Into the Odd Remastered vs Shadowrun
Compare Into the Odd Remastered and Shadowrun side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Into the Odd Remastered | Shadowrun | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Cyberpunk, Fantasy |
| Play Style | Rules-Light, Dungeon Crawl, Weird, Low-Prep, Attacks Always Hit, Open Source | Crunchy, Tactical, Heist, Character Building, Faction Play, Lore-Heavy, Skill-Based, Mission-Based, Urban Fantasy |
| Core Mechanic | Three ability scores (STR, DEX, WIL) rolled on 3d6. No to-hit rolls: attacks always deal damage directly. Saves are d20 roll-under the relevant ability. Damage reduces HP first, then STR; at 0 STR you die. Arcana are unique magical objects that grant strange powers. | Roll a pool of d6s equal to attribute + skill, counting 5s and 6s as hits. Meet or exceed a threshold to succeed. Situational advantages generate Edge points rather than modifying dice pools directly; Edge is spent on tactical effects like rerolling dice, adding successes, or imposing penalties on opponents. |
| Dice | d20, d4–d12 | d6 dice pool |
| Complexity | Very Low | Very High |
| Accessibility | Medium | High |
| Runnability | Medium | Very High |
| License | CC BY-SA 4.0 | No open license |
| Cost | $ | $$$ |
| Publisher | Bastionland Press / Free League Workshop | Catalyst Game Labs |
| Year | 2022 | 2019 |
| Best For | Groups who want an ultra-streamlined OSR game where character creation takes minutes, combat is fast and deadly, and strange Arcana replace traditional spell lists. | Groups who want cyberpunk-fantasy heists with deep mechanical subsystems for hacking, magic, and combat. |
| Highlights | Character creation in under five minutes, no wasted turns thanks to auto-hit combat, Arcana system offers wide creative options, fits in about 50 pages, spawned an entire design movement (Cairn, Liminal Horror, etc.) | The setting fuses megacorporate intrigue with magic and metahuman races, so a single team mixes street samurai, mages, and deckers. Distinct subsystems model Matrix hacking, spellcasting, drone rigging, and astral space, each carrying its own rules depth. The Edge economy converts situational advantages into a spendable resource for rerolls, extra hits, or penalties on opponents. |
| Considerations | Very swingy random ability scores at creation, tightly coupled to its Bastion/Underground setting, no structured advancement beyond finding Arcana, auto-hit combat removes tactical decisions around accuracy | Matrix hacking runs on its own timescale and can leave non-decker players idle during a run. Character creation spreads across attributes, skills, magic or resonance, gear, and lifestyle, making the first build long. Dice pools grow large at high skill, so counting hits on a fistful of d6s slows resolution. |