Oceania 2084 vs Rifts
Compare Oceania 2084 and Rifts side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Oceania 2084 | Rifts | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Scifi, Cyberpunk | Post-Apocalyptic, Scifi, Fantasy, Horror, Superhero |
| Tags | GM-Less, Narrative, Collaborative, Drama, Roleplay-Heavy, Solo-Friendly, Crunchy, CC-Licensed Rules | Character Building, Combat-Heavy, Crunchy, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Gonzo, High-Power, Mana Points, Mecha, Superpowers, Tactical |
| Core Mechanic | Resistance characters' Acts normally succeed as narrated within a six-phase Day in Dystopia. When a Value is challenged, roll d6 against the linked Emotion: Good Values succeed on a roll above it and Bad Values on a roll below it. | Combat and saving throws use a d20 plus bonuses, with high results overcoming a target number or opposing roll. Skills use d100 and succeed when the result is at or below the character's percentage. |
| Dice | d6 | d20, d100 |
| Complexity | High | Very High |
| Accessibility | Very High | Medium |
| Runnability | Medium | Very High |
| License | CC BY-SA 4.0 | All Rights Reserved |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Noncommercial only — Palladium Books Internet Policy limited license |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | Free | $$ |
| Publisher | Jocher Symbolic Systems | Palladium Books Inc. |
| Year | 2024 | 2005 |
| Best For | Groups who want a politically explicit dystopian campaign about preserving private bonds under state surveillance. It suits tables comfortable sharing narrative authority with an adversarial Big Brother player, character turnover, and post-session debriefs. | Groups who want long-form science-fantasy campaigns that move from a ruined Earth to other dimensions. The game suits tables whose GM will decide which parts of the broad setting a campaign uses. |
| Highlights | Acts normally resolve through narration rather than task rolls, keeping attention on what resistance costs instead of whether a character can perform it. Value Tests turn public loyalty and private belief into emotional pressure: success shifts a shadow emotion, and failure causes an outburst or Stress. Physical Notes written by dead characters grant 2 Hope when another dissident finds them; a Note carried into interrogation can be confiscated as evidence. | Occupational and racial class packages assign distinct abilities and advancement tracks, giving each archetype a different role in the party. Mega-Damage places many supernatural creatures and war machines on a separate durability scale beyond the reach of ordinary Structural Damage Capacity attacks. Rifts and ley lines make dimensional travel a standing feature of the setting, letting campaigns move between devastated Earth and other worlds. |
| Considerations | The campaign assumes the regime eventually breaks or vaporizes its dissidents, so it does not support a conventional revolution or heroic victory arc. The Big Brother player tracks a concealed surveillance economy and interprets its Reaction tables, making that role more demanding than a neutral facilitator. The game requires a shared willingness to portray propaganda, betrayal, and emotional distress, even though it includes safety and debrief procedures. | Character creation combines rolled attributes with extensive skill selection, making first-time preparation lengthy. Combat asks each player to track an action economy, active defenses, and which damage scale applies. Magic and psionics use separate point pools and power procedures, adding class-specific rules to the shared system. |