Carbon Grey RPG vs Daggerheart

Compare Carbon Grey RPG and Daggerheart side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Carbon Grey RPG	Daggerheart
Genre	Historical, Fantasy	Fantasy
Play Style	Crunchy, Combat-Heavy, Tactical, Corruption, Roll to Cast, Licensed IP, Pulp Action	Narrative, Collaborative, Heroic, Roleplay-Heavy, Fiction-First, Theater of the Mind, Character Building, Drama, Beginner-Friendly, Character-Driven
Core Mechanic	Roll a pool of d6s equal to attribute + skill, sum the dice, and beat a Difficulty Number from 5 (Very Easy) to 30 (Extremely Difficult). One die in every pool is the Wild Die: a 6 grants an Advantage (Hero Point gain, success upgrade, or aid to an ally) and a 1 hands the GM a Complication that can deepen a failure. Margins above and below the DN scale results from Partial Success up to Exceptional Success and from Ordinary Failure down to Catastrophic Failure. Hero Points (start at 6) fuel doubled die codes, rerolls, and injury-level reductions.	Roll 2d12 Duality Dice (Hope + Fear) and add modifiers vs. difficulty. Which die rolls higher determines whether the moment swings toward the players (Hope) or the GM gains Fear tokens to spend on complications. In combat, adversary attacks roll d20 + modifier against target's Evasion.
Dice	d6 dice pool	2d12
Complexity	Medium	Medium
Accessibility	High	Very High
Runnability	High	Very High
License	Proprietary	Darrington Press Community Gaming License (DPCGL)
Cost	$$	$$$
Publisher	Magnetic Press Play	Darrington Press
Year	2022	2025
Best For	Groups who want dieselpunk WWI-flavored heroics (trench fighting, airship dogfights, espionage, and court intrigue) with an opt-in reality-warping subsystem that physically and mentally scars characters who lean on it.	Groups who want heroic fantasy with emotionally driven storytelling, where every roll shifts momentum between hope and fear. Great for Critical Role fans and narrative-focused tables.
Highlights	Wild Die mechanic builds tier-based outcomes into every roll: a 6 grants an Advantage the player can spend on extra Hero Points, an upgraded success, or aid to an ally; a 1 hands the GM a Complication that can turn an ordinary failure into a Catastrophic one. Continuity Flux skills (Manipulate, Divine, Transmogrify) let characters bend reality but each use raises a tracked Surge Count, and a roll-low check at session end against accumulated Corruption Points can permanently strip an attribute, transform the character into an enemy-controlled stone demon, or erase them from existence. Character Persona stack (Quirks rolled on a d66 table, Obligations to factions or ideals, and Remarkable Abilities) pays out Skill Points at the end of any session the player honored their Obligation, and a session in which the character switches allegiance grants no Skill Points at all.	Hope/Fear duality creates constant dramatic tension, fiction-first combat flows freely without rigid turns, card-based abilities add a tactile element, session zero and safety tools built in
Considerations	Combat layers multi-action penalties, scale rules between personal, vehicle, and grand-scale targets, weapon properties like Bypass ARM and Continuous, and dedicated subsystems for grenades, artillery bombardment, flak, hail of bullets, and minefields: each with its own DN, reaction options, and damage table. Continuity Flux powers are gated behind the Latent Flux Talent ability or GM-granted shard exposure, so a party without one is shut out of the reality-bending side of the setting unless the GM hands out access. Setting is tightly tied to the Carbon Grey graphic novel (eight named nations with specific factions, mythologies, and political alignments), so adapting the system to a homebrew dieselpunk world means cutting the lore that anchors most published episodes.	Card-based system works best with physical or printed cards though character sheets alone suffice, asymmetric GM/player rules have a learning curve, tightly coupled to its own setting and lore