KULT: Divinity Lost vs Mage: The Ascension

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

	KULT: Divinity Lost	Mage: The Ascension
Genre	Horror, Modern	Fantasy, Modern, Horror
Tags	Atmospheric, Character-Driven, Dark Fantasy, Deadly, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Fiction-First, Investigation, Lore-Heavy, Playbook-Driven, Player-Only Rolls	Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, High-Power, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics
Core Mechanic	When a Move triggers, roll 2d10 plus the named Attribute. A total of 15 or more is a complete success, 10–14 succeeds with complications, and 9 or less lets the GM make a Move. The GM never rolls 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	2d10	d10 dice pool
Complexity	High	Very High
Accessibility	High	High
Runnability	High	Very High
License	All Rights Reserved	All Rights Reserved
Third-Party Publishing	Noncommercial only — Helmgast Fan Content Policy	Commercial publishing allowed — Storytellers Vault
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Cost	$$	$$
Publisher	Helmgast AB	Onyx Path Publishing
Year	2018	2015
Best For	Groups seeking adult modern occult horror where personal secrets drive investigation and dangerous confrontations. It suits a GM ready to build evolving threats and a table committed to explicit boundaries.	Groups who want long-form modern occult campaigns about reality-shaping power, ideological conflict, and the consequences of imposing belief on the world.
Highlights	Dark Secrets link each character's traumatic or occult past to the GM's Intrigue Map, turning backstory into campaign pressure. Stability turns horror exposure into persistent conditions, culminating in a powerful GM Move when a character is Broken. Threat write-ups and milestone procedures give the GM a concrete engine for escalating a conspiracy.	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 game deliberately addresses sexual violence, torture, and psychological harm, so a group should agree on boundaries before play. Campaign play asks the GM to tie each character's history into an Intrigue Map and keep it developing between sessions. The extensive cosmology and the optional rules for magic and Enlightened characters create a large reference load.	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.