Heartbeats in Perfect Sync vs Tenra Bansho Zero
Compare Heartbeats in Perfect Sync and Tenra Bansho Zero side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Heartbeats in Perfect Sync | Tenra Bansho Zero | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Modern, Fantasy | Fantasy, Sci-Fi |
| Tags | Anime, Character-Driven, Cinematic, Collaborative, Drama, Fast-Paced, Rules-Light, Superpowers, Tag-Based, Urban Fantasy | Drama, Character-Driven, Roleplay-Heavy, Corruption, One-Shot Friendly, Anime, Mecha, Cinematic, High-Power, Strong GM Support |
| Core Mechanic | When an outcome is uncertain, the GM sets a target number of hits. The player rolls a d6 pool equal to their current Heart Rate, and each 5 or 6 counts as a hit. Meeting or beating the target succeeds and lets the player shift their own Heart Rate by one. Beating the target by two or more also lets the player shift other characters' Heart Rates by one per extra hit. Before rolling, a player can invoke an aspect to add two dice, once per session per aspect. | Roll a number of d6 equal to an attribute. Each die showing the skill level or lower counts as a success. The GM announces how many successes are needed, usually between 1 and 6, before the roll. In an opposed roll, the defender's successes set the number the attacker must beat. Kiai points can add dice or raise a general skill before a roll, or buy extra successes after it. |
| Dice | d6 dice pool | d6 dice pool |
| Complexity | Low | High |
| Availability | Paid | Paid |
| Runnability | 3 of 5 book tools | 4 of 5 book tools |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Third-Party Publishing | No verified route found | No verified route found |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | Nathan Blades | Kotodama Heavy Industries |
| Year | 2024 | 2013 |
| Languages | English | English, Japanese, Spanish |
| Best For | Groups who want episodic urban-fantasy action centered on emotional escalation, relationship drama, and coordinated anime-style set pieces. | Groups who want a complete anime-style drama of samurai, sorcerers and mecha pilots in one long session, with the whole table rewarding memorable performances. |
| Highlights | Heart Rate is both the dice pool and an emotional track, so every roll can change how many dice a character brings to the next one. Perfect Sync lets characters on the same Heart Rate combine their pools into one roll, at the cost of their spotlight turns for that round. Heartbreak turns a character into a dark version with a reusable fighting-style aspect that lasts until their Heart Rate climbs back above the maximum. | Aiki chits awarded by the table for memorable in-character play convert into the Kiai that buys dice and successes. Spent Kiai builds up as Karma, which players pay down by rewriting or sublimating their character's Fates. The Zero Act gives each character an opening scene and a GM-assigned Destiny, setting up a story meant to finish in one 4 to 6 hour session. |
| Considerations | The default City is deliberately sparse, so groups build most setting detail themselves or begin from the included scenario. The GM sets target hits and decides when a roll is called, so difficulty comes from table judgment rather than a fixed ladder. Perfect Sync requires matching Heart Rates, though optional special moves can align or bypass that requirement. | A character whose Karma is still above 108 at the end of an intermission normally becomes a GM-controlled Asura and leaves play. The book has no dedicated army-scale battle rules, though individual combat and Strategy rolls can still matter within a war. Scenes usually include only two or three PCs, so players spend much of the session as the audience or voicing NPCs. |