Loot and Scoot Incorporated vs Mage: The Ascension
Compare Loot and Scoot Incorporated and Mage: The Ascension side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Loot and Scoot Incorporated | Mage: The Ascension | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Scifi, Horror, Post-Apocalyptic | Fantasy, Modern, Horror |
| Tags | Beginner-Friendly, Comedy, Deadly, Dungeon Crawl, Inventory Management, Mission-Based, Resource Management, Tactical | Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, High-Power, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics |
| Core Mechanic | When an action is uncertain, roll 1d6: a 5–6 fully succeeds, a 2–4 succeeds with a minor complication, and a 1 fails with a major complication. Advantage or disadvantage adds dice and keeps the highest or lowest result. | 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 | Medium | Very High |
| Accessibility | Medium | High |
| Runnability | Low | Very High |
| License | Proprietary | 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 | Ultimate Hyper Games | Onyx Path Publishing |
| Year | 2025 | 2015 |
| Languages | English | English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish |
| Best For | Groups that want cooperative extraction missions built around real-time pressure, hazardous grid movement, and campaign bookkeeping. | Groups who want long-form modern occult campaigns about reality-shaping power, ideological conflict, and the consequences of imposing belief on the world. |
| Highlights | Timed Mode uses a real countdown for salvage shifts, then converts the final escape into a 30-turn countdown. Encumbrance ties each recovered item's size and carrying method to movement, forcing the crew to balance profit against escape speed. Death triggers automated cloning that consumes organic material and CloneChips, keeping lethal hazards in play without ending the campaign. | 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 salvage phase is designed around mapped grid movement, and Timed Mode requires active timer management. Characters begin without mechanical build choices or an advancement track, so equipment and optional cloning mishaps carry most long-term differentiation. Campaign play centers on debt and hauling logistics, making economic bookkeeping part of every cycle. | 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. |