Cypher System vs Tricube Tales
Compare Cypher System and Tricube Tales side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Cypher System | Tricube Tales | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Universal | Universal |
| Tags | Toolkit, Modular, Character Building, Player-Only Rolls, Theater of the Mind, Low-Prep, Strong GM Support, Narrative | Rules-Light, Player-Only Rolls, Narrative, Toolkit, Beginner-Friendly, Family-Friendly, CC-Licensed Rules |
| Core Mechanic | The GM rates each task from 1 to 10 and multiplies that difficulty by 3 to set the target number. Players roll a d20 and succeed on a result equal to or above the target. Skills, assets, and Effort ease the task before the roll, with Effort paid from the relevant stat Pool after Edge reduces the cost. | Players roll one to three six-sided dice against a difficulty of 4 to 6 and succeed if any single die meets or beats it. The pool comes from the archetype: 3d6 when the character's trait fits the challenge, 2d6 when it does not, and one die fewer when the task falls outside their concept. Succeeding on two or three dice is an exceptional success, and rolling all ones is a critical failure. Players make every roll, including defense, so the GM never rolls dice. Karma tokens lower a difficulty by 1 or fuel a perk, while declaring a quirk raises it by 1 to earn karma back. |
| Dice | d20 | d6 dice pool |
| Complexity | Medium | Low |
| Accessibility | Very High | Very High |
| Runnability | Very High | Medium |
| License | Cypher Open License 2026-07-15 | CC BY 3.0 |
| Third-Party Publishing | Commercial publishing allowed — Cypher Open License | Not yet researched |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | Free | Free |
| Publisher | Monte Cook Games | Zadmar Games |
| Year | 2026 | 2026 |
| Best For | Groups building genre-spanning campaigns who want broad character customization, player-facing resource decisions, and little mechanical preparation for the GM. | Tables that switch settings often and want one ruleset to cover all of them, or groups introducing children and first-time players who need rules with no arithmetic. |
| Highlights | Player-only rolls keep the GM focused on adjudication and scene management. Descriptor, type, and focus choices support broad customization across multiple genres. One-use cyphers continually rotate situational abilities through play. | Players roll to attack and to defend while the GM never touches the dice, which keeps the GM focused on describing the world rather than resolving it. Declaring a quirk raises a challenge's difficulty but refunds a karma token, giving players a mechanical reason to drag their own flaws into a scene. Eleven optional genre modules cover magic, superpowers, vehicles, and mass battles, so one ruleset stretches across settings without a second book. |
| Considerations | Players manage Pool spending for abilities and Effort, so pushing a roll competes with other resource uses. Abstract distances and level-based NPCs leave many tactical details to table rulings rather than map procedures. The broad toolkit asks the GM to select genre modules and character options before play. | The GM assigns every difficulty and adjudicates what each perk can do, so outcomes rest on one person's consistency rather than on written rules. Characters are built from a single archetype, perk, and quirk, which leaves little mechanical distinction between two PCs who share a trait. Gear grants no bonuses and exists only to justify what a character can attempt, so equipment choices never change the dice. |