Shadowrun vs Wyld

Compare Shadowrun and Wyld side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Shadowrun	Wyld
Genre	Cyberpunk, Fantasy	Fantasy
Play Style	Crunchy, Tactical, Combat-Heavy, Heist, Character Building, Faction Play, Lore-Heavy, Skill-Based, Mission-Based, Urban Fantasy	Rules-Light, Beginner-Friendly, Classless, Dark Fantasy, Fiction-First, Theater of the Mind, One-Shot Friendly, Low-Prep, Random Tables, Roll to Cast, Inventory Management, Open Source
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.	Roll 2d6 plus the relevant ability point (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, or Empathy, each rated 0–4) for any risky action: 10+ is a Success, 7–9 a Partial Success that lands with a complication, 6 or less a Failure. Double 6 is a Critical Success that grants the player a Fortune Point (spendable to boost any later roll, max 3); double 1 is a Critical Failure that hands the GM a Misfortune Point (spendable for out-of-turn foe actions, max 5). Physical attacks bypass the test — the attacker rolls the weapon's damage die, adds STR (melee) or DEX (ranged), subtracts the target's Armour Protection, and applies the remainder to Hit Points. Spellcasting reuses the 2d6 test against INT (Primordial utility) or EMP (Elemental damage), with a partial success triggering a d20 Wyld Flare table for unintended magical chaos.
Dice	d6 dice pool	2d6
Complexity	Very High	Low
Accessibility	Medium	Very High
Runnability	Medium	High
License	No open license	CC BY 4.0
Cost	$$$	Free
Publisher	Catalyst Game Labs	Quest Giver Games
Year	2019	2026
Best For	Groups who want cyberpunk-fantasy heists with deep mechanical subsystems for hacking, magic, and combat.	Small groups who want a short, classless fantasy zine for anthropomorphic animal-folk in a pastoral world that gradually darkens — built for the tonal slide from cozy Wyld Folk daily life into encounters with corrupted Ravenous, Carrion undead, and ascending Mythics.
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.	Weapons strike without a roll — physical attacks resolve as damage die plus STR or DEX minus Armour Protection, removing the to-hit layer that slows similar 2d6 systems and reserving the test mechanic for risky non-attack actions, spellcasting, and contests. Magic splits into Elemental spells (EMP — damage with element-specific riders such as Air pushing the target, Earth knocking them prone, Fire bypassing armour, Light blinding, Dark dropping Strength) and Primordial spells (INT — non-damage utility from 25 paired opposites like Repel/Attract, Heat/Cool, Shrink/Grow, Slick/Friction), with a partial success on either rolling on a d20 Wyld Flare table for chaotic side-effects instead of a wasted turn. Hitting exactly 0 HP triggers the Scars table — rather than wound penalties, every entry pairs a permanent cosmetic mark (a limp, coloured-vein blood poisoning, lingering green spots, an inner-child episode) with a chance to raise an ability score or add to maximum HP, so near-death consistently bends toward leaving the Wyld Folk marked and more capable.
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.	Combat is one-way damage — attackers roll, defenders don't, with no dodge, parry, or active defensive reaction beyond Armour Protection — so player agency in defense is limited to wearing or removing armour rather than mid-combat maneuvering. The world of Sunder is sketched in broad strokes — its history, factions, geography, and the nature of the encroaching darkness are conveyed across a few paragraphs and bestiary entries, leaving the GM to fill in most lore at the table. Character growth caps at level 10 with a hard ceiling of 4 in any ability score — numerical advancement runs out quickly, with later gains limited to extra Martial Foci or additional spells slotted within those existing caps.