Werewolf: The Apocalypse vs Zombicide: Chronicles
Compare Werewolf: The Apocalypse and Zombicide: Chronicles side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Werewolf: The Apocalypse | Zombicide: Chronicles | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror, Modern, Fantasy | Horror, Post-Apocalyptic |
| Tags | Atmospheric, Base-Building, Character Building, Character-Driven, Combat-Heavy, Corruption, Lore-Heavy, Strong GM Support, Superpowers, Urban Fantasy | Survival, Tactical, Mission-Based, Base-Building, Licensed IP |
| Core Mechanic | 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. Pairs of 10s add successes. Rage dice replace regular dice up to current Rage and can cause Brutal outcomes. | Roll a dice pool of d6s equal to Attribute (Muscle, Brains, or Grit) + Proficiency (Athletics, Attitude, Background, Combat, Perception, or Survival): the cross-product forms an 18-Action matrix (Fight, Shoot, Sneak, Scavenge, Tinker, Heal, etc.). Each die shows Molotov (success), Zombie Head (failure), or a number (failure forceable to success by gaining Stress during Mission Phase). One success is ordinary, two is superior, three or more is outstanding. Difficulty Levels subtract 1 or 2 dice; pools beyond six convert the excess into Mastery dice that may reroll a Zombie Head once. Rolling more Zombie Heads than successes triggers Trouble: a GM-determined complication on top of whatever the roll resolved. |
| Dice | d10 dice pool | d6 dice pool |
| Complexity | High | Medium |
| Accessibility | Medium | High |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | All Rights Reserved | Proprietary |
| Third-Party Publishing | Commercial publishing allowed — Storytellers Vault | Not yet researched |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $$ | $$ |
| Publisher | Renegade Game Studios | CMON / Need Games |
| Year | 2023 | 2022 |
| Best For | 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. | Groups who want a tactical zombie-apocalypse RPG with structured Mission and Shelter phases: leaving the safehouse to scavenge, fight hordes, and clear districts of the dead, then returning to manage supplies, plan the next run, and fortify the shelter. Designed to drop in alongside the Zombicide board game's tiles, miniatures, and Equipment cards if the group already owns them. |
| Highlights | Rage dice make supernatural power volatile because Brutal results can redirect failed actions into destruction or magnify successful violence. 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. | Mission Phase and Shelter Phase run on different rules: Mission Phase activates Stress, Adrenaline, and Trouble for high-tension play, while Shelter Phase resets HP/Stress/Adrenaline to zero and uses simpler resolution for downtime activities like Supply Checks, Shelter Actions, and planning the next run. Stress-to-force-successes drives a tight feedback loop: Mission Phase players can convert numerical dice results above the weapon's Accuracy into successes by gaining Stress, each forced success also feeds the Adrenaline track, and Adrenaline thresholds unlock additional Skill slots (Yellow at Level 1, Orange at Level 3, two Red at Levels 5 and 7). Native board-game compatibility: combat uses the same Zombie types (Walker, Runner, Brute, Abomination), Targeting Priority Order, and Weapon stats as the Zombicide board game, so groups who own it can swap in physical tiles, miniatures, and Equipment cards as table aids. |
| Considerations | After a turn without a kill, Crinos requires Willpower each turn or frenzy follows, 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. | Setting is locked to one unnamed American city with nine fixed districts (Downtown, Old Town, Fun Zone, University District, Heart of the City, Slums, Suburbia, Uptown, Industrial Park) plus the Undercity: adapting to other locations or rural campaigns means rebuilding the district map, Travel Rolls, and Threat Level scaffolding. Combat dominates the rules: Survivor Phase, Zombie Phase, Targeting Priority, Major Injury table, weapon traits, and the Zombipedia bestiary occupy most of the page count, while investigation, social intrigue, and faction politics get comparatively light mechanical support. The Mission/Shelter alternation imposes a session-level rhythm: Stress, Adrenaline, and Trouble exist only in Mission Phase and Shelter Phase wipes them clean, so improvised open-ended campaigns outside this structure need GM adjustment. |