Forbidden Lands vs Salvage Union

Compare Forbidden Lands and Salvage Union side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.

	Forbidden Lands	Salvage Union
Genre	Fantasy	Sci-Fi, Post-Apocalyptic
Tags	Sandbox, Hexcrawl, Gritty, Survival, Deadly, Exploration, Base-Building, Random Tables	Mecha, Resource Management, Base-Building, Character Building, Exploration, Sandbox, Tactical, Survival, Narrative, Strong GM Support
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.	For a pilot's risky action, roll an unmodified d20: 20 succeeds with a bonus, 11–19 succeeds, 6–10 presents a Tough Choice, 2–5 fails with a setback, and 1 brings a severe consequence. The Mediator frames costs and consequences from the situation.
Dice	d6 dice pool	d20
Complexity	Medium	High
Availability	Free quickstart	Free quickstart
Runnability	4 of 5 book tools	5 of 5 book tools
License	Year Zero Engine OGL	Salvage Union Open Game Licence 1.0b
Third-Party Publishing	Not yet researched	Commercial publishing allowed — Open license
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Publisher	Free League Publishing	Leyline Press
Year	2018	2023
Languages	English, Swedish, German, French, Spanish, Italian	English, Italian
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.	Groups who enjoy building custom mechs, scavenging parts, and managing a shared stockpile of scrap to maintain and improve their equipment and mobile settlement.
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	Recovered scrap funds mech construction and crawler upkeep, linking equipment choices to the community's survival. Swappable mech components let players build for jobs such as hauling or hacking. Players choose setbacks when NPC actions fail, giving the table authority over consequences beyond its own characters.
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	Players track separate pilot and mech resources, including Ability Points and Heat. Unpaid crawler upkeep normally prompts a deterioration roll, making regular salvage income an ongoing pressure. Encounters follow the world's circumstances rather than guaranteed balance, making reconnaissance and retreat consequential choices.