Chronicles of Darkness vs Dread
Compare Chronicles of Darkness and Dread side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Chronicles of Darkness | Dread | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror, Modern | Horror |
| Tags | Atmospheric, Character Building, Character-Driven, Classless, Corruption, Drama, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Improvisation, Investigation, Strong GM Support | Atmospheric, CC-Licensed Rules, Character-Driven, Deadly, Diceless, Experimental, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Fiction-First, Narrative, Rules-Light |
| Core Mechanic | Build a d10 pool from an Attribute plus a Skill and count each 8, 9, or 10 as a success. Tens reroll, five successes are exceptional, and a pool reduced below one die becomes a chance die that succeeds only on a 10. | The host calls for a pull when a character attempts something uncertain, outside their experience, or under aggravated conditions. The player removes one block from a shared tower and places it on top: a stable tower means success, while refusing means failure without character removal. Collapsing the tower removes that player's character. |
| Dice | d10 dice pool | Diceless |
| Complexity | Medium | Very Low |
| Accessibility | Medium | High |
| Runnability | Very High | Low |
| License | All Rights Reserved | Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 |
| Third-Party Publishing | Commercial publishing allowed — Storytellers Vault | Noncommercial only — Open license |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $ | $ |
| Publisher | Onyx Path Publishing | The Impossible Dream |
| Year | 2015 | 2005 |
| Languages | English | English, German, Italian |
| Best For | Groups who want modern supernatural horror built around investigating mysteries, navigating personal consequences, and confronting threats before they overwhelm an ordinary life. | Groups seeking focused horror where improvised character drama and irreversible risk matter more than tactical combat |
| Highlights | The investigation system can reveal an Incomplete clue on a failed roll, preventing a mystery from stopping at one check. Conditions, Aspirations, and Beats link consequences and personal goals to character advancement. Horror Anchors create investigative inroads for supernatural threats. | Successful pulls leave the shared tower increasingly precarious, turning prior success into mounting risk for the whole table. Questionnaire answers establish capabilities and vulnerabilities, giving the host material that directly shapes rulings and scenarios. Deliberately toppling the tower converts character removal into one final dramatically appropriate success. |
| Considerations | The core contains detailed procedures for combat, chases, investigation, social maneuvering, and supernatural threats, so groups need to decide which rules to emphasize in a campaign. Damage, Integrity breaking points, and Persistent Conditions create lasting consequences. Social Maneuvering includes sexual goals and hard leverage, so players should back away from uncomfortable concepts. | The intended tower-based experience requires a physical block tower, a stable surface, and manual dexterity. A collapse removes a character from play, so players can lose their original role before the session ends. Creating original scenarios asks the host to prepare tailored questionnaires and make frequent pull judgments. |