ICONS vs Vampire: The Masquerade
Compare ICONS and Vampire: The Masquerade side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| ICONS | Vampire: The Masquerade | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Superhero, Modern | Horror, Modern |
| Play Style | Superhero, Heroic, Cinematic, Rules-Light, Random Character Creation, Tag-Based, Theater of the Mind, Beginner-Friendly | Social Intrigue, Drama, Roleplay-Heavy, Atmospheric, Faction Play, Investigation, Collaborative, Character-Driven, Urban Fantasy, Corruption, Lore-Heavy, Noir |
| Core Mechanic | Effort vs. Difficulty. Each side adds a single d6 to a 1–10 ability level (acting Ability + d6 for effort, opposing Ability + d6 for difficulty); subtract difficulty from effort to find the outcome and its degree (marginal, moderate, major, or massive success or failure). Qualities are short narrative descriptors — titles, drives, catchphrases, weaknesses — that any player or the GM can activate to gain an advantage or create trouble. Activating trouble against your own hero earns Determination Points, which fuel stunts, retcons, ability boosts, and other player-side narrative interventions. | Roll a pool of d10s (attribute + skill), count successes (6+). Hunger dice replace regular dice in the pool — their 10s trigger Messy Criticals and their 1s trigger Bestial Failures, making the Beast an ever-present threat. |
| Dice | 2d6 | d10 dice pool |
| Complexity | Low | Medium |
| Accessibility | Medium | Medium |
| Runnability | Medium | Medium |
| License | OGL 1.0a | Proprietary |
| Cost | $$ | $$ |
| Publisher | Green Ronin Publishing | Renegade Game Studios |
| Year | 2014 | 2018 |
| Best For | Groups who want fast superhero campaigns where heroes can be rolled up in minutes, freeform qualities drive both advantages and complications, and the rules stay out of the way of comic-book pacing. | Drama-heavy campaigns exploring themes of addiction, power, and losing your humanity. |
| Highlights | Hero creation runs through a handful of dice rolls — origin (Trained, Transformed, Birthright, Gimmick, Artificial, Unearthly), six attributes, number and type of powers, and specialties — and produces a complete superhero in minutes, with the random results functioning as creative prompts for backstory rather than constraints on concept. Qualities act like Fate aspects: any side can invoke them for in-fiction advantage, and accepting compelled trouble against your own qualities is the primary way to refill Determination Points, so personal drama directly feeds the metacurrency. Pyramid tests resolve complex challenges by stacking smaller successes — two moderate successes equal a major, two majors equal a massive — letting investigations, chases, or skill montages play out across multiple rolls and abilities with optional modifiers like Timed, Escalating, Collapsing, and Competitive to shape the challenge. | Hunger system mechanically integrates the vampire's predatory nature into every dice roll. Detailed social and political frameworks with clan-based faction play. Humanity and Stains system tracks moral erosion with narrative consequences. |
| Considerations | Default hero creation is fully random — origin, attributes, and powers all come off 2d6 tables — so groups wanting a planned concept need to use the alternate 45-point buy or rely on attribute swaps and re-rolls. Combat resolves against a single Stamina pool (Strength + Willpower) with no grid rules or status conditions beyond a handful of effect powers, so brawls play fast but lack tactical positional depth. Powers are intentionally broad rather than deep — about sixty powers cover the genre — and exotic builds rely on stacking extras and limits rather than the granular menu of effects found in crunchier supers games. | Hunger dice introduce high randomness at critical moments, dense lore spanning 30+ years can overwhelm new players, predator type and clan choice during character creation require setting knowledge to make informed decisions |