Kids on Brooms vs Rifts
Compare Kids on Brooms and Rifts side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Kids on Brooms | Rifts | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Post-Apocalyptic, Scifi, Fantasy, Horror, Superhero |
| Tags | Magic School, Freeform Magic, Roll to Cast, Collaborative, Worldbuilding, Rules-Light, Low-Prep, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Beginner-Friendly, Family-Friendly | Character Building, Combat-Heavy, Crunchy, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Gonzo, High-Power, Mana Points, Mecha, Superpowers, Tactical |
| 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. | 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 | d4–d20 | d20, d100 |
| Complexity | Low | Very High |
| Accessibility | Medium | Medium |
| Runnability | Low | Very High |
| License | All Rights Reserved | All Rights Reserved |
| Third-Party Publishing | No verified route found | Noncommercial only — Palladium Books Internet Policy limited license |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $ | $$ |
| Publisher | Hunters Entertainment / Renegade Game Studios | Palladium Books Inc. |
| Year | 2020 | 2005 |
| Languages | English, Italian | English |
| 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 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 | 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. | 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 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. | 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. |