Barbarians of Lemuria vs Daggerheart
Compare Barbarians of Lemuria and Daggerheart side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Barbarians of Lemuria | Daggerheart | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Play Style | Rules-Light, Pulp Action, Sword & Sorcery, Beginner-Friendly, Fast-Paced | Narrative, Collaborative, Heroic, Roleplay-Heavy, Fiction-First, Theater of the Mind, Character Building, Drama, Beginner-Friendly, Character-Driven |
| Core Mechanic | Roll 2d6 + attribute + career (or combat ability), 9+ to succeed. Four attributes (Strength, Agility, Mind, Appeal) and four combat abilities (Initiative, Melee, Ranged, Defence) rated 0–5. Careers replace individual skills: if your career is relevant, add its rating. Boons roll 3d6 keep best two; flaws roll 3d6 keep worst two. Hero Points fuel dramatic escapes and heroic feats. | Roll 2d12 Duality Dice (Hope + Fear) and add modifiers vs. difficulty. Which die rolls higher determines whether the moment swings toward the players (Hope) or the GM gains Fear tokens to spend on complications. In combat, adversary attacks roll d20 + modifier against target's Evasion. |
| Dice | 2d6 | 2d12 |
| Complexity | Low | Medium |
| Accessibility | Medium | Very High |
| Runnability | High | Very High |
| License | All Rights Reserved | Darrington Press Community Gaming License (DPCGL) |
| Cost | $ | $$$ |
| Publisher | Beyond Belief Games | Darrington Press |
| Year | 2015 | 2025 |
| Best For | Groups who want fast, pulpy sword and sorcery in the vein of Conan: career-based characters, boons and flaws, and combat that resolves in minutes. | Groups who want heroic fantasy with emotionally driven storytelling, where every roll shifts momentum between hope and fear. Great for Critical Role fans and narrative-focused tables. |
| Highlights | Career system is intuitive and fast, combat resolves in minutes, Hero Points enable pulp heroics, simple to learn and teach, spawned the Everywhen universal toolkit | Every action roll uses 2d12 Duality Dice, and whether Hope or Fear lands higher hands momentum to the player or the GM. Combat runs fiction-first with no fixed initiative, so the spotlight passes by the action rather than a turn order. Characters equip abilities as domain cards drawn from two domains, building a loadout the player can swap between. |
| Considerations | Tightly coupled to its Lemuria setting, limited character advancement, combat lacks tactical depth | The domain-card system runs best with printed cards, though it can be played from the character sheet alone. Players and the GM use asymmetric rules, so each side has its own procedures to learn. Mechanics are tied to the game's own setting and ancestries, which takes work to reskin for another world. |