Dungeons & Dragons vs Everspark
Compare Dungeons & Dragons and Everspark side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Dungeons & Dragons | Everspark | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Tags | Tactical, Heroic, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Classic Fantasy, Vancian Casting, Ascending AC | Rules-Light, Solo-Friendly, GM-Less, High-Fantasy, Improvisation, Player-Only Rolls, CC-Licensed Rules |
| Core Mechanic | Make a D20 Test by rolling d20, adding relevant modifiers, and comparing the total to a target number. Ability checks, saving throws, and attack rolls use this procedure. Advantage and disadvantage use two d20s and keep the higher or lower result. | Skill Checks roll a single d20 with no modifiers and read the result in five tiers: 20 is Very Good (success plus an Opportunity), around 15 is Good, around 10 is OK (success with a Complication), around 5 is Bad, and 1 is Very Bad (failure plus serious Complication). Leverage and Drawback shift the interpretation rather than the roll. Sparks track progress on anything in the fiction (combat, projects, threats, conditions) by drawing rays of a 5-point star on a sticky note; after each advance, roll a d6, and if it lands at or under the rays drawn, the Spark resolves. A 6 on the final check of a closed 5-ray Spark Overturns it, flipping the expected outcome. |
| Dice | d20 | d20, d6 |
| Complexity | Medium | Very Low |
| Accessibility | Very High | Medium |
| Runnability | Very High | Medium |
| License | CC BY 4.0 (SRD); core books proprietary | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
| Third-Party Publishing | Commercial publishing allowed — Open license | Not yet researched |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | Free | $$ |
| Publisher | Wizards of the Coast | Cezar Capacle |
| Year | 2024 | 2025 |
| Languages | English, French, Italian, German, Spanish | English |
| Best For | Groups who want heroic fantasy with configurable tactical combat, broad character options, and campaigns that span multiple levels. | Solo players or groups who want zero-prep fantasy adventures with maximum narrative flexibility: especially anyone drawn to GM-less or solo play, brand-new players, or experienced groups looking for a relaxed alternative to crunchy fantasy systems. |
| Highlights | Advantage and disadvantage resolve common situational effects by selecting the higher or lower of two d20 rolls. Backgrounds, classes, subclasses, and feats distribute character choices across creation and advancement. Weapon Mastery gives qualifying weapon users distinct tactical effects without replacing the action economy. | Sparks abstract every progress system (combat damage, long-term projects, looming threats, resources, lasting conditions) into one shared mechanic, so the rules stay tiny while still tracking long-arc events. Skill checks are player-facing only: monsters, traps, and NPCs act fictionally and the player rolls a d20 to react, removing GM-side rolls entirely. Four built-in modes (solo, GM-less coop, parallel where each player runs their own protagonist, and hosted) let the same game work whether one person sits down alone or six gather at a table. Character sheets carry no numbers: Ancestry, Background, and Class drawn from 20 entries each yield 8,000 baseline combinations and can be rolled randomly in seconds or written out over fifteen minutes through question prompts. |
| Considerations | Spell preparation, spell slots, class features, and conditions create several interacting resources for players to track. High-level characters combine many spells and features, increasing adjudication work for the DM. Bastions add a separate downtime procedure for campaigns that use the stronghold rules. | No combat mechanics, hit points, or numerical traits: players who want tactical positioning, action economy, or character build optimization won't find any of it. Sparks are freeform: when to create one, when to advance, and what counts as resolution are constant judgment calls rather than rules questions. No published setting: every world, faction, and pantheon must be created on the spot or imported from another game's material. Without DCs or modifiers, two characters with very different fictional competence still roll the same; mechanical differentiation is replaced entirely by Leverage/Drawback rulings and narrative description. |