Genesys vs Open Legend

Compare Genesys and Open Legend side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Genesys	Open Legend
Genre	Universal	Universal
Play Style	Toolkit, Narrative, Career-Based, Social Combat, Modular, Hackable, Character Building	Toolkit, Classless, Hackable, Heroic, Modular, Character Building, Tactical, Crunchy
Core Mechanic	Assemble a pool of custom narrative dice: positive dice (Boost, Ability, Proficiency) from character ability and skill, negative dice (Setback, Difficulty, Challenge) from task difficulty and circumstances. Roll all dice and cancel opposing symbols: Success vs. Failure determines if the task succeeds, Advantage vs. Threat determines beneficial or harmful side effects, and Triumph/Despair trigger powerful narrative outcomes. All three axes resolve independently, so a check can succeed with complications or fail with a silver lining.	Roll a d20 plus one or more attribute dice (d4 through d12 based on attribute score, scaling to multiple dice at higher scores) against a Challenge Rating. All dice explode on their maximum face and can keep exploding without limit. Characters have eighteen attributes split across Physical, Mental, Social, and Extraordinary categories; extraordinary attributes channel banes (negative effects) and boons (positive effects) instead of tracking a spell list. Advantage or disadvantage adds extra dice and drops the lowest or highest before summing.
Dice	Custom dice	d20 + d4–d12
Complexity	Medium	Medium
Accessibility	Medium	Very High
Runnability	Very High	Medium
License	Genesys Foundry (community content program)	Open Legend Community License (SRD)
Cost	$$	Free / $$
Publisher	Fantasy Flight Games	Seventh Sphere Publishing
Year	2017	2018
Best For	Groups who want a genre-flexible system where every dice roll generates narrative texture beyond pass/fail, and who enjoy interpreting results collaboratively at the table.	Groups who want a single classless engine to handle fantasy, science fiction, modern, or horror campaigns through eighteen attributes spanning physical, mental, social, and extraordinary domains, with magic and special effects folded into the same dice mechanic as combat.
Highlights	Every roll produces multiple axes of outcome, creating layered narrative results beyond binary success/failure. Full social encounter rules give non-combat interactions the same mechanical depth as combat. The GM Toolkit provides structured guidance for creating custom settings, species, talents, and gear. Six example settings (fantasy, steampunk, weird war, modern, sci-fi, space opera) included in the core book.	All dice explode on maximum rolls with no cap, producing occasional dramatic result spikes through the same mechanic that handles ordinary rolls. Magic is folded into the attribute system through banes and boons, so extraordinary attributes like Energy or Entropy roll for fixed effects rather than tracking a spell list. Hits that exceed a defense by ten or more automatically apply a free bane on top of damage, so big roll-overs translate into status effects like knockdown or stunned rather than wasted overflow.
Considerations	Requires proprietary narrative dice or the Genesys Dice App: standard polyhedral dice cannot be used without conversion charts. Interpreting multiple symbol types on every roll can slow play for groups unfamiliar with the system. No free quickstart or SRD available.	First-level character creation spends 40 attribute points across 18 attributes plus 6 feat points across a tiered feat list, producing heavy upfront decision load before play begins. Weapons have no damage dice (damage equals your action roll minus the target's defense), so weapon variety within a category is largely cosmetic, and the book itself notes that a longsword mechanically dominates a shortsword. Hit points come from Fortitude, Presence, and Will (HP = 2·(F+P+W) + 10) rather than from level, so a character who dumps all three stays near 10 HP regardless of how much XP they earn.