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M20 Victorian Age Mage
by Balazs C. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 08/15/2023 18:55:44

I quite enjoyed this romp through alternative Victorian history. Does it have a liberal flavour? Definitely. But, that does not make the situations and individuals cited any less factual. If anything, this book made me delve more deeply into The Victorian Era and want to learn more about British Imperialism. I have discovered many interesting things about those times from this and other actual historical sources that were not covered in school.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
M20 Victorian Age Mage
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Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Quickstart
by Balazs C. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 08/15/2023 18:01:05

The M20 basic mechanics are concisely and usefully presented. The sample characters and story glorify homelessness. If your fantasy is scrounging for food and not showering, have at it! But, it doesn't sound all that enlightened ...



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Quickstart
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Crucible of Legend
by Michael T. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 08/14/2023 11:59:52

I have a mixed bag review for this one. Let's start in the section where all 10 of the Exalt types are listed. SOME exalts get quick character stat blocks and SOME don't. It feels like this is Onyx Path saying "We've got QCs for this type of exalt in another supplement, go buy THAT one to get that content." When some reports were stating that all 10 exalt types were going to be getting the QC treatment in this book, I'm left feeling a bit short-changed. The QCs we DID get though are great! Next are the expanded naval combat rules. Now, I'll be frank and say that I haven't yet experienced naval combat myself in 3e either as a player or as a storyteller. However, it's clear in the Core book, that naval combat as written isn't intended to blend very well with standard combat. In fact, I've come upon folks stating that the clunkiness of naval combat can make standard combat look quick and simple by comparison. So I was hoping to see an alternate ruleset for naval combat similar to how we get an alternate Crafts ruleset. Instead, we get add-on rules for the clurrent clunky naval system in hopes to make it less clucky. The jury is still out on that one. The alternate Crafts system does look promising though. I do like the alternate character creation/advancement options. I'm hoping these show the potential I think I'm seeing to bring in new players into existing campaigns and still let them feel meaningful and powerful as they advance to catch up to the other characters (in XP if not in power level). I also appreciate the recommended difficulty levels for higher powered characters. As a storyteller, I've always found it challenging to set appropriate difficulties for my players. I'm either setting difficulties too high and my PCs get overwhelmed and nearly die way too easily, or I set it too low and they plow through what I was planning on being a challenging encounter with absolute ease. Mostly a failure on my part, but I guess I never realized I could, or even should, set difficulties as high as 15 in some instances. Final thoughts, some of the content feels more thought out than other stuff. The well-thought out stuff is great. The other stuff is, meh. Exalted shouldn't feel "meh".



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Crucible of Legend
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Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition Storyteller Screen
by Matthew H. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 08/12/2023 12:13:44

same issues as the other storyteller screens, no print, three panels, at least it's cheap



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition Storyteller Screen
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Crucible of Legend
by David S. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 08/11/2023 15:19:33

The quick summary is, this felt like a collection of not very well thought through ideas just half-heartedly collected into a book. If this was for free, I would rate this a 4. For a released product, this is an insult.

The first segment of the book covers general mood and tonal advice. Its alright, but for some begginer players could be useful (like how to treat the wonderous but also extremly dangerous setting depending on player). Its specific for Exalted but lacks some of the nicer sort of advice that was found in the D&D 4e player specific advice. It tends to flow into one another and lacks nice separations that other RPGs tend to have for topics but its mostly functional.

Then came safety tools and finger wagging about how you should be playing. For the people that need these sorts of safety tools, Im pretty sure you could still get them elsewhere and for free. I will refrain from commenting on quality as I don't need or care for said tools.

The alternate rules and homebrew advice is barren and shallow. I understand that an alternate crafting system may not have space for converting every craft charm, but this puts basically no thought into the idea besides "Just make it an extended roll", which is only a useful tool for the most absolute novice of a storyteller. This "alternate" craft system is about as in-depth as asking you to not use the core crafting system at all.

Other systems are shallower then it, and again verge on about 3/4ths of a page each. Some topics have short collections of alternate rules, but very few put any thought into how to assist converting them into practice for play or actually assisting balancing for even a Experienced Storyteller. For a novice it would be just a suggestion. In terms of editing the "Systems" or suggestions just flow into one another page by page instead of having nice separated pages of context for ease of reading. But this is endemic of 3e, but some of the worst here.

At the end there are some new Exalt previews and some minor advice for running games specific to Exalt types which is largely already found in their own splats.

Art wise its fine. I don't find it that exciting or really emphasises the uniqueness of Exalted as a setting (possibly due to the developers deep shame about its anime inspirations, which they make sure to share with you in this book), but it wasn't terrible or anything.

In the end, for very novice STs this might have glints of neat ideas you haven't thought of before. For anybody else, the work of individual fans far supersedes the work put into this book in terms of actual in-depth content.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Crucible of Legend
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Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Storyteller Screen
by Matthew H. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 08/10/2023 05:40:22

This suffers from a slightly worse problem than many of the other storyteller screens you can find here, as unlike the other OWOD games it damn near needed a fourth section so you can have a quick reference renown chart, it doesn't even attempt a small scale one.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Storyteller Screen
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Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Storytellers Screen
by Matthew H. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 08/08/2023 07:46:02

eh, it's useful and it's at least cheap but the fact that its only a three slide screen as opposed to four and the lack of any physical relase at all is aggravating



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Storytellers Screen
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M20 Melody Through the Mirrorshade Lens
by John B. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 08/05/2023 09:51:05

So, I finished reading M20 Melody Through the Mirrorshade Lens. While beauty is in the eye of the beholder, my favorite of the four tales is easily Fell Winds by Travis Legge.

(Unfortunately, Fell Winds was the only one of the four stories which really impressed me. The other three tales reduced the quality of the anthology down to two stars for me. I just didn't get the impression the other three writers were showcasing their best work. Still, at the low price of $3.99, you can afford to take a chance on this book's four tales.)

As for Fell Winds, I greatly appreciate the author's choice of having a big chunk of the plot occur in 1848 A.D. Antarctica, allowing for a Technocracy adventure where Virtual Adepts and Etherites were still members of the Technocracy.

Granted, I’m already a fan of the timeless premise of a small number of explorers investigating a mysterious location. Likewise, I’m a sucker for the dilemma of do-we-bring-it-back-for-autopsy versus do-we-nuke-it-from-orbit-it's-the-only-way-to-be-sure.

(My ONLY complaint about Fell Winds is the pair of high-tech contact lenses. Thankfully, the writing does so much so well that these contact lenses didn’t ruin the rest of the story for me.)

Fell Winds also demonstrates several great examples of how to improve a story by adding sensory details. The tale does a good job of steampunk without getting cheesy, of 1950s sci-fi movie tropes without getting tiresome, of sci-fi/action/horror without getting edgelord militaristic, and of Mage without getting dystopian.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
M20 Melody Through the Mirrorshade Lens
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Chronicles of Darkness
by David H. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/30/2023 21:19:30

Very well put together, solid binding, and arrived in greatcondition



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Chronicles of Darkness
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The World Below Ashcan Edition
by Phil K. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/22/2023 07:51:58

Such a tight, excellent introduction to this world. I can't wait to see the larger world, but most importantly I cant wait to play a session!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
The World Below Ashcan Edition
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The World Below Ashcan Edition
by William H. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/19/2023 13:10:03

This is a well constructed campaign setting prefaced by a story in which the population is driven underground where they are not masters of their domain. This setup allows the GM some flexibility to fill in the gaps, maybe adopting a D&D approach, something post apocolyptic, or even something Lovecraftian, given the nature of the creatures described within these pages. With that flexibility, there's enough in the rules to provide plenty of guidance, so the authors have struck a good balance between defining the world and leaving some things to your imagination. The artwork is a welcome accompaniment and stylistically matches the written content, certain to help your players solidify within their minds the images you're describing. As the industry releases more role playing material into the market, it's great to see fresh ideas and approaches from smaller groups with a passion for creating fresh ideas and approaches. The World Below is a worthy addition to the pantheon.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The World Below Ashcan Edition
by Eric B. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/17/2023 15:09:30

Great writing and a fun world! My friends and I really enjoy these indi roleplaying games, looking forward to exploring this world!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Exalted 3rd Edition
by Timothy W. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/15/2023 09:21:41

This game is fantastic. The setting is filled with detailed lore and an interesting premise. The game allows powerful characters from the start with the capability of growing yet more powerful, but it balances things in a way that even very powerful characters remain playable rather than totally game breaking.

Naturally, I have some quibbles. If you add on the expansions, the Solars feel generic while the other types become special. Also, there are too many charms to keep track of and many of those are less than inspiring.

Still, while it is not a perfect game, it is definitely highly enjoyable and I would personally recommend it for anyone that enjoys dramatic high fantasy.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Exalted 3rd Edition
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Tome of the Pentacle
by Charlotte C. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/14/2023 15:00:26

There is so much mage fuel in this book! I would STRONGLY recommend it to mage storytellers. ToP critically examines mage culture and gives tools to explore magic through the lens of people throughout the world, not just in North America / Europe.

The hits:

Tables to randomly give mage characters Character Traits; Aspirations; and Obsessions that drive their interactions.

1. Language: The writers are consciously opening a door to make Mage the Awakening a more inclusive and culturally conscious community. It is telling that the second page has a panel on Appropriation and Cultural Concerns. New lexicon's to address game concepts like mana and column/cabal/coven add depth and relatability to the setting. The writers make it clear that the implied diversity of magical traditions referred to in the Mage core books needs to be made explicit.

2. History: The first chapter provides a history of the magical world focusing on cultures throughout the world far better than any of my social studies classes. It highlights the diversity of practices and organizations throughout history and how the consolidation into core rule books the Diamond Orders was not a universal not instantaneous development. Many of the big takeaways from the 1st edition Factions books are established into canon in the timeline lending validity to ALL of the first edition faction sourcebooks being accurate in 2e, at the Storyteller’s discretion. Crucially this section also begins the process of Naming the “Nameless Orders” that had never been highlighted by ANY first edition book.

3. Worldwide: Further exploring the world in Chapters Two, Tome of the Pentacle lays out cities from around the world and gives mysteries and traditions from around the world that enable a game to be set in those locations. No longer will the many international fans of the gameline be stuck running games in Boston! There is a section for region and a separate section that reveals cities Awakened populations have been gathering. These aren’t just places where magic happens; these are HUBS! The cities given include: Accra Ghana; Alexandria Egypt; Baghdad Iraq; Banff Canada; Berlin Germany; Bloemfontein South Africa; Brazzaville Republic of the Congo; Budapest Hungary; Buenos Aires Argentina; Burlington Vermont USA; Cap-Haitien Haiti; Cotonou Benin; Dili Timor-Leste; Dwarka India; Florence Italy; Haifa Israel; Harbin China; Hilo Hawaii; Karachi Pakistan; Krakow Poland; Kunming China; Kyzylorda Oblysy Kazakhstan; Male Maldives; Maracaibo Venezuela; Merida Mexico; Monaco; Monteverde Costa Rica; Narok County Kenya; Nassau The Bahamas; Ndola Zambia; Okinawa Japan; Paramaribo Suriname; Prague Czechia; Qazvin Iran; Quito Ecuador; Reykjavik Iceland; San Juan Puerto Rico; São Paulo, Brazil; Seattle USA; Singapore; St. John New Brunswick Canada; Tamuning Guam; Toowoomba Australia; Ulaanbaatar Mongolia; Ushuaia Argentina; Vimy France; Yakutsk Russia; and Zanzibar Tanzania

4. Outerworlds: This book brings in Astral Realms lore and visits extra dimensional spaces

5. Magical Laws: Chapter Three updates the Laws part of Sanctum and Sigil to 2e. There is discussion of how many Awakened outside of the Diamond orders still embrace the gold laws but may have VERY different Silver and Bronze laws

The Miss

1. New York City After dedicating most of the book to diversity and inclusion, Tome of the Pentacle then gives all of Chapter 5 to one city that never sleeps. ToP does focus on the original Lenapehoking who lived in the area before being pushed westward and on the diverse communities of the city. It fleshes out the city in a way that it does not do for the other hubs giving NYC named NPCs and as many pages as all the other mage cities combined. While many of the concepts and characters could be modified to be used in other locations I would have preferred to see a chapter dedicated to any other city on the list instead. The resources in this chapter would make it easy for a novice storyteller to start a game there. This chapter pushes starting storytellers into starting in NYC. If you want to know about NYC mage societies I suggest you go watch Occultist Anonymous instead of reading this chapter anyways.

My overall take away: 9.5/10. Buy it. Show Paradox that we love this gameline. Mage the Awakening provides a lens to critically examine the world, including itself.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Tome of the Pentacle
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Changeling: The Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition
by Avram S. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/11/2023 09:38:49

This is an excellent edition of a great game. In many ways Changeling was always many games rolled into one--this game gives you the tools to play the one you want. It includes the rules for European fae as well as those non-European kithain. Changeling is a worthy game for playing modern fantasy.

Of especial interest to me are the new additions. I am a huge fan of the Autumn Sidhe. Also noteworthy is the inclusion of new adversaries in the thallain.

The biggest flaw in this book derives from its advantages--its very comprehensiveness makes it somewhat unwieldy to use and difficult to find things. The PDF is indexed and searchable, which mitigates much of that.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Changeling: The Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition
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