D6 System vs Fate Core
Compare D6 System and Fate Core side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| D6 System | Fate Core | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Universal | Universal |
| Play Style | Toolkit, Modular, Cinematic, Hackable, Skill-Based, Character Building | Narrative, Rules-Light, Collaborative, Cinematic, Improvisation, Theater of the Mind, Low-Prep, Roleplay-Heavy, Drama, Freeform Magic, Open Source, Tag-Based, Social Combat |
| Core Mechanic | Rate attributes and skills in numbers of six-sided dice, then roll that pool and total it against a difficulty number set by the GM. One die is the Wild Die: a 6 explodes and is rolled again, while a 1 can introduce a complication. Pips give +1 or +2 between full dice, and Character Points can be spent to add dice to a roll. | Roll 4 Fudge dice + skill vs. difficulty. Spend/earn Fate points to invoke aspects. |
| Dice | d6 dice pool | 4dF (Fudge dice) |
| Complexity | Medium | Low |
| Accessibility | Low | Very High |
| Runnability | High | Very High |
| License | Proprietary (licensed from West End Games) | CC BY 3.0 |
| Cost | $$ | Free (SRD) |
| Publisher | Gallant Knight Games | Evil Hat Productions |
| Year | 2024 | 2013 |
| Best For | Groups who want one adaptable engine they can take across genres — cinematic action, fantasy, cyberpunk — with modular crunch they can dial up or down. | Narrative-focused groups who want to tell collaborative stories in any genre with minimal rules. |
| Highlights | Attributes and skills are rated in numbers of d6 that you pool, sum, and compare to a difficulty number, so improving a trait literally adds dice. One die in every pool is the Wild Die, which explodes on a 6 to push results higher and can trigger a complication on a 1. Genre Modules for fantasy, cyberpunk, superpowers, and more bolt onto the same core, so one engine spans many settings. | Genre-agnostic, encourages narrative play, free rules |
| Considerations | Large dice pools mean rolling and summing many d6s per action, which slows resolution for highly skilled characters. The breadth of optional modules and rules variants means groups must decide which subsystems to use before play. Character creation allocates dice and pips across attributes and skills, requiring some up-front arithmetic. | Aspect economy demands constant creative input which can exhaust players, character differentiation can blur with freeform aspects, requires system mastery from the GM to run smoothly |