Electric Bastionland vs Mage: The Ascension
Compare Electric Bastionland and Mage: The Ascension side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Electric Bastionland | Mage: The Ascension | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy, Modern, Horror |
| Tags | Rules-Light, Weird, Classless, Dungeon Crawl, Attacks Always Hit, One-Shot Friendly, Low-Prep | Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, High-Power, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics |
| Core Mechanic | Roll d20 equal to or under attribute (STR, DEX, CHA) to avoid danger. Attacks always hit: roll weapon damage directly, reduced by armor. 100+ unique Failed Careers define your character through equipment and debt rather than stats. | 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 | Very Low | Very High |
| Accessibility | High | High |
| Runnability | High | Very High |
| License | Mark of the Odd SRD | 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 | Bastionland Press | Onyx Path Publishing |
| Year | 2020 | 2015 |
| Languages | English | English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish |
| Best For | Short treasure-hunting campaigns in a surreal, modern-tinged city. Ideal for groups who love strange worldbuilding, fast character creation via 100+ Failed Careers, and fiction-driven play. | Groups who want long-form modern occult campaigns about reality-shaping power, ideological conflict, and the consequences of imposing belief on the world. |
| Highlights | Two pages of actual rules, 100+ varied Failed Careers, detailed GM guidance, free 42-page edition available, spawned an entire design movement | 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 | Tightly coupled to its surreal Bastion setting, minimal character progression, requires a confident GM, narrow genre focus | 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. |