Atomic Robo RPG vs Honor + Intrigue

Compare Atomic Robo RPG and Honor + Intrigue side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Atomic Robo RPG	Honor + Intrigue
Genre	Scifi, Modern, Historical	Historical
Tags	Pulp Action, Licensed IP, Investigation, Cinematic, Tag-Based, Fiction-First, Narrative, Collaborative, Improvisation, Superpowers	Career-Based, Cinematic, Social Combat, Social Intrigue, Heroic, Fast-Paced, Martial Arts, Ship-Based, Pirates, Theater of the Mind
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 2d6 + Quality (Might, Daring, Savvy, or Flair) + Career rank vs. 9 to succeed. In combat, Combat Abilities (Brawl, Melee, Ranged, Defense) replace Careers. Bonus Dice roll 3d6 and keep the best two; Penalty Dice keep the worst two. Fortune Points let heroes escape death, add bonus dice, invoke dramatic license, or press the Advantage in duels. Advantage tracks momentum in melee: characters start at 3 and lose Advantage when hit, becoming Defeated at 0. Nine Dueling Styles (Spanish, Italian, French, and more) each grant unique maneuvers and a Final Secret at mastery. Social Combat uses the same framework, targeting Composure instead of Lifeblood.
Dice	4dF (Fudge dice)	2d6
Complexity	Medium	Medium
Accessibility	Medium	Medium
Runnability	Very High	Very High
License	CC BY 3.0 or OGL 1.0a (SRD); core book All Rights Reserved	Proprietary
Third-Party Publishing	Commercial publishing allowed — Open license	Not yet researched
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Cost	$	$$
Publisher	Evil Hat Productions	Basic Action Games
Year	2014	2012
Languages	English	English
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 cinematic swashbuckling in the style of The Three Musketeers and Captain Blood: dashing swordplay, court intrigue, and sea battles with a fast, career-based system.
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.	Nine Dueling Styles with distinct maneuvers and masterable Final Secrets provide deep fencing differentiation. Social Combat and Repartee use the same mechanical framework as physical combat, targeting Composure. Over 30 period-specific Careers from Musketeer to Temptress replace skill lists. Includes ship-to-ship combat, battlefield rules, and a 17th-century gazetteer covering Europe, the Americas, and beyond.
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.	No free quickstart or SRD available. Advantage tracking adds a subsystem on top of basic BoL resolution. The gazetteer and setting material assume 17th-century Europe as the default, limiting out-of-the-box use for other periods.