Kids on Brooms vs Pathfinder
Compare Kids on Brooms and Pathfinder side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Kids on Brooms | Pathfinder | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Tags | Magic School, Freeform Magic, Roll to Cast, Collaborative, Worldbuilding, Rules-Light, Low-Prep, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Beginner-Friendly, Family-Friendly | Tactical, Crunchy, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Dungeon Crawl, Lore-Heavy |
| Core Mechanic | Each of six stats has a die from d4 to d20; roll the relevant die against a GM-set difficulty. A maximum die result that still misses triggers a Lucky Break reroll, adding the new result. Failed checks grant Adversity Tokens that players can later spend to raise rolls. | Roll d20 + modifier against a DC. Four degrees of success: critical success (beat DC by 10+), success, failure, and critical failure (miss by 10+). Each turn grants three actions to spend freely on strikes, movement, spellcasting, or other activities. Multi-attack penalty (-5/-10) discourages repeated strikes and encourages tactical variety. |
| Dice | d4–d20 | d20 |
| Complexity | Low | High |
| Accessibility | Medium | Very High |
| Runnability | Low | Very High |
| License | All Rights Reserved | ORC |
| Third-Party Publishing | No verified route found | Commercial publishing allowed — Open and compatibility licenses |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $ | Free |
| Publisher | Hunters Entertainment / Renegade Game Studios | Paizo |
| Year | 2020 | 2023 |
| Languages | English, Italian | English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese |
| Best For | Groups that want to build a magical school together and tell adventures from its rumors and relationships. It suits tables that prefer a light check system and open-ended magic over tactical combat. | Groups who want deep character customization, tactical grid combat with meaningful turn-by-turn decisions, and a richly detailed fantasy setting with free rules. |
| Highlights | Players build their school together and seed its history with rumors that the GM can turn into adventures. Open-ended spells use the intended effect and scope to set a difficulty, letting students attempt magic without a fixed spell list. Relationship questions establish bonds among characters before play and give the GM personal story hooks. | The three-action economy gives every turn the same three actions to spend on strikes, movement, or spells, so each turn is a fresh tactical decision. Characters customize through ancestry, class, skill, and general feats gained at nearly every level, letting builds diverge sharply within a single class. Four degrees of success, set by beating or missing the DC by 10, turn each roll into a range of outcomes rather than a binary result. |
| Considerations | The GM judges target numbers for ordinary checks using example anchors rather than a fixed formula. Spell difficulty depends on four effect categories, asking the GM to price each new magical attempt. Combat resolves through opposed checks and an injury chart without tactical positioning rules. | New players must learn the trait system, conditions, and four degrees of success before combat runs smoothly. Multi-attack penalty and numerous combat actions can slow turns for indecisive players. Character creation draws feats from ancestry, class, skill, and general pools at every level, making each build a slow step. |