Delta Green vs Spire: The City Must Fall
Compare Delta Green and Spire: The City Must Fall side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Delta Green | Spire: The City Must Fall | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror, Modern | Fantasy |
| Tags | Investigation, Mission-Based, Character-Driven, Deadly, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Skill-Based, Espionage, Gritty, Weird, Strong GM Support | Dark Fantasy, Narrative, Character-Driven, Espionage, Social Intrigue, Fiction-First, Gritty, Deadly, Mission-Based, Roleplay-Heavy |
| 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 a pool of d10s (one base die, plus an additional die each for having the relevant skill, domain, and mastery) and take the highest result. Results run from 1 (critical failure, double stress) through 2–5 (failure), 6–7 (success at a cost), 8–9 (success), to 10 (critical success). Difficulty reduces the pool by 1–2 dice. |
| Dice | d100 | d10 dice pool |
| Complexity | Medium | Medium |
| Availability | Free quickstart | Free quickstart |
| Runnability | 5 of 5 book tools | 4 of 5 book tools |
| License | All Rights Reserved | All Rights Reserved |
| Third-Party Publishing | Noncommercial only — Publisher fan-content guidelines | Not yet researched |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | Arc Dream Publishing | Rowan, Rook and Decard |
| Year | 2016 | 2018 |
| Languages | English, French, German, Polish, Spanish | English, Italian |
| 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 long-form campaigns as operatives in a revolutionary resistance movement, where faction politics and moral compromise shape each session as much as the missions themselves. |
| 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. | Five separate resistance tracks (Blood, Mind, Shadow, Reputation, Silver) let different types of harm accumulate independently, each with its own fallout table. Fallout mechanics convert accumulated stress into concrete narrative consequences (broken limbs, criminal records, vendetta NPCs, or being burned by the Ministry) rather than flat stat penalties. NPC Bonds maintain their own stress tracks; calling in favors puts allies at risk, and bond fallout can cost safe houses, informants, or key relationships. Character advancement is tied to changing the city itself: small changes earn Low advances, moderate changes Medium, and huge or irreversible changes High. The change does not have to be for the better. |
| 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 drow revolution premise is deeply embedded in the fiction; the game is built around this specific setting and repurposing it for other campaigns requires significant adaptation. Combat has no rounds, turns, or initiative system; engagements are resolved as a narrative conversation with the GM choosing the order of action. Fallout can permanently remove or severely restrict character capabilities, including arrest, lost limbs, or exile from the Ministry. |