Shadowrun vs Troika!
Compare Shadowrun and Troika! side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Shadowrun | Troika! | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Cyberpunk, Fantasy | Fantasy, Scifi |
| Play Style | Crunchy, Tactical, Combat-Heavy, Heist, Character Building, Faction Play, Lore-Heavy, Skill-Based, Mission-Based, Urban Fantasy | Rules-Light, Weird, Random Character Creation, Low-Prep, Improvisation, Deadly, Random Tables |
| 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. | Three stats: Skill, Stamina, Luck. Roll 2d6 under Skill + Advanced Skill to succeed. Initiative uses a random token-draw stack — unpredictable turn order. Luck is a consumable resource that depletes with each test. |
| Dice | d6 dice pool | 2d6 |
| Complexity | Very High | Very Low |
| Accessibility | Medium | High |
| Community | High | Medium |
| License | No open license | Open (Troika! SRD) |
| Cost | $$$ | $ |
| Publisher | Catalyst Game Labs | Melsonian Arts Council |
| Year | 2019 | 2019 |
| Best For | Groups who want cyberpunk-fantasy heists with deep mechanical subsystems for hacking, magic, and combat. | Fast, surreal science-fantasy adventures with minimal rules, random character generation, and a vibrant third-party ecosystem. Ideal for one-shots and improvisational play. |
| Highlights | 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. | Simple rules, creative backgrounds double as setting material, large third-party ecosystem (700+ titles), chaotic initiative creates unpredictable combat, affordable |
| Considerations | 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. | Initiative stack can leave players unable to act for long stretches, mixed roll-under/roll-over mechanics confuse new players, setting is implied rather than described, minimal tactical depth |