Atomic Robo RPG vs Dogs in the Vineyard
Compare Atomic Robo RPG and Dogs in the Vineyard side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Atomic Robo RPG | Dogs in the Vineyard | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Sci-Fi, Modern, Historical | Historical, Fantasy |
| Tags | Pulp Action, Licensed IP, Investigation, Cinematic, Tag-Based, Fiction-First, Narrative, Collaborative, Improvisation, Superpowers | Narrative, Fiction-First, Character-Driven, Tag-Based, Drama, Collaborative, Improvisation, Roleplay-Heavy, Social Combat, Strong GM Support |
| Core Mechanic | Roll four Fate dice and add a skill rating, then compare the total against a fixed difficulty or an opponent's roll on the adjective ladder. Matching the opposition is a tie, beating it by one or two shifts is a success, and beating it by three or more is a success with style. Spend a fate point to invoke an aspect for +2 or a reroll. Accepting a compel earns a fate point in exchange for a complication. | Roll a d4–d10 pool from relevant Stats and Relationships. Players Raise with two dice and See by spending dice that match or exceed the Raise. Traits, belongings, and escalation add dice as they enter the conflict. Seeing with three or more dice earns Fallout. Giving concedes the stakes. |
| Dice | 4dF (Fudge dice) | d4–d10 dice pool |
| Complexity | Medium | Medium |
| Availability | Paid | Paid |
| Runnability | 5 of 5 book tools | 4 of 5 book tools |
| License | CC BY 3.0 or OGL 1.0a (SRD); core book All Rights Reserved | Proprietary |
| Third-Party Publishing | Commercial publishing allowed — Open license | No verified route found |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | Evil Hat Productions | lumpley games |
| Year | 2014 | 2004 |
| Languages | English | English, Italian, German, Polish, Spanish |
| Best For | Groups who want to play Action Scientists in pulp adventures against super-science conspiracies, jumping between eras of a century-long secret history. Its Brainstorms suit tables that like solving mysteries together during play. | Groups who want episodic frontier drama built around difficult moral judgments and arguments that can escalate into violence. |
| Highlights | Brainstorms turn a mystery into a group procedure: each winning roll adds a fact as an aspect, and the final hypothesis must build on every fact. Invention rules build a gadget from a function aspect, a flaw aspect, and stunt benefits, then charge for it in narrative catches like rare materials rather than money. E-Z No-Math creation starts a character from a concept and three rated modes, so players can make characters on the fly and fill in aspects and stunts during play. | Escalation supplies fresh dice at the risk of harsher consequences, making continued opposition a choice about what the stakes are worth. Fallout changes Traits and Relationships to carry conflict consequences into later play. The town-creation ladder builds crises from interconnected grievances without prescribing how the Dogs should resolve them. |
| Considerations | Custom weird characters take longer to build, because modes and skill improvements are bought from a 30-point budget instead of picked from the E-Z options. The campaign rules assume the PCs belong to a faction, so a group playing freelancers has to build its own organization or run without the faction support and advancement rules. A Brainstorm's winning hypothesis becomes the truth of the situation, so a GM cannot count on a planned explanation for a mystery surviving play. | The Faith's patriarchal theology supplies concrete grievances in the town-creation rules and needs deliberate rewriting for another religious framework. Conflicts abstract range and movement into narrated actions rather than measured positioning. The GM must challenge the Dogs' judgments without preparing a preferred solution. |