Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier vs Ars Magica

Compare Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier and Ars Magica side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier	Ars Magica
Genre	Historical	Fantasy, Historical
Tags	Simulation, Crunchy, Deadly, Gritty, Sandbox, Classless, Career-Based, Tactical, Lore-Heavy, Strong GM Support	Crunchy, Freeform Magic, Collaborative, Simulation, CC-Licensed Rules, Roll to Cast, Domain Management, Social Intrigue
Core Mechanic	Gunfights run on a Count Up measured in tenths of a second instead of turns or rounds. Each character rolls d10 and adds Speed for a Starting Initiative, where lower is better, then adds each action's Count cost to find when it happens. To shoot, place the Shot Clock overlay on the aimed point of a Target Silhouette and roll d20 plus Accuracy modifiers. A 25 or higher hits the exact spot and 14 or less misses. Totals in between draw a poker card whose suit sets the direction the shot drifts from the aim point. Skill checks roll d100 and succeed at or above a mastery number that falls as the skill improves, while ability checks roll d20 at or under the score.	Roll a d10 + Characteristic + Ability against an Ease Factor. Simple die rolls count the result at face value; stress die rolls on a 1 double the next roll (cascading), while a 0 risks a botch by rolling additional botch dice. Magic uses Technique + Form (five verbs like Creo, Perdo combined with ten nouns like Ignem, Corpus) to define any spell effect. Formulaic spells are pre-learned, spontaneous spells can attempt any Technique + Form combination by halving the casting total, and ritual spells handle large-scale or permanent effects.
Dice	d20, d100	d10
Complexity	High	High
Accessibility	Medium	Medium
Runnability	Very High	Very High
License	All Rights Reserved	CC BY-SA 4.0
Third-Party Publishing	No verified route found	Not yet researched
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Cost	$	$
Publisher	Kenzer & Company	Atlas Games
Year	2007	2004
Languages	English	English, French, Spanish, Italian
Best For	Groups who want a long-running, town-centered Western campaign where characters build careers and reputations, and where gunfights are rare, precise, and often fatal.	Groups who want a deeply researched medieval European setting with the most flexible magic system in tabletop RPGs and troupe-style play where multiple characters share the spotlight across seasons of game time.
Highlights	Shots target specific locations rather than an abstract opponent, so a near miss can still strike nearby and hit location feeds a detailed wound and healing system. Profession Paths award Building Points for career objectives such as opening a business or winning an election, so a banker or rancher advances as surely as a gunfighter. Cattle drives and jury trials run as complete mini-games with their own daily checks or juror track, so frontier work generates play outside combat.	Technique + Form magic system allows freeform spell creation by combining five verbs with ten nouns. Troupe-style play rotates magi, companions, and grogs so every player has multiple characters. Covenant management adds strategic play between adventures. Mythic Europe setting blends historical accuracy with medieval folklore and theology.
Considerations	Running the full game takes the Player's Guidebook plus its separate GM Addendum PDF, along with a poker deck, the Shot Clock overlay, and Target Silhouettes for gunfights. Characters die at 0 hit points with no recovery from death, and slow healing, infection, and incurable disease can sideline a character for weeks of game time. The alternate-history setting presents slavery and period racial attitudes as setting facts with mechanical effects, such as a higher literacy cost for freed-slave characters.	Core rulebook is dense at 240 pages with extensive magic subsystems that require study before play. Laboratory rules, seasonal advancement, and covenant management demand significant bookkeeping. The troupe-style format requires buy-in from the whole group. Combat is deliberately secondary to magic and social play.