Symbaroum vs Werewolf: The Apocalypse

Compare Symbaroum and Werewolf: The Apocalypse side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Symbaroum	Werewolf: The Apocalypse
Genre	Fantasy, Horror	Horror, Modern, Fantasy
Tags	Dark Fantasy, Atmospheric, Player-Only Rolls, Corruption, Exploration, Roll to Cast, Classless, Tactical, Gritty, Lore-Heavy	Atmospheric, Base-Building, Character Building, Character-Driven, Corruption, Drama, Lore-Heavy, Strong GM Support, Superpowers, Urban Fantasy
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.	Build a d10 dice pool, usually from an Attribute plus a Skill. Each 6 or higher is a success, and meeting the Storyteller-set Difficulty wins. Each pair of 10s counts as four successes. Rage dice replace regular dice up to current Rage and can cause Brutal outcomes.
Dice	d20	d10 dice pool
Complexity	Medium	High
Accessibility	High	Medium
Runnability	Very High	Very High
License	All Rights Reserved	All Rights Reserved
Third-Party Publishing	Not yet researched	Commercial publishing allowed — Storytellers Vault
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Cost	$$	$$
Publisher	Free League Publishing	Renegade Game Studios
Year	2016	2023
Languages	English, Swedish, French, German	English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese
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 long-form modern horror about shapeshifter packs defending communities from ecological and spiritual threats, with violent power constrained by moral and social consequences.
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.	Brutal outcomes can force destructive failures or add four successes to actions the Storyteller judges can benefit from Rage. Choosing a Garou form changes a character's capabilities, creating tactical and narrative options. Caerns give the pack an improvable spiritual home whose traits connect campaign advancement to territory and community.
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.	A Crinos-form Garou who did not kill in the previous turn must spend Willpower at the start of the next turn or enter frenzy, making the war form difficult to sustain outside violent scenes. Harano and Hauglosk can remove a Garou from play when despair or absolutism fills either track, making moral decline a campaign-level consequence. The game centers mature environmental and spiritual horror, including graphic violence and themes of exploitation and extremism that require deliberate table boundaries.