Shadowrun vs The Sprawl
Compare Shadowrun and The Sprawl side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Shadowrun | The Sprawl | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Cyberpunk, Fantasy | Cyberpunk, Scifi |
| Tags | Crunchy, Tactical, Heist, Character Building, Faction Play, Lore-Heavy, Skill-Based, Mission-Based, Urban Fantasy | Mission-Based, Espionage, Heist, Noir, Gritty, Faction Play, Playbook-Driven, Fiction-First, Player-Only Rolls, One-Shot Friendly |
| Core Mechanic | 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. | When an action matches a move's fictional trigger, roll 2d6 plus Cool, Edge, Meat, Mind, Style, or Synth. A 10+ is a strong hit, 7-9 is a weak hit, and a 6 or less lets the MC make a move. |
| Dice | d6 dice pool | 2d6 |
| Complexity | Very High | High |
| Accessibility | High | Medium |
| Runnability | Very High | Medium |
| License | No open license | Proprietary |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | No verified route found |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $$$ | $$ |
| Publisher | Catalyst Game Labs | Ardens Ludere |
| Year | 2019 | 2016 |
| Languages | English, German, French, Italian | English, French |
| Best For | Groups who want cyberpunk-fantasy heists with deep mechanical subsystems for hacking, magic, and combat. | Groups who want structured heist-style missions with a hacking minigame and a growing web of corporate rivals across a campaign. It suits players who enjoy risky planning and personal ties that complicate the crew's loyalties. |
| Highlights | The setting fuses megacorporate intrigue with magic and metahuman races, so a single team mixes street samurai, mages, and deckers. Distinct subsystems model Matrix hacking, spellcasting, drone rigging, and astral space, each carrying its own rules depth. The Edge economy converts situational advantages into a spendable resource for rerolls, extra hits, or penalties on opponents. | Countdown Clocks track legwork noise, mission alertness, and corporate attention on separate tracks, giving missions a visible pressure gauge instead of a single doom clock. Cyberdeck ratings and tiered ICE turn hacking into its own tactical minigame layered on the standard moves. The Legwork and Action phase structure lets intel and gear earned through investigation convert directly into narrated advantages during the mission itself. |
| Considerations | Matrix hacking runs on its own timescale and can leave non-decker players idle during a run. Character creation spreads across attributes, skills, magic or resonance, gear, and lifestyle, making the first build long. Dice pools grow large at high skill, so counting hits on a fistful of d6s slows resolution. | Combat and infiltration rely on fictional positioning and MC judgment as much as dice modifiers, so groups who want tightly defined tactical rules may find some outcomes settled by table discussion. Running an ongoing campaign means the MC tracks separate Countdown Clocks for every corporation, threat, and mission in play at once. Choosing how a character paid for their starting cyberware can permanently tie that character to being owned or hunted by a specific corporation. |