Freeform Universal vs The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Compare Freeform Universal and The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.

	Freeform Universal	The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Genre	Universal	Historical, Fantasy
Tags	Rules-Light, Narrative, Improvisation, One-Shot Friendly, Beginner-Friendly, Toolkit, Player-Only Rolls, CC-Licensed Rules	GM-Less, Diceless, Comedy, Narrative, Improvisation, Rules-Light, Gonzo, Beginner-Friendly, One-Shot Friendly, Short Sessions
Core Mechanic	Roll a d6 and read it as a yes/no answer to a stated question: 6 = yes and (a bonus), 4 = yes, 2 = yes but (a cost), 5 = no but, 3 = no, 1 = no and (it worsens). Each Descriptor, item of Gear, or factor that helps adds a bonus die and you keep the best; each that hinders adds a penalty die and you keep the worst; helping and hindering dice cancel one-for-one. FU Points buy extra dice or re-rolls, and only players roll.	There are no dice. Each player starts with a purse of coins equal to the number of players, or five each with fewer than five players. In turn, a player tells a first-person tale of about five minutes on a subject another player names just before it starts. A listener with a coin may interrupt by staking one coin on an objection. The teller either keeps the coin and works the objection into the story, or pushes it back with a coin of their own. A refused objection normally goes back and forth, one coin and one insult at a time, until one side backs down and takes the pile. A teller who backs down must then use the objection. After everyone has told a story, each player gives their whole remaining purse to the story they liked best, never their own, and the largest pile wins.
Dice	d6	Diceless
Complexity	Very Low	Very Low
Availability	Free core rules	Paid
Runnability	3 of 5 book tools	2 of 5 book tools
License	CC BY 4.0	All Rights Reserved
Third-Party Publishing	Not yet researched	No verified route found
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Publisher	Peril Planet	Fantasy Flight Games
Year	2020	2016
Languages	English	English, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish
Best For	Groups who want to improvise a story in any genre with almost no prep, and pick-up or one-shot games where character creation needs to take minutes.	Groups who want a short, GM-less party game of competitive boasting that needs only a handful of coins and quick wits, including tables new to roleplaying.
Highlights	Every roll answers a yes/no question on a six-step ladder, so one d6 produces graded outcomes from "yes, and" to "no, and" without separate hit, damage, or opposed rolls. Characters are built from four plain-language Descriptors plus Gear the table reads literally, so any setting plays with no stat conversion. Situational advantage adds bonus or penalty dice that cancel one-for-one and keep the single best or worst result, collapsing all modifiers into one step.	Objections are wagers, so a sharp teller invites interruptions that can be woven in and pockets each accepted stake. Appendix One gives 186 ready-made story subjects that a player can hand to the next teller. Two coin-free versions for online play let the game run asynchronously over email or a forum, or live in text chat.
Considerations	Outcomes hinge on table agreement about whether a Descriptor applies, so play depends on shared interpretation rather than fixed numbers. There is no default combat, health, or damage subsystem, so injuries are tracked as freeform Conditions and lethality is left to the group. Advancement is minimal, so long campaigns give characters little mechanical growth.	A storyteller normally improvises a tale of around five minutes on a subject named moments before, which can put hesitant players on the spot. There are no advancement or campaign rules, so play suits one-off evenings rather than long campaigns. The core game assumes drinks are flowing, and a player who declines to tell a story must buy the company a round.