Mage: The Ascension vs SAKE

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

	Mage: The Ascension	SAKE
Genre	Fantasy, Modern, Horror	Fantasy
Tags	Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, High-Power, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics	Crunchy, Modular, Domain Management, Sandbox, Ship-Based, Faction Play, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based
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 + Skill Ranks + attribute modifier against a Difficulty Level. Characters are built with a point-buy system using Experience Points to purchase Skill Ranks, abilities, Health Points, and spells. In combat, the attacker rolls d20 + Attack against the defender's d20 + Parrying, with weapon damage reduced by armour's Damage Reduction. Sorcery uses Spellpoints and is divided into six schools, each with its own risks: failed casting rolls can trigger consequences from exhaustion to madness to summoning hostile spirits.
Dice	d10 dice pool	d20
Complexity	Very High	Very High
Accessibility	High	High
Runnability	Very High	Very High
License	All Rights Reserved	All rights reserved
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	Seventh Son Publishing
Year	2015	2025
Languages	English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish	English
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.	Groups who want a comprehensive sandbox toolkit that seamlessly blends traditional adventuring with domain-level strategy: managing kingdoms, trading across oceans, waging wars, and navigating a detailed early-modern caste society.
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.	Four modular systems (Adventuring, Sorcery/Otherworld, Domain/Warfare, and Trade/Seafaring) each function independently and integrate with the others. Domain management operates through quarterly Domain Turns with taxes, construction, random events, espionage, and faction politics. Overseas trade system models supply, demand, and piracy across a mapped world with named trade regions and goods. Magic carries real consequences: learning spells risks madness, and failed castings can summon hostile spirits or damage the caster's soul.
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.	590-page rulebook requires significant reading investment before play, even with modular adoption. Character creation can take several hours for first-time players. The default setting (Asteanic World) is deeply integrated into many rules: the caste system, trade routes, and political factions assume that setting.