Bite the Hand vs Shadow of the Demon Lord
Compare Bite the Hand and Shadow of the Demon Lord side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Bite the Hand | Shadow of the Demon Lord | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Cyberpunk, Sci-Fi, Horror | Fantasy, Horror |
| Tags | Character Building, Deadly, Fast-Paced, Gritty, Hackable, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Resource Management, Theater of the Mind | Dark Fantasy, Gritty, Deadly, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Corruption, Character Building, Tactical, Combat-Heavy, Atmospheric, Strong GM Support |
| Core Mechanic | Roll d100 under a relevant stat or save. Equal or higher makes a check fail or succeed with a consequence, while an equal-or-higher save fails and incurs harm. Doubles trigger critical results based on success or failure. Advantage or Disadvantage rolls twice and keeps the better or worse result; uncomplicated actions usually work without a roll. | Roll d20 plus an attribute modifier against 10 for a challenge or the target’s Defense or attribute for an attack. Boons and banes cancel one for one. Roll the remaining d6s and add the highest boon or subtract the highest bane. |
| Dice | d100 | d20, d6 |
| Complexity | Medium | Medium |
| Availability | Paid | Free quickstart |
| Runnability | 4 of 5 book tools | 4 of 5 book tools |
| License | Proprietary | All Rights Reserved |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Commercial publishing allowed — Community content program |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | Spellbook Gaming LLC | Schwalb Entertainment |
| Year | 2026 | 2015 |
| Languages | English | English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Chinese |
| Best For | Groups seeking lethal cyberpunk missions about vulnerable rebels, with room for hacking, social maneuvering, and direct action. | Groups who want lethal fantasy horror with flexible character paths and campaigns built around eleven adventures. |
| Highlights | Tiered cybernetics raise Minimum Stress as they expand a character's capabilities, linking augmentation directly to emotional resilience. Completing a mission against a corporation, harming law enforcement, corporate assets, or government officials, and every $2,000 of debt each raise Heat; after a day of noticeable crime, a secret d20 roll at or under the highest-Heat character's score produces a Heat consequence. Uncomplicated attacks hit automatically, reserving checks for dangerous complications and keeping firefights moving. | Novice, expert and master paths combine freely to create specialized characters. Fast turns trade movement for an earlier action. Insanity and Corruption give frightening encounters and forbidden acts lasting mechanical consequences. |
| Considerations | Random stats and unequal starting loadouts deliberately create uneven characters. Wounds and failed Death saves can remove characters abruptly. Several procedures rely on Warden judgment: hacking, social checks, cover, and carrying capacity. | Starting characters can die from a single strong hit. The rules include graphic body horror and disturbing effects of forbidden magic. Advancement ends at level 10 after the campaign’s final adventure. |