LIFTS vs Odd Hours

Compare LIFTS and Odd Hours side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.

	LIFTS	Odd Hours
Genre	Universal	Horror, Modern
Tags	Experimental, Diceless, Comedy, Gonzo, Rules-Light, One-Shot Friendly, Narrative, GM-Less, Collaborative, Mission-Based	Fear & Stress Mechanics, Comedy, Gonzo, Weird, Rules-Light, Random Tables, One-Shot Friendly
Core Mechanic	Resolution is diceless and varies by the included game. In Roboflex, a disagreement with the Muscle Master becomes an exercise challenge. Minor conflicts set an easy, moderate, or hard target (5, 10, or 20 sit-ups in a social conflict), multiplied by the player's self-chosen fitness level of one to three. Major conflicts pit the player directly against the Muscle Master, such as a sprint to the end of the block and back. A relevant skill or profession grants a small edge, such as crunches instead of sit-ups or a head start. The winner is right about the disputed outcome. Several Volume 2 games instead attach an exercise to each move, with a 0 Flex failure and a list of selectable Flex effects. The Moon game grades success against both the Muscle Master and the player's previous rep count. Vegetables: The Recommended has each move spend a day from the player's logged meal planner, and that day's Flex rating sets the result.	Roll 2d6 plus one of three attributes (Wit, Grit, Strangeness) plus a relevant skill and try to meet or beat a Target Number. Combat is an opposed roll. Beat the defender by 5 or more for a critical hit and double damage. Two resources then shadow every shift: Sanity drops when the supernatural presses on your mind, and Absurdity climbs as you lean into it. You spend Absurdity to reroll a failure, shrug off a point of Sanity loss, or take the higher of two rolls.
Dice	Diceless	2d6
Complexity	Low	Low
Availability	Paid	Free core rules
Runnability	3 of 5 book tools	4 of 5 book tools
License	All Rights Reserved	Proprietary
Third-Party Publishing	No verified route found	Not yet researched
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Publisher	Korvidae Games	Route 9 Games
Year	2019	2026
Languages	English	English
Best For	Groups who want to turn game night into a workout, playing short comedic parodies of familiar RPG genres where push-ups, planks, and runs decide outcomes instead of dice.	Groups who want low-barrier horror with a comedic streak for one-shots or short campaigns at a single weird location. It suits players who improvise from atmospheric prompts and lean into absurd moments instead of optimizing their characters.
Highlights	Roboflex lets each player pick a fitness level from one to three that multiplies minor-conflict targets, so mixed-fitness groups face individually scaled exercise counts. Several games tie in-game power to real habits between sessions, such as vampire Vitae earned from gym visits and healthy meals. Eliminated Muscle of the Week players can still change a survivor's conflict outcome by holding a wall sit, though they cannot defeat the monster this way.	Sanity and Absurdity move in opposite directions, so the dark humor that raises Absurdity becomes a resource you spend to reroll failures or cancel Sanity loss. The Overnight Manager plays the gas station itself as the lead character, voicing its moods and the cryptic calls from its unseen Owners as a presence the table improvises around. Reaching 5 Absurdity unlocks Strange Abilities bought with advancement, once-per-session quirks the station leaves on you rather than powers you earn.
Considerations	Most games require real exertion and open space: ShadowRunning missions are group runs of 30 to 90 minutes, and The Forest Gymn & Picnic recommends a two to four mile hike. For players who cannot perform an exercise, the exercise-based games say only to find an alternative and give no structured adaptation list. Some games draw on players' real lives: the Moon game invites each player to share a personal problem for group advice, and Vegetables expects a week of logged meals, with a preset Flex fallback for players who cannot log.	The Overnight Manager sets every Target Number outside a few fixed tables and decides each Absurdity award, so difficulty and pacing rest on table judgment. Combat is deliberately thin: flat weapon damage, one primary and one minor action per turn, and only basic move-and-cover positioning rather than a tactical grid. Rituals, Strange Abilities, and backgrounds come as a handful of examples the book openly tells you to expand on yourself.