LIFTS vs The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Compare LIFTS and The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.

	LIFTS	The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Genre	Universal	Historical, Fantasy
Tags	Experimental, Diceless, Comedy, Gonzo, Rules-Light, One-Shot Friendly, Narrative, GM-Less, Collaborative, Mission-Based	GM-Less, Diceless, Comedy, Narrative, Improvisation, Rules-Light, Gonzo, Beginner-Friendly, One-Shot Friendly, Short Sessions
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.	There are no dice. Each player starts with a purse of coins equal to the number of players, or five each with fewer than five players. In turn, a player tells a first-person tale of about five minutes on a subject another player names just before it starts. A listener with a coin may interrupt by staking one coin on an objection. The teller either keeps the coin and works the objection into the story, or pushes it back with a coin of their own. A refused objection normally goes back and forth, one coin and one insult at a time, until one side backs down and takes the pile. A teller who backs down must then use the objection. After everyone has told a story, each player gives their whole remaining purse to the story they liked best, never their own, and the largest pile wins.
Dice	Diceless	Diceless
Complexity	Low	Very Low
Availability	Paid	Paid
Runnability	3 of 5 book tools	2 of 5 book tools
License	All Rights Reserved	All Rights Reserved
Third-Party Publishing	No verified route found	No verified route found
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Publisher	Korvidae Games	Fantasy Flight Games
Year	2019	2016
Languages	English	English, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish
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 a short, GM-less party game of competitive boasting that needs only a handful of coins and quick wits, including tables new to roleplaying.
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.	Objections are wagers, so a sharp teller invites interruptions that can be woven in and pockets each accepted stake. Appendix One gives 186 ready-made story subjects that a player can hand to the next teller. Two coin-free versions for online play let the game run asynchronously over email or a forum, or live in text chat.
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.	A storyteller normally improvises a tale of around five minutes on a subject named moments before, which can put hesitant players on the spot. There are no advancement or campaign rules, so play suits one-off evenings rather than long campaigns. The core game assumes drinks are flowing, and a player who declines to tell a story must buy the company a round.