Delta Green vs Shifters
Compare Delta Green and Shifters side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Delta Green | Shifters | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror, Modern | Horror, Modern |
| Tags | Investigation, Mission-Based, Character-Driven, Deadly, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Skill-Based, Espionage, Gritty, Weird, Strong GM Support | Atmospheric, Character-Driven, Corruption, Deadly, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Gritty, Superpowers, Survival, Urban Fantasy, Weird |
| Core Mechanic | Roll d100 at or below a skill percentage or a statistic multiplied by five. Successful doubles and 01 are critical successes; failed doubles and 100 are fumbles. In opposed tests, a critical beats an ordinary success, then the higher successful roll wins. | Roll an attribute die and usually a skill die, each sized from d4 to d20 by the character's rating. Read each die separately: 5–9 gives one success, 10–14 two, 15–19 three, and 20 four. A 1 adds a complication even when the other die succeeds. Meet the Referee's required success count or beat an opponent's successes, with extra successes adding Harm or other effects. Each player gets one Nudge per session to shift a single die by one point after the roll. |
| Dice | d100 | d4–d20 |
| Complexity | Medium | Medium |
| Availability | Free quickstart | Paid |
| Runnability | 5 of 5 book tools | 2 of 5 book tools |
| License | All Rights Reserved | All Rights Reserved |
| Third-Party Publishing | Noncommercial only — Publisher fan-content guidelines | No verified route found |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | Arc Dream Publishing | Late Gaming Company |
| Year | 2016 | 2026 |
| Languages | English, French, German, Polish, Spanish | English |
| Best For | Groups who want modern investigative horror built around dangerous assignments and the relationships agents sacrifice to keep their work secret. | Groups who want modern occult horror where hunting haunted objects risks eroding their characters' identities. |
| Highlights | Expertise can reveal clues without a roll when agents have time to investigate. Bonds let agents reduce sanity loss by damaging relationships they depend on. The core pair provides threat-building procedures and a complete operation with pacing tools and several possible outcomes. | Harm steps attribute dice down directly, so damage weakens the dice used for later actions. The otherworld called the Gloom drains an attribute step at each scene's start and end unless resisted through sacrifice, weakening the dice needed to escape. Haunted objects called Residues have destruction conditions tied to their emotional origins, turning hunts toward memorials or exposing abuse rather than combat alone. |
| Considerations | Combat can kill an agent abruptly or leave permanent injuries. Sanity loss can force behavior outside the player’s control. Handlers must prepare the mystery and judge what evidence the agents can uncover. | The core provides no advancement procedure, leaving the group to decide how skills or abilities improve over a campaign. The colossal beings called Infadha take no Harm from attacks, so ordinary combat cannot defeat them. Several sample Residues are built on suicide, child abuse, and domestic abuse, with safety guidance limited to brief advice during character creation. |