Mage: The Ascension vs Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
Compare Mage: The Ascension and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Mage: The Ascension | Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy, Modern, Horror | Fantasy |
| Tags | Freeform Magic, Character Building, Crunchy, High-Power, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Fear & Stress Mechanics | Career-Based, Grimdark, Deadly, Investigation, Corruption, Licensed IP |
| 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 d100 under skill or characteristic. Success Levels measure degree of success by comparing the tens digits of the target and the roll. Advantage accumulates during combat, adding +10 per point to attack tests. |
| Dice | d10 dice pool | d100 |
| Complexity | Very High | Medium |
| Accessibility | High | Low |
| Runnability | Very High | High |
| License | All Rights Reserved | No open license |
| 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 | Cubicle 7 |
| Year | 2015 | 2018 |
| 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 dark, gritty fantasy where ordinary people face extraordinary dangers in a richly detailed setting. The career system creates unique character arcs from rat catcher to witch hunter. |
| 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. | The career system structures advancement around trades, moving a character through jobs that shape both skills and story. Success Levels measure how far a d100 test beats or misses its target, turning every roll into a degree of result. Advantage accumulates during a fight, rewarding momentum with stacking bonuses to attack tests. |
| 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. | The rules assume the Old World setting, so moving WFRP elsewhere means reworking its careers and tone. Comparing tens digits for Success Levels on every test adds a math step that can slow combat. Advancement is career-gated, so a character often must finish or leave a career before branching into new skills. |