Candela Obscura vs Mage: The Ascension
Compare Candela Obscura and Mage: The Ascension side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Candela Obscura | Mage: The Ascension | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror | Fantasy, Modern, Horror |
| Tags | Investigation, Playbook-Driven, Corruption, Atmospheric, Mission-Based, Fiction-First | Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, High-Power, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics |
| Core Mechanic | Roll a pool of d6s equal to your action rating (0–3), take the highest result. A 6 is a full success, 4–5 is a mixed success, 1–3 is a miss. Spend Drive points (Nerve, Cunning, or Intuition) to add dice. Gilded actions replace one die with a special gilded die: choosing its result recovers 1 Drive. The GM sets stakes (low, standard, or high) and expectations before each roll. | 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 | d6 dice pool | d10 dice pool |
| Complexity | Low | Very High |
| Accessibility | High | High |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | Darrington Press Community Gaming License | 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 | Darrington Press | Onyx Path Publishing |
| Year | 2023 | 2015 |
| Languages | English | English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish |
| Best For | Groups who want atmospheric horror investigation with narrative-first mechanics, where supernatural corruption slowly erodes characters across a series of assignments. | Groups who want long-form modern occult campaigns about reality-shaping power, ideological conflict, and the consequences of imposing belief on the world. |
| Highlights | Gilded dice create meaningful risk-reward tension on every roll, Drive system elegantly ties character resources to narrative themes, assignment structure gives the GM a clear framework for pacing, marks and scars make supernatural exposure feel consequential | 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 | No free core rules: only a free quickstart guide is available, setting is tightly bound to the Fairelands world, limited character customization compared to Blades in the Dark, combat is intentionally de-emphasized in favor of investigation and social play | 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. |