Atomic Robo RPG vs Vampire: The Masquerade
Compare Atomic Robo RPG and Vampire: The Masquerade side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Atomic Robo RPG | Vampire: The Masquerade | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Scifi, Modern, Historical | Horror, Modern |
| Tags | Pulp Action, Licensed IP, Investigation, Cinematic, Tag-Based, Fiction-First, Narrative, Collaborative, Improvisation, Superpowers | Social Intrigue, Faction Play, Urban Fantasy, Corruption, Drama, Investigation, Lore-Heavy |
| 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 pool of d10s (attribute + skill), count successes (6+). Hunger dice replace regular dice in the pool: their 10s trigger Messy Criticals and their 1s trigger Bestial Failures, making the Beast an ever-present threat. |
| Dice | 4dF (Fudge dice) | d10 dice pool |
| Complexity | Medium | Medium |
| Accessibility | Medium | High |
| 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 | Renegade Game Studios |
| Year | 2014 | 2018 |
| Languages | English | English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Portuguese |
| 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. | Drama-heavy campaigns exploring themes of addiction, power, and losing your humanity. |
| 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. | Hunger system mechanically integrates the vampire's predatory nature into every dice roll. Clan membership and sect politics structure who a character allies with and opposes, giving the social game mechanical weight. Humanity and Stains system tracks moral erosion with narrative consequences. |
| 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. | Hunger dice inject swingy results at the worst moments, since a Bestial Failure can surface on a critical roll. Play leans heavily on social and political maneuvering, so groups expecting frequent combat will find that side of the system thin. Choosing a clan and predator type at creation assumes setting knowledge the player may not have yet. |