Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine vs Mage: The Ascension
Compare Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine and Mage: The Ascension side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine | Mage: The Ascension | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy, Modern, Horror |
| Tags | Cozy, Narrative, Diceless, Collaborative, Character-Driven, Worldbuilding, Drama, Fiction-First, Roleplay-Heavy | Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, High-Power, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics |
| Core Mechanic | Diceless. Intention equals skill minus Obstacle; spend Will points to boost Intention above zero for success. Players drive play by selecting quests and earning XP through genre-specific actions (Pastoral, Gothic, Adventure Fantasy, etc.). Three XP types: Action XP (shared group pot), Emotion XP (earned by evoking specific emotions in other players), and Bonus XP (from quest tasks). Quests combine into eight color-coded Arcs. The GM is called the HG (Hollyhock God). Characters fade into the background after XP actions, rotating spotlight. | 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 | Diceless | d10 dice pool |
| Complexity | High | Very High |
| Accessibility | Medium | High |
| Runnability | Medium | Very High |
| License | Proprietary | 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 | Eos Press (Jenna Katerin Moran) | Onyx Path Publishing |
| Year | 2014 | 2015 |
| Languages | English | English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish |
| Best For | Groups who want collaborative, slice-of-life storytelling in a whimsical Ghibli-inspired setting: where wishes, friendships, and personal growth drive play instead of combat. | Groups who want long-form modern occult campaigns about reality-shaping power, ideological conflict, and the consequences of imposing belief on the world. |
| Highlights | Genre modes shape play through XP incentives: different genres reward different player behaviors, Emotion XP ties advancement to evoking specific reactions from other players, player-driven quests shift narrative agency from HG to group, eight Arc types support stories from pastoral slice-of-life to cosmic fantasy | 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 | Multiple overlapping XP and quest tracking systems require bookkeeping throughout play, Will resource and Intention math replace dice but add calculation per action, characters have Skills Connections Perks and Arc Traits that interact across multiple subsystems, fading mechanic forces characters out of the spotlight after XP actions | 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. |