Children With Wands vs Magical Kitties Save the Day

Compare Children With Wands and Magical Kitties Save the Day side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.

	Children With Wands	Magical Kitties Save the Day
Genre	Fantasy	Modern, Fantasy
Tags	Rules-Light, Family-Friendly, Beginner-Friendly, Cozy, Collaborative, Comedy, One-Shot Friendly, CC-Licensed Rules	Beginner-Friendly, Family-Friendly, Rules-Light, Narrative, Character-Driven, Collaborative, Freeform Magic, Player-Only Rolls, Fast-Paced
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 d6s equal to your attribute (Cute, Cunning, or Fierce, rated 1–4). Each die meeting or exceeding the GM-set difficulty (3–6) counts as a success. Zero successes is a failure with a complication, one is a partial success, two is a clean success, and three or more grants a bonus. Talents add one die, Magical Powers add two dice once per scene, and Injuries subtract dice. Kitty Treats (earned by playing your Flaw in interesting ways) can reroll dice, prevent injuries, or add story elements. Failed checks award Experience Points, encouraging risk-taking.
Dice	d20	d6 dice pool
Complexity	Very Low	Very Low
Availability	Free quickstart	Paid
Runnability	4 of 5 book tools	5 of 5 book tools
License	CC BY-SA 4.0 (core rules text)	Proprietary
Third-Party Publishing	Not yet researched	Not yet researched
Publisher	Dinosaur Pirate Games	Atlas Games
Year	2026	2020
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.	Families with kids aged 6 and up, mixed-age groups, and anyone who wants a gentle introduction to RPGs with a cozy premise and mechanically simple but rewarding play.
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.	Character creation takes about five minutes using three attributes, one Talent, one Flaw, and one Magical Power. Failed rolls award XP, which encourages players to attempt difficult actions. Each kitty has a human with ranked Problems that drive adventures and give the story personal stakes. Kitty Treats earned from Flaws let players reroll dice or add narrative elements to the scene.
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.	No free quickstart or SRD available: the core rules require purchase. Characters cannot die; they get knocked out and recover between scenes. The premise is specifically tied to playing magical cats, limiting genre flexibility.