Burning Wheel vs Oceania 2084
Compare Burning Wheel and Oceania 2084 side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Burning Wheel | Oceania 2084 | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Sci-Fi, Cyberpunk |
| Tags | Crunchy, Roleplay-Heavy, Character Building, Drama, Low-Fantasy, Social Combat | GM-Less, Narrative, Collaborative, Drama, Roleplay-Heavy, Solo-Friendly, Crunchy, CC-Licensed Rules |
| Core Mechanic | Roll a pool of d6s (ability exponent = number of dice). 4+ counts as a success. Meet or exceed the obstacle number. Beliefs, Instincts, and Traits earn artha rewards. | Resistance characters' Acts normally succeed as narrated within a six-phase Day in Dystopia. When a Value is challenged, roll d6 against the linked Emotion: Good Values succeed on a roll above it and Bad Values on a roll below it. |
| Dice | d6 dice pool | d6 |
| Complexity | High | High |
| Availability | Free quickstart | Free core rules |
| Runnability | 4 of 5 book tools | 4 of 5 book tools |
| License | Proprietary | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Not yet researched |
| Publisher | BWHQ | Jocher Symbolic Systems |
| Year | 2011 | 2024 |
| Languages | English | English |
| Best For | Groups who want character beliefs and drama to mechanically drive play, with deep subsystems that reward mastery. | Groups who want a politically explicit dystopian campaign about preserving private bonds under state surveillance. It suits tables comfortable sharing narrative authority with an adversarial Big Brother player, character turnover, and post-session debriefs. |
| Highlights | Beliefs mechanically drive play. Skills advance through use. The Duel of Wits and Fight subsystems offer detailed resolution. | Acts normally resolve through narration rather than task rolls, keeping attention on what resistance costs instead of whether a character can perform it. Value Tests turn public loyalty and private belief into emotional pressure: success shifts a shadow emotion, and failure causes an outburst or Stress. Physical Notes written by dead characters grant 2 Hope when another dissident finds them; a Note carried into interrogation can be confiscated as evidence. |
| Considerations | Steep learning curve, meant to be played as written (not hackable), print availability limited | The campaign assumes the regime eventually breaks or vaporizes its dissidents, so it does not support a conventional revolution or heroic victory arc. The Big Brother player tracks a concealed surveillance economy and interprets its Reaction tables, making that role more demanding than a neutral facilitator. The game requires a shared willingness to portray propaganda, betrayal, and emotional distress, even though it includes safety and debrief procedures. |