Honor + Intrigue vs Rapscallion
Compare Honor + Intrigue and Rapscallion side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Honor + Intrigue | Rapscallion | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Historical | Fantasy |
| Tags | Career-Based, Cinematic, Social Combat, Social Intrigue, Heroic, Fast-Paced, Martial Arts, Ship-Based, Pirates, Theater of the Mind | Narrative, Pirates |
| Core Mechanic | Roll 2d6 + Quality (Might, Daring, Savvy, or Flair) + Career rank vs. 9 to succeed. In combat, Combat Abilities (Brawl, Melee, Ranged, Defense) replace Careers. Bonus Dice roll 3d6 and keep the best two; Penalty Dice keep the worst two. Fortune Points let heroes escape death, add bonus dice, invoke dramatic license, or press the Advantage in duels. Advantage tracks momentum in melee: characters start at 3 and lose Advantage when hit, becoming Defeated at 0. Nine Dueling Styles (Spanish, Italian, French, and more) each grant unique maneuvers and a Final Secret at mastery. Social Combat uses the same framework, targeting Composure instead of Lifeblood. | Roll 2d6 + trait (Blood, Vinegar, Polish, or Spitfire). On 10+ you succeed cleanly, 7–9 with a cost, 6– and things go wrong. Players choose from 6 character playbooks and 2 ship playbooks. Luck can be spent to Twist Fate (reroll), and the Ante system tracks escalating combat advantage. The Fates (GM) use worldbuilding moves to create a living fantasy pirate setting with magic rooted in Death, Demons, the Sea, and Books. |
| Dice | 2d6 | 2d6 |
| Complexity | Medium | Low |
| Availability | Paid | Free quickstart |
| Runnability | 5 of 5 book tools | Book tools not listed |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Not yet researched |
| Publisher | Basic Action Games | Magpie Games |
| Year | 2012 | 2024 |
| Languages | English | English |
| Best For | Groups who want cinematic swashbuckling in the style of The Three Musketeers and Captain Blood: dashing swordplay, court intrigue, and sea battles with a fast, career-based system. | Groups who want a narrative pirate RPG with dramatic character relationships: where your ship has its own playbook, magic comes from dark pacts, and the dice swing between daring success and messy complication. |
| Highlights | Nine Dueling Styles with distinct maneuvers and masterable Final Secrets provide deep fencing differentiation. Social Combat and Repartee use the same mechanical framework as physical combat, targeting Composure. Over 30 period-specific Careers from Musketeer to Temptress replace skill lists. Includes ship-to-ship combat, battlefield rules, and a 17th-century gazetteer covering Europe, the Americas, and beyond. | Ship-as-character with its own playbook adds group dynamics, Ante system makes combat escalation feel cinematic, worldbuilding tools (World With Laws vs World Without Laws), Magpie Games pedigree, free quickstart to try before buying |
| Considerations | No free quickstart or SRD available. Advantage tracking adds a subsystem on top of basic BoL resolution. The gazetteer and setting material assume 17th-century Europe as the default, limiting out-of-the-box use for other periods. | Only a quickstart: full game not yet released, limited to 6 playbooks, pirate fantasy genre is narrow, requires buy-in from the whole table for PbtA-style play, light on crunch |