Iron Valley vs Mage: The Ascension
Compare Iron Valley and Mage: The Ascension side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Iron Valley | Mage: The Ascension | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy, Modern, Horror |
| Tags | Cozy, Solo-Friendly, Rules-Light, Narrative, Beginner-Friendly, CC-Licensed Rules, Random Tables | Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, High-Power, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics |
| Core Mechanic | Roll 1d6 (action die) + stat against 2d10 (challenge dice). Beat both challenge dice for a strong hit, beat one for a weak hit, beat neither for a miss. A simplified hack of Ironsworn with only 10 moves. Promises replace vows, satisfaction replaces XP, and a favor economy drives gift-giving and relationships. Extensive oracle tables (50+ pages) generate characters, events, locations, and heart events for solo play. | 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 + 2d10 | d10 dice pool |
| Complexity | Very Low | Very High |
| Accessibility | Very High | High |
| Runnability | High | Very High |
| License | CC BY 4.0 | 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 | M. Kirin | Onyx Path Publishing |
| Year | 2023 | 2015 |
| Languages | English | English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish |
| Best For | Solo players who want a cozy, low-stakes RPG about building a life in a small town: farming, crafting, making friends, and maybe falling in love, with no combat or death mechanics. | Groups who want long-form modern occult campaigns about reality-shaping power, ideological conflict, and the consequences of imposing belief on the world. |
| Highlights | Fills a cozy niche in TTRPGs: no combat, no death, just wholesome small-town life, extensive oracle tables support solo replayability, simple rules accessible to complete beginners, CC BY 4.0 license encourages sharing and hacking | 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 | Oracle tables can produce repetitive prompts over multiple sessions. Minimal mechanical depth limits replay variety. There is no structured campaign or arc progression. | 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. |