Impulse Drive vs Super Space Knights
Compare Impulse Drive and Super Space Knights side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Impulse Drive | Super Space Knights | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Sci-Fi | Sci-Fi |
| Tags | Space Opera, Ship-Based, Playbook-Driven, Fiction-First, Character-Driven, Mission-Based, Strong GM Support, Improvisation, Hackable, CC-Licensed Rules | CC-Licensed Rules, Combat-Heavy, Corruption, Fiction-First, Grimdark, Mission-Based, Playbook-Driven, Resource Management, Strong GM Support, Tag-Based |
| Core Mechanic | When a Move tells you to roll, roll 2d6 and add the modifier it names, usually one of five Approaches (Volatile, Calculating, Slick, Stalwart, Alien) rated from -3 to +3. A 10+ is a full success, a 7–9 is usually a success with a cost or fewer choices, and a 6 or lower marks XP while the Space Master makes a Call. Advantage means rolling 3d6 and keeping the two highest dice, and Disadvantage keeps the two lowest. The two cancel each other out and never stack. | When a move's fictional trigger occurs, a player rolls 2d6 plus War, Faith, or Logistics. A 10 or higher succeeds, a 7 to 9 succeeds with a complication or price, and a 6 or lower fails with trouble to follow. |
| Dice | 2d6 | 2d6 |
| Complexity | Medium | Medium |
| Availability | Free core rules | Paid |
| Runnability | 3 of 5 book tools | 3 of 5 book tools |
| License | Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International |
| Third-Party Publishing | Commercial publishing allowed — Open license | Commercial publishing allowed — CC BY 4.0 |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | Adrian Thoen | Gabriel Ciprés |
| Year | 2019 | 2023 |
| Languages | English | English, Spanish |
| Best For | Groups who want an episodic, TV-style space opera about a broke crew taking contracts aboard a ship they build together, where each character's flaws drive both trouble and advancement. | Groups who want military science-fiction campaigns at company scale, with shared worldbuilding and a corruption spiral that can turn victories into the Order's downfall. |
| Highlights | Applying a Hook when it complicates a scene gives Disadvantage, so playing to a character's flaws drives advancement. Money is never tracked literally: completing a Contract triggers the ship's Payment Move, and a standard result lets the crew pick only two spends such as maintenance or an upgrade. Harm can always be converted into Stress, and a full Stress track forces a permanent Calamity that changes the character for good. | Players define the Order and its galactic context together, making the military empire and its enemies specific to their campaign. Damnation can produce powerful Darkness Taints or corrupt the Order itself, turning ruthless victories into a path toward collapse. Linked rules for companies, individual knights, and spaceships let missions shift scale while retaining the same fictional framework. |
| Considerations | There is no setting chapter, so the galaxy and its factions are invented by the group during character creation, ship creation and the first session. Money is abstracted and the crew is deliberately kept broke, so groups who enjoy tracking prices and trade margins get tiered gear lists and cargo categories instead. There is no separate ship-combat resolution engine: crews apply the personal Universal Moves through the ship at ship-scale ranges, dealing Damage instead of Harm. | Players usually control companies of dozens or hundreds of warriors, so individual characters receive less attention than the military unit. The premise centers an authoritarian human empire locked in perpetual war, and play repeatedly pressures companies toward violence and compromise. Conflicts between opponents at different scales resolve quickly in favor of the larger force, removing an underdog roll from those confrontations. |