Children With Wands vs Iron Valley
Compare Children With Wands and Iron Valley side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Children With Wands | Iron Valley | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Tags | Rules-Light, Family-Friendly, Beginner-Friendly, Cozy, Collaborative, Comedy, One-Shot Friendly, CC-Licensed Rules | Cozy, Solo-Friendly, Rules-Light, Narrative, Beginner-Friendly, CC-Licensed Rules, Random Tables |
| Core Mechanic | To cast a spell, the player says what they want it to do, and the Narrator sets a Spell Range from two values. Effectiveness rates how well the spell suits the task from 0 to 3, and Strength rates how much magic the goal needs from 1 to 20. The range runs from Strength minus Effectiveness up to Strength plus Effectiveness. The player then rolls a d20, and a result inside the range casts the spell cleanly. A roll outside the range still fires the spell, but mis-scaled into a complication. High rolls overshoot with too much power and low rolls fall short. | Roll 1d6 (action die) + stat against 2d10 (challenge dice). Beat both challenge dice for a strong hit, beat one for a weak hit, beat neither for a miss. A simplified hack of Ironsworn with only 10 moves. Promises replace vows, satisfaction replaces XP, and a favor economy drives gift-giving and relationships. Extensive oracle tables (50+ pages) generate characters, events, locations, and heart events for solo play. |
| Dice | d20 | d6 + 2d10 |
| Complexity | Very Low | Very Low |
| Availability | Free quickstart | Free core rules |
| Runnability | 4 of 5 book tools | 3 of 5 book tools |
| License | CC BY-SA 4.0 (core rules text) | CC BY 4.0 |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Not yet researched |
| Publisher | Dinosaur Pirate Games | M. Kirin |
| Year | 2026 | 2023 |
| Languages | English | English |
| Best For | Families introducing younger players to tabletop roleplaying, and convention one-shots where everyone needs to be making characters and playing within minutes. The cooperative, low-stakes structure suits mixed-age tables more than groups after tactical depth or character builds. | Solo players who want a cozy, low-stakes RPG about building a life in a small town: farming, crafting, making friends, and maybe falling in love, with no combat or death mechanics. |
| Highlights | Players roll to determine a spell's power rather than its success, so a high roll overshoots the intended band just as badly as a low one. The Narrator announces each spell's range before the roll, letting the table weigh a clever but risky idea against a safe one as an open choice instead of a blind gamble. Spells that miss their range still go off and spawn fresh problems, turning failure into the engine that drives the session rather than a dead end. | Fills a cozy niche in TTRPGs: no combat, no death, just wholesome small-town life, extensive oracle tables support solo replayability, simple rules accessible to complete beginners, CC BY 4.0 license encourages sharing and hacking |
| Considerations | Setting each Spell Range is a real-time Narrator judgment of a spell's fit and power, so the game leans heavily on a confident improviser to run well. Casting a spell is the only way to resolve a real challenge, leaving groups who want to settle problems through mundane skill or social play without a subsystem for it. Every child shares the same resolve pool, single die, and short perk list, so characters distinguish themselves mainly by which spells they know. | Oracle tables can produce repetitive prompts over multiple sessions. Minimal mechanical depth limits replay variety. There is no structured campaign or arc progression. |