Land of Eem vs Pathfinder
Compare Land of Eem and Pathfinder side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Land of Eem | Pathfinder | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Play Style | Narrative, Exploration, Rules-Light, Beginner-Friendly, Hexcrawl, Theater of the Mind, Fiction-First | Tactical, Crunchy, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Dungeon Crawl, Lore-Heavy |
| Core Mechanic | Roll 1d12 + skill modifier. Results on a 5-tier scale: Complete Failure (1–2), Failure with a Plus (3–5), Success with a Twist (6–8), Success (9–11), Complete Success (12+). Advantage/disadvantage rolls 2d12 take best/worst. | 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 | d12 | d20 |
| Complexity | Low | High |
| Accessibility | Very High | Very High |
| Runnability | Medium | Very High |
| License | Proprietary | ORC |
| Cost | $$ | Free (ORC) |
| Publisher | Exalted Funeral Press | Paizo |
| Year | 2023 | 2023 |
| Best For | Groups who want lighthearted, story-driven fantasy adventure with whimsical tone, hex crawl exploration, and meaningful roleplay: where talking to monsters is often better than fighting them. | 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 | Whimsical tone encourages creativity, graduated success/failure keeps things interesting, detailed hex crawl and exploration rules, combat designed to be avoidable through parley, character story mechanics with relationships and personal quests | 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 | Whimsical tone won't suit every group, combat is intentionally simple and abstract, tightly tied to its own setting | 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. |