Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying vs Rifts

Compare Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying and Rifts side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying	Rifts
Genre	Modern, Scifi, Superhero	Post-Apocalyptic, Scifi, Fantasy, Horror, Superhero
Tags	Superpowers, Licensed IP, High-Power, Tactical, Character Building, Character-Driven, Solo-Friendly, Theater of the Mind	Character Building, Combat-Heavy, Crunchy, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Gonzo, High-Power, Mana Points, Mecha, Superpowers, Tactical
Core Mechanic	Roll a pool of d6s equal to an attribute and count each 6 as a success. Extra successes buy stunts. After a failed roll or when seeking more successes, push once by rerolling dice that show neither 6 nor 1; each 1 remaining after the push causes stress.	Combat and saving throws use a d20 plus bonuses, with high results overcoming a target number or opposing roll. Skills use d100 and succeed when the result is at or below the character's percentage.
Dice	d6 dice pool	d20, d100
Complexity	High	Very High
Accessibility	High	Medium
Runnability	Very High	Very High
License	All Rights Reserved	All Rights Reserved
Third-Party Publishing	Not yet researched	Noncommercial only — Palladium Books Internet Policy limited license
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Cost	$$	$$
Publisher	Free League Publishing	Palladium Books Inc.
Year	2026	2005
Best For	Groups who want custom superheroes to alternate between destructive team fights and relationship-driven scenes about responsibility, stress, and ordinary life. It suits campaigns ranging from young street heroes to cosmic champions, with a separate solo crisis mode.	Groups who want long-form science-fantasy campaigns that move from a ruined Earth to other dimensions. The game suits tables whose GM will decide which parts of the broad setting a campaign uses.
Highlights	Extra successes buy comic-book stunts such as knockback and collateral destruction, while players can propose GM-approved improvised stunts. Action scenes threaten Health and generate stress against Resolve, while relationship-centered social scenes restore Resolve and tie personal life to the campaign loop. Crisis Mode supplies response engines and escalating timers for solo superhero play without a Gamemaster.	Occupational and racial class packages assign distinct abilities and advancement tracks, giving each archetype a different role in the party. Mega-Damage places many supernatural creatures and war machines on a separate durability scale beyond the reach of ordinary Structural Damage Capacity attacks. Rifts and ley lines make dimensional travel a standing feature of the setting, letting campaigns move between devastated Earth and other worlds.
Considerations	The large power catalog, reaction-heavy zone combat, and critical-injury procedures create a steeper learning curve than the simple dice pool suggests. Brutal injuries, permanent death, and collateral damage are deliberate parts of play, so groups should align on graphic superhero violence. The setting chapter, campaign material, and character profiles draw heavily on Invincible, so groups seeking a generic superhero toolkit may choose to replace them.	Character creation combines rolled attributes with extensive skill selection, making first-time preparation lengthy. Combat asks each player to track an action economy, active defenses, and which damage scale applies. Magic and psionics use separate point pools and power procedures, adding class-specific rules to the shared system.