Cairn 1st Edition vs Rifts

Compare Cairn 1st Edition and Rifts side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Cairn 1st Edition	Rifts
Genre	Fantasy	Post-Apocalyptic, Scifi, Fantasy, Horror, Superhero
Tags	Rules-Light, Classless, Deadly, Attacks Always Hit, Random Character Creation, Inventory Management, Dark Fantasy, Fiction-First, Sandbox, CC-Licensed Rules	Character Building, Combat-Heavy, Crunchy, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Gonzo, High-Power, Mana Points, Mecha, Superpowers, Tactical
Core Mechanic	Roll d20 equal to or under STR, DEX, or WIL to pass a save; 1 always succeeds and 20 always fails. Attacks always hit: the attacker rolls a damage die, subtracts the target's Armor, and applies the remainder to Hit Protection. When HP reaches 0, damage spills into STR and triggers a critical damage save; reaching 0 STR means death. Characters have 10 inventory slots, two for hands, with bulky items occupying two slots. Fatigue from spellcasting or deprivation fills slots like gear. Spells are cast by holding a Spellbook in both hands and reading aloud, adding one Fatigue per cast.	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	d20, d4–d12	d20, d100
Complexity	Very Low	Very High
Accessibility	Very High	Medium
Runnability	High	Very High
License	CC BY-SA 4.0	All Rights Reserved
Third-Party Publishing	Not yet researched	Noncommercial only — Palladium Books Internet Policy limited license
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Cost	Free	$$
Publisher	Yochai Gal	Palladium Books Inc.
Year	2020	2005
Languages	English	English
Best For	Groups who want a free 24-page toolkit for fae-haunted woodland adventure where character creation takes minutes, equipment defines the character, and any fight can kill you. Especially well suited to one-shots, hacking into custom settings, and learning rules-light fantasy.	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	Entire game fits in 24 pages, released under CC BY-SA 4.0 with full rights to remix and republish commercially, the ten-slot inventory unifies equipment and Fatigue into one resource, character generation rolls on d20 tables for names, traits, backgrounds, and starting gear plus a d100 spellbook table, a Scars table produces lasting consequences when HP is reduced to exactly 0	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	Almost no setting detail beyond a vague mysterious Wood, only five creatures in the core bestiary, no structured procedures for exploration turns or dungeon rounds (added later in 2nd Edition), classless design offers no character build mechanics for players who enjoy optimization	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.