Horse Majeure vs Mage: The Ascension
Compare Horse Majeure and Mage: The Ascension side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Horse Majeure | Mage: The Ascension | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Modern | Fantasy, Modern, Horror |
| Tags | Comedy, Beginner-Friendly, Rules-Light, One-Shot Friendly, Short Sessions, Collaborative, Fast-Paced, Low-Prep | Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, High-Power, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics |
| Core Mechanic | Two players form one horse: Player 1 (front) and Player 2 (back). Each player rolls one d6 simultaneously. The dice must be within one value of each other to succeed. Matching dice is a perfect result. Increasing differences produce mixed success, failure, or critical failure. A 5-off result is a catastrophic failure that rips the costume in half. A Horse Tolerance Meter tracks how suspicious NPCs are: reaching level 5 loses the game. A bonus racing mode uses the same dice mechanic on a track board for up to 4 teams. | 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 | d10 dice pool |
| Complexity | Very Low | Very High |
| Accessibility | Medium | High |
| Runnability | Medium | Very High |
| License | Standard commercial | 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 | Tom Lavery | Onyx Path Publishing |
| Year | 2025 | 2015 |
| Languages | English | English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish |
| Best For | Groups looking for a quick, absurd party game where two players physically coordinate as the front and back halves of a horse costume, hunting for an apple in places horses should not be. | Groups who want long-form modern occult campaigns about reality-shaping power, ideological conflict, and the consequences of imposing belief on the world. |
| Highlights | Unique two-player-per-character mechanic forces coordination between the front and back of a horse costume. Horse Tolerance Meter creates escalating tension as NPCs grow suspicious. Includes three detailed color-coded maps with story hooks: a hospital, a space station, and a haunted house. Includes a separate racing board game mode for even player counts. Print-and-play zine format with standee cutouts included. | 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 | Single-page ruleset with no character advancement, inventory, or campaign structure. Requires exactly even player counts plus a GM. One expansion zine (Stable Conditions) adds items and a bingo board. Humor depends heavily on the group's willingness to commit to the premise. | 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. |