GURPS vs Open Legend

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

	GURPS	Open Legend
Genre	Universal	Universal
Play Style	Crunchy, Simulation, Sandbox, Character Building, Tactical, Realistic, Grid-Based	Toolkit, Classless, Hackable, Heroic, Modular, Character Building, Tactical, Crunchy
Core Mechanic	Roll 3d6 under target number. Advantage/disadvantage system via character traits.	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	3d6	d20 + d4–d12
Complexity	Very High	Medium
Accessibility	High	Very High
Runnability	Very High	Medium
License	SJ Games Online Policy	Open Legend Community License (SRD)
Cost	Free (Lite) / $$$	Free / $$
Publisher	Steve Jackson Games	Seventh Sphere Publishing
Year	2004	2018
Best For	Groups who want a single system for every genre with granular simulation and deep customization.	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	Highly customizable point-buy system, simulation-focused, one system for any genre	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	Character creation requires significant point-budget planning, combat rules are granular with many modifiers to track, full system spans two 576-page core books plus supplements, GM prep is substantial for campaigns using multiple sourcebooks	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.