Mutant: Year Zero vs The Wildsea
Compare Mutant: Year Zero and The Wildsea side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Mutant: Year Zero | The Wildsea | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Post-Apocalyptic | Fantasy |
| Tags | Sandbox, Survival, Exploration, Character-Driven, Worldbuilding, Narrative | Exploration, Narrative, Ship-Based, Worldbuilding, Character-Driven, Collaborative, Fiction-First, Tag-Based |
| Core Mechanic | Roll a pool of d6s (attribute + skill + gear). Each 6 is a success; one success is enough. You can push your roll to reroll failures, but 1s on attribute dice cause trauma and 1s on gear dice cause damage to equipment. Mutations cost Mutation Points and can misfire with unpredictable side effects. | Roll a d6 dice pool: 6 is a full success, 4–5 is a partial success, 1–3 is a failure. Doubles of any value trigger a Twist: something unexpected happens. Characters are defined by Aspects (gear, abilities, cultural traits) with associated damage tracks. Progress clocks (tracks) are used universally for combat, crafting, healing, and journeys. Drives give characters personal goals that earn advancement. |
| Dice | d6 dice pool | d6 dice pool |
| Complexity | Medium | Low |
| Availability | Free quickstart | Free quickstart |
| Runnability | 5 of 5 book tools | 5 of 5 book tools |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Not yet researched |
| Publisher | Free League Publishing | Mythworks (Felix Isaacs) |
| Year | 2014 | 2023 |
| Languages | English | English, Italian, French |
| Best For | Post-apocalyptic campaigns where mutant survivors explore a deadly Zone, build up their home settlement, and search for the mythical Eden: with the Year Zero Engine that spawned a family of games. | Groups who want exploration-driven campaigns in a wildly original setting: sailing chainsaw ships across living treetops with a diverse crew of humans, cactus-folk, spider hive-minds, and moth-people. |
| Highlights | Push mechanic creates tough choices, Ark development gives players a shared home to build, Zone exploration is tense and rewarding, eight distinctive roles with built-in relationships and dreams, launched the Year Zero Engine family | Seven playable species including cactus-folk, spider hive-minds, and moth-people, track system unifies combat, crafting, healing, and journeys under one mechanic, Silver ENnie winner for Best Writing, character creation uses modular Aspects (gear, abilities, cultural traits) |
| Considerations | Mutation randomness can frustrate planners, metaplot requires significant GM commitment, Ark development bookkeeping adds between-session overhead, Zone travel can feel repetitive without varied encounters | Track-based resolution uses the same clock mechanic for all conflict types, d6 dice pool with doubles-as-Twist is the only resolution mechanic, equipment and aspect lists lack a comprehensive index, setting-specific: tied to the treetop-ocean world |