Let's Go to Magic School vs Rifts
Compare Let's Go to Magic School and Rifts side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Let's Go to Magic School | Rifts | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Post-Apocalyptic, Scifi, Fantasy, Horror, Superhero |
| Tags | Collaborative, Worldbuilding, Playbook-Driven, Fiction-First, Character-Driven, Freeform Magic, Drama, Magic School | Character Building, Combat-Heavy, Crunchy, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Gonzo, High-Power, Mana Points, Mecha, Superpowers, Tactical |
| Core Mechanic | Roll 2d6 + stat. On a 10+, full hit. On a 7-9, partial hit with complications or limited choices. On a 6-, miss: the GM makes a Reaction. Five stats: Virtue, Ambition, Learning, Heart, and Worldliness. Inspiration is gained on missed rolls; five Inspiration unlocks an advancement from the playbook. | 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 | 2d6 | d20, d100 |
| Complexity | Low | Very High |
| Accessibility | Very High | Medium |
| Runnability | Low | 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 | Free | $$ |
| Publisher | Holothuroid | Palladium Books Inc. |
| Year | 2025 | 2005 |
| Languages | English | English |
| Best For | Groups who want to collaboratively build a magic school setting and play out the social drama of student life (friendships, rivalries, classes, and mastering spells) in a flexible, setting-agnostic fantasy framework. | 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 | Collaborative worldbuilding during setup defines the school, its magic system, principles, limits, and laws. 17 magic subjects organized into five tiers (Basic, Elective, Advanced, Forbidden, Lost) shape the school's curriculum. Spells are defined collaboratively during play rather than from a fixed list. Scrutiny system tracks institutional consequences for rule-breaking students. | 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 | Requires investment in collaborative worldbuilding during setup; sample settings are provided but no full pre-built setting. | 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. |