Instead of jumping right in I'd like to start off with something I didn't detract stars for; the layout. Between the noise ridden backgrounds and the placement of Tradition/Convention symbols behind the text in their respective chapters it makes for a very hard read for those of us with visual issues. And yes the M20 core book did have the symbols behind their text as well, but they at least had it faded to the point where it wasn't as much of an issue. That said screen readers don't have that many issues with the pdf outside of the pronunciation of certain words. We aren't the main demographic, I get that, but oh boy are the backgrounds a shift from the less chaotic ones they usually use.

My gripe instead comes from this book boiling Mage down into Traditions good Order of Reason bad. This went as far as attributing some of the horrific things the Traditions have done to the Order of Reason instead. Sure, the Celestial Chorus and the Order of Hermes are mentioned doing bad things and the Verbena are mentioned offhand once during one of those segments, but it pales in comparison to what it was. For me one of the main draws of the system was the fact that there were no good guys. The Traditions were abusive and power hungry (and were even more so back when they were at the top). Likewise the Order of Reason/Technocracy had similar failings, only with less infighting. It was very much a pick your poison situation with many mages choosing their respective sides based on which reality best benefitted their particular utilization of magic. Yes there were good aligned characters, but there were not nearly enough of them to try to claim the Traditions are good in general.

That paragraph alone took it down to three stars for me. The additional star was lost due to the overuse of certain terms. Yes they are descriptive and do detail things that were going on at the time, but they really don't need to be repeated as frequently as they are in this pdf.

My personal advice is to grab Sorcerer Revised instead. I'll elaborate why in bullet points.

• First up are the lore changes. If this just stuck to the ones in desperate need of revisal I wouldn't have an issue, but that isn't the case. For example Maison Liban went from breaking away from House Tremere due to recognizing how messed up the actions taken were and promptly being hunted by both the Tremere and the Order of Hermes to being complacent in said actions and only fleeing due to the Order of Hermes initiating their purge. There are other examples as well, but if I were to detail every lore based discrepancy this would go on for far too long.

• Second is the attempted nerfing. No, this isn't a lamentation over how sorcerers aren't as powerful before. Instead my objection is that those who adapted it gave not a care about balance. In an attempt to tone down the quite powerful hedge magic paths they rendered the psychics nigh unplayable. Between the blanket willpower cost across both forms of sorcery and the inability of psychics to use quintessence without homebrew in this edition there is zero reason to play the innate casters. Sure there was a major power difference in earlier editions as well, but this just widened the gap by the metaphorical length of a football field.

But don't fret. There are two other easily obtainable 20th Anniversary Edition adaptions for Sorcerer if you're set on getting an updated version, albeit in homebrew format. The slightly more popular choice is Sorcerer: Paths of Power. The problem with this adaption is that it also has the blanket willpower cost, but hey at least psychics can still use mana and the lore doesn't have unnecessary changes. The second option is Sorcerer's Companion. This one has a ton of example rituals and lacks the blanket willpower cost, but requires you to have a copy of Revised. It also holds your hand far less than Paths of Power does, which is a boon for some and a bane for others.