Pathfinder vs TALES From the Loom
Compare Pathfinder and TALES From the Loom side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Pathfinder | TALES From the Loom | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Tags | Tactical, Crunchy, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Dungeon Crawl, Lore-Heavy | Character Building, Collaborative, Crunchy, Deadly, Exploration, Freeform Magic, Journaling, Narrative, Tactical, Worldbuilding |
| 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. | Players roll a pool of d6s and count dice that meet or exceed a success threshold, usually 4+. They compare the successes with a GM-set difficulty rating. Three or more matching results create a WARP on a hit or a WEFT on a miss. The player then describes an extra benefit or a costly success, subject to GM approval. |
| Dice | d20 | d6 dice pool |
| Complexity | High | High |
| Accessibility | Very High | Very High |
| Runnability | Very High | Medium |
| License | ORC | Proprietary |
| Third-Party Publishing | Commercial publishing allowed — Open and compatibility licenses | No verified route found |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | Free | Free |
| Publisher | Paizo | Jarren Magnell |
| Year | 2023 | 2025 |
| 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 that want deep character customization, collaborative worldbuilding, and a GM comfortable adjudicating player-created magic. |
| 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. | The Weaving system prices player-created spells by tier and effect, giving each caster a distinct magical toolkit. WARPS and WEFTS turn matching dice into player-described benefits or complications, distributing narrative authority when matching results trigger. Reflections reward between-session character journaling with a bonus die on a later non-combat skill roll. |
| 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. | Freeform spell creation requires players and the GM to negotiate effects, costs, and scope. Combat uses abstract range and speed bands, so it does not provide grid-based positioning. Characters die at 0 Wounds by default, although an optional rule permits survival with a permanent reduction. |