Red Markets vs Shifters
Compare Red Markets and Shifters side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Red Markets | Shifters | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror, Post-Apocalyptic | Horror, Modern |
| Tags | Fear & Stress Mechanics, Gritty, Resource Management, Roleplay-Heavy, Character-Driven | Atmospheric, Character-Driven, Corruption, Deadly, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Gritty, Superpowers, Survival, Urban Fantasy, Weird |
| Core Mechanic | Roll 2d10: one black (skill), one red (threat). Black higher than red means success; doubles are critical results. Characters track economic resources via Bounty (currency), gear with limited charges and upkeep costs, and a negotiation system using a Sway Tracker. Humanity erodes through Trauma, Stress, and Detachment tracks. | Roll an attribute die and usually a skill die, each sized from d4 to d20 by the character's rating. Read each die separately: 5–9 gives one success, 10–14 two, 15–19 three, and 20 four. A 1 adds a complication even when the other die succeeds. Meet the Referee's required success count or beat an opponent's successes, with extra successes adding Harm or other effects. Each player gets one Nudge per session to shift a single die by one point after the roll. |
| Dice | 2d10 | d4–d20 |
| Complexity | Medium | Medium |
| Availability | Free quickstart | Paid |
| Runnability | Book tools not listed | 2 of 5 book tools |
| License | Proprietary | All Rights Reserved |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | No verified route found |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | Hebanon Games | Late Gaming Company |
| Year | 2017 | 2026 |
| Languages | English | English |
| Best For | Groups who want a zombie RPG that's really about economic survival: negotiating contracts, managing resources, and deciding what you're willing to sacrifice to keep your dependents alive. | Groups who want modern occult horror where hunting haunted objects risks eroding their characters' identities. |
| Highlights | Economic focus makes every job feel high-stakes, negotiation mechanics add tension before combat even starts, humanity/trauma system creates character arcs, zombie threat serves a story about capitalism and survival | Harm steps attribute dice down directly, so damage weakens the dice used for later actions. The otherworld called the Gloom drains an attribute step at each scene's start and end unless resisted through sacrifice, weakening the dice needed to escape. Haunted objects called Residues have destruction conditions tied to their emotional origins, turning hunts toward memorials or exposing abuse rather than combat alone. |
| Considerations | Heavy bookkeeping with multiple resource tracks, relentlessly bleak tone, steep learning curve for the Profit system, limited availability of the full rulebook | The core provides no advancement procedure, leaving the group to decide how skills or abilities improve over a campaign. The colossal beings called Infadha take no Harm from attacks, so ordinary combat cannot defeat them. Several sample Residues are built on suicide, child abuse, and domestic abuse, with safety guidance limited to brief advice during character creation. |