Pathfinder vs Rapscallion
Compare Pathfinder and Rapscallion side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Pathfinder | Rapscallion | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Play Style | Tactical, Crunchy, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Dungeon Crawl, Lore-Heavy | Narrative, Pirates |
| Core Mechanic | 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. | Roll 2d6 + trait (Blood, Vinegar, Polish, or Spitfire). On 10+ you succeed cleanly, 7–9 with a cost, 6– and things go wrong. Players choose from 6 character playbooks and 2 ship playbooks. Luck can be spent to Twist Fate (reroll), and the Ante system tracks escalating combat advantage. The Fates (GM) use worldbuilding moves to create a living fantasy pirate setting with magic rooted in Death, Demons, the Sea, and Books. |
| Dice | d20 | 2d6 |
| Complexity | High | Low |
| Accessibility | Very High | High |
| Runnability | Very High | Low |
| License | ORC | Proprietary |
| Cost | Free (ORC) | Free |
| Publisher | Paizo | Magpie Games |
| Year | 2023 | 2024 |
| Best For | Groups who want deep character customization, tactical grid combat with meaningful turn-by-turn decisions, and a richly detailed fantasy setting with free rules. | Groups who want a narrative pirate RPG with dramatic character relationships: where your ship has its own playbook, magic comes from dark pacts, and the dice swing between daring success and messy complication. |
| Highlights | The three-action economy gives every turn the same three actions to spend on strikes, movement, or spells, so each turn is a fresh tactical decision. Characters customize through ancestry, class, skill, and general feats gained at nearly every level, letting builds diverge sharply within a single class. Four degrees of success, set by beating or missing the DC by 10, turn each roll into a range of outcomes rather than a binary result. | Ship-as-character with its own playbook adds group dynamics, Ante system makes combat escalation feel cinematic, worldbuilding tools (World With Laws vs World Without Laws), Magpie Games pedigree, free quickstart to try before buying |
| Considerations | 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 draws feats from ancestry, class, skill, and general pools at every level, making each build a slow step. | Only a quickstart: full game not yet released, limited to 6 playbooks, pirate fantasy genre is narrow, requires buy-in from the whole table for PbtA-style play, light on crunch |