DIE vs Hunter: The Reckoning
Compare DIE and Hunter: The Reckoning side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| DIE | Hunter: The Reckoning | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy, Horror | Horror, Modern |
| Tags | Dark Fantasy, Playbook-Driven, Character-Driven, Narrative, Drama, Roleplay-Heavy, Fiction-First, Atmospheric, Worldbuilding, Collaborative | Investigation, Mystery, Character-Driven, Gritty, Deadly, Atmospheric, Social Combat, Strong GM Support, Lore-Heavy, Urban Fantasy |
| Core Mechanic | Build a dice pool of d6s equal to the stat most relevant to the task (0–4), adding dice for advantages and removing dice for disadvantages. Each 4+ is a success; the GM's difficulty subtracts from that total. Each 6+ can also activate a Special ability tied to the roll. Each of the six Paragon classes is identified with a different polyhedral die (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, or d20) that can be added to the pool to power that class's signature abilities. | Roll a pool of d10s, usually an Attribute plus a Skill. Each 6 or higher is a success. Meeting the Storyteller's Difficulty wins. Each pair of 10s counts as four successes. On tests within their creed's Field, Hunters may choose to add Desperation Dice equal to the cell's shared Desperation rating. A 1 on any Desperation Die turns a win into a choice: keep it and raise the cell's Danger, or fail and enter Despair. A failed test with a Desperation 1 always causes Despair. |
| Dice | d6 dice pool + d4–d20 | d10 dice pool |
| Complexity | Medium | Medium |
| Accessibility | High | Medium |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | Proprietary | All Rights Reserved |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Commercial publishing allowed — Storytellers Vault |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $$ | $$ |
| Publisher | Rowan, Rook & Decard | Renegade Game Studios |
| Year | 2022 | 2022 |
| Languages | English | English, French, German, Italian, Spanish |
| Best For | Groups who want an emotionally heavy, character-focused portal fantasy: real-world friends enter a fantasy world that mirrors their buried issues and must decide whether they can ever agree to go home. | Groups who want investigation-heavy modern horror in which a cell of ordinary people researches, plans, and confronts a monster at real personal risk. |
| Highlights | Six Paragon classes each tied to a specific polyhedral die with its own subsystem: Dictator breaks hearts with words, Fool gains luck from acting carefree, Emotion Knight weaponizes a chosen feeling, Neo powers techno-magic with daily-refreshing Fair Gold, Godbinder bargains with gods for miracles, Master rewrites reality as a rule-bender. Real-world Flashback lets each player recall a memory once per session for advantage on any task. Session-zero procedures build the Personas and the fantasy world around their buried issues. Designed around 2–3 session games with extended campaign rules provided. | Desperation rises after the cell's setbacks, so mounting trouble adds both dice and risk to later Field tests. Overreach lets a player keep a win by raising the cell's Danger, which escalates the quarry's response against the whole cell. Monsters have weaknesses Hunters can discover, so research pays off as concrete advantages in the final confrontation. |
| Considerations | Premise requires players willing to roleplay vulnerable real-world versions of themselves before any fantasy play begins. Bleed themes (the fiction leaking into real relationships) push emotional intensity that many groups will need explicit safety buy-in for. Each Paragon has a distinct subsystem the class's player must learn individually. The fantasy world is built collaboratively in session zero around the player Personas rather than drawn from a fixed setting, placing significant improvisational load on the GM. | Desperation Dice apply only to tests within a Hunter's creed Field, so a character's signature boost sits idle outside that specialty. The book recommends ending most conflicts after about three turns, which leaves little room for extended tactical combat. The content warning covers themes such as sexual violence and torture, so groups should calibrate boundaries before play. |