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
Play Style	Tactical, Heroic, Combat-Heavy, Dungeon Crawl, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Grid-Based, Beginner-Friendly, Classic Fantasy, Lore-Heavy, Ascending AC	Rules-Light, Narrative, Fiction-First, Player-Only Rolls, Solo-Friendly, GM-Less, Beginner-Friendly, Low-Prep, Improvisation, High-Fantasy, Open Source, Hackable, Roleplay-Heavy
Core Mechanic	Roll d20 + modifier against a target DC (for ability checks and saving throws) or AC (for attacks). Meeting or exceeding the target succeeds. Advantage rolls 2d20 and takes the higher; disadvantage takes the lower, replacing most situational modifiers.	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	High	High
Community	Very High	Low
License	CC BY 4.0 (SRD); core books proprietary	CC BY-SA 4.0
Cost	$$$	$$
Publisher	Wizards of the Coast	Cezar Capacle
Year	2024	2025
Best For	Groups who want heroic fantasy adventures with tactical grid combat, deep character customization, and access to more published adventures and supplements than any other RPG.	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/disadvantage system simplifies most situational modifiers to a single mechanic. Extensive class and subclass options across 12 base classes with 48 subclasses in the 2024 PHB. The largest third-party content ecosystem in tabletop RPGs. Free basic rules and starter sets lower the barrier to entry.	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	High-level play (tier 3-4) introduces significant spell interaction complexity and encounter balancing challenges for GMs. No official rules for non-fantasy genres. Three core books at $50 each represent a significant investment for the full 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.