Asilo vs The Derelict Speaks
Compare Asilo and The Derelict Speaks side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Asilo | The Derelict Speaks | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror | Scifi, Horror |
| Tags | Atmospheric, Character-Driven, Deadly, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Improvisation, One-Shot Friendly, Random Tables, Roleplay-Heavy, Rules-Light, Strong GM Support | Rules-Light, One-Shot Friendly, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Character-Driven, Deadly, Low-Prep, Theater of the Mind, CC-Licensed Rules |
| Core Mechanic | When an action warrants it, a Patient rolls a d6 and succeeds by equaling or exceeding the difficulty the Caretaker sets. Traumatic events add a d6 result to the Sanity Clock, and completed stress sectors reveal new Behaviors. | When a Speaker opposes a Responder, the player rolls 2d6 and assigns one die to Survival and the other to Sanity. Each die is read separately: 5–6 avoids the consequence, 3–4 causes a lesser consequence and transfers one Blood to the GM, and 1–2 causes a severe consequence and transfers two Blood. Aiding adds a third die and keeps the best two, but every participant suffers the final results. |
| Dice | d6 | 2d6 |
| Complexity | Low | Very Low |
| Availability | Paid | Free core rules |
| Runnability | 4 of 5 book tools | Book tools not listed |
| License | Proprietary | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
| Third-Party Publishing | No verified route found | Not yet researched |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | Newborn Games | Precision Chaos Machine |
| Year | 2025 | 2021 |
| Languages | English, Portuguese | English |
| Best For | Groups prepared to establish firm safety boundaries before a one-shot clinical-horror descent driven by character-specific stress. It suits Caretakers who want prewritten scenarios and prompts for tailoring Asilo to a table's chosen limits. | Groups seeking a semi-competitive science-fiction horror one-shot where player elimination becomes active antagonist play. |
| Highlights | Stress Rolls fill each Sanity Clock until new Behaviors alter how that Patient is played. Goals and discovered Secrets can remove or add Stress Dots, making personal history affect whether a Patient deteriorates. Destroying a signed Liability Waiver sacrifices one Patient to clear another's Behavior, turning a physical table ritual into a final rescue. | Assigning one die to Survival and one to Sanity makes each opposed roll threaten body and mind independently. A defeated Responder becomes a Speaker who spends Blood on manifestations, keeping eliminated players active as antagonists. Four Acts raise the Speakers' manifestation limits and Blood supply, producing a complete escalation arc from briefing to escape. |
| Considerations | The game centers clinical abuse, trauma, and other extreme material, requiring explicit group boundaries and active comfort tools. Each Patient's stress mitigations become Manias after three uses, making the downward pressure difficult to reverse. Asilo is designed for individual sessions, so it does not provide campaign advancement for recurring Patients. | The rules support one hostile-derelict scenario and contain no advancement or campaign procedure. Minor harm, serious harm, cracking under pressure, and meltdowns have no additional mechanical definitions, leaving their consequences to the table. The semi-competitive structure turns defeated characters into antagonists, changing play from cooperative survival to active opposition. |