Children With Wands vs Lasers & Feelings
Compare Children With Wands and Lasers & Feelings side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Children With Wands | Lasers & Feelings | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Scifi |
| Tags | Rules-Light, Family-Friendly, Beginner-Friendly, Cozy, Collaborative, Comedy, One-Shot Friendly, CC-Licensed Rules | Rules-Light, One-Shot Friendly, Beginner-Friendly, Low-Prep, Comedy, Collaborative, Fiction-First, CC-Licensed Rules, Tag-Based |
| 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. | Pick a number from 2–5. Roll 1–3d6 depending on preparation and expertise. Rolls under your number succeed at Lasers (science, tech, reason); rolls over succeed at Feelings (intuition, diplomacy, passion). Rolling exactly your number triggers Laser Feelings: a special insight where you can ask the GM one question. |
| Dice | d20 | d6 dice pool |
| Complexity | Very Low | Very Low |
| Availability | Free quickstart | Free core rules |
| Runnability | 4 of 5 book tools | Book tools not listed |
| 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 | One Seven Design (John Harper) |
| Year | 2026 | 2013 |
| 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. | Quick one-shots with zero prep: the crew of the interstellar scout ship Raptor must save the day while the captain is out of commission. |
| 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. | Entire game fits on one page, zero prep needed, character creation takes seconds, free and Creative Commons licensed |
| 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. | The GM carries most of the creative and structural load. The single stat means characters can feel mechanically identical. There is no structured scenario framework beyond the initial hook. |