Kids on Bikes vs Mutants & Masterminds
Compare Kids on Bikes and Mutants & Masterminds side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Kids on Bikes | Mutants & Masterminds | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror, Modern | Modern, Superhero |
| Play Style | Beginner-Friendly, Cinematic, Collaborative, Worldbuilding, Mystery, Atmospheric, One-Shot Friendly, Theater of the Mind, Narrative, Roleplay-Heavy, Drama, GM-Friendly | Superhero, Heroic, Crunchy, Character Building, Combat-Heavy, Tactical, Cinematic |
| Core Mechanic | Six stats (Brains, Brawn, Fight, Flight, Charm, Grit) each get a single die from d4 (terrible) to d20 (superb), with the assignment determined by a chosen Trope (Brilliant Mathlete, Loner Weirdo, Popular Kid, etc.). Roll the relevant stat die against a GM-set difficulty; rolling the die's maximum 'explodes' and the die is rerolled, adding the values together. Failed rolls grant Adversity Tokens, each spendable for +1 on a future roll. Combat is fully narrative — there are no hit points; the margin between attacker and defender rolls determines injury severity and who narrates the outcome. Age (child, teen, or adult) grants +1 to two relevant stats and unlocks a free Strength. Each campaign also features a Powered Character co-controlled by all players through shared Aspect notecards and a pool of Psychic Energy tokens. | Roll d20 + modifier against a Difficulty Class. Heroes are built from a Power Points budget capped by a series Power Level (usually 10), which limits paired trait totals — attack bonus + effect rank, dodge + toughness — to twice the level. Damage is resisted with Toughness checks that escalate conditions (bruised, staggered, incapacitated) instead of tracking hit points. Hero Points let players reroll, edit scenes, or recover from conditions; complications coming into play earn them back. |
| Dice | d4–d20 | d20 |
| Complexity | Low | High |
| Accessibility | Medium | High |
| Runnability | Medium | High |
| License | Proprietary | OGL |
| Cost | $$ | $$ |
| Publisher | Hunters Entertainment / Renegade Game Studios | Green Ronin Publishing |
| Year | 2018 | 2013 |
| Best For | Groups who want collaborative small-town supernatural mystery in the vein of Stranger Things or Stand By Me, where character relationships and tropes matter more than mechanical complexity. Especially well suited to one-shots, short campaigns, and tables that include players new to TTRPGs. | Groups who want unlimited freedom to design any superhero concept — from masked vigilante to cosmic powerhouse — with a flexible point-buy build system and tactical combat that emphasizes power-level balance. |
| Highlights | Pre-built Tropes turn character creation into a five-minute step, Setting Boundaries safety tools are integrated as the very first step before play, collaborative world-building constructs the town and seeds rumors before the first session, the Powered Character mechanic distributes shared narrative control of the supernatural element across the table via Aspect notecards | Modular power-construction system builds any superpower from effects, modifiers, and flaws; Power Level caps enforce balance even when individual traits vary widely; Hero Points reward roleplaying complications with mechanical benefits; conditions track damage progression instead of using a hit point pool |
| Considerations | Combat is fully narrative with no hit points or initiative, which can frustrate groups who want tactical structure, difficulty setting is entirely GM judgment with example anchors but no formulas, the shared-control Powered Character can confuse players new to collaborative narration, long-campaign play requires the GM to invent advancement and pacing because the rules are tuned for one-shots and short arcs | Character creation requires significant rules mastery to navigate the point-buy power construction; resolving an attack involves multiple checks per action — attack roll, Toughness resistance, condition tracking; Power Level caps can frustrate players who want to push paired-trait limits like attack and effect rank |