Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies vs Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
Compare Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies | Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Play Style | Tag-Based, Fiction-First, Cinematic, Pirates, Ship-Based, Heroic | Career-Based, Grimdark, Gritty, Deadly, Investigation, Corruption, Licensed Setting |
| Core Mechanic | 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. | Roll d100 under skill or characteristic. Success Levels measure degree of success by comparing the tens digits of the target and the roll. Advantage accumulates during combat, adding +10 per point to attack tests. |
| Dice | 2d6 / 3d6 | d100 |
| Complexity | Medium | Medium |
| Accessibility | Medium | Medium |
| Runnability | High | High |
| License | Proprietary | No open license |
| Cost | $$ | $$$ |
| Publisher | Evil Hat Productions | Cubicle 7 |
| Year | 2009 | 2018 |
| Best For | 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. | Groups who want dark, gritty fantasy where ordinary people face extraordinary dangers in a richly detailed setting. The career system creates unique character arcs from rat catcher to witch hunter. |
| Highlights | 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. | Detailed grimdark setting, career system creates varied character arcs, combat carries real consequences |
| Considerations | 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. | Tightly bound to the Old World setting, Success Level math can slow play, expensive supplement line |