Carbon Grey RPG vs Pathfinder

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

	Carbon Grey RPG	Pathfinder
Genre	Historical, Fantasy	Fantasy
Play Style	Combat-Heavy, Gritty, Atmospheric, Cinematic, Pulp Action, Tactical, Crunchy, Lore-Heavy, Corruption, Roll to Cast, Faction Play, Licensed IP, Heroic	Tactical, Crunchy, Combat-Heavy, Character Building, Dungeon Crawl, High-Fantasy, Grid-Based, Heroic, Ascending AC, Exploration, Classic Fantasy, Lore-Heavy
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 d20 + modifier against a DC. Four degrees of success: critical success (beat DC by 10+), success, failure, and critical failure (miss by 10+). Each turn grants three actions to spend freely on strikes, movement, spellcasting, or other activities. Multi-attack penalty (-5/-10) discourages repeated strikes and encourages tactical variety.
Dice	d6 dice pool	d20
Complexity	Medium	High
Accessibility	Medium	Very High
Runnability	Medium	Very High
License	Proprietary	ORC
Cost	$$	Free (ORC)
Publisher	Magnetic Press Play	Paizo
Year	2022	2023
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 deep character customization, tactical grid combat with meaningful turn-by-turn decisions, and a richly detailed fantasy setting with free rules.
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.	Complete rules available free on Archives of Nethys. Three-action economy gives every turn meaningful tactical decisions. Character customization through ancestry feats, class feats, skill feats, and general feats at every level. Four degrees of success on every roll add granularity to outcomes.
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.	New players must learn the trait system, conditions, and four degrees of success before combat runs smoothly. Multi-attack penalty and numerous combat actions can slow turns for indecisive players. Character creation requires selecting feats from multiple categories at every level, which can overwhelm new players.