Carbon Grey RPG vs Dungeons & Dragons

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

	Carbon Grey RPG	Dungeons & Dragons
Genre	Historical, Fantasy	Fantasy
Play Style	Crunchy, Tactical, Corruption, Roll to Cast, Licensed IP, Pulp Action	Tactical, Heroic, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Classic Fantasy, Vancian Casting, Ascending AC
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.	Make a D20 Test by rolling d20, adding relevant modifiers, and comparing the total to a target number. Ability checks, saving throws, and attack rolls use this procedure. Advantage and disadvantage use two d20s and keep the higher or lower result.
Dice	d6 dice pool	d20
Complexity	Medium	Medium
Accessibility	High	Very High
Runnability	High	Very High
License	Proprietary	CC BY 4.0 (SRD); core books proprietary
Cost	$$	Free
Publisher	Magnetic Press Play	Wizards of the Coast
Year	2022	2024
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 configurable tactical combat, broad character options, and campaigns that span multiple levels.
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.	Advantage and disadvantage resolve common situational effects by selecting the higher or lower of two d20 rolls. Backgrounds, classes, subclasses, and feats distribute character choices across creation and advancement. Weapon Mastery gives qualifying weapon users distinct tactical effects without replacing the action economy.
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.	Spell preparation, spell slots, class features, and conditions create several interacting resources for players to track. High-level characters combine many spells and features, increasing adjudication work for the DM. Bastions add a separate downtime procedure for campaigns that use the stronghold rules.