Grizzled Adventurers vs Mage: The Ascension
Compare Grizzled Adventurers and Mage: The Ascension side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Grizzled Adventurers | Mage: The Ascension | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy, Modern, Horror |
| Tags | Dungeon Crawl, One-Shot Friendly, Rules-Light, Low-Prep, Beginner-Friendly, Character-Driven, Theater of the Mind, Ascending AC | Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, High-Power, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics |
| Core Mechanic | OSR rules: roll d20 under ability score for checks, d20 + attack bonus vs. AC for combat. Shared character creation via pass-around worksheets builds backstory and party bonds. Fortune Points grant rerolls and cheat death. Three classes (Warrior, Rogue, Mage) with familiar saving throws and hit dice. | 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 | Low | Very High |
| Accessibility | Medium | High |
| Runnability | Medium | Very High |
| License | OGL 1.0a | 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 | Flatland Games | Onyx Path Publishing |
| Year | 2022 | 2015 |
| Best For | One-shot dungeon crawls with experienced mid-level heroes: perfect for pickup games or nights when a player or two are missing. | Groups who want long-form modern occult campaigns about reality-shaping power, ideological conflict, and the consequences of imposing belief on the world. |
| Highlights | Shared character creation instantly builds party history and bonds, plays a full dungeon in one evening, OSR-compatible with existing modules and monsters, includes dungeon-building tools for the GM, handout-driven setup requires only dice and friends | 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 | Fantasy dungeon crawl only: no overland or campaign play, very niche premise (old adventurers), three classes limit build variety | 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. |