Dungeons & Dragons vs Everspark
Compare Dungeons & Dragons and Everspark side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Dungeons & Dragons | Everspark | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Tags | Tactical, Heroic, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Classic Fantasy, Combat-Heavy, Exploration, Resource Management, Strong GM Support, CC-Licensed Rules | Rules-Light, Solo-Friendly, GM-Less, High-Fantasy, Improvisation, Player-Only Rolls, CC-Licensed Rules |
| Core Mechanic | Roll a d20 and add applicable modifiers to meet or beat a target number. Checks and saving throws use a Difficulty Class; attacks use Armor Class. Advantage or disadvantage means rolling two d20s and keeping 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 | High | Very Low |
| Availability | Free core rules | Paid |
| Runnability | 5 of 5 book tools | 4 of 5 book tools |
| License | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (SRD 5.2.1); proprietary core books | 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. | ||
| Publisher | Wizards of the Coast | Cezar Capacle |
| Year | 2024 | 2025 |
| Languages | English, French, Italian, German, Spanish | English |
| Best For | Groups who want heroic fantasy campaigns with tactical combat and extensive character customization. | 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 | Weapon Mastery adds effects such as pushing or slowing enemies to qualifying weapon attacks. Class and feat choices let characters develop different roles over twenty levels. Optional Bastions give characters home bases with facilities that produce benefits between adventures. | 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 | Spells and class abilities have separate resource limits and timing rules. Higher-level magic can change travel and encounter assumptions that the DM must prepare for. Social encounters rely on ability checks and DM judgments about NPC attitudes. | 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. |