Shadowrun vs Stonetop
Compare Shadowrun and Stonetop side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Shadowrun | Stonetop | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Cyberpunk, Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Tags | Crunchy, Tactical, Heist, Character Building, Faction Play, Lore-Heavy, Skill-Based, Mission-Based, Classless, Espionage | CC-Licensed Rules, Playbook-Driven, Resource Management, Fiction-First, Strong GM Support, Base-Building, Journey, Character-Driven, Worldbuilding, Exploration |
| Core Mechanic | Roll d6s equal to an attribute plus a skill, counting 5s and 6s as hits. Reach the required threshold to succeed, or compare hits in an opposed test. Situational advantages generate Edge points that can fund rerolls or extra hits. Dice pool modifiers still apply alongside Edge. | Describe what your character does; when it meets a move's trigger, roll 2d6 and add a stat from -1 to +3. A 10+ is a strong hit and a 7-9 is a weak hit: partial success or success with a cost. On a 6-, PCs normally mark XP and the GM makes a hard move unless the move says otherwise. Advantage or disadvantage normally adds a third d6 and drops the lowest or highest; damage rolls instead roll damage twice and keep the best or worst result. The GM does not generally roll during play. |
| Dice | d6 dice pool | 2d6 |
| Complexity | Very High | High |
| Accessibility | High | Medium |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | All Rights Reserved | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
| Third-Party Publishing | Commercial publishing allowed — Community content program | Commercial publishing allowed — Open license |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $ | $$ |
| Publisher | Catalyst Game Labs | Lampblack & Brimstone |
| Year | 2019 | 2026 |
| Languages | English, German, French, Portuguese, Russian | English |
| Best For | Groups who want cyberpunk-fantasy heists and enjoy mastering specialist rules together across a continuing campaign. | Groups who want a long-running hearth-fantasy campaign centered on a village as much as its heroes. Play alternates dangerous expeditions into a darkening iron-age world with homefront scenes of courtship, harvest, and community projects. |
| Highlights | Specialist roles divide a heist across physical security, hacking, and magic, giving the team several ways into the same target. Edge turns situational advantages into a spendable resource for tactical choices. Reputation and Heat carry the consequences of conspicuous jobs into later missions. | The steading playbook tracks the village's Fortunes and Surplus, so projects and disasters change what Stonetop can withstand. Seasons Change generates or consumes Surplus and grants seasonal gains, so the village's resources change with each passing season. Expeditions make preparation matter by weighing load and supplies against GM-presented travel challenges. |
| Considerations | Character creation requires coordinating priority choices with detailed gear purchases. Cyberware reduces Essence, which limits magical development. Wireless equipment bonuses expose connected gear to hacking. | The game is built around defending one village, so rootless or wandering parties leave its homefront engine behind. Combat relies on spotlighting, abstract range tags, and fictional positioning, which may not suit groups that want a detailed tactical combat procedure. Supplies, load, provisions, and village Surplus are tracked in several places, adding steady bookkeeping to expeditions and downtime. |