Mage: The Ascension vs Porkin' the Void
Compare Mage: The Ascension and Porkin' the Void side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Mage: The Ascension | Porkin' the Void | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy, Modern, Horror | Scifi, Horror |
| Tags | Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, Fiction-First, Character-Driven, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Urban Fantasy | Gonzo, Comedy, Grimdark, Ship-Based, Space Opera, Deadly |
| Core Mechanic | Roll an Attribute-plus-Ability pool of d10s and count dice meeting the difficulty, usually 6. Each rolled 1 cancels a success. A roll botches only when no die meets the difficulty and at least one die shows 1. Magick instead rolls Arete, the mage's enlightenment rating, against a difficulty based on the highest Sphere used and whether the effect violates ordinary reality. Successes determine the effect's extent. | Roll d20 +/- ability score against a Difficulty Rating (DR 6–18). Equal to or greater than the DR succeeds. Five abilities (Agility, Strength, Toughness, Presence, and Technology) each range from -3 to +3. Players roll all dice: attacks (Strength for melee, Presence for ranged) and defense (Agility), all against DR 12 by default. Enemies never roll. Natural 20 is a crit; natural 1 is a fumble. Omens (luck points) can deal max damage, reroll dice, reduce incoming damage, or neutralize crits and fumbles. |
| Dice | d10 dice pool | d20 |
| Complexity | Very High | Medium |
| Accessibility | High | Medium |
| Runnability | Very High | Low |
| License | All Rights Reserved | MÖRK BORG Third Party License |
| Third-Party Publishing | Commercial publishing allowed — Storytellers Vault | Not yet researched |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $$ | $$ |
| Publisher | Onyx Path Publishing | Yog'du Games |
| Year | 2015 | 2022 |
| Languages | English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish | English |
| Best For | Groups who want long modern occult campaigns about conflicting beliefs and the consequences of reshaping reality. | Groups who want a gonzo, darkly comedic sci-fi game where anthropomorphic pig-scum explore a doomed universe in styships, with Mork Borg's lethal simplicity expanded by cybernetics, psionics, and full spaceship creation and combat rules. |
| Highlights | Nine Spheres combine into improvised magical effects beyond a fixed spell list. A mage's beliefs determine the practices and instruments that make those effects possible. Concealing magick within plausible events reduces the risk of reality's backlash. | Full spaceship creation and combat system spanning 50+ pages, from hull design and modules to weapons and salvage. Ten optional character classes with randomized specialties, plus a classless option. Three subsystems layered onto the Mork Borg chassis: pigskins (techno-scrolls), hackable cybernetic implants, and six psionic disciplines. Extensive setting with multiple galactic empires, rival megacorporations, heretical cults, and an apocalyptic countdown. |
| Considerations | Improvised magick requires the group to agree on what an effect can accomplish before rolling. Accumulated Paradox can injure a mage or trap them in a distorted reality. Cabals need shared motives to keep incompatible faction loyalties from pulling the campaign apart. | 278-page rulebook is dense for a Mork Borg derivative, requiring substantially more reading than the base system. Content warning for pervasive profanity, crude humor, and deliberately vulgar themes that may not suit all groups. No free rules or quickstart: $15 PDF is the minimum entry point, though a free character generator (SwineBerther) exists online. Spaceship rules add significant complexity beyond what Mork Borg players may expect. |