Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying vs Mage: The Ascension

Compare Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying and Mage: The Ascension side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying	Mage: The Ascension
Genre	Modern, Scifi, Superhero	Fantasy, Modern, Horror
Tags	Superpowers, Licensed IP, High-Power, Tactical, Character Building, Character-Driven, Solo-Friendly, Theater of the Mind	Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, High-Power, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics
Core Mechanic	Roll a pool of d6s equal to an attribute and count each 6 as a success. Extra successes buy stunts. After a failed roll or when seeking more successes, push once by rerolling dice that show neither 6 nor 1; each 1 remaining after the push causes stress.	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 dice pool	d10 dice pool
Complexity	High	Very High
Accessibility	High	High
Runnability	Very High	Very High
License	All Rights Reserved	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	Free League Publishing	Onyx Path Publishing
Year	2026	2015
Best For	Groups who want custom superheroes to alternate between destructive team fights and relationship-driven scenes about responsibility, stress, and ordinary life. It suits campaigns ranging from young street heroes to cosmic champions, with a separate solo crisis mode.	Groups who want long-form modern occult campaigns about reality-shaping power, ideological conflict, and the consequences of imposing belief on the world.
Highlights	Extra successes buy comic-book stunts such as knockback and collateral destruction, while players can propose GM-approved improvised stunts. Action scenes threaten Health and generate stress against Resolve, while relationship-centered social scenes restore Resolve and tie personal life to the campaign loop. Crisis Mode supplies response engines and escalating timers for solo superhero play without a Gamemaster.	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	The large power catalog, reaction-heavy zone combat, and critical-injury procedures create a steeper learning curve than the simple dice pool suggests. Brutal injuries, permanent death, and collateral damage are deliberate parts of play, so groups should align on graphic superhero violence. The setting chapter, campaign material, and character profiles draw heavily on Invincible, so groups seeking a generic superhero toolkit may choose to replace them.	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.