Rifts vs VI·VIII·X

Compare Rifts and VI·VIII·X side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Rifts	VI·VIII·X
Genre	Post-Apocalyptic, Scifi, Fantasy, Horror, Superhero	Fantasy
Tags	Character Building, Combat-Heavy, Crunchy, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Gonzo, High-Power, Mana Points, Mecha, Superpowers, Tactical	Skill-Based, Career-Based, Freeform Magic, Roll to Cast, Deadly, Gritty, Experimental
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.	Action Resolution Check (ARC): roll the die set by your Exclusive Skill score (d4 at skill 1–2 up to d12 at skill 9–10); rolling at or under the skill adds that result while rolling over subtracts the difference. Add the governing Character Stat and your Morality Index, then beat a hidden GM threshold (ARCT) or an opponent's roll (ARCO), with ties going to the defender. Because the Morality Index feeds every check, how closely a character follows their chosen moral Path constantly raises or lowers all their rolls.
Dice	d20, d100	d4–d12
Complexity	Very High	Medium
Accessibility	Medium	Very High
Runnability	Very High	Low
License	All Rights Reserved	VI·VIII·X Third Party 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	$$	Free
Publisher	Palladium Books Inc.	Knight of the Lake Games
Year	2005	2025
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.	Experienced GMs running morally grounded fantasy who want player choices to carry hidden mechanical weight, and tables that prefer immersion and information asymmetry over full rules transparency.
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.	A character's Morality Index adds to every check, so holding to a chosen moral Path lifts all rolls while drifting from it imposes a growing penalty until the character returns, and the GM tracks the grid position in secret so players feel the swing without seeing its cause. Secret Sorcery, the arcane tradition, pairs one element word with one principle word from twelve Magic Circles to declare any effect the GM prices by scope, removing spell lists and preparation and pushing magic toward improvised problem-solving. Characters have no hit points, so damage lowers the relevant Character Stat, and a stat reduced to zero starts a countdown of stat-plus-level turns during which healing can still reverse it before death locks in.
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.	The Keep Uneducated Paradigm places the morality grid, hidden thresholds, growth points, and State of Mind tracking entirely on the GM, a parallel bookkeeping load that grows with the party. Resting recovers only one or two stat points per day and any real activity reverses healing, while magical healing ages the character a week per point restored, forcing long downtime between fights. Social interaction has no mechanical subsystem and defaults to the player's own roleplaying, so persuasion, intimidation, and negotiation rely on the generic check rather than any dedicated social rules.