Escape from Dino Island vs Rifts
Compare Escape from Dino Island and Rifts side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Escape from Dino Island | Rifts | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Modern, Scifi | Post-Apocalyptic, Scifi, Fantasy, Horror, Superhero |
| Tags | One-Shot Friendly, Survival, Mystery, Playbook-Driven, Rules-Light, Fiction-First, Low-Prep, Strong GM Support, Cinematic, Exploration | Character Building, Combat-Heavy, Crunchy, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Gonzo, High-Power, Mana Points, Mecha, Superpowers, Tactical |
| Core Mechanic | Most moves call for a roll of 2d6 plus the stat or modifier the move names, usually FIT, CLEVER, or STEADY. A 10+ is a full success, a 7–9 succeeds with a drawback or hard choice, and a 6 or less is a miss that hands the Dino Master a move. When several Heroes act together, one rolls for the group: the one worst placed during Peril Moves, or the one best placed during Safety Moves. | Combat and saving throws use a d20 plus bonuses, with high results overcoming a target number or opposing roll. Skills use d100 and succeed when the result is at or below the character's percentage. |
| Dice | 2d6 | d20, d100 |
| Complexity | Low | Very High |
| Accessibility | Medium | Medium |
| Runnability | Medium | Very High |
| License | Proprietary | All Rights Reserved |
| Third-Party Publishing | No verified route found | Noncommercial only — Palladium Books Internet Policy limited license |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $ | $$ |
| Publisher | Sam Tung & Sam Roberts | Palladium Books Inc. |
| Year | 2019 | 2005 |
| Languages | English, French, German | English |
| Best For | Groups who want a one- or two-session survival thriller in the vein of Jurassic Park, where escaping and solving the island's mystery matter more than fighting. | Groups who want long-form science-fantasy campaigns that move from a ruined Earth to other dimensions. The game suits tables whose GM will decide which parts of the broad setting a campaign uses. |
| Highlights | Overcoming the first of two Obstacles triggers an Extinction Event that adds new Dino Master moves and gives every Hero their one advance. Peril and Safety Moves let a single Hero roll for the whole group, so the worst-placed Hero rolls in danger and the best-placed Hero rolls in quiet moments. Several moves require telling a story from the playbook's list, and each story told adds +1 to the closing roll that decides that Hero's epilogue. | Occupational and racial class packages assign distinct abilities and advancement tracks, giving each archetype a different role in the party. Mega-Damage places many supernatural creatures and war machines on a separate durability scale beyond the reach of ordinary Structural Damage Capacity attacks. Rifts and ley lines make dimensional travel a standing feature of the setting, letting campaigns move between devastated Earth and other worlds. |
| Considerations | Fight! rolls with no stat bonus and a miss triggers the Casualty move, so combat is rarely a workable answer to a dinosaur. The fixed arc ends with the escape attempt, and each Hero gains only one advance along the way. Injuries carry no fixed penalties, so how much a wound hampers a Hero rests on the Dino Master's judgment. | Character creation combines rolled attributes with extensive skill selection, making first-time preparation lengthy. Combat asks each player to track an action economy, active defenses, and which damage scale applies. Magic and psionics use separate point pools and power procedures, adding class-specific rules to the shared system. |