GunCraze vs Vampire: The Masquerade
Compare GunCraze and Vampire: The Masquerade side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| GunCraze | Vampire: The Masquerade | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Post-Apocalyptic, Modern | Horror, Modern |
| Tags | Tactical, Crunchy, Classless, Skill-Based, Deadly, Gritty, Miniatures | Social Intrigue, Faction Play, Urban Fantasy, Corruption, Drama, Character-Driven, Resource Management, Superpowers, Social Combat, Lore-Heavy |
| Core Mechanic | Statistic Test: roll 1d10, add the relevant Attribute or Skill rank plus modifiers, and meet or beat a target number; contested actions are Opposed Rolls where the higher total wins and ties favor the defender. A natural 9 or 10 on a combat test banks a Craze! Point, and up to three Craze! Points can be spent after a roll to add +1d6 each. Attacks roll a d10 for hit location and deal damage in d6s against per-location hit points. | Roll attribute plus skill in d10s, counting 6+ as successes against a difficulty. Paired 10s add extra successes. Hunger replaces ordinary dice in most pools: a winning critical containing a Hunger 10 becomes messy, while a failed test containing a Hunger 1 becomes a bestial failure. |
| Dice | d10, d6 | d10 dice pool |
| Complexity | High | High |
| Accessibility | Medium | High |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | Proprietary (GunCraze OGL v1.1) | Community Content Agreement for the Storytellers Vault |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Commercial publishing allowed — Community content program |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $$ | $$ |
| Publisher | Action Tactics Roleplay Gaming LLC | Renegade Game Studios |
| Year | 2025 | 2018 |
| Languages | English | English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese |
| Best For | Groups who want crunchy, grid-based tactical gunfights with genuine lethality in a post-apocalyptic setting and don't mind learning a dense rulebook before the first session. | Groups who want campaigns about vampire coteries balancing political ambition, predatory hunger, and relationships with the humans they still care about. |
| Highlights | A natural 9 or 10 on a combat roll banks a Craze! Point, and up to three can be spent afterward for +1d6 each or to dive for cover mid-attack, but never to boost damage, keeping firefights swingy without softening lethality. Damage tracks per body location, so a destroyed limb is disabled and spills further hits into the torso past armor, turning partial wounds into mounting handicaps rather than one shared health bar. Characters are built from specializations, tiered talent trees, ranked skills, and jobs rather than classes, letting any blend of gunplay, melee, and noncombat skill live in one survivor. | Using supernatural powers can increase Hunger, making the next hunt harder to postpone. Convictions and human Touchstones make moral compromise carry consequences beyond winning the immediate conflict. Coteries share hunting territories and social assets, giving political ambitions a foothold in the city. |
| Considerations | Social conflict resolves through single skill tests, with no structured subsystem for extended negotiation, interrogation, or social maneuvering. The rules cover realistic firearms, melee, and cybernetics only, with no rules for magic, psychic powers, or other fantastical abilities. Installing cybernetics requires both Surgery and Engineering (Robotics) skill ranks plus high target-number tests, gating the augmentation catalog behind dedicated character investment. | Messy criticals and bestial failures can put predation or compulsions into scenes where players hoped to stay in control. Character creation requires choices across clans, powers, feeding habits, advantages, and human ties. Establishing the chronicle’s relationships and boundaries for mature themes takes group preparation even when using a published city. |