Mage: The Ascension vs Starving Folly
Compare Mage: The Ascension and Starving Folly side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Mage: The Ascension | Starving Folly | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy, Modern, Horror | Horror |
| Tags | Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, Fiction-First, Character-Driven, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Urban Fantasy | Fear & Stress Mechanics, Survival, Gritty, Resource Management, Character Building, Classless, Tactical, Combat-Heavy, One-Shot Friendly, 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. | Roll a d10, add the relevant ability score and any skill that applies, and meet or beat a Difficulty Class the GM sets on a scale from 4 for an easy task to 15 for an almost impossible one. A weapon attack rolls a d10 plus the weapon's ability score against the target's Evasion and, on a hit, deals the weapon's listed damage. Spending a Hunger Token rerolls a failed Body or Agility roll, and spending a Sanity Token rerolls a failed Mind, Senses, or Sociability roll. |
| Dice | d10 dice pool | d10 |
| Complexity | Very High | Medium |
| Accessibility | High | Very High |
| Runnability | Very High | Low |
| License | All Rights Reserved | CC BY-NC-SA |
| 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 | TheCappy01 |
| Year | 2015 | 2026 |
| 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 free, setting-agnostic horror game for one-shots or short campaigns, built around a gradual reveal of the threat and survival costs that reach beyond hit points. It fits tables that enjoy building characters from a wide menu of backgrounds and perks. |
| 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. | Scars land on specific body parts, and a permanent -5 Scar costs the character that part. Each time a character drops to 0 Sanity Tokens, the GM gives them a new Phobia that can drain a Sanity Token once per session. A character's base Actions equal Agility plus 1, and unspent Actions can be saved to act again later in the round. |
| 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. | Standard rest clears Temporary Scars but leaves permanent Scars in place. Running out of Hunger or Sanity Tokens normally imposes -3 on rolls tied to that token's abilities, and a standard rest restores just one token of each type. Whether the six Doctrines of magic appear in a campaign, and how characters earn Affinity to use them, are left for the GM to decide. |