Cepheus Deluxe vs Coyote & Crow
Compare Cepheus Deluxe and Coyote & Crow side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Cepheus Deluxe | Coyote & Crow | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Scifi | Scifi, Fantasy |
| Tags | Space Opera, Career-Based, Skill-Based, Sandbox, Ship-Based, Exploration, Random Tables, Toolkit | Character Building, Character-Driven, Classless, Skill-Based, Tactical, Theater of the Mind, Lore-Heavy, Heroic |
| Core Mechanic | Roll 2d6, add a relevant skill and characteristic modifier, and meet or beat the target number. The margin is Effect, and Advantage means rolling 3d6 and keeping the best two. | Build a d12 pool from Skill Rank, the applicable related Stat, and modifiers. Trained Skills use the higher related Stat, while Rank 0 uses the lower. Each die meeting the Success Number, usually 8, adds one success. Each 1 subtracts a success, while each 12 creates a Critical die. A positive total succeeds, 0 fails, and a negative total is a critical failure. |
| Dice | 2d6 | d12 dice pool |
| Complexity | High | High |
| Accessibility | Very High | High |
| Runnability | High | Very High |
| License | OGL 1.0a; Cepheus Deluxe Compatibility-Statement License | All Rights Reserved |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Not yet researched |
| Cost | Free | $$ |
| Publisher | Stellagama Publishing | Coyote & Crow Games |
| Year | 2022 | 2021 |
| Languages | English | English, Italian |
| Best For | Groups who want a self-contained interstellar sandbox where career histories feed a shared shipboard trade loop. | Groups that want character-driven exploration and protection in an Indigenous science-fantasy future. It suits tables that prefer consequential choices and tactical conflicts resolved through abstract range bands. |
| Highlights | Career terms turn character history into usable relationships and obligations that already point toward adventures. World profiles feed local law and trade into the crew's travel decisions, giving generated destinations mechanical consequences. Space combat assigns distinct actions across bridge and engineering roles, keeping the whole crew involved. | Player-authored Goals turn character ambitions into advancement, keeping campaign development tied to choices made in play. Chosen Initiative makes turn order a recurring tactical decision instead of a one-time roll. The Three Path Concept turns non-linear scenario design into a concrete prep tool, so major obstacles support meaningful alternatives to combat. |
| Considerations | Career creation can span several career terms before play, making a fresh crew slower to build than the basic 2d6 mechanic suggests. A ship-based campaign tracks recurring operating costs and cargo prices, making accounting part of the travel loop. The book supplies generators and adventure seeds rather than a ready-made sector or campaign, so the Referee must turn those pieces into an inhabited frontier. | The unified check is consistent, but character options and interlocking encounter procedures create substantial rules overhead. Success Numbers and critical Story Events depend on Story Guide judgment, so consistent difficulty and consequences require steady table rulings. The setting leaves much of its metaphysics deliberately open, requiring the group to establish what is real before play. |