Starving Folly vs Vampire: The Masquerade
Compare Starving Folly and Vampire: The Masquerade side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Starving Folly | Vampire: The Masquerade | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror | Horror, Modern |
| Tags | Fear & Stress Mechanics, Survival, Gritty, Resource Management, Character Building, Classless, Tactical, Combat-Heavy, One-Shot Friendly, CC-Licensed Rules | Social Intrigue, Faction Play, Urban Fantasy, Corruption, Drama, Character-Driven, Resource Management, Superpowers, Social Combat, Lore-Heavy |
| Core Mechanic | Roll a d10, add the relevant ability score and any skill that applies, and meet or beat a Difficulty Class the GM sets on a scale from 4 for an easy task to 15 for an almost impossible one. A weapon attack rolls a d10 plus the weapon's ability score against the target's Evasion and, on a hit, deals the weapon's listed damage. Spending a Hunger Token rerolls a failed Body or Agility roll, and spending a Sanity Token rerolls a failed Mind, Senses, or Sociability roll. | Roll attribute plus skill in d10s, counting 6+ as successes against a difficulty. Paired 10s add extra successes. Hunger replaces ordinary dice in most pools: a winning critical containing a Hunger 10 becomes messy, while a failed test containing a Hunger 1 becomes a bestial failure. |
| Dice | d10 | d10 dice pool |
| Complexity | Medium | High |
| Accessibility | Very High | High |
| Runnability | Low | Very High |
| License | CC BY-NC-SA | Community Content Agreement for the Storytellers Vault |
| Third-Party Publishing | Noncommercial only — Open license | Commercial publishing allowed — Community content program |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | Free | $$ |
| Publisher | TheCappy01 | Renegade Game Studios |
| Year | 2026 | 2018 |
| Languages | English | English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese |
| Best For | Groups who want a free, setting-agnostic horror game for one-shots or short campaigns, built around a gradual reveal of the threat and survival costs that reach beyond hit points. It fits tables that enjoy building characters from a wide menu of backgrounds and perks. | Groups who want campaigns about vampire coteries balancing political ambition, predatory hunger, and relationships with the humans they still care about. |
| Highlights | Scars land on specific body parts, and a permanent -5 Scar costs the character that part. Each time a character drops to 0 Sanity Tokens, the GM gives them a new Phobia that can drain a Sanity Token once per session. A character's base Actions equal Agility plus 1, and unspent Actions can be saved to act again later in the round. | Using supernatural powers can increase Hunger, making the next hunt harder to postpone. Convictions and human Touchstones make moral compromise carry consequences beyond winning the immediate conflict. Coteries share hunting territories and social assets, giving political ambitions a foothold in the city. |
| Considerations | Standard rest clears Temporary Scars but leaves permanent Scars in place. Running out of Hunger or Sanity Tokens normally imposes -3 on rolls tied to that token's abilities, and a standard rest restores just one token of each type. Whether the six Doctrines of magic appear in a campaign, and how characters earn Affinity to use them, are left for the GM to decide. | Messy criticals and bestial failures can put predation or compulsions into scenes where players hoped to stay in control. Character creation requires choices across clans, powers, feeding habits, advantages, and human ties. Establishing the chronicle’s relationships and boundaries for mature themes takes group preparation even when using a published city. |