Dungeons & Dragons vs Skies Above

Compare Dungeons & Dragons and Skies Above side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Dungeons & Dragons	Skies Above
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	JRPG, Cinematic, Combat-Heavy, Tactical, High-Fantasy, Heroic, Character Building, Mana Points, Theater of the Mind, Lore-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.	Roll d8 + two Attributes + modifiers against a Target Number (typically 10, increasing in steps of 4 for harder tasks). Natural 8s explode, rolling and adding again; every additional 8 raises the Critical Level, scaling damage and effects. A natural 1 is an Epic Fail that halves the character's Defences until their next turn. Critical hits dealt and taken generate Overdrive — once eight stacks accumulate, characters spend them to take an additional action that round, modeling the limit-break payoff of classic JRPGs.
Dice	d20	d8
Complexity	Medium	Medium
Accessibility	High	Medium
Community	Very High	Low
License	CC BY 4.0 (SRD); core books proprietary	All Rights Reserved
Cost	$$$	$$
Publisher	Wizards of the Coast	Lost Haven Studio
Year	2024	2026
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.	Groups who want a JRPG-inspired tabletop adventure — picking from twelve jobs like Dragoon, Dark Mage, or Engineer, channeling elemental magic blessed by eight goddesses, and journeying by airship across floating sky-islands in the aftermath of a magical cataclysm.
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.	Exploding d8 with stacking Critical Levels — multiple natural 8s in a row cascade into larger crits and bigger effects, so heroic moments scale rather than cap. Overdrive accumulates from critical hits dealt and received, and spending eight stacks grants an additional action that round, giving combat a JRPG limit-break rhythm. Twelve job roles span melee, magic, ranged, and support archetypes, and characters add a second job at level 12 to cross-pollinate abilities and weapon ranks. Eight elemental goddesses anchor both magic and the bestiary — every Skyfolk lineage is blessed with resistance to one element, and creatures carry specific elemental weaknesses that double incoming damage.
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.	Combat is the most heavily detailed pillar of the rules, with conditions, elemental damage, front/back row positioning, and an optional battlefield grid — investigation, intrigue, and downtime get coverage but less mechanical depth. Light and Dark Mages cannot learn from the opposing path, locking each spellcaster out of half the elemental spell list and pushing magical variety into multi-job characters. The exploding-d8 swing is wide — consecutive 8s can demolish encounters while a natural 1 halves a character's Defences and opens them to brutal counters. Setting and mechanics are tightly woven: Skyfolk lineages, the eight Goddesses, and post-Breaking lore are baked into character options rather than presented as swappable flavor.