CAIN vs Rifts

Compare CAIN and Rifts side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	CAIN	Rifts
Genre	Horror, Modern	Post-Apocalyptic, Scifi, Fantasy, Horror, Superhero
Tags	Anime, Character-Driven, Corruption, Deadly, Fiction-First, Investigation, Mission-Based, Strong GM Support, Superpowers, Theater of the Mind	Character Building, Combat-Heavy, Crunchy, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Gonzo, High-Power, Mana Points, Mecha, Superpowers, Tactical
Core Mechanic	Roll a pool of d6s from a skill rated 0–3 plus up to +3D of ordinary advantages; each 4+ is a success, and one success achieves the goal. The Admin judges difficulty and risk separately, so a roll can be both hard and risky. A hard roll scores successes only on 6s. A risky roll adds the Admin's risk die, which sets how much better or worse the outcome goes. A straight roll omits that die. Complex tasks use talismans, segmented trackers that take one slash per success.	Combat and saving throws use a d20 plus bonuses, with high results overcoming a target number or opposing roll. Skills use d100 and succeed when the result is at or below the character's percentage.
Dice	d6 dice pool	d20, d100
Complexity	Medium	Very High
Accessibility	Medium	Medium
Runnability	Very High	Very High
License	Proprietary	All Rights Reserved
Third-Party Publishing	Commercial publishing allowed — Creator-published permission for original supplementary content	Noncommercial only — Palladium Books Internet Policy limited license
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Cost	$	$$
Publisher	CHASM	Palladium Books Inc.
Year	2024	2005
Languages	English	English
Best For	Groups who want short monster-of-the-week campaigns where uncovering a sin's traumas makes the final confrontation easier. It suits tables ready to handle abuse, self-harm, and trauma themes with characters treated as expendable weapons.	Groups who want long-form science-fantasy campaigns that move from a ruined Earth to other dimensions. The game suits tables whose GM will decide which parts of the broad setting a campaign uses.
Highlights	Each trauma question answered during investigation can be invoked once in the final fight to reduce stress and slash the sin's execution talisman. Exorcists can pay for powers with 1d3 sin instead of scarce psyche bursts, a shortcut that builds toward overflow, mutation, or becoming an enemy Imago. Every rest raises pressure, and each pressure tick lengthens the sin's execution talisman, making recovery a direct trade against the final fight.	Occupational and racial class packages assign distinct abilities and advancement tracks, giving each archetype a different role in the party. Mega-Damage places many supernatural creatures and war machines on a separate durability scale beyond the reach of ordinary Structural Damage Capacity attacks. Rifts and ley lines make dimensional travel a standing feature of the setting, letting campaigns move between devastated Earth and other worlds.
Considerations	Investigations engage with abuse, self-harm, trauma, and mental health crises, so the book directs the Admin to discuss intentions and boundaries with players beforehand. Harm taken with three injuries, or 7 or more stress from one event after reductions, causes instant death unless the exorcist defies fate and suffers sin overflow instead. The author expects campaigns of about ten sessions or fewer, and Category advancement reaches its normal cap after seven missions survived.	Character creation combines rolled attributes with extensive skill selection, making first-time preparation lengthy. Combat asks each player to track an action economy, active defenses, and which damage scale applies. Magic and psionics use separate point pools and power procedures, adding class-specific rules to the shared system.