Dogs in the Vineyard vs Dungeons & Dragons
Compare Dogs in the Vineyard and Dungeons & Dragons side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Dogs in the Vineyard | Dungeons & Dragons | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Historical, Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Tags | Narrative, Fiction-First, Character-Driven, Tag-Based, Drama, Collaborative, Improvisation, Roleplay-Heavy, Social Combat, Strong GM Support | Tactical, Heroic, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Classic Fantasy, Combat-Heavy, Exploration, Resource Management, Strong GM Support, CC-Licensed Rules |
| Core Mechanic | Roll a d4–d10 pool from relevant Stats and Relationships. Players Raise with two dice and See by spending dice that match or exceed the Raise. Traits, belongings, and escalation add dice as they enter the conflict. Seeing with three or more dice earns Fallout. Giving concedes the stakes. | Roll a d20 and add applicable modifiers to meet or beat a target number. Checks and saving throws use a Difficulty Class; attacks use Armor Class. Advantage or disadvantage means rolling two d20s and keeping the higher or lower result. |
| Dice | d4–d10 dice pool | d20 |
| Complexity | Medium | High |
| Availability | Paid | Free core rules |
| Runnability | 4 of 5 book tools | 5 of 5 book tools |
| License | Proprietary | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (SRD 5.2.1); proprietary core books |
| Third-Party Publishing | No verified route found | Commercial publishing allowed — Open license |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | lumpley games | Wizards of the Coast |
| Year | 2004 | 2024 |
| Languages | English, Italian, German, Polish, Spanish | English, French, Italian, German, Spanish |
| Best For | Groups who want episodic frontier drama built around difficult moral judgments and arguments that can escalate into violence. | Groups who want heroic fantasy campaigns with tactical combat and extensive character customization. |
| Highlights | Escalation supplies fresh dice at the risk of harsher consequences, making continued opposition a choice about what the stakes are worth. Fallout changes Traits and Relationships to carry conflict consequences into later play. The town-creation ladder builds crises from interconnected grievances without prescribing how the Dogs should resolve them. | Weapon Mastery adds effects such as pushing or slowing enemies to qualifying weapon attacks. Class and feat choices let characters develop different roles over twenty levels. Optional Bastions give characters home bases with facilities that produce benefits between adventures. |
| Considerations | The Faith's patriarchal theology supplies concrete grievances in the town-creation rules and needs deliberate rewriting for another religious framework. Conflicts abstract range and movement into narrated actions rather than measured positioning. The GM must challenge the Dogs' judgments without preparing a preferred solution. | Spells and class abilities have separate resource limits and timing rules. Higher-level magic can change travel and encounter assumptions that the DM must prepare for. Social encounters rely on ability checks and DM judgments about NPC attitudes. |