Forbidden Lands vs Mutant: Year Zero
Compare Forbidden Lands and Mutant: Year Zero side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Forbidden Lands | Mutant: Year Zero | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Post-Apocalyptic |
| Tags | Sandbox, Hexcrawl, Gritty, Survival, Deadly, Exploration, Base-Building, Random Tables | Sandbox, Survival, Exploration, Character-Driven, Worldbuilding, Narrative |
| Core Mechanic | Roll a pool of d6s (attribute + skill + gear dice). Each 6 is a success. You can push your roll for extra dice, but risk damaging gear and taking conditions. Gear dice degrade on 1s. Year Zero Engine. | Roll a pool of d6s (attribute + skill + gear). Each 6 is a success; one success is enough. You can push your roll to reroll failures, but 1s on attribute dice cause trauma and 1s on gear dice cause damage to equipment. Mutations cost Mutation Points and can misfire with unpredictable side effects. |
| Dice | d6 dice pool | d6 dice pool |
| Complexity | Medium | Medium |
| Availability | Free quickstart | Free quickstart |
| Runnability | 4 of 5 book tools | 5 of 5 book tools |
| License | Year Zero Engine OGL | Proprietary |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Not yet researched |
| Publisher | Free League Publishing | Free League Publishing |
| Year | 2018 | 2014 |
| Languages | English, Swedish, German, French, Spanish, Italian | English |
| Best For | Sandbox hexcrawl campaigns with stronghold building, resource management, and a dark fantasy tone. Great for groups who want to explore and carve out their own corner of the world. | Post-apocalyptic campaigns where mutant survivors explore a deadly Zone, build up their home settlement, and search for the mythical Eden: with the Year Zero Engine that spawned a family of games. |
| Highlights | Detailed sandbox tools and hexcrawl structure, stronghold building adds long-term goals, push mechanic creates meaningful risk, low-prep with random encounter tables and legend handouts | Push mechanic creates tough choices, Ark development gives players a shared home to build, Zone exploration is tense and rewarding, eight distinctive roles with built-in relationships and dreams, launched the Year Zero Engine family |
| Considerations | Tightly tied to its Ravenland setting, push mechanic can frustrate cautious players, stronghold rules require the full boxed set, hex encounters can feel repetitive without GM preparation | Mutation randomness can frustrate planners, metaplot requires significant GM commitment, Ark development bookkeeping adds between-session overhead, Zone travel can feel repetitive without varied encounters |