Blue Rose vs Pathfinder
Compare Blue Rose and Pathfinder side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Blue Rose | Pathfinder | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Tags | Character-Driven, Corruption, Tactical, Crunchy, Social Intrigue, Strong GM Support, High-Fantasy, Lore-Heavy, Heroic, Roleplay-Heavy | Tactical, Crunchy, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Dungeon Crawl, Lore-Heavy |
| Core Mechanic | Roll d20 and add the relevant ability, skill, or arcanum modifier against a Difficulty set by the Narrator. Attacks use the same procedure against Defense. Successful damage forces a Toughness save that moves the target along an injury track instead of reducing hit points. | Roll d20 + modifier against a DC. Four degrees of success: critical success (beat DC by 10+), success, failure, and critical failure (miss by 10+). Each turn grants three actions to spend freely on strikes, movement, spellcasting, or other activities. Multi-attack penalty (-5/-10) discourages repeated strikes and encourages tactical variety. |
| Dice | d20 | d20 |
| Complexity | High | High |
| Accessibility | Medium | Very High |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | Open Game License Version 1.0a | ORC |
| Third-Party Publishing | Commercial publishing allowed — Open Game License v1.0a | Commercial publishing allowed — Open and compatibility licenses |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $ | Free |
| Publisher | Green Ronin Publishing, LLC | Paizo |
| Year | 2005 | 2023 |
| Best For | Groups who want hopeful romantic fantasy campaigns where personal motivations, political intrigue, and heroic service matter alongside tactical conflict. | Groups who want deep character customization, tactical grid combat with meaningful turn-by-turn decisions, and a richly detailed fantasy setting with free rules. |
| Highlights | Acting on a Calling and either nature restores Conviction, turning personal motives into a renewable resource. Reputation and Influence give past deeds and changing attitudes mechanical weight in social scenes. Sorcery risks Corruption that erodes abilities and can culminate in madness or unlife, making forbidden magic a sustained consequence rather than a binary choice. | The three-action economy gives every turn the same three actions to spend on strikes, movement, or spells, so each turn is a fresh tactical decision. Characters customize through ancestry, class, skill, and general feats gained at nearly every level, letting builds diverge sharply within a single class. Four degrees of success, set by beating or missing the DC by 10, turn each roll into a range of outcomes rather than a binary result. |
| Considerations | Character creation combines a background and role with several layers of customization, requiring choices across multiple chapters. Combat tracks actions, modifiers, saving throws, and damage conditions instead of a single hit-point total. Sorcery's Corruption rules attach moral consequences to forbidden magic, so groups must engage with the setting's Light and Shadow framework. | New players must learn the trait system, conditions, and four degrees of success before combat runs smoothly. Multi-attack penalty and numerous combat actions can slow turns for indecisive players. Character creation draws feats from ancestry, class, skill, and general pools at every level, making each build a slow step. |