Mage: The Ascension vs Mausritter
Compare Mage: The Ascension and Mausritter side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Mage: The Ascension | Mausritter | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy, Modern, Horror | Fantasy |
| Tags | Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, High-Power, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics | Rules-Light, Inventory Management, Hexcrawl, Dungeon Crawl, Sandbox, Exploration, Deadly, Attacks Always Hit, Gritty |
| Core Mechanic | 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. | Roll d20 equal to or under attribute (STR, DEX, WIL) to avoid danger. Attacks always hit: roll weapon damage directly, reduced by armor. Slot-based inventory where items and conditions compete for limited space. |
| Dice | d10 dice pool | d20 |
| Complexity | Very High | Very Low |
| Accessibility | High | Very High |
| Runnability | Very High | Medium |
| License | All Rights Reserved | Third-party license available |
| Third-Party Publishing | Commercial publishing allowed — Storytellers Vault | Not yet researched |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $$ | Free |
| Publisher | Onyx Path Publishing | Losing Games |
| Year | 2015 | 2023 |
| Languages | English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish | English, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Italian, Polish, Dutch, Spanish, Russian, Czech, Finnish |
| Best For | Groups who want long-form modern occult campaigns about reality-shaping power, ideological conflict, and the consequences of imposing belief on the world. | Whimsical yet perilous adventures as tiny mice exploring a vast world of cats, owls, and crumbling ruins. Great for groups who want elegant OSR play with a charming tone. |
| Highlights | 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. | Card-based inventory system tracks gear visually, detailed hexcrawl and adventure site toolboxes, free PDF, approachable tone with real danger, instant character creation |
| Considerations | 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. | Condition cards can stack harshly, light on long-campaign advancement structure, card-based inventory requires printing physical materials, limited guidance for non-dungeon adventures |