Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition vs Those Who Wander

Compare Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition and Those Who Wander side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.

	Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition	Those Who Wander
Genre	Fantasy	Fantasy
Tags	Tactical, Grid-Based, Miniatures, Combat-Heavy, Character Building, Resource Management, Crunchy, Strong GM Support, Heroic, High-Fantasy	Heroic, High-Fantasy, Character Building, Classless, Tactical, Worldbuilding, Vancian Casting, Crunchy
Core Mechanic	Roll d20 plus the relevant modifiers against a difficulty class or target defense. A total equal to or higher than the target succeeds.	Roll d20 + ability bonus + proficiency bonus against a Difficulty Score. Abilities use direct modifiers (−1 to +5) instead of base scores, removing a calculation step from every roll. Character progression replaces classes and levels with a 20-step path: at each step you choose between two or more diverging features, and prerequisites gate later options.
Dice	d20	d20
Complexity	High	Medium
Availability	Free quickstart	Free quickstart
Runnability	5 of 5 book tools	4 of 5 book tools
License	Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Game System License (February 27, 2009)	Proprietary (free Essential Rules quickstart)
Third-Party Publishing	No verified route found	Not yet researched
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Publisher	Wizards of the Coast	Gnome Made Games
Year	2008	2022
Languages	English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese	English
Best For	Groups who want coordinated battles on a grid and long campaigns with substantial character customization.	Groups familiar with d20 fantasy who want deeper character customization, inclusive design covering any parentage pairing and accessibility for disabled characters, and long campaigns where each hero's 20-step path diverges from the rest of the party.
Highlights	Defender marks penalize attacks against allies, giving protection a concrete tactical role. At-will, encounter, and daily powers separate repeatable actions from limited reserves. Monster roles and XP budgets help the DM assemble encounters with complementary threats.	Parentage system inherits traits from any two birth parents across 15 peoples (dwarven, elven, human, halfling, avian, celestial, draconic, genie, gnoll, gnomish, goblin, kobold, infernal, orc, plus Complex Parentage) for hundreds of pairing combinations. Accessibility rules treat Blind and Deaf characters as mechanically viable heroes and integrate prosthetics and wheelchairs as part of the character. The 20-step branching progression replaces classes and levels: each step is a choice between two or more features that gate further specializations. Awakening heirlooms (weapons, armor, trinkets) gain new properties as characters take steps, growing in power and personality alongside their owner.
Considerations	Combat assumes a grid and tokens or miniatures, making precise spatial tracking part of every fight. Players must monitor triggered actions that can occur outside their own turns. Rituals take minutes or hours to perform.	477-page rulebook with substantial mechanical innovation in character creation requires significant reading before a first session. No adventures are included in the core rules: GMs must design their own scenarios or source from d20-compatible content. The steps system departs from familiar level/class structure, so players coming from d20 fantasy must learn a new progression model. No native rolled initiative: the storyteller chooses one of four ability-based turn-order methods at the start of each combat.