Dread vs Rifts
Compare Dread and Rifts side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Dread | Rifts | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror | Post-Apocalyptic, Scifi, Fantasy, Horror, Superhero |
| Tags | Atmospheric, CC-Licensed Rules, Character-Driven, Deadly, Diceless, Experimental, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Fiction-First, Narrative, Rules-Light | Character Building, Combat-Heavy, Crunchy, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Gonzo, High-Power, Mana Points, Mecha, Superpowers, Tactical |
| Core Mechanic | The host calls for a pull when a character attempts something uncertain, outside their experience, or under aggravated conditions. The player removes one block from a shared tower and places it on top: a stable tower means success, while refusing means failure without character removal. Collapsing the tower removes that player's character. | Combat and saving throws use a d20 plus bonuses, with high results overcoming a target number or opposing roll. Skills use d100 and succeed when the result is at or below the character's percentage. |
| Dice | Diceless | d20, d100 |
| Complexity | Very Low | Very High |
| Accessibility | High | Medium |
| Runnability | Low | Very High |
| License | Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 | All Rights Reserved |
| Third-Party Publishing | Noncommercial only — Open license | Noncommercial only — Palladium Books Internet Policy limited license |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $ | $$ |
| Publisher | The Impossible Dream | Palladium Books Inc. |
| Year | 2005 | 2005 |
| Languages | English, German, Italian | English |
| Best For | Groups seeking focused horror where improvised character drama and irreversible risk matter more than tactical combat | Groups who want long-form science-fantasy campaigns that move from a ruined Earth to other dimensions. The game suits tables whose GM will decide which parts of the broad setting a campaign uses. |
| Highlights | Successful pulls leave the shared tower increasingly precarious, turning prior success into mounting risk for the whole table. Questionnaire answers establish capabilities and vulnerabilities, giving the host material that directly shapes rulings and scenarios. Deliberately toppling the tower converts character removal into one final dramatically appropriate success. | Occupational and racial class packages assign distinct abilities and advancement tracks, giving each archetype a different role in the party. Mega-Damage places many supernatural creatures and war machines on a separate durability scale beyond the reach of ordinary Structural Damage Capacity attacks. Rifts and ley lines make dimensional travel a standing feature of the setting, letting campaigns move between devastated Earth and other worlds. |
| Considerations | The intended tower-based experience requires a physical block tower, a stable surface, and manual dexterity. A collapse removes a character from play, so players can lose their original role before the session ends. Creating original scenarios asks the host to prepare tailored questionnaires and make frequent pull judgments. | Character creation combines rolled attributes with extensive skill selection, making first-time preparation lengthy. Combat asks each player to track an action economy, active defenses, and which damage scale applies. Magic and psionics use separate point pools and power procedures, adding class-specific rules to the shared system. |