Blades in the Dark vs DIE

Compare Blades in the Dark and DIE side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.

	Blades in the Dark	DIE
Genre	Fantasy	Fantasy, Horror
Tags	Heist, Mission-Based, Faction Play, Playbook-Driven, Fiction-First, Dark Fantasy, Collaborative, Character-Driven, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Low-Prep	Dark Fantasy, Playbook-Driven, Character-Driven, Narrative, Drama, Roleplay-Heavy, Fiction-First, Atmospheric, Worldbuilding, Collaborative
Core Mechanic	Roll d6s equal to an action rating and keep the highest result. A 1–3 produces a bad outcome, 4–5 succeeds with consequences, and 6 succeeds fully. Multiple 6s produce a critical success. Before an action roll, the GM sets its position and effect to establish the danger and intended impact. Players can add a die by pushing with stress or accepting a Devil's Bargain.	Build a dice pool of d6s equal to the stat most relevant to the task (0–4), adding dice for advantages and removing dice for disadvantages. Each 4+ is a success; the GM's difficulty subtracts from that total. Each 6+ can also activate a Special ability tied to the roll. Each of the six Paragon classes is identified with a different polyhedral die (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, or d20) that can be added to the pool to power that class's signature abilities.
Dice	d6 dice pool	d6 dice pool + d4–d20
Complexity	High	Medium
Availability	Free quickstart	Free quickstart
Runnability	5 of 5 book tools	5 of 5 book tools
License	Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (SRD only)	Proprietary
Third-Party Publishing	Commercial publishing allowed — Open license	Not yet researched
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Publisher	Evil Hat Productions	Rowan, Rook & Decard
Year	2017	2022
Languages	English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Ukrainian	English
Best For	Groups who want a continuing criminal-crew campaign with improvised heists and consequences that change their standing among rival factions.	Groups who want an emotionally heavy, character-focused portal fantasy: real-world friends enter a fantasy world that mirrors their buried issues and must decide whether they can ever agree to go home.
Highlights	Flashbacks establish earlier preparation during a heist, allowing the group to enter the action without planning every contingency. Resistance lets players reduce or avoid consequences at a potential stress cost. Crew advancement changes the group's influence and resources alongside its relationships with rival factions.	Six Paragon classes each tied to a specific polyhedral die with its own subsystem: Dictator breaks hearts with words, Fool gains luck from acting carefree, Emotion Knight weaponizes a chosen feeling, Neo powers techno-magic with daily-refreshing Fair Gold, Godbinder bargains with gods for miracles, Master rewrites reality as a rule-bender. Real-world Flashback lets each player recall a memory once per session for advantage on any task. Session-zero procedures build the Personas and the fantasy world around their buried issues. Designed around 2–3 session games with extended campaign rules provided.
Considerations	Action outcomes depend on table judgments about fictional risk and effect rather than fixed difficulty numbers. Recovering harm and clearing stress compete with personal projects for limited downtime activities. Filling the trauma track normally forces a scoundrel into retirement or prison.	Premise requires players willing to roleplay vulnerable real-world versions of themselves before any fantasy play begins. Bleed themes (the fiction leaking into real relationships) push emotional intensity that many groups will need explicit safety buy-in for. Each Paragon has a distinct subsystem the class's player must learn individually. The fantasy world is built collaboratively in session zero around the player Personas rather than drawn from a fixed setting, placing significant improvisational load on the GM.