Fallout: The Roleplaying Game vs Lancer
Compare Fallout: The Roleplaying Game and Lancer side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Fallout: The Roleplaying Game | Lancer | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Post-Apocalyptic | Sci-Fi |
| Tags | Tactical, Exploration, Survival, Character Building, Cinematic, Crunchy, Resource Management, Mission-Based, Lore-Heavy, Licensed IP | Mecha, Tactical, Grid-Based, Combat-Heavy, Crunchy, Character Building, Mission-Based, Strong GM Support, Lore-Heavy, Heroic |
| Core Mechanic | Roll 2d20 against the sum of an attribute and a skill. Each die at or below that total scores a success. A roll of 1 scores two successes, and tagged skills extend this critical range to the skill rank. Meet the difficulty with your total successes. Extra successes become shared Action Points that can buy more dice or information. A roll of 20 creates a complication even when the test succeeds. | Skill checks, attacks, and saves roll a d20 plus at most one stat bonus, such as a pilot trigger, a mech skill, or GRIT. Skill checks normally succeed on 10 or more, while attacks must meet the target's defense and saves must meet the attacker's save target. Accuracy and Difficulty cancel one for one. Each remaining point rolls a d6, and only the highest die is added or subtracted. |
| Dice | d20 dice pool | d20 + d6 |
| Complexity | High | High |
| Availability | Free quickstart | Free quickstart |
| Runnability | 5 of 5 book tools | 5 of 5 book tools |
| License | All Rights Reserved | Lancer Third Party License |
| Third-Party Publishing | No verified route found | Commercial publishing allowed — Publisher third-party license |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | Modiphius Entertainment | Massif Press |
| Year | 2021 | 2019 |
| Languages | English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish | English, Italian, Portuguese |
| Best For | Groups who want Fallout campaigns built around wasteland quests, scavenging, and customizable survivors. Groups who enjoy tactical firefights and turning recovered junk into equipment upgrades. | Groups who want deep tactical mech combat and build customization, with lighter narrative play and downtime between missions. |
| Highlights | Shared Action Points let the group turn strong rolls into support for later tests. Perks and equipment modifications let survivors develop distinct specialties without classes. Scavenging tables connect dangerous locations to supplies and crafting materials. | Licenses unlock gear from five manufacturers, and unlocked weapons and systems can be mixed onto any licensed frame within its mounts and system points. Combat during narrative play resolves through ordinary skill checks, so a fight without mechs can end in a few rolls without a battle map. Player mechs degrade in stages: each lost point of structure or stress triggers an increasingly dangerous structure or overheating check. |
| Considerations | Attacks can trigger several damage effects alongside armor checks for the struck body part. Ammunition and carried weight require ongoing bookkeeping. The core setting concentrates on the Commonwealth from Fallout 4. | Build choices are dense, since licenses, talents, and core bonuses interact across 29 frames. Narrative play outside combat is a lean layer of skill checks and downtime actions next to the mech combat rules. Mech combat is slow enough that the book expects one or two fights per session, usually just one. |