Delta Green vs Vampire: The Masquerade
Compare Delta Green and Vampire: The Masquerade side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Delta Green | Vampire: The Masquerade | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror, Modern | Horror, Modern |
| Play Style | Investigation, Deadly, Roleplay-Heavy, Character-Driven, Gritty | Social Intrigue, Drama, Roleplay-Heavy, Atmospheric, Faction Play, Investigation, Collaborative, Character-Driven, Urban Fantasy, Corruption, Lore-Heavy, Noir |
| Core Mechanic | Roll d100 under your skill percentage to succeed. Matched doubles (11, 22, etc.) are critical successes or failures. Six stats (STR, CON, DEX, INT, POW, CHA) derived from percentile rolls. Bonds represent personal relationships and can be damaged as agents lose SAN. Sanity tracks Breaking Points — cross enough and you develop disorders. | Roll a pool of d10s (attribute + skill), count successes (6+). Hunger dice replace regular dice in the pool — their 10s trigger Messy Criticals and their 1s trigger Bestial Failures, making the Beast an ever-present threat. |
| Dice | d100 | d10 dice pool |
| Complexity | Medium | Medium |
| Accessibility | High | Medium |
| Community | Medium | High |
| License | All Rights Reserved | Proprietary |
| Cost | Free (Need to Know) / $$ | $$ |
| Publisher | Arc Dream Publishing | Renegade Game Studios |
| Year | 2016 | 2018 |
| Best For | Groups who want modern-day investigative horror where federal agents sacrifice everything — careers, relationships, sanity — to protect humanity from threats that should not exist. | Drama-heavy campaigns exploring themes of addiction, power, and losing your humanity. |
| Highlights | Bonds and sanity mechanics create personal drama, Need to Know quickstart is free and complete, strong atmospheric design, profession-based characters feel grounded, well-regarded published scenarios | Hunger system mechanically integrates the vampire's predatory nature into every dice roll. Detailed social and political frameworks with clan-based faction play. Humanity and Stains system tracks moral erosion with narrative consequences. |
| Considerations | Dense investigative scenarios require significant GM prep, limited character advancement between operations, bond deterioration can feel mechanically punishing, SAN loss mechanics can remove player agency | Hunger dice introduce high randomness at critical moments, dense lore spanning 30+ years can overwhelm new players, predator type and clan choice during character creation require setting knowledge to make informed decisions |