Mage: The Ascension vs Tenra Bansho Zero
Compare Mage: The Ascension and Tenra Bansho Zero side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Mage: The Ascension | Tenra Bansho Zero | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy, Modern, Horror | Fantasy, Scifi |
| Tags | Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, Fiction-First, Character-Driven, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Urban Fantasy | Drama, Character-Driven, Roleplay-Heavy, Corruption, One-Shot Friendly, Anime, Mecha, Cinematic, High-Power, Strong GM Support |
| 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 number of d6 equal to an attribute. Each die showing the skill level or lower counts as a success. The GM announces how many successes are needed, usually between 1 and 6, before the roll. In an opposed roll, the defender's successes set the number the attacker must beat. Kiai points can add dice or raise a general skill before a roll, or buy extra successes after it. |
| Dice | d10 dice pool | d6 dice pool |
| Complexity | Very High | High |
| Accessibility | High | Medium |
| Runnability | Very High | High |
| License | All Rights Reserved | Proprietary |
| Third-Party Publishing | Commercial publishing allowed — Storytellers Vault | No verified route found |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $$ | $ |
| Publisher | Onyx Path Publishing | Kotodama Heavy Industries |
| Year | 2015 | 2013 |
| Languages | English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish | English, Japanese, Spanish |
| Best For | Groups who want long modern occult campaigns about conflicting beliefs and the consequences of reshaping reality. | Groups who want a complete anime-style drama of samurai, sorcerers and mecha pilots in one long session, with the whole table rewarding memorable performances. |
| 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. | Aiki chits awarded by the table for memorable in-character play convert into the Kiai that buys dice and successes. Spent Kiai builds up as Karma, which players pay down by rewriting or sublimating their character's Fates. The Zero Act gives each character an opening scene and a GM-assigned Destiny, setting up a story meant to finish in one 4 to 6 hour session. |
| 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. | A character whose Karma is still above 108 at the end of an intermission normally becomes a GM-controlled Asura and leaves play. The book has no dedicated army-scale battle rules, though individual combat and Strategy rolls can still matter within a war. Scenes usually include only two or three PCs, so players spend much of the session as the audience or voicing NPCs. |