Grimwild vs Rifts

Compare Grimwild and Rifts side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Grimwild	Rifts
Genre	Fantasy	Post-Apocalyptic, Scifi, Fantasy, Horror, Superhero
Tags	Narrative, Fiction-First, Cinematic, Character-Driven, Heroic, Low-Prep, Random Tables, Player-Only Rolls, CC-Licensed Rules	Character Building, Combat-Heavy, Crunchy, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Gonzo, High-Power, Mana Points, Mecha, Superpowers, Tactical
Core Mechanic	Roll a pool of d6 stat dice and take the highest: 6 is a perfect, 4–5 is messy (you succeed with trouble), 1–3 is grim. Two or more 6s is a critical. For harder tasks the GM adds d8 thorns, which can cut a high die down a tier. Players spend spark to boost rolls; the GM spends suspense to complicate them. The GM never rolls.	Combat and saving throws use a d20 plus bonuses, with high results overcoming a target number or opposing roll. Skills use d100 and succeed when the result is at or below the character's percentage.
Dice	d6 dice pool, d8	d20, d100
Complexity	Low	Very High
Accessibility	Very High	Medium
Runnability	High	Very High
License	CC BY 4.0	All Rights Reserved
Third-Party Publishing	Not yet researched	Noncommercial only — Palladium Books Internet Policy limited license
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Cost	Free	$$
Publisher	Oddity Press	Palladium Books Inc.
Year	2025	2005
Best For	Groups who want fast, cinematic heroic fantasy that leans on dramatic story beats and character arcs rather than tactical grid combat.	Groups who want long-form science-fantasy campaigns that move from a ruined Earth to other dimensions. The game suits tables whose GM will decide which parts of the broad setting a campaign uses.
Highlights	Action rolls take the highest of a d6 stat pool for a perfect, messy, or grim result, so every roll lands on a three-tier outcome rather than pass/fail. The GM raises difficulty by adding d8 thorns that can cut an otherwise good result, scaling danger without changing the dice you roll. Pools of d6 track resources, threats, and clocks by dropping dice as they deplete, unifying hit points, supplies, and looming dangers into one countdown.	Occupational and racial class packages assign distinct abilities and advancement tracks, giving each archetype a different role in the party. Mega-Damage places many supernatural creatures and war machines on a separate durability scale beyond the reach of ordinary Structural Damage Capacity attacks. Rifts and ley lines make dimensional travel a standing feature of the setting, letting campaigns move between devastated Earth and other worlds.
Considerations	The GM never rolls dice, so all pacing and threat escalation rest on GM judgment and spent suspense. Outcomes are deliberately cinematic rather than simulationist, abstracting away tactical positioning and precise resource accounting. Advancement is tied to resolving story and character arcs, so groups that skip arc play get little mechanical progression.	Character creation combines rolled attributes with extensive skill selection, making first-time preparation lengthy. Combat asks each player to track an action economy, active defenses, and which damage scale applies. Magic and psionics use separate point pools and power procedures, adding class-specific rules to the shared system.