Dogs in the Vineyard vs The Wildsea
Compare Dogs in the Vineyard and The Wildsea side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Dogs in the Vineyard | The Wildsea | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Historical, Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Tags | Narrative, Fiction-First, Character-Driven, Tag-Based, Drama, Collaborative, Improvisation, Roleplay-Heavy, Social Combat, Strong GM Support | Exploration, Narrative, Ship-Based, Worldbuilding, Character-Driven, Collaborative, Fiction-First, Tag-Based |
| 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 d6 dice pool: 6 is a full success, 4–5 is a partial success, 1–3 is a failure. Doubles of any value trigger a Twist: something unexpected happens. Characters are defined by Aspects (gear, abilities, cultural traits) with associated damage tracks. Progress clocks (tracks) are used universally for combat, crafting, healing, and journeys. Drives give characters personal goals that earn advancement. |
| Dice | d4–d10 dice pool | d6 dice pool |
| Complexity | Medium | Low |
| Availability | Paid | Free quickstart |
| Runnability | 4 of 5 book tools | 5 of 5 book tools |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Third-Party Publishing | No verified route found | Not yet researched |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | lumpley games | Mythworks (Felix Isaacs) |
| Year | 2004 | 2023 |
| Languages | English, Italian, German, Polish, Spanish | English, Italian, French |
| Best For | Groups who want episodic frontier drama built around difficult moral judgments and arguments that can escalate into violence. | Groups who want exploration-driven campaigns in a wildly original setting: sailing chainsaw ships across living treetops with a diverse crew of humans, cactus-folk, spider hive-minds, and moth-people. |
| 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. | Seven playable species including cactus-folk, spider hive-minds, and moth-people, track system unifies combat, crafting, healing, and journeys under one mechanic, Silver ENnie winner for Best Writing, character creation uses modular Aspects (gear, abilities, cultural traits) |
| 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. | Track-based resolution uses the same clock mechanic for all conflict types, d6 dice pool with doubles-as-Twist is the only resolution mechanic, equipment and aspect lists lack a comprehensive index, setting-specific: tied to the treetop-ocean world |