NewEdo vs Pathfinder

Compare NewEdo and Pathfinder side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	NewEdo	Pathfinder
Genre	Cyberpunk, Fantasy	Fantasy
Play Style	Cinematic, Character Building, Crunchy, Classless, Faction Play, Heroic, High-Power, Urban Fantasy, Tactical	Tactical, Crunchy, Combat-Heavy, Character Building, Dungeon Crawl, High-Fantasy, Grid-Based, Heroic, Ascending AC, Exploration, Classic Fantasy, Lore-Heavy
Core Mechanic	Contests use a dice pool combining Core Trait d10s plus Skill dice (d4, d6, d8, or d12 depending on Focus) against a Target Number, with d10s exploding on 10s. Before each contest, the player Rolls their Fate on a d100 and resolves any matching lines on their personal Fate Card, which fills up with triggered effects as the character develops through Path abilities and in-game choices. Legend is the character's reputation and acts as a resource pool — spending up to 5 points of Temporary Legend per Round adds that total to a dice pool for cinematic stunts, and Legend is regained by doing memorable things.	Roll d20 + modifier against a DC. Four degrees of success: critical success (beat DC by 10+), success, failure, and critical failure (miss by 10+). Each turn grants three actions to spend freely on strikes, movement, spellcasting, or other activities. Multi-attack penalty (-5/-10) discourages repeated strikes and encourages tactical variety.
Dice	d4–d12 dice pool	d20
Complexity	High	High
Accessibility	Medium	Very High
Runnability	Medium	Very High
License	All Rights Reserved	ORC
Cost	$$	Free (ORC)
Publisher	Salty Games	Paizo
Year	2022	2023
Best For	Groups who want deep character customization across magic, cybernetics, and skills in a near-future city drawn from Japanese folklore and samurai fiction, with heavy factional politics and larger-than-life heroes fueled by their growing reputation.	Groups who want deep character customization, tactical grid combat with meaningful turn-by-turn decisions, and a richly detailed fantasy setting with free rules.
Highlights	Priority Buy character creation distributes uneven resources across Backgrounds, Magic, Augmentations, Skills, and Core Traits so that no two builds share the same shape. Ten playable Lineages are drawn from Japanese folklore (bakeneko, kappa, karasu, kitsune, oni, saru, tanuki, usagi, human, and the cybernetic half-machine hisanaka), each with two Cultures. Seven Factions and their Paths tie every character to a political stance in the Empire. Magic is built around Shinpi and Rotes granted by tiers of kami — casters negotiate with spirits rather than memorizing spell slots.	Complete rules available free on Archives of Nethys. Three-action economy gives every turn meaningful tactical decisions. Character customization through ancestry feats, class feats, skill feats, and general feats at every level. Four degrees of success on every roll add granularity to outcomes.
Considerations	Dense interlocking subsystems — Legend, Fate Card, Trait Noise, Shinpi, Priority Buy, Derived Traits, Wound tiers, and four Soak types — take significant time to internalize before first play. Core rulebook runs over 300 pages and is paid only, with no free quickstart or SRD. The setting mixes cyberpunk, samurai fiction, and yokai folklore in a single package, which may not suit groups looking for a pure take on any one genre.	New players must learn the trait system, conditions, and four degrees of success before combat runs smoothly. Multi-attack penalty and numerous combat actions can slow turns for indecisive players. Character creation requires selecting feats from multiple categories at every level, which can overwhelm new players.