Heartbeats in Perfect Sync vs Pathfinder
Compare Heartbeats in Perfect Sync and Pathfinder side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Heartbeats in Perfect Sync | Pathfinder | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Modern, Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Tags | Anime, Character-Driven, Cinematic, Collaborative, Drama, Fast-Paced, Rules-Light, Superpowers, Tag-Based, Urban Fantasy | Tactical, Crunchy, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Dungeon Crawl, Lore-Heavy |
| Core Mechanic | When an outcome is uncertain, the GM sets a target number of hits. Roll a d6 pool equal to your current Heart Rate; each 5 or 6 is a hit, and meeting or exceeding the target succeeds. Results can shift Heart Rate, changing the size of later pools. | Roll d20 + modifier against a DC. Four degrees of success: critical success (beat DC by 10+), success, failure, and critical failure (miss by 10+). Each turn grants three actions to spend freely on strikes, movement, spellcasting, or other activities. Multi-attack penalty (-5/-10) discourages repeated strikes and encourages tactical variety. |
| Dice | d6 dice pool | d20 |
| Complexity | Low | High |
| Accessibility | Medium | Very High |
| Runnability | Low | Very High |
| License | Proprietary | ORC |
| Third-Party Publishing | No verified route found | Commercial publishing allowed — Open and compatibility licenses |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $ | Free |
| Publisher | Nathan Blades | Paizo |
| Year | 2024 | 2023 |
| Best For | Groups who want episodic urban-fantasy action centered on emotional escalation, relationship drama, and coordinated anime-style set pieces. | Groups who want deep character customization, tactical grid combat with meaningful turn-by-turn decisions, and a richly detailed fantasy setting with free rules. |
| Highlights | Heart Rate serves as both the dice pool and an emotional track, so roll outcomes alter the odds of later actions. Perfect Sync lets characters with matching Heart Rates combine their pools for a shared roll at the cost of later spotlight turns. While Heartbroken, the altered-state aspect does not expire, and later thresholds lead to recovery or loss of player control. | The three-action economy gives every turn the same three actions to spend on strikes, movement, or spells, so each turn is a fresh tactical decision. Characters customize through ancestry, class, skill, and general feats gained at nearly every level, letting builds diverge sharply within a single class. Four degrees of success, set by beating or missing the DC by 10, turn each roll into a range of outcomes rather than a binary result. |
| Considerations | The default City is deliberately sparse, so groups build most setting detail themselves or begin from the included scenario. The GM decides uncertainty, target hits, and failed-roll consequences case by case. Under the base rules, Perfect Sync requires matching Heart Rates, though an optional Heartstring move can bypass that limit. | New players must learn the trait system, conditions, and four degrees of success before combat runs smoothly. Multi-attack penalty and numerous combat actions can slow turns for indecisive players. Character creation draws feats from ancestry, class, skill, and general pools at every level, making each build a slow step. |