Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition vs Mage: The Ascension

Compare Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition and Mage: The Ascension side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition	Mage: The Ascension
Genre	Fantasy	Fantasy, Modern, Horror
Tags	Character Building, Classic Fantasy, Crunchy, Descending AC, Dungeon Crawl, Random Tables, Tactical, Vancian Casting	Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, High-Power, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics
Core Mechanic	Roll 1d20 to attack and meet or exceed THAC0 minus the target’s descending Armor Class. Ability and proficiency checks roll a d20 against an appropriate score. Spellcasters choose spells to memorize before casting.	Build a d10 pool from an Attribute plus an Ability and count each die that meets or exceeds the difficulty, usually 6. Each rolled 1 cancels a success, and a roll with no successes and at least one 1 botches. Magick uses Arete instead: the highest Sphere plus coincidence or vulgarity and witnesses establishes the base difficulty, with situational modifiers applied afterward. Successes determine the Effect, and vulgar casting risks Paradox.
Dice	d20	d10 dice pool
Complexity	High	Very High
Accessibility	Medium	High
Runnability	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	TSR, Inc.	Onyx Path Publishing
Year	1995	2015
Languages	English	English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish
Best For	Groups who want referee-led fantasy campaigns with class-and-level characters, prepared spells, optional proficiencies, and detailed combat procedures.	Groups who want long-form modern occult campaigns about reality-shaping power, ideological conflict, and the consequences of imposing belief on the world.
Highlights	THAC0 expresses attack chances as a single target-number calculation against descending Armor Class. Parallel PHB and DMG organization and a DMG index covering both books make rules topics easier to locate. Optional proficiencies add chosen weapon and nonweapon capabilities to class-based characters.	Nine Spheres combine to build open-ended Effects, allowing the same capability to emerge through different paradigms, practices, and instruments. Coincidental and vulgar classifications make subtlety a tactical choice because conspicuous magick raises difficulty and accumulates Paradox. Focus ties belief to procedure, so a mage's worldview determines the tools and rituals used to alter reality.
Considerations	Core rules remain split between the Player’s Handbook and Dungeon Master Guide, including DM-only procedures. Descending Armor Class, initiative modifiers, and special combat procedures require reference beyond a basic d20 roll. Optional proficiency rules increase character choices and exception handling.	Improvised Effects place frequent adjudication on the Storyteller, who must apply Sphere permissions, focus, required successes, and consequences consistently. Vulgar magick generates Paradox even on success, so overt power can punish a mage through injury or metaphysical breakdown. Faction choices can make a cabal internally hostile, so character concepts need shared motives before play.