GunCraze vs Mage: The Ascension

Compare GunCraze and Mage: The Ascension side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	GunCraze	Mage: The Ascension
Genre	Post-Apocalyptic, Modern	Fantasy, Modern, Horror
Tags	Tactical, Crunchy, Classless, Skill-Based, Deadly, Gritty, Miniatures	Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, High-Power, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics
Core Mechanic	Statistic Test: roll 1d10, add the relevant Attribute or Skill rank plus modifiers, and meet or beat a target number; contested actions are Opposed Rolls where the higher total wins and ties favor the defender. A natural 9 or 10 on a combat test banks a Craze! Point, and up to three Craze! Points can be spent after a roll to add +1d6 each. Attacks roll a d10 for hit location and deal damage in d6s against per-location hit points.	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	d10, d6	d10 dice pool
Complexity	High	Very High
Accessibility	Medium	High
Runnability	Very High	Very High
License	Proprietary (GunCraze OGL v1.1)	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	Action Tactics Roleplay Gaming LLC	Onyx Path Publishing
Year	2025	2015
Best For	Groups who want crunchy, grid-based tactical gunfights with genuine lethality in a post-apocalyptic setting and don't mind learning a dense rulebook before the first session.	Groups who want long-form modern occult campaigns about reality-shaping power, ideological conflict, and the consequences of imposing belief on the world.
Highlights	A natural 9 or 10 on a combat roll banks a Craze! Point, and up to three can be spent afterward for +1d6 each or to dive for cover mid-attack, but never to boost damage, keeping firefights swingy without softening lethality. Damage tracks per body location, so a destroyed limb is disabled and spills further hits into the torso past armor, turning partial wounds into mounting handicaps rather than one shared health bar. Characters are built from specializations, tiered talent trees, ranked skills, and jobs rather than classes, letting any blend of gunplay, melee, and noncombat skill live in one survivor.	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	Social conflict resolves through single skill tests, with no structured subsystem for extended negotiation, interrogation, or social maneuvering. The rules cover realistic firearms, melee, and cybernetics only, with no rules for magic, psychic powers, or other fantastical abilities. Installing cybernetics requires both Surgery and Engineering (Robotics) skill ranks plus high target-number tests, gating the augmentation catalog behind dedicated character investment.	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.