Fallout: The Roleplaying Game vs The Quiet Year
Compare Fallout: The Roleplaying Game and The Quiet Year side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Fallout: The Roleplaying Game | The Quiet Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Post-Apocalyptic | Post-Apocalyptic |
| Play Style | Tactical, Exploration, Combat-Heavy, Survival, Character Building, Cinematic | GM-Less, Worldbuilding, Collaborative, Narrative, Rules-Light, One-Shot Friendly, Fiction-First, Map-Drawing |
| Core Mechanic | Roll 2–5d20 against a target number (Attribute + Skill). Each die at or under the target scores a success. Compare successes to difficulty (1–5). Extra successes become Action Points to buy bonus dice, extra damage, or information. | No dice, no GM. A deck of playing cards drives play — each suit is a season, each card a weekly prompt. On your turn, draw a card, answer the prompt, and choose to Discover Something New, Start a Project, or Hold a Discussion. Draw on the shared map to represent changes. Projects take multiple weeks to complete. The Contempt Token signals when a player feels unheard. The game ends when the Frost Shepherds arrive (King of Spades). |
| Dice | 2d20 + d6 | Diceless |
| Complexity | Medium | Very Low |
| Accessibility | Medium | High |
| Community | Medium | Low |
| License | All Rights Reserved | Proprietary |
| Cost | $$$ | $ |
| Publisher | Modiphius Entertainment | Buried Without Ceremony (Avery Alder) |
| Year | 2021 | 2013 |
| Best For | Fallout fans who want to explore the Wasteland at the tabletop with SPECIAL attributes, perks, Action Points, and the iconic post-apocalyptic setting. | Groups who want to collaboratively build a community's story through map-drawing — 52 weeks of discoveries, projects, and tensions before everything changes. |
| Highlights | Faithful Fallout experience with S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats and perks, Action Point economy creates tactical depth, Combat Dice handle damage cleanly, well-supported licensed setting | Card-driven structure — one card per week across four seasons — paces the narrative through 52 turns, map-drawing produces a physical artifact of the session, Contempt Token mechanic signals when a player feels unheard, works as a standalone game or worldbuilding tool for other campaigns |
| Considerations | Expensive to buy in — core book plus supplements add up, 2d20 system has a learning curve, tightly tied to the Fallout IP limits homebrew settings, can be crunchy for casual groups | Contempt mechanic can create genuine inter-player tension, no way to revisit or undo earlier map decisions, map quality depends on group comfort with drawing, limited replayability with the same group |