Blades in the Dark vs Savage Worlds
Compare Blades in the Dark and Savage Worlds side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Blades in the Dark | Savage Worlds | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Universal |
| Play Style | Narrative, Fiction-First, Heist, Playbook-Driven, Collaborative, Low-Prep, Improvisation, Drama, Dark Fantasy, Faction Play, Mission-Based, Character-Driven, Roleplay-Heavy, Cinematic, Open Source | Cinematic, Fast-Paced, Tactical, Pulp Action, Combat-Heavy, Heroic, Miniatures |
| Core Mechanic | Roll a pool of d6s equal to your action rating; keep the highest. 1–3 is a bad outcome, 4–5 is a partial success with consequences, 6 is a full success, and multiple 6s are a critical with additional advantage. Before rolling, the GM sets position (controlled, risky, or desperate) and effect level, which determine the severity of consequences and the impact of success. Players can spend stress to resist consequences or trigger flashbacks to retroactively establish preparation. | Roll trait die + wild die (d6), keep the highest. Target number 4. Raises every +4. |
| Dice | d6 dice pool | d4–d12 |
| Complexity | Low | Medium |
| Accessibility | High | Medium |
| Community | High | Medium |
| License | CC BY 3.0 | Savage Worlds Adventurer's Guild |
| Cost | $$ | $$ |
| Publisher | Evil Hat Productions | Pinnacle Entertainment |
| Year | 2017 | 2018 |
| Best For | Groups who want structured criminal heists with shared narrative authority, where the crew's reputation and entanglements matter as much as individual characters. | Fast-paced pulp action across any genre. Great for large groups and mass combat. |
| Highlights | Flashback system lets players establish preparations retroactively instead of planning before a score. Position and effect framework gives the GM a structured way to set stakes on every roll. Detailed faction game tracks rival gangs, noble families, and institutions with their own agendas and territory. | Fast resolution, genre-flexible, handles large groups well |
| Considerations | Stress is the currency for flashbacks, resistance rolls, and special abilities, so characters who use these tools heavily accumulate trauma faster. The faction tracking layer between sessions requires more GM bookkeeping than the score phase itself. Downtime phase has several interlocking subsystems (payoff, heat, entanglements, vice, projects) that take time to internalize. | Exploding dice can produce extreme variance in outcomes, setting books vary in depth — some provide minimal mechanical content beyond a genre frame |