Shadowrun vs Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies
Compare Shadowrun and Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Shadowrun | Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Cyberpunk, Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Tags | Crunchy, Tactical, Heist, Character Building, Faction Play, Lore-Heavy, Skill-Based, Mission-Based, Classless, Espionage | Tag-Based, Fiction-First, Cinematic, Pirates, Ship-Based, Heroic |
| 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. | Roll 2d6 and keep the best two, then add the Modifier of a relevant Forte, a descriptive Quality ranked from Poor (−2) to Master (+6), and compare the total to a Difficulty Rank's Target Number. Players narrate their own successes and failures, and may invoke Techniques to add dice or a flat +1 even after seeing the roll. Combat is resolved as a Duel, with each side splitting a 3d6 pool between attack and defense and the winning margin lowering the loser's Forte Ranks as damage. |
| Dice | d6 dice pool | 2d6 / 3d6 |
| Complexity | Very High | Medium |
| Accessibility | High | Medium |
| Runnability | Very High | Medium |
| 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. | ||
| Cost | $ | $$ |
| Publisher | Catalyst Game Labs | Evil Hat Productions |
| Year | 2019 | 2009 |
| 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 swashbuckling campaign of sky-pirates and musketeers in an original floating-island world, are comfortable with a light narrative meta-currency, and want skyship battles that give four to six players distinct crew roles. |
| 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. | Players earn Style Dice by narrating their actions with flair and by leaning into their character's Foibles, then spend them to add dice, recover from damage, or assert new facts, tying mechanical advantage directly to dramatic play. Character abilities are broad descriptive Fortes such as "Colronan Musketeer" or "Sha-Ku Ruqrider," so a single Forte covers every related action at the table instead of a skill list while rooting the character in the setting. Before play the group sets explicit dials for firearm lethality, level of magic, and tone, letting the same setting run as cape-and-sword intrigue or deadly piracy. |
| 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 Style Dice economy only drives play if the GM actively seeds and awards dice each session, and the genre-reward loop that powers the game stalls when it is left unmanaged. Starting koldun can take all seven Gifts cheaply and the magic stays deliberately open-ended, so it can overshadow other characters unless the GM sets the mysticism level beforehand. Skyship combat layers a multi-step crew sequence and a separate dice pool on top of personal combat, a sharp jump in table overhead from the otherwise light core. |