Dread vs LIFTS

Compare Dread and LIFTS side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.

	Dread	LIFTS
Genre	Horror	Universal
Tags	Atmospheric, CC-Licensed Rules, Character-Driven, Deadly, Diceless, Experimental, Fiction-First, Narrative, One-Shot Friendly, Rules-Light	Experimental, Diceless, Comedy, Gonzo, Rules-Light, One-Shot Friendly, Narrative, GM-Less, Collaborative, Mission-Based
Core Mechanic	The host calls for a pull when a character attempts something they could conceivably do but might fail, particularly outside their experience or under aggravated conditions. The player removes one block from a shared tower and places it on top, and the action succeeds if the tower remains standing. Refusing the pull means the action fails, though that failure cannot remove the character from the game. If the tower collapses, that player's character is removed from the game.	Resolution is diceless and varies by the included game. In Roboflex, a disagreement with the Muscle Master becomes an exercise challenge. Minor conflicts set an easy, moderate, or hard target (5, 10, or 20 sit-ups in a social conflict), multiplied by the player's self-chosen fitness level of one to three. Major conflicts pit the player directly against the Muscle Master, such as a sprint to the end of the block and back. A relevant skill or profession grants a small edge, such as crunches instead of sit-ups or a head start. The winner is right about the disputed outcome. Several Volume 2 games instead attach an exercise to each move, with a 0 Flex failure and a list of selectable Flex effects. The Moon game grades success against both the Muscle Master and the player's previous rep count. Vegetables: The Recommended has each move spend a day from the player's logged meal planner, and that day's Flex rating sets the result.
Dice	Diceless	Diceless
Complexity	Very Low	Low
Availability	Free quickstart	Paid
Runnability	3 of 5 book tools	3 of 5 book tools
License	Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5	All Rights Reserved
Third-Party Publishing	Noncommercial only — Open license	No verified route found
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Publisher	The Impossible Dream	Korvidae Games
Year	2005	2019
Languages	English, German, Italian, Hungarian	English
Best For	Groups who want a single-session horror story where improvised character drama and irreversible risk matter more than tactical combat.	Groups who want to turn game night into a workout, playing short comedic parodies of familiar RPG genres where push-ups, planks, and runs decide outcomes instead of dice.
Highlights	Successful pulls leave the shared tower increasingly precarious, so earlier success raises the risk for every later action. Questionnaire answers define each character's capabilities and vulnerabilities, giving the host concrete material for rulings and scenarios. Deliberately toppling the tower lets a player trade their character for one final dramatically appropriate success.	Roboflex lets each player pick a fitness level from one to three that multiplies minor-conflict targets, so mixed-fitness groups face individually scaled exercise counts. Several games tie in-game power to real habits between sessions, such as vampire Vitae earned from gym visits and healthy meals. Eliminated Muscle of the Week players can still change a survivor's conflict outcome by holding a wall sit, though they cannot defeat the monster this way.
Considerations	The game requires a physical block tower, a stable surface, and manual dexterity. A collapse removes a character from play, so a player can lose their character before the story ends. Running the game asks the host to prepare questionnaires and make frequent pull judgments, even when running a published scenario.	Most games require real exertion and open space: ShadowRunning missions are group runs of 30 to 90 minutes, and The Forest Gymn & Picnic recommends a two to four mile hike. For players who cannot perform an exercise, the exercise-based games say only to find an alternative and give no structured adaptation list. Some games draw on players' real lives: the Moon game invites each player to share a personal problem for group advice, and Vegetables expects a week of logged meals, with a preset Flex fallback for players who cannot log.