Shadow of the Demon Lord vs When the Moon Hangs Low
Compare Shadow of the Demon Lord and When the Moon Hangs Low side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Shadow of the Demon Lord | When the Moon Hangs Low | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy, Horror | Horror, Fantasy |
| Tags | Dark Fantasy, Gritty, Deadly, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Corruption, Character Building, Tactical, Combat-Heavy, Atmospheric, Strong GM Support | Fear & Stress Mechanics, Dark Fantasy, Corruption, Investigation, Faction Play, Tactical, Solo-Friendly, Mission-Based |
| Core Mechanic | Roll d20 plus an attribute modifier against 10 for a challenge or the target’s Defense or attribute for an attack. Boons and banes cancel one for one. Roll the remaining d6s and add the highest boon or subtract the highest bane. | Roll a pool of d6 equal to the stat tied to the skill and count successes, with each die succeeding on 5–6 when Untrained, 4–6 when Trained, and 3–6 when Mastered. The number of successes must meet or beat a Difficulty Value set by the Gamemaster. Bonus and penalty dice adjust the pool. A penalty die that rolls 5–6 cancels a success. Opposed checks compare success counts instead of a fixed Difficulty Value. |
| Dice | d20, d6 | d6 dice pool |
| Complexity | Medium | High |
| Availability | Free quickstart | Paid |
| Runnability | 4 of 5 book tools | 3 of 5 book tools |
| License | All Rights Reserved | Proprietary |
| Third-Party Publishing | Commercial publishing allowed — Community content program | Not yet researched |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | Schwalb Entertainment | Isolation Games |
| Year | 2015 | 2023 |
| Languages | English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Chinese | English |
| Best For | Groups who want lethal fantasy horror with flexible character paths and campaigns built around eleven adventures. | Groups who want gothic-horror monster-hunting and investigation on a contract-driven mission structure, where characters carry a permanent curse that escalates as they lean on their powers. Also supports solo or GM-less play through the built-in Lone Hunter rules. |
| Highlights | Novice, expert and master paths combine freely to create specialized characters. Fast turns trade movement for an earlier action. Insanity and Corruption give frightening encounters and forbidden acts lasting mechanical consequences. | Each of the twelve Marks grants a supernatural Boon paired with a Curse that advances a stage every time the hunter runs out of Resolve, so power comes bundled with an escalating personal cost. Influence earned by bluffing, charming, or intimidating a faction accumulates as a spendable resource that buys concrete favors from four rival powers, turning social play into a persistent currency. A full Lone Hunter mode replaces the Gamemaster's difficulties with a success-tier table and twist tables, letting the same character and dice run solo without a separate ruleset. |
| Considerations | Starting characters can die from a single strong hit. The rules include graphic body horror and disturbing effects of forbidden magic. Advancement ends at level 10 after the campaign’s final adventure. | A hunter's Mark is chosen at creation and can never be changed, locking in both its Boon and the eventual monstrous transformation the character is fated toward. The setting leaves its central mysteries, including the nature of the Bitter Sacrament and the buried ympir, deliberately unanswered for each Gamemaster to resolve or not. Most antagonists are Minions that never roll to Parry, Dodge, or Counterattack, so rank-and-file fights reduce to attackers rolling against a fixed number instead of opposed checks. |