SAKE vs Shadowrun
Compare SAKE and Shadowrun side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| SAKE | Shadowrun | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Cyberpunk, Fantasy |
| Play Style | Crunchy, Classless, Skill-Based, Character Building, Domain Management, Modular, Social Intrigue, Lore-Heavy, Ship-Based, Faction Play, Roll to Cast, Mana Points, Random Tables, Sandbox, Hexcrawl, Dungeon Crawl, Espionage, Resource Management, Combat-Heavy, Corruption, Deadly | Crunchy, Tactical, Combat-Heavy, Heist, Character Building, Faction Play, Lore-Heavy, Skill-Based, Mission-Based, Urban Fantasy |
| Core Mechanic | Roll d20 + Skill Ranks + attribute modifier against a Difficulty Level. Characters are built with a point-buy system using Experience Points to purchase Skill Ranks, abilities, Health Points, and spells. In combat, the attacker rolls d20 + Attack against the defender's d20 + Parrying, with weapon damage reduced by armour's Damage Reduction. Sorcery uses Spellpoints and is divided into six schools, each with its own risks — failed casting rolls can trigger consequences from exhaustion to madness to summoning hostile spirits. | Roll a pool of d6s equal to attribute + skill, counting 5s and 6s as hits. Meet or exceed a threshold to succeed. Situational advantages generate Edge points rather than modifying dice pools directly; Edge is spent on tactical effects like rerolling dice, adding successes, or imposing penalties on opponents. |
| Dice | d20 | d6 dice pool |
| Complexity | Very High | Very High |
| Accessibility | Medium | Medium |
| Runnability | Low | Medium |
| License | All rights reserved | No open license |
| Cost | $$ | $$$ |
| Publisher | Seventh Son Publishing | Catalyst Game Labs |
| Year | 2025 | 2019 |
| Best For | Groups who want a comprehensive sandbox toolkit that seamlessly blends traditional adventuring with domain-level strategy — managing kingdoms, trading across oceans, waging wars, and navigating a detailed early-modern caste society. | Groups who want cyberpunk-fantasy heists with deep mechanical subsystems for hacking, magic, and combat. |
| Highlights | Four modular systems — Adventuring, Sorcery/Otherworld, Domain/Warfare, and Trade/Seafaring — each function independently and integrate with the others. Domain management operates through quarterly Domain Turns with taxes, construction, random events, espionage, and faction politics. Overseas trade system models supply, demand, and piracy across a mapped world with named trade regions and goods. Magic carries real consequences — learning spells risks madness, failed castings can summon hostile spirits or damage the caster's soul. | Unique cyberpunk-fantasy setting blending megacorporate intrigue with magic and metahuman races. Dedicated subsystems for Matrix hacking, magic, rigging, and astral space. Edge system replaces many situational modifiers with a spendable tactical resource. Decades of published lore spanning in-world history from 2011 to the 2080s. |
| Considerations | 590-page rulebook requires significant reading investment before play, even with modular adoption. Character creation can take several hours for first-time players. The default setting (Asteanic World) is deeply integrated into many rules — the caste system, trade routes, and political factions assume that setting. | Matrix hacking runs as a parallel subsystem that can leave non-decker players waiting. Multiple supplemental rulebooks needed for full coverage of magic, Matrix, and rigging. Published books have documented editing and layout issues. |