Mage: The Ascension vs ShenaniGoblins
Compare Mage: The Ascension and ShenaniGoblins side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Mage: The Ascension | ShenaniGoblins | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy, Modern, Horror | Fantasy |
| Tags | Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, Fiction-First, Character-Driven, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Urban Fantasy | Comedy, Rules-Light, One-Shot Friendly, Beginner-Friendly, Low-Prep, Tag-Based, Player-Only Rolls, Freeform Magic, Character-Driven, CC-Licensed Rules |
| 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. | To Do The Thing, roll one d6 for each Trait the Goblin Master agrees would help. Add one die for a helpful item in the goblin's Pockets, two when the goblin often does this task as part of its Job, and one per helper, then remove one die per character trying to stop the goblin. Each 5 or 6 is a Hit, and the goblin succeeds when the Hits equal or exceed the Goblin Master's difficulty of 1 to 5. Dice hit on 4+ when the action directly serves the goblin's Dream or the player spends 2 Sparks, and only on 6 when the player takes 1 XP for a hindering Trait. Two or more dice showing the same number also trigger Chaos Magic, adding Something Bad on a match of 1–3 or Something Good on a match of 4–6 on top of the roll's result. |
| Dice | d10 dice pool | d6 dice pool |
| Complexity | Very High | Very Low |
| Accessibility | High | Very High |
| Runnability | Very High | High |
| License | All Rights Reserved | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 |
| Third-Party Publishing | Commercial publishing allowed — Storytellers Vault | Noncommercial only — Open license |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $$ | Free |
| Publisher | Onyx Path Publishing | Jon Pessin |
| Year | 2015 | 2025 |
| 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 silly, low-prep fantasy one-shot about incompetent minions, where arguing a goblin's quirks into the dice pool is part of the fun. |
| 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. | Matching dice add a Chaos Magic event on top of the roll's result, so even a successful roll can bring Something Bad. Damage marks off Traits that cannot be rolled until they recover, so an injured goblin loses dice instead of hit points. Fulfilling a goblin's Dream grants an immediate Level and a new Trait, and the player then sets an even more grandiose Dream. |
| 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. | Spark-powered magic has no spell list or cost table, so the Goblin Master judges how many Sparks each change costs. Any pool of seven or more dice is certain to contain a matching pair, which guarantees a Chaos Magic event. The rules include no character death: a goblin with every Trait marked is Out until one recovers. |