Symbaroum vs Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
Compare Symbaroum and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Symbaroum | Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy, Horror | Fantasy |
| Play Style | Dark Fantasy, Atmospheric, Player-Only Rolls, Corruption, Exploration, Roll to Cast, Classless, Tactical, Gritty, Lore-Heavy | Career-Based, Grimdark, Gritty, Deadly, Investigation, Corruption, Licensed Setting |
| Core Mechanic | Roll a d20 and try to land equal to or under one of eight Attributes: Accurate, Cunning, Discreet, Persuasive, Quick, Resolute, Strong, and Vigilant. Opposed tests apply the opponent's relevant Attribute as a penalty, written [Attribute←Opponent's Attribute]. Only players roll dice, so an enemy attack becomes a player Defense test and NPC stats appear as fixed modifiers on the player's roll. | 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 | d20 | d100 |
| Complexity | Medium | Medium |
| Accessibility | High | Low |
| Runnability | Very High | High |
| License | All Rights Reserved | No open license |
| Cost | $$ | $$$ |
| Publisher | Free League Publishing | Cubicle 7 |
| Year | 2016 | 2018 |
| Best For | Groups who want long-form dark fantasy exploration with mounting personal cost: expeditions into ancient ruins where each use of magic and each encounter with the corrupted forest leaves a lasting mark on the characters. | 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 | Corruption tracks the mystical cost of every cast power, tainted artifact, and hour in dark Davokar: passing half a character's Resolute pins a permanent Stigma like blackening eyes or fangs that only rituals can lift. Reaching Resolute in total Corruption turns the character into an abomination and hands them to the GM, putting every mystic and every cursed treasure in tension with continued ownership of the character. Witchsight reveals the colored Shadow around any creature or object (green and red for things of nature, gold and silver for civilized beings, black and purple for the corrupted), but each glance risks taking on temporary Corruption from what was inspected. Only players roll dice, so combat resolves as the players' Attack tests, Defense tests, and damage rolls against fixed NPC values rather than back-and-forth opposed throws. | Detailed grimdark setting, career system creates varied character arcs, combat carries real consequences |
| Considerations | Mystics pay heavy attrition for their craft: every learned power and every casting generates Corruption, and the four traditions only partially insulate the caster, so spell-heavy characters require careful tracking and trend toward eventual transformation if used freely. Combat resolves each attack against multiple thresholds (rolled Armor for protection, weapon damage against Toughness, and a Pain Threshold check for whether the hit knocks the target prone or triggers a free attack), adding bookkeeping in busy encounters. The core book deliberately limits its setting to the region around Davokar; the lands south of the Titans and the broader world receive only brief mention. | Tightly bound to the Old World setting, Success Level math can slow play, expensive supplement line |