Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine vs Dogs in the Vineyard
Compare Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine and Dogs in the Vineyard side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine | Dogs in the Vineyard | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Historical, Fantasy |
| Tags | Cozy, Narrative, Diceless, Collaborative, Character-Driven, Worldbuilding, Drama, Fiction-First, Roleplay-Heavy | Narrative, Fiction-First, Character-Driven, Tag-Based, Drama, Collaborative, Improvisation, Roleplay-Heavy, Social Combat, Strong GM Support |
| Core Mechanic | Diceless. Intention equals skill minus Obstacle; spend Will points to boost Intention above zero for success. Players drive play by selecting quests and earning XP through genre-specific actions (Pastoral, Gothic, Adventure Fantasy, etc.). Three XP types: Action XP (shared group pot), Emotion XP (earned by evoking specific emotions in other players), and Bonus XP (from quest tasks). Quests combine into eight color-coded Arcs. The GM is called the HG (Hollyhock God). Characters fade into the background after XP actions, rotating spotlight. | Roll a d4–d10 pool from relevant Stats and Relationships. Players Raise with two dice and See by spending dice that match or exceed the Raise. Traits, belongings, and escalation add dice as they enter the conflict. Seeing with three or more dice earns Fallout. Giving concedes the stakes. |
| Dice | Diceless | d4–d10 dice pool |
| Complexity | High | Medium |
| Availability | Paid | Paid |
| Runnability | Book tools not listed | 4 of 5 book tools |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | No verified route found |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | Eos Press (Jenna Katerin Moran) | lumpley games |
| Year | 2014 | 2004 |
| Languages | English | English, Italian, German, Polish, Spanish |
| Best For | Groups who want collaborative, slice-of-life storytelling in a whimsical Ghibli-inspired setting: where wishes, friendships, and personal growth drive play instead of combat. | Groups who want episodic frontier drama built around difficult moral judgments and arguments that can escalate into violence. |
| Highlights | Genre modes shape play through XP incentives: different genres reward different player behaviors, Emotion XP ties advancement to evoking specific reactions from other players, player-driven quests shift narrative agency from HG to group, eight Arc types support stories from pastoral slice-of-life to cosmic fantasy | Escalation supplies fresh dice at the risk of harsher consequences, making continued opposition a choice about what the stakes are worth. Fallout changes Traits and Relationships to carry conflict consequences into later play. The town-creation ladder builds crises from interconnected grievances without prescribing how the Dogs should resolve them. |
| Considerations | Multiple overlapping XP and quest tracking systems require bookkeeping throughout play, Will resource and Intention math replace dice but add calculation per action, characters have Skills Connections Perks and Arc Traits that interact across multiple subsystems, fading mechanic forces characters out of the spotlight after XP actions | The Faith's patriarchal theology supplies concrete grievances in the town-creation rules and needs deliberate rewriting for another religious framework. Conflicts abstract range and movement into narrated actions rather than measured positioning. The GM must challenge the Dogs' judgments without preparing a preferred solution. |