Godbound vs Mage: The Ascension
Compare Godbound and Mage: The Ascension side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Godbound | Mage: The Ascension | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy, Modern, Horror |
| Tags | Sandbox, High-Power, Worldbuilding, Toolkit, Ascending AC, Mana Points | Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, High-Power, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics |
| Core Mechanic | Attribute checks: roll 1d20 equal to or above (21 minus attribute score). Attacks: roll 1d20 + attack bonus vs AC. Fray die deals automatic damage to lesser foes each round. Divine powers fueled by Effort (commit to activate gifts). Dominion points spent to reshape the world at large. | 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 | Medium | Very High |
| Accessibility | Very High | High |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | OGL (Free Edition available) | 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 | Sine Nomine Publishing | Onyx Path Publishing |
| Year | 2016 | 2015 |
| Languages | English | English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish |
| Best For | Groups who want to play divine heroes reshaping nations and battling gods: epic-scale OSR sandbox campaigns with world-building baked in. | Groups who want long-form modern occult campaigns about reality-shaping power, ideological conflict, and the consequences of imposing belief on the world. |
| Highlights | Free edition is a complete game, Dominion/Faction system for world-shaping, Fray die handles demigod power level cleanly, detailed GM sandbox tools, compatible with OSR modules | 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 | High-power premise limits traditional dungeon crawling, Effort tracking across multiple Words gets complex, Arcem setting is deeply baked in | 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. |