tales | Magpie Games |
| Year | 2021 | 2016 |
| Languages | English | English |
| Best For | Mixed-age tables wanting a fast, narrative superhero RPG that genuinely works for kids aged 7+ alongside adults: sessions are designed to cram an hour of TV-style action into a single sitting. | Families and groups who want a heartfelt, friendship-driven adventure where everyone plays young dragons protecting their world from a creeping Darkness. |
| Highlights | Trait dice carry transparent in-fiction meaning at each step (d6 is 'best in your country,' d12 is 'best in the world'), so players and GMs negotiate power level by description rather than parsing stat blocks. Conditions like 'tired' or 'shaken' replace HP entirely and stack into 'really [X]' with a –1 penalty before a third instance defeats the hero, keeping damage in fiction while still tracking toward a losing point. The GM receives plot points equal to the number of players each session and spends them on cinematic moves (villain ambushes, escapes with a planted clue, perfect disguises, 'missing body' recurring foes), encoding superhero-TV pacing as a budgeted resource. | Accessible gateway RPG for families and new players, friendship gem economy makes cooperation mechanical, dragon setting with its own lore, six playbooks with distinct Shadowself arcs |
| Considerations | Superpowers have no defined list or mechanical effects beyond a die size, so the GM must adjudicate what each novel use of a power can do on the fly. Advancement caps at d12+1 and amounts to larger dice plus secondary powers branched from a parent power, so long-running heroes don't gain meaningfully different mechanical options from starting ones. Villain fights accumulate flat successes equal to villain level × number of heroes with no incremental damage per hit, which can grind against tougher foes when most attack rolls only mark a single tick of progress. | Very niche: you must want to play young dragons, limited mechanical depth, tightly bound to its setting |