City of Jerry vs Escape from Dino Island
Compare City of Jerry and Escape from Dino Island side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| City of Jerry | Escape from Dino Island | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Modern | Modern, Sci-Fi |
| Tags | Comedy, Fiction-First, Gonzo, Improvisation, Low-Prep, Mystery, Noir, Playbook-Driven, Random Tables, Rules-Light | One-Shot Friendly, Survival, Mystery, Playbook-Driven, Rules-Light, Fiction-First, Low-Prep, Strong GM Support, Cinematic, Exploration |
| Core Mechanic | When an outcome is uncertain, roll a d12 and add the relevant Heal or Harm stat. Read the result on a five-tier scale: 12+ is a Critical Success, 9–11 a Success, 5–8 a Mixed Success, 2–4 a Failure, and 1 or less a Critical Failure. Natural 12s and 1s are always critical. Good or Bad Luck adds d12s and keeps the highest or lowest result. | Most moves call for a roll of 2d6 plus the stat or modifier the move names, usually FIT, CLEVER, or STEADY. A 10+ is a full success, a 7–9 succeeds with a drawback or hard choice, and a 6 or less is a miss that hands the Dino Master a move. When several Heroes act together, one rolls for the group: the one worst placed during Peril Moves, or the one best placed during Safety Moves. |
| Dice | d12 | 2d6 |
| Complexity | Low | Low |
| Availability | Paid | Paid |
| Runnability | Book tools not listed | 3 of 5 book tools |
| License | Made for Mischief Third-Party License | Proprietary |
| Third-Party Publishing | Commercial publishing allowed — Made for Mischief Third-Party License | No verified route found |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | Drimbus | Sam Tung & Sam Roberts |
| Year | 2026 | 2019 |
| Languages | English | English, French, German |
| Best For | Groups who want low-prep noir mysteries with body-pun humor, player-created connections, and fast conflicts inside a human body. | Groups who want a one- or two-session survival thriller in the vein of Jurassic Park, where escaping and solving the island's mystery matter more than fighting. |
| Highlights | Challenges, combats, and conversations all run on the same Conflict framework, so a group learns one procedure for every kind of scene. When every die in a multi-die roll shows the same number, the Twist table adds an unexpected complication or benefit. Five Roles each supply a curated set of Abilities and Traumas, so every Agent has a distinct toolkit for helping allies and harming threats. | Overcoming the first of two Obstacles triggers an Extinction Event that adds new Dino Master moves and gives every Hero their one advance. Peril and Safety Moves let a single Hero roll for the whole group, so the worst-placed Hero rolls in danger and the best-placed Hero rolls in quiet moments. Several moves require telling a story from the playbook's list, and each story told adds +1 to the closing roll that decides that Hero's epilogue. |
| Considerations | Every Agent works for Immunity, so a campaign built around a different premise needs reskinning. The first Wound adds -1 to rolls, the second adds -1d12, and a third leaves an Agent Dying and triggers a Death Roll. Investigations use general Challenge Counters rather than a clue or deduction subsystem, leaving evidence details to the Jerry Master. | Fight! rolls with no stat bonus and a miss triggers the Casualty move, so combat is rarely a workable answer to a dinosaur. The fixed arc ends with the escape attempt, and each Hero gains only one advance along the way. Injuries carry no fixed penalties, so how much a wound hampers a Hero rests on the Dino Master's judgment. |