Impulse Drive vs The Expanse Roleplaying Game

Compare Impulse Drive and The Expanse Roleplaying Game side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Impulse Drive	The Expanse Roleplaying Game
Genre	Scifi	Scifi
Tags	Space Opera, Ship-Based, Playbook-Driven, Fiction-First, Character-Driven, Mission-Based, Strong GM Support, Improvisation, Hackable, CC-Licensed Rules	Licensed IP, Space Opera, Ship-Based, Crunchy, Social Combat, Investigation, Faction Play, Social Intrigue, Strong GM Support, Tactical
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.	Roll three six-sided dice, two matched and one differently colored Drama Die, and add an ability score plus a focus bonus of +2 if applicable. The total must equal or beat a target number set by the GM or an opponent's result. Rolling doubles generates stunt points spent on combat, exploration, or social effects. The Drama Die's value sets the degree of success.
Dice	2d6	3d6
Complexity	Medium	High
Accessibility	Very High	High
Runnability	Low	Very High
License	Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International	All Rights Reserved
Third-Party Publishing	Commercial publishing allowed — Open license	No verified route found
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Cost	Free	$$
Publisher	Adrian Thoen	Green Ronin Publishing
Year	2019	2019
Languages	English	English
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 a character-focused science fiction campaign of crew jobs, faction pressure, and danger across the Solar System. It suits tables that want structured action, investigation, and social encounters alongside ship travel.
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.	Backgrounds, professions, talents, and focuses build characters with mechanical ties to their lives before the campaign begins. Action, exploration, and social encounters each use dedicated stunts, giving different kinds of scenes procedures beyond a single skill roll. The Churn turns accumulated complications into escalating story events, giving the Game Master a structured way to introduce setbacks.
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.	Combat stunts are drawn from six separate category tables covering roughly sixty options, requiring both players and the GM to check charts mid-fight to keep pace. Ground and air vehicles receive no example statistics, leaving their combat rules almost entirely improvised. The forty-page setting guide summarizes the solar system's factions and history at a survey level, so groups wanting deeper political detail need outside reading of the novels.