Changeling: The Lost vs Unknown Armies

Compare Changeling: The Lost and Unknown Armies side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.

	Changeling: The Lost	Unknown Armies
Genre	Horror, Fantasy, Modern	Horror, Modern
Tags	Urban Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Superpowers, Faction Play, Social Intrigue, Character-Driven, Exploration, Strong GM Support, Lore-Heavy	Urban Fantasy, Weird, Noir, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Character-Driven, Sandbox, Worldbuilding, Freeform Magic, Strong GM Support, Lore-Heavy
Core Mechanic	Build a d10 pool, usually from an Attribute plus a Skill, and count each 8, 9, or 10 as a success. One success is enough for most simple actions, and five or more normally make an exceptional success. Tens in a normal pool are usually rerolled for a chance at more successes. A pool reduced to zero or fewer dice becomes a single chance die that succeeds only on a 10, has no 10-again, and suffers a dramatic failure on a 1. A character can spend a point of Willpower to add three dice to a roll.	Roll percentile dice against an identity or ability rating and succeed on a result equal to or under it. Doubles make a matched success or matched failure, 01 is a critical success, and 00 is a fumble. Rolls with an identity tied to a character's obsession can be flip-flopped, swapping the two dice so that 54 reads as 45. Each relevant passion normally allows one more flip-flop per session.
Dice	d10 dice pool	d100
Complexity	High	High
Availability	Paid	Free quickstart
Runnability	5 of 5 book tools	5 of 5 book tools
License	All Rights Reserved	All Rights Reserved
Third-Party Publishing	Commercial publishing allowed — Storytellers Vault	Noncommercial only — Atlas Games Fair Use policy
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Publisher	Onyx Path Publishing	Atlas Games
Year	2019	2017
Languages	English, French	English, Spanish
Best For	Groups who want modern fairy-tale horror about surviving abduction and rebuilding a life, with seasonal court politics, binding oaths, and journeys through the Hedge. It suits tables willing to explore trauma and abuse themes within agreed limits.	Groups who want occult horror in the present day, where each character's obsessions and trauma and the cabal's shared goal drive the campaign instead of a prepared plot. It suits tables comfortable with violence, madness, and transgressive magick, and with building their own local setting together in the first session.
Highlights	Clarity tracks a changeling's trust in her own perceptions, and Touchstones attached to the track reduce the damage that breaking points deal to it. Every Contract has a Loophole, a condition of the fae bargain that lets a changeling invoke its basic effect without spending Glamour. Hedgespinning spends surplus successes and Glamour from ordinary actions in the Hedge on changes to terrain, equipment, or Conditions.	In ordinary play, each hardened notch on the shock gauge moves five points from an upbeat ability such as Connect to its paired downbeat ability such as Struggle. Adepts charge their school of magick through its own obsessive behavior and lose all the charges they are holding when they break its taboo. The cabal pursues a player-chosen objective tracked in percentiles, and intense milestones earn bigger rolls toward it than petty ones.
Considerations	Abduction, abuse, and trauma are core subject matter, so the group needs to agree on limits before play. Breaking points risk Clarity damage that can eventually leave a changeling comatose. Goblin Contracts normally add a point of Goblin Debt on each successful use, which the Storyteller can spend to penalize rolls or impose Conditions.	Violence, madness, abuse, and transgressive magick are core subject matter, so the group needs to agree on limits before play. Many firearms can kill a character with the default wound threshold of 50 in one hit. Twenty-five or more hardened notches normally burn a character out, which shuts off passion flip-flops and avatar identities until the character gets treatment.