Dungeon Crawlers vs Mage: The Ascension
Compare Dungeon Crawlers and Mage: The Ascension side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Dungeon Crawlers | Mage: The Ascension | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy, Modern, Horror |
| Tags | Rules-Light, One-Shot Friendly, Dungeon Crawl, Low-Prep, Fast-Paced, Fiction-First, Freeform Magic, Heroic, Theater of the Mind | Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, High-Power, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics |
| Core Mechanic | Build a pool of Action dice (d6s) from trademarks and edges. Roll Danger dice for obstacles: matching Danger dice cancel Action dice. Highest remaining Action die determines success (6 = full, 4–5 = partial, 3 or less = fail). | 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 | Very Low | Very High |
| Accessibility | Medium | High |
| Runnability | Low | 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 | Peril Planet | Onyx Path Publishing |
| Year | 2020 | 2015 |
| Languages | English | English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish |
| Best For | Groups wanting instant fantasy dungeon-crawling with minimal rules: perfect for one-shots, new players, or when you forgot your rulebooks. | Groups who want long-form modern occult campaigns about reality-shaping power, ideological conflict, and the consequences of imposing belief on the world. |
| Highlights | Entire game fits on 2 pages, character creation in minutes, freeform magic system, built-in adventure generator, same action/danger dice as Neon City Overdrive | 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 | Very minimal: no detailed combat or advancement systems, limited long-campaign support, lacks depth for crunch-oriented players | 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. |