Mage: The Ascension vs Sentinel Comics RPG
Compare Mage: The Ascension and Sentinel Comics RPG side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Mage: The Ascension | Sentinel Comics RPG | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy, Modern, Horror | Modern, Superhero |
| Tags | Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, High-Power, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics | Heroic, Narrative, Superpowers, Combat-Heavy, Cinematic, Theater of the Mind |
| 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 three dice (from powers, qualities, and status) and use the middle result vs. difficulty. Your status zone (green/yellow/red) changes available abilities as you take damage. |
| Dice | d10 dice pool | d4–d12 |
| Complexity | Very High | Medium |
| Accessibility | High | Medium |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | All Rights Reserved | Proprietary |
| 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 | Greater Than Games |
| Year | 2015 | 2022 |
| 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. | Superhero campaigns that feel like reading a comic book, with a unique status-shifting system and structured hero/villain/environment turns. |
| 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. | Captures comic book pacing well, status system creates dramatic arcs, villain/environment turns keep things dynamic, developed published setting |
| 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. | Tightly tied to the Sentinel Comics universe, status dice tracking requires careful bookkeeping, can feel constrained for freeform players |