Rifts vs The Walking Dead Universe RPG
Compare Rifts and The Walking Dead Universe RPG side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Rifts | The Walking Dead Universe RPG | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Post-Apocalyptic, Scifi, Fantasy, Horror, Superhero | Horror, Post-Apocalyptic |
| Tags | Character Building, Combat-Heavy, Crunchy, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Gonzo, High-Power, Mana Points, Mecha, Superpowers, Tactical | Survival, Narrative, Deadly, Character-Driven, Gritty, Licensed IP |
| Core Mechanic | 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. | Roll a d6 dice pool (attribute + skill). Each 6 is a success. Push your roll to reroll failures, but gain 1 stress and add a stress die. Stress dice that roll 1 cause bad things: attracting walkers, panic, or worse. Only 3 HP means every fight is dangerous. Anchors (named NPCs) relieve stress. Breaking Points track psychological damage; cross too many and your character is Shattered. |
| Dice | d20, d100 | d6 dice pool |
| Complexity | Very High | Low |
| Accessibility | Medium | Medium |
| Runnability | Very High | Medium |
| License | All Rights Reserved | All Rights Reserved (AMC Networks license) |
| Third-Party Publishing | Noncommercial only — Palladium Books Internet Policy limited license | Not yet researched |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $$ | $$ |
| Publisher | Palladium Books Inc. | Free League Publishing |
| Year | 2005 | 2023 |
| Languages | English | English, Swedish, German, Polish |
| Best For | 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. | Groups who want tense, character-driven survival horror in the Walking Dead universe: where stress, difficult choices, and human drama matter more than combat. |
| Highlights | 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. | Stress dice create constant tension, push mechanic forces difficult decisions, only 3 HP makes combat highly consequential, Anchor system ties survival to relationships, well-integrated licensed IP |
| Considerations | 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. | Tightly bound to the Walking Dead IP with limited homebrew flexibility, limited character options in starter set, stress mechanics can cascade into unavoidable spirals, Anchor system penalizes character growth through loss |