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Mage Made Easy: Advice from That Damn Mage Guy $10.00
Average Rating:4.7 / 5
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Mage Made Easy: Advice from That Damn Mage Guy
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Mage Made Easy: Advice from That Damn Mage Guy
Publisher: White Wolf
by Dominic C. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/29/2022 12:47:09

That's precisely THE resource I wish I had when I first got into Mage!

The section about Approaches really help figure out how/why your particular mage does what they do in terms of how they use magick. It distills archetypical ways of employing magick and it then helps connect your character with the setting's factions... or even how to play a game with toning down the setting and metaplot.

Easy and enjoyable to read, perfect length and format.

An absolute must.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Mage Made Easy: Advice from That Damn Mage Guy
Publisher: White Wolf
by Zantigui D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/13/2021 17:28:22

Un must have pour tout jeune Conteur désirant masteuriser à Mage. Clairement, être maître du jeu peut des fois être déroutant mais ce bouquin répond aux principales questions qu'on se pose: comment démarrer, quel type de jdr débuter, doit-on mélanger toutes les traditions, etc... C'est du pratico-pratique d'un Concepteur de jeu à un MJ.

Edit: Merci à Phil d'en avoir autorisé la traduction.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Mage Made Easy: Advice from That Damn Mage Guy
Publisher: White Wolf
by DSC T. G. C. _. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/15/2020 09:39:48

Phil Brucato brings us his advice on how to streamline Mage to make it easier for new & veteran players. This book has been reviewed by quiet a few people before us, so we won't go into a lot of details as they have already covered it. What we do want to say, is this book does a great job of stripping a way some of the more cumersomes ascepts of mage, and providing optional rules for dealing with things like paradox. Although we would have liked a little more break down on the spheres, the book is definetely a must have for all Mage players.

The Tabletop Gaming Club strongly recommends this book.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Mage Made Easy: Advice from That Damn Mage Guy
Publisher: White Wolf
by Timothy B. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 09/01/2020 10:37:13

Originally posted here: http://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2020/09/welcome-september-night-shift-and-mages.html

Last night I was reminded about a game I really love and I really should do more with. Satyros Phil Brucato had posted about a book he had done and it really reminded me how much I love Mage. Both Mage: The Ascension and Mage: The Awakening. Though I lean more towards Mage: The Ascension. But the post was about his book, Mage Made Easy: Advice from That Damn Mage Guy.

Part of the Storytellers Vault (a bit like DMSGuild, but for White Wolf/Onyx Path games) this book is about...well...Mage, made easy.

Now. Anyone who has ever played any version of Mage is likely to be incredulous about now. I mean, Mage is many, many, many things. Sometimes too many. But easy? No. Easy is never a word used with Mage. But Phil is the Mage expert. Mage: The Ascension 20th is close to 700 pages and he wrote the bulk of that. So if he is telling me that MME is something I can read in 60 pages, well I am going to pay attention.

And I am glad I did.

While I am conversant in most Mage matters, I do not by any stretch consider myself an expert, or even an advanced player. I am quite enthusiastic though. I found Mage Made Easy to be a nice breeze guide of solid advice that did two things right away for me. First, it made me want to play Mage: The Ascension again and secondly it gave me solid advice that is good for many modern supernatural games.

The book is very heavily focused on Mage and Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary in particular.

It shows you how to use the vast Mage meta-plot OR discard it altogether (that's me!). It gives you some fantastic archetypes to try out and even solid advice on Mage's biggest issue, Paradox.

Plus the art, as expected, is fantastic.

While I do say there is good advice for any modern supernatural game, the advice is also very Mage specific. This means to use this book it helps to have a basic working knowledge of the Mage RPG. Once you have that then translating this advice to your own game, be it Mage or something else, is pretty easy. BUT that is going beyond the scope of the book and not the fault of this book if it doesn't work out. But advice like "start small" or "start with the characters" is ALWAYS good advice.

While the focus is on Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Ed. (Mage20), I found there was good advice here to apply to my particular favorite flavor of the game in Mage The Sorcerers Crusade.

Makes me wish I had a Mage game going, to be honest!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Mage Made Easy: Advice from That Damn Mage Guy
Publisher: White Wolf
by Alexandre K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/26/2020 13:33:06

Mage, Finally Made Easy!

This book is a godsend for every Mage veteran out there. It takes away all the nice-but-superflous fluff from the game and makes it a lean mean gaming machine. Gone are the cartoonish Traditions, and in are methods to teach you how to build your own Paradigm based on Approaches that emulate beliefes you can observe and adapt from real life.

And a bunch of other optional rules to make your life easier, like faster Paradox calculations and whatnot. This is the book I have asked online for ten years to be made, and it's finally here. Go buy it if you love Mage: The Ascension, it is a must have.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Mage Made Easy: Advice from That Damn Mage Guy
Publisher: White Wolf
by Brian A. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/21/2020 16:07:44

Thank you Sayros!
This is a great tool and really helpful for someone getting started with Mage. I trully love the approches vs faction splts for character design. Its such a great way look at character design. I can easily see using this as an ongoing tool for charater creation.

100% great purchase



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Mage Made Easy: Advice from That Damn Mage Guy
Publisher: White Wolf
by Richard B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/26/2020 16:33:30

TL;DR the book covers what the title says and has some useful suggestions. If you are a Mage fan this book has ideas for you. If players/STs are struggling then I definitely recommend this book. If you are a Mage expert, maybe this book is just a 3/5 for you, since experts likely have many proven dynamic pitches, plus the ability to quickly adapt and personalise chronicles; but maybe they’d still get something from this book, or enjoy reading more Mage things.

For those wanting more details, here is a deep dive. From my experience, players new to Mage typically fit into one of the following non-exhaustive groups:

A) Those that need help with the scale and implications of the setting. Character creation alone introduces a lot of Factions; does a player need an overview of each?

B) Those that struggle with the concept of what Spheres can do, plus maybe the rest of Mage’s metaphysics: Paradox and its many manifestations, the different realms, and in particular the topic of what counts as Coincidental / Witnesses / Vulgar magick.

C) Those that also that struggle with A + B.

D) Those that struggle with neither.

For people wanting more advice for dealing with Group B, I can appreciate why some might give the book a 3/5. However, from a certain P.o.V., Satyros does provide advice about the Spheres, from Focus over Spheres, ways to reconsider Witnesses and Vulgar Magick, different ways to use Paradox, to highlighting centring a game low level characters and stories, on more mundane but personal matters. My advice is don’t be quick to dismiss how these threads interact with each other.

Some might think advising people to strip back the scale of Mage, especially given the vast number of books, never mind just looking at the size of Mage 20th, is a simple and maybe even useless answer. I disagree, years ago I used to talk about the rich setting and the fun creativity of the Spheres, some of the players admitted to being intimidated before they began. When I returned to Mage I had an easier time persuading some new players to explore the game by focusing on the personal, not trying to summarise lots of factions, history, or metaplot.

I particularly liked the Arcane Approaches section. Whilst some may view this section as being weak or even obvious, maybe in hindsight it is. Personally, I think it helps make things easier, especially when combined with the rest of the book.

Will players in Group D benefit from this book? The title itself then should be an obvious indication to them about the book’s goal. It seems unlikely that Group D will see this book as a must read; I don’t think it is for them, but if someone enjoys reading Mage books, then I’d recommend this.

Could this book have gone further for those in Group B? Maybe, but I’m not sure more explanations will achieve what some are after. I’ve not experienced long-term problems with people in Group B, since over the course of a chronicle they have learned their characters range and explored different potential; but, I appreciate others may have different experiences. There are other products available that look at the Spheres, Nodes, etc., and maybe this work will inspire another product focusing on the details that some are after.

I enjoyed the book and I think this book succeeds in its goals, 5 drivethrurpg, 4 on Goodreads. :-)



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Mage Made Easy: Advice from That Damn Mage Guy
Publisher: White Wolf
by Yui F. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/23/2020 07:42:46

less a 'making mage easy' and more 'making mage's metaplot/setting simpler'. a good handle if you want to run a mage one-shot for people who don't have much experience with RPGs/old world of darkness. it doesn't make the mechanics any simpler, but it does have some decent ideas if you want to take out one aspect of mage that you find irritating.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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Mage Made Easy: Advice from That Damn Mage Guy
Publisher: White Wolf
by Shawn B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/22/2020 22:06:16

If your looking for ways to get other people into Mage this is a great guide. There are several bits of information given on how to "trim" down alot of the content and still keep the heart of Mage beating. I recommend picking this up if your wanting to run a mage game thats lite on metaplot and gives more of a focus to the "style" of magic that your wanting to portray without worry over picking the right Tradition. Theres plenty of other options for handling paradox, seekings, the avatar/genius, and more but ill leave that to you to discover for yourself!!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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