Monster of the Week vs Old Gods of Appalachia Roleplaying Game
Compare Monster of the Week and Old Gods of Appalachia Roleplaying Game side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Monster of the Week | Old Gods of Appalachia Roleplaying Game | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror, Modern | Horror, Historical |
| Play Style | Narrative, Beginner-Friendly, Investigation, Playbook-Driven, Fiction-First, Character-Driven, Theater of the Mind | Horror, Player-Only Rolls, Theater of the Mind, Character Building, Character-Driven, Narrative, Low-Prep, Licensed IP |
| Core Mechanic | Roll 2d6 + stat. 10+ full success, 7–9 success with a cost, 6 or less the Keeper makes a move. Playbook moves trigger from fictional actions. Luck points turn failures into successes but never come back. | The GM rates a task from difficulty 0 to 10 and multiplies it by 3 for the target number; difficulty 0 succeeds automatically. When a roll is required, players roll a d20 for tasks, attacks, and defenses and succeed by meeting or beating the target. Skills, assets, and Effort spent from Might, Speed, or Intellect Pools ease the difficulty; Edge reduces those Pool costs. |
| Dice | 2d6 | d20 |
| Complexity | Low | Medium |
| Accessibility | Medium | Medium |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | Generic Games Third Party License | All Rights Reserved |
| Cost | $$ | $$ |
| Publisher | Evil Hat Productions | Monte Cook Games |
| Year | 2023 | 2023 |
| Best For | Groups who want episodic monster-hunting adventures inspired by Buffy, Supernatural, and The X-Files: investigating mysteries, confronting creatures, and dealing with hunter drama. | Groups seeking community-rooted horror in early 20th-century Appalachia, with player-controlled risk spending and theater-of-the-mind action. It suits GMs who prefer flexible adjudication and explicit horror-safety conversations. |
| Highlights | Very easy to learn, mystery countdown gives the Keeper a clear prep framework, playbooks map directly to genre archetypes | Character arcs award XP for steps in GM-approved arcs and for climaxes even when their final goals fail, keeping personal stories mechanically active. Single-use cyphers turn folk charms and strange objects into frequently changing powers, encouraging players to spend unusual tools instead of hoarding them. What Wakes Mode widens the natural-roll range for GM intrusions until a ten-hour recovery roll resets it, turning supernatural attention into escalating mechanical pressure. |
| Considerations | No pre-written mysteries in the core book, limited mechanical depth for long campaigns, custom move design requires GM experience, monster creation guidelines are loose | Stat Pools serve as both health and spending resources, so Effort and abilities can leave characters less able to absorb harm. The GM sets task difficulties and decides when to introduce complications, placing much of the game's consistency in GM adjudication. The game is built around alternate Appalachia in the 1920s and 1930s rather than a portable generic-horror setting. |