Chasing Adventure vs Mage: The Ascension

Compare Chasing Adventure and Mage: The Ascension side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Chasing Adventure	Mage: The Ascension
Genre	Fantasy	Fantasy, Modern, Horror
Tags	Narrative, Beginner-Friendly, Fast-Paced, Character-Driven, CC-Licensed Rules	Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, High-Power, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics
Core Mechanic	Roll 2d6 + stat (STR, DEX, INT, WIS, CHA, -1 to +3). 10+ is a full success, 7–9 is a partial success with cost, 6- the GM makes a move. Advantage adds a d6 (keep best two); Disadvantage adds a d6 (keep worst two). Conditions replace HP: mark a stat with a condition for Disadvantage but gain XP. Push Yourself for Advantage at the cost of a condition. Chase Moves handle pursuit scenes. Favor tracks NPC relationships.	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	2d6	d10 dice pool
Complexity	Low	Very High
Accessibility	Very High	High
Runnability	Very High	Very High
License	CC BY-SA 4.0	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	Free	$$
Publisher	Spencer Moore	Onyx Path Publishing
Year	2024	2015
Languages	English	English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish
Best For	Groups who want cinematic fantasy adventure with fast, narrative-driven moves: chase sequences, Favor relationships, and Conditions that make every roll matter.	Groups who want long-form modern occult campaigns about reality-shaping power, ideological conflict, and the consequences of imposing belief on the world.
Highlights	Chase moves are distinctive, Conditions-as-damage creates meaningful consequences, Favor system drives NPC relationships, 10 playbooks with strong starting moves, free version is the complete game	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	The design is a close modification of Dungeon World, so groups who already play that will find little mechanically new. The core book covers fantasy only, with no support for other genres. The GM never rolls dice, so every mechanical outcome rests on a player roll.	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.