Avatar Legends vs Rifts
Compare Avatar Legends and Rifts side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Avatar Legends | Rifts | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Post-Apocalyptic, Scifi, Fantasy, Horror, Superhero |
| Tags | Narrative, Character-Driven, Drama, Playbook-Driven, Licensed IP, Martial Arts | Character Building, Combat-Heavy, Crunchy, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Gonzo, High-Power, Mana Points, Mecha, Superpowers, Tactical |
| Core Mechanic | Roll 2d6 + stat (Creativity, Focus, Harmony, Passion). 10+ strong hit, 7–9 partial success, 6- miss. Balance system tracks opposing principles: lean one way for bonuses but risk being knocked out of a scene. Combat uses structured exchanges with approach selection. | Combat and saving throws use a d20 plus bonuses, with high results overcoming a target number or opposing roll. Skills use d100 and succeed when the result is at or below the character's percentage. |
| Dice | 2d6 | d20, d100 |
| Complexity | Low | Very High |
| Accessibility | High | Medium |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | All Rights Reserved (Paramount license) | All Rights Reserved |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Noncommercial only — Palladium Books Internet Policy limited license |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $$ | $$ |
| Publisher | Magpie Games | Palladium Books Inc. |
| Year | 2022 | 2005 |
| Languages | English, French, Spanish, German | English |
| Best For | Groups who love Avatar: The Last Airbender or Legend of Korra and want stories of young heroes navigating internal conflict, relationships, and martial-arts action across the Four Nations. | Groups who want long-form science-fantasy campaigns that move from a ruined Earth to other dimensions. The game suits tables whose GM will decide which parts of the broad setting a campaign uses. |
| Highlights | Balance system creates internal character conflict, combat exchanges feel dynamic, five era settings span the full Avatarverse, mechanically supports emotional play | Occupational and racial class packages assign distinct abilities and advancement tracks, giving each archetype a different role in the party. Mega-Damage places many supernatural creatures and war machines on a separate durability scale beyond the reach of ordinary Structural Damage Capacity attacks. Rifts and ley lines make dimensional travel a standing feature of the setting, letting campaigns move between devastated Earth and other worlds. |
| Considerations | Three overlapping status tracks add surprising complexity, tightly locked to the Avatar IP, combat exchanges have a steep learning curve, no open license | Character creation combines rolled attributes with extensive skill selection, making first-time preparation lengthy. Combat asks each player to track an action economy, active defenses, and which damage scale applies. Magic and psionics use separate point pools and power procedures, adding class-specific rules to the shared system. |