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Mage 20th Character sheets with a artistic flare
Publisher: White Wolf
by Terry R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/04/2023 20:19:19

This product while visually fine is a blend of wrong choices largely taken from simply using what I think is a Revised cahracters heet. The logo is the Revised logo rather than the M20, the list of Abilities aren't those from M20 for instance including Larceny and omitting Research and Esoterica. Magick is spelled "Magic" and the list of Backrounds omits those from M20.

These are not for M20 and I don't want a player to grab them thinking it'll work in an M20 game without modification.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Mage 20th Character sheets with a artistic flare
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Dead Ends
Publisher: White Wolf
by Terry R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/06/2023 12:55:17

Dead Ends is a perfect example of the power of community content programs to create niche publications that delight and surprise. The text shows various takes on the ideas of becoming a liche; the not dead but not quite living mages that exchange magickal advancement for immortality. Each Tradition has its views on the matter presented and a sample character is provided. None of these sample characters are cookie cutter and each gives a perfectly understandable narrative as to why the liche chose its current state. The book is lusciously illustrated and stands heads and shoulders above even canon publications. The text is informed by several authors and while there is some variety in voice it is still consistent.

I couldn't ask for more for under $5.00.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Dead Ends
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M20 The Rich Bastard’s Guide to Magick
Publisher: Onyx Path Publishing
by Terry R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/28/2021 00:59:22

This is a book like Orphan's Survival Guide or Masters of the Art in that it outlines an area of Mage that one can infer must exist but that we've simply not gotten information about. The open fiction outlines the world of rich and powerful mages and the rest of the book keeps on with it. This is not a book that everyone needs, but given that you're going to have money as a consideration in your game, this supplement helps a lot of the lifting.

Here's what I enjoyed:

  • The fiction pieces are good. They transmit flavor in a way not all books manage to
  • Every entry is a story idea. There's little space in this book for things like the loved but rarely focal Ionic Cloth so even though something may be listed as a Wonder it's really a plot hook. They wonderfully balance unexplored places in the Mage world with things we already know. It's entirely reasonable that Porthos made a grimoire and now we get information on it!
  • The book brings back some of the high-energy and over-the-top bits of 2e that M20 seemingly tamped down on. An object that grants a sixth dot of Computer? Yes please. A mage country club only open to billionaires? Yes. What it's like to have your own town? Thank you.
  • Good ST tools on wealth and making characters justify their resources.
  • Information on how money can more or less make things coincidental.
  • Details on how each Tradition relates with money. I think this is the first place that we find that the djinn are all over the financial sector along with the Taftani and that the Virtual Adepts are now rolling in it.

What I wished for:

  • Iyeoka Sophia is on the cover AND MAKES NO APPEARANCE IN THE BOOK. GHAA GIVE US STATS.
  • There are very few systems. At this level, you kind of need a system for Resources. I get that no one wants to necessarily talk dollars and cents but you can come up with a Resources system that simply scales or is strictly narrative but I still want systems for it. At least Masters of the Art gave us systems implict in having XP buy Arete and Sphere dots.
  • The art is interesting but staid. It's fun but it's a lot of Michael Gaydos chapter fronts and I'm just done with that.
  • The Paradigms are meh.

Mage the Podcast spoke with two of the authors if you'd like more talk on this book



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
M20 The Rich Bastard’s Guide to Magick
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Titanomachy (A Collection of Threats for Scion Second Edition)
Publisher: Onyx Path Publishing
by Terry R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/16/2021 23:47:17

TLDR:

Strengths Some wonderfully written individual titans and some amazing "so this is the MO for this group" section. The Theoi writing was just flat out well written. Amazing antagonist lists where the authors seem to have fun putting ancient beasts and legends into a modern world. That's pretty cool. Everyone gets an enemy. For any given agenda, the storyteller has like five options. You want someone to destroy everything? May I interest you in like 12 options each doing it in an interesting way or not? Really solid advice on balancing encounters. Normally books either overmath or get real vague on this shit, not this book. New Knacks/Boons/Relics/Guides awesome The stuff referencing dragon is super optional. I almost wanted more interconnects. If you're "but dragon isn't necessary!" person, it's like maybe 200 words in the entire book and using the power of "just make something up" you should be fine.

Weaknesses I really feel like the book didn't have a unitary vision of what the Titans were. Even a "there are four types of Titans; pantheon rejects, enemies of the gods, those called to primordial, and those who eshew worship" or something could have really helped the book stay together. Like, Aten really wants mortal worship and gets it, but the defining feature are the Callings. Some of those really felt like a god could have one. There was little interconnectedness. It felt like the sections were written in silos and only later lightly connected. A real rogue's gallery is marked by teamwork. I kind of wanted some lair sections. Like you got some cool-ass monsters but like, where do they sleep? The STing antagonists felt real weak.

Minor quibbles: I read the dead tree copy and boy some page numbers would have been great. Finding things in Hero or the rest of the book took a bit of work to do. Alternatively, add way more links in the PDF. There are a few typographic errors and such. Every book has them but if a book has none then the clouds part and the text is pulled heaven-ward. Man, Scion has a lot of capitalized game terms. A few reminders up front would have really gone a long way.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Titanomachy (A Collection of Threats for Scion Second Edition)
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City of Mist: Player's Guide
Publisher: Son of Oak Game Studio
by Terry R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/12/2021 23:43:16

City of Mist is a beautiful game that I can't wait to have a second edition.

Criticism:

  • The core conceit of City of Mist is that you're in a noir giant city (or neon noir or neo noir or whatever version of noir you want) with a fair bit of mystery but the tone doesn't match. The mechanics do not back up this setting and the entire idea of "group noir" is hard to pull off and is not done here.
  • Players have the ability to help and hinder but no real incentives in doing such.
  • There's constant judgment calls on how many tags can apply and making everything a tag call or a juice call makes the rolls remarkably dull.
  • The power advances offered and small enough to want to keep track of but not interesting enough to want to remember to do advancement.
  • The tag burn and downtime mechanics will vary widely based on how often your group meets and the average length of the setting.
  • The language of film is used but without the step of training the reader how to think like one is in a movie. The idea of a "shot" is straight forward but with the exception of the credits and this framing this notion is not used which makes me wish it hadn't been included. It also demands players have a common cinematic language which won't exist for most people without a large shared background.
  • The nature of the city is too vague which would theoretically make it sandboxy but simply makes it uninteresting.
  • There is no sense of scale to the stories.
  • The milquetoast system used to coming up with various tracks that be habilitated or used are too generic and prove for unsatisfying encounters whether it be combat, wearing down someone to confess or social intrigue.
  • The system manages to take the notion PBtA and add enough cruft to it to make it no longer the remarkably sleek core of PBtA and the move names don't serve to be sufficiently evocative to inform you how to play.

Praises:

  • It is quite pretty.
  • The idea of tags for all things is kind of interesting but is not there yet. It takes the notion of Aspects from Fate and makes them less interesting while creating something a little more variable for what PBtA wants you to roll.
  • That one can be a rift of anything is a fine idea but there's not real way to pin it down which is unsatisfying.

The game is too diffuse. It needed to focus on noir or it needed to go towards a more generic system. As it lay now puts it somewhere that I just find meh.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
City of Mist: Player's Guide
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Creator Reply:
Thank you for your honest feedback. Like in any game, especially being our debut game, there are things that should be improved and it's good to be reminded of that. Having said that, sometimes a game just isn't for you, and it sounds like this is the case. Many of the points you criticized are actually what most fans of City of Mist say they love about the game, like its narrative focus, flexible setting, cinematic flair, conditions, character progress, etc. It boils down to taste and preferred gameplay style. We are happy to refund your purchase.
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Beyond the Barriers: The Book of Worlds
Publisher: White Wolf
by Terry R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/03/2020 09:41:06

This book was discussed on Mage the Podcast in this episode

TLDR: This is a good book that is a bit of mess with internal inconsistencies and vaguenesses that stop it from being truly great, but within its pages are the broad group of ideas that any Storyteller who wants to go beyond the Gauntlet will find endlessly useful. Consider getting Infinite Tapestry for a mechanically tighter presentation and a stronger focus on how to actually use the various areas.

This book provides Mage players with a torrent of information on what exists beyond the Gauntlet. Prior to now, some realms had been mentioned like the Maya being the land of warring Dreamlords, and the Middle Umbra having been described in 1993 in Werewolf but much of what Mage Mage was previously undescribed. This book came out of the gate with the High Umbra, the Vidare, the Shard and Shade Realms, locations beyond the Far Horizon, and Umbral, Horizon, and Paradox Realms largely alien to the other game lines. It was ambitious and it was messy.

The book leads by saying that the Umbra defies mapping. Narratively this may make sense but mechanically it presents complications. This could prove to be a get out of jail free card as it allows both the ST to ignore their own errors as well as allowing the authors to sweep their inconsistencies under the rug. While I understand that mapping could be folly in the traditional sense of looking for dimensions, a map also shows relationships. A subway or bus map can be stylized so long as it shows what’s at each stop as well as the relationships of one stop to another. I don’t much care how big the Legendary Realm is, but it’s nice to know roughly how to get there even if that’s not tied to spatial coordinates.

The page count the book dedicates to different areas feels highly hit-or-miss. Very little is given to the penumbra except in broad strokes and despite Vidare being nonsensical (if a character in the Vidare Mortuum gets on the Midnight Express and zooms away, what do the other characters see?) there’s no good explanation of why one would use the Penumbrae. The Vulgate and the inter-realm area of the High Umbra are also given little detail to the point where if I were to strictly use the book I don’t know if I’d be able to describe it. We get three or four locations in all of the Vulgate which is pretty light.

On the flip side, the Dream Realms are gone into with great detail to a level that I as an ST would never use. The Dream Realms aren’t given narrative justification to back the expansive page count for the Land of Nod and Hollywood. It has made me appreciate the focus in more recent books on “if it’s in here, it has to do something useful and that useful thing must be explained”.

Within a section, the results are varied and inconsistent. Some of the Shard and Shade Realms are discussed in exhaustive detail while others are barely considered. There’s also unclear information on what each place actually is with the Shard or Shade Realm possibly being the planet vs being the planet’s Penumbra vs something else entirely. I found it largely confusing. But what it does offer is a heaping helping of ideas. The book overflows with options for novel interactions and play, albeit with clunky mechanics and high barriers to entry. For reasons I don’t understand, most of the places the book says you can go require 4 or more dots in something from at least one member of a group which more or less makes this an intermediate or advanced area of play. Unlike the digital web which has VR as a quick way to enter it, there is really no analog to entering the other places.

This book feels very transitory between 1e and 2e. There are a lot of authors whose ideas are in this book and some are wonderfully fleshed out and others questionable. Many of the areas have little useful information but high detail. The Afterworlds are lengthy and seem to just be a space for introspection with little reason for a character to go there. Some of the difficulties presented are quite high, often 9 or higher which seems like a terrible narrative choice as I’d not want players interfacing with something where the odds of catastrophic failure are quite high. But along with 1e comes some imaginative ideas. The COP is outlined in detail making it a giant beautiful place and the contrast with the Darkside Moonbase is strong.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Beyond the Barriers: The Book of Worlds
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Book of Crafts: Whispers of Dissent
Publisher: White Wolf
by Terry R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/07/2020 10:16:19

Book of Crafts is a much needed entry into the canon of Mage outlining the Crafts in the world of Mage. Crafts are magickal societies that do not actively participate in the Ascension War (an impossible goal) or that refused the call of the Grand Convocation. Additionally they are tied to some cultural group and possibly some geographic area. The fact that the Bata'a are listed as being the size of a small Tradition that suggests combined the Crafts may be something like 1/3 to 1/4 the size of the Traditions.

All the groups presented seem to reflect research but vary in terms of how involved their historical, cultural, and magickal practices are presented. The magick of the templars is uninspired but appropriate and the magick of the Sisters seemed largely uninspired. The way each group treated magick was also hit or miss with the Bata'a having an indepth look at what their magick looked like and the culture that created it vs the Children of Knowledge which seemed to mostly be included as a way to have a "where are they now?" plus a "this is how a group can change over time".

Some Notes: Bata'a - Huge, book indicates there are over 100 million Sleepers supporting it and 200-300 Awakened. Had an opportunity to present magick different and it wasn't used. Very bloody internal conflicts. It's good to know that fights between mages aren't always as civil as one would expect. Being ridden by spirits grants additional physical dots which was interesting.

Children of Knowledge - Interesting that they have a "one weird trick" mentality that there's some sort of phase change they can cause that will cause the world to Awaken. That's a view on the Awakened world that I think is fascinating but no mechanics or setting material really advances it beyond this idea. Their ties to the Hermetics and Wu Lung are flavorful.

Kopa Loei - Best intro of the groups using the patois/pidgin, took a little to get used to. They're surprisingly polite to the Celestial Chorus who killed them all and the hatred for the Technocracy seems smaller than one would expect. The kapu systems of bans should have been presented more fully if someone is expected to use it in a game.

Hem-Ka Sobk - Servants of an alien crocodile god who eats the organs of sinners and helps mages atone for sins they committed. Amazing and flavorful but likely unplayable in a traditional game. Still, pretty fascinating and weird groups like this do much to expand the game.

Sisters of Hippolyta - Interesting history and a good contrasting world view, but the magick side was kind of lightly explained. The focus on Life magick seemed like stereotyping but many of the other associations simply seemed appropriate. Not sure how with such a small group they maintain rotes that have very high barriers to learning with 4 and 5 dot effects being part of their standard canon. Also feels too small to keep itself going.

Knights Templar - We get HIT Mark IIIs so that's good. The history with the Order of Reason and the Cabal of Pure Thought seemingly being behind everything devious is an interesting extension of the brand as the Gabrielites get blamed for everything. Interesting that they accept any Christian which can be a pretty wide gamut. Magick again was meh.

Wu-Keng - I thought this group was going to sound more problematic but besides the cross-dressing which is never much played up, the group seems fine. Interesting that the Wu-Keng and Wu Lung are both serving demons and may not quite know it. Magick was interesting but little information was given as to how the Spheres are used. The "you have a mission every month" angle is neat.

Wu Lung - Again, they secretly serve demons and aren't aware of it seems odd for a group that specializes in Spirit vs the Wu-Keng for whom it is banned.

Overall the book greatly expands the world of magick in Mage but has some spotty areas. The idea that a group decimated by the Technocracy is somehow not active in the Ascension War seems questionable and I'm never quite sure how to interpret a text saying an area of the world is fundamentally more magickal than another. The opening fiction didn't quite make sense as Richard Somnitz was seemingly killed out of nowhere.

I'm a little surprised that the Hollow Ones weren't presented here rather than in World of Darkness Outcasts but that's up to the developers of the line.

For some of these groups, no future material was provided while others are updated in Dead Magic, Dragons of the East, and a perfunctory expansion in M20. Wish we got a Book of Disparates, but alas...



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Book of Crafts: Whispers of Dissent
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Teratology
Publisher: Monte Cook Games
by Terry R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/07/2020 12:18:37

Teratology may be the single greatest monster manual I've seen for a game. Every entry is dripping with imagination and possiblity and regularly inverts the "well, it's a bigger enemy, I guess we'll need bigger swords" trope. Many of the creature entries are designed not as enemies but as NPCs. Characters and creations with their own agendas that maybe comes to blows but doesn't need to. The three adjectives method of filling out a personality is remarkably effective. Combined with good entities are also interesting place descriptions, which is a step I don't always see in a monster manual.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Teratology
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Horizon: the Stronghold of Hope
Publisher: White Wolf
by Terry R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/06/2020 16:41:36

Horizon Stronghold of Hope is best to me considered as the polar opposite of Destiny's Price. Here, Horizon, the mega-chantry of the Traditions, is presented as a medieval throwback to high fantasy that I feel does a small amount of dis-service to the game. In the quest to provide options for a traditional Dungeons and Dragons-esque setting, lost are the opportunities to explore fantasy outside the Tolkien vein and outside of just Europe. That isn't to say the book doesn't have its high points, just that it felt disappointing in some key ways.

The book opens with a 37 pages of something like a Scooby Doo mystery. Dante and Nile go through Horizon and meet various mages of note and Nile screams about things and most people look at her and go "how about that". Dante goes everywhere with his rig and uses computers to solve problems because Horizon has amazing wifi and throughout Porthos talks about his plan to renew the Council. Which is a ballsy ass move because he's doing so from the seat of the Council. Walk into the Senate or House of Representatives in the US and try to pull that shit and I think you'd have a fair number of Secret Service Agents following you for the next forever. But hey, Porthos, amirite?

The world's shittiest whodunit ends with Dante using a Pink Floyd laser light show to prove there was a Hermetic in a bubble and those lousy frat bros from Doissetep were behind it all along. Information is revealed about The Consanguinity of Eternal Joy and we learn Doissetep would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those lousy kids. This set up makes Doissetep seem absolutely bumbling. These are Masters and Archmasters pitted against each other in the supposed den of vipers seemingly don't know what they're doing.

The next section is the gold of the book, a timeline. A timeline may seem boring but gives an idea of what has happened an idea of what could happen again. This timeline is detailed and breezes through the late 1800s to current when I would have liked some more detail. We find out the Hollow Ones applied for membership and were rejected as well as that the late 80s gathering of the Primii was very poorly attended. The text also provides some background on the documents that are foundational to the Traditions. These too are useful but I'd have liked a little more in the book about entities that may still have an outstanding vendetta against the Traditions. We also receive information on how hard it is to get to Horizon as well as how heavily warded it is...except that Porthos can just f-ing peace from it.

The review of locations on Horizon are kind of interesting but it kind of falls flat. What do the mortals do there? Why haven't expeditions been lead to kind of mine out all the magickally useful materials? How do other entities get there? Why is everything medieval? The section just kind of presents information with explanation. The holidays add flavor and the venues are cute but gheh they're very cartoony. The sword eating contest seems a great idea. Wanna participate in this festival? Just use matter magick or accidentally stab yourself in the throat!

We then get a section on the geography and make up of the Horizon and what powers it. The list of nodes is interesting and provides an idea of what the creators of the game think make for potent nodes. There's some discussion of the formation of the site and the Umbral entities that need to be beaten back to defend the place and the mages that do it. Few ongoing threats are listed except for the Technocracy possibly doing something but that seems distant and an artificial attempt at creating tension.

Horizon as a book makes the Mage world seem both larger and smaller. Larger in that it suggests 1200-1500 mages are there at any given time, smaller in that everything that happens seems to be driven by a handful of characters across two Chantries.

Luckily this book is huge for the time so even if you don't like half of it, get it discounted during a sale and you're coming out ahead.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Horizon: the Stronghold of Hope
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Destiny's Price
Publisher: White Wolf
by Terry R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/03/2020 22:18:11

This review is from Terry from Mage the Podcast and is strictly my opinion. This book is discussed in the Tomes of Magick: Destiny's Price episode. Destiny’s Price tries to outline what street life is like in the World of Darkness that falls flat within the context of modern America. Some of the other sections prove to be useful but will often only serve as a starting point for investigations of chronicles on the streets rather than street level chronicles.

The book came out in 1995, one of the final years before crime started to plummet in the late 90s. The book reflects experiences that were common in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s but proved to not endure. America’s homicide rate has dropped by almost half since then. Philadelphia’s homicide rate has dropped by almost 50% since 1989 to 2017. Urban revitalization efforts and the high cost of housing in many suburbs have made cities more attractive options for people who value mass transit, short commutes, and proximity to culture. Does this mean the book is useless? No. Simply that the book serves as a poor satire now. What was previously a slight exaggeration is now something more akin to a funhouse mirror. My recommendation is that an ST choose a few elements, but not all of them.

Where the book really shines is explaining the communities that can exist in a gothic punk city. The book outlines the three classes in a city: the respectables, the lowlifes, and the criminals and then expands heavily on the last group, outlining a number of organized crime groups as well as gangs. The book also provides a number of locations you can run with to tell stories in as well as weird urban locations that you can populate. Rounding out the book is some information on how much damage you can do with pool cue, chainsaw, power drill, or table leg as well as the benefits and perils of cocaine. I was pleased to find cocaine grants +1 to perception checks and gives you extra actions but with a penalty for the following day. Worth it.

The book is grim and is intended to be such. I don’t know if the book is meant to be used in play or simply meant as some kind of reflection. I get this feeling with some later books and systems and this is the first so far to trigger that feeling in me. I’m hard pressed to think of who should read this book as it lists very few Mage-specific resources without talismans, rotes, trinkets, or other information except for what backgrounds are useful. If you’re curious about how to make your city more gritty, do a little homework and watch a Vox explainer on the city issue of your choice and I think you’ll be better prepared than reading something 25 years old.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Destiny's Price
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Hidden Lore
Publisher: White Wolf
by Terry R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/19/2019 21:01:25

Hidden Lore was the collection of overflow material from the 2e core rulebook that was cut to achieve what was purportedly a Procrustian page count. The book says so up front and the contents consist of rotes, clarifications, some alternative rules, and a sample chantry that was bundled with the 2e Storyteller Screen. Part of releasing a book that consists of content that didn't make the cut into the core book is the wager that the worst material in a core rulebook is still better than the minimum standard that some set of fans have and for me the book did not make that cut. This may reflect years of storyteller experience as well as the embarrassment of riches that is having an additional 60 books or so that were published after this one.

Useful content: The section on alternative play styles provided options for 1 on 1, bluebooking, troupe play, and troupe storytelling which were somewhat innovative at the time but in the intervening 25 years other games have run with these options and overall come up with smoother systems. The combat simplifications are also acceptable for high energy chronicles where players need to wreck a wall of mooks and tries to replace the tradition four roles per character per attack to one. Again, other systems innovate on this better but at the time it was notable. The descriptions of the Traditions rotes was flavorful but the sphere requirements may result in you knowing less about Mage at the conclusion. Also the systems presented are sometimes novel and other times ridiculous. The Marauder and Nephandi rotes are somewhat less cringe-worthy but still present problems in terms of what spheres are called for and what systems are used to implement an effect but they are flavorful. *The sphere summaries are intended as hand outs and restate what's in the core rulebook. If you're getting this digitally, copy-paste from a core book will do just as well without having to try to find a way to photo copy the sheets.

Useless content: How to make interesting characters was almost painful to read as it was a mix of "you know, just do it" and "learn to portray attributes you lack" which was a bit uncomfortable. The rotes present questionable systems with Prime 2 being required almost randomly and other spheres being involved for reasons I don't quite understand. The Chantry presents a magick-dense Seattle that directly contradicts the later statements about how rare mages are unless one posits that Seattle is an absolute hot bed of mage activity for unrevealed reasons. The door that leads from the earthly to umbral aspect of the Chantry has a roughly 7 percent chance of generating paradox which seems remarkably dangerous for something so regularly used. The sections on the distilled view of each faction in the Ascension War should have been woven into the core book. Anyone who gets this will likely know it and anyone who grabs the core rulebook should have access to it. The notable characters section is largely a collection of already released characters and no stat blocks which makes it almost useful.

Don't get this book if you have a fair number of other mage books and especially not if you don't have a firm grasp of the sphere system as the rotes may lead you astray.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Hidden Lore
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Mage: The Ascension (Second Edition)
Publisher: White Wolf
by Terry R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/19/2019 20:41:33

This book was discussed by the Mage the Podcast in the episode Tomes of Magick: Second Edition Core Rulebook I have a certain fondness for the Second Edition Mage Core Rulebook as it was the first Mage: The Ascension book I ever bought. I picked it up during a Star Wars tournament, drawn to its purple cover and read almost all if that evening and then several times thereafter. With now something like 23 years of reflection, I realize the flaws of the book as well as what it improved on after finally reading the Mage First Edition Core Rulebook.

Second edition was the fire core book that Brucato oversaw as line developer and the hand-off between Wieck and Brucato is exemplified in terms of mechanics, theme, and setting changes. The most important changes are probably theme-wise. The game underwent a fundamental shift from a cosmic game where the players were intended to reach high level of powers to fight for the Sleepers in an epic war that likely couldn’t be won as avatars of particular forces of creation. Essence was very important, rotes, had high dot requirements, the Traditions were each somewhat monolithic and encompassed most of the Awakened not already part of another faction, and magick was very flexible. Second edition cemented some changes that had previously been introduced and on the whole had a more mechanical magick system with a clearer divide between coincidental and vulgar where essence was a vague personality test, and the personal journey was much more important. The most revealing line in 1e in my opinion is “Mage is about the clash of incompatible utopias”. I don’t think anyone in 2e would consider any faction, however flawed, as presenting a true utopia. Second Edition hints and explosion of magickal practices from a small set to something where there are almost as many paradigms as there are players and where the Traditions themselves start divorcing themselves from specific cultural groups (all Akashics aren’t Asian) and leave that a bit more for the Crafts.

I somewhat miss the epic scale of 1e where so little was defined. In arguments, I hear that 1e was more open and this is kind of true of necessity. Second Edition gave us more than two score books while 1e was largely defined by a few early tomes before what would be proto-Second Edition began to be established, by my reckoning, sometime around the NWO Convention book on the Technocrat side and Sons of Ether on the Traditions side. Essence was destiny and the pre-Gehenna vibe of Vampire was strong. Second Edition toned that down and also shattered the unity of mage belief. Looking through the “definitions” section of the two core rulebooks is probably the fastest way to see how they diverged as many terms were re-defined.

There’s nothing in the 2e core rulebook that isn’t somewhere else so it mostly sits as a milestone of the game. One could argue that M20 took the setting from 2e and the rules (except Paradox) from Revised so there’s a genetic interest in the text. Realize though that the 2e book lacked much of the material that was in the Book of Shadows and that there was no 2e players’ guide.

Changes:

Mechanics

  • Difficulties change for vulgar from rolling sphere to rolling arete in all cases
  • Focuses opened up and focus-specific time requirements dropped 
  • Orphans progress at same rate as other mages but require focuses
  • Bonuses for being near a node no longer swing as wildly, capped at -3 instead of -5
  • Can now re-try failed effects without blowing willpower
  • Damage chart unified and one-off modifiers listed for Spheres (Mind does bashing, etc)
  • Coincidental now process
  • Much of the content of Book of Shadows is baked in
  • More difficulty modifiers introduced

Mood

  • Game less cosmic interaction of avatars for the metaphysical trinity to something more personal
  • Mage less might-makes-right with mages delivering sleepers from Technocratic control. Technocrats no longer fighting for strict rigid equality.
  • 1e was "conflict between utopias". Utopia not visible in 2e.

Setting

  • Pure Ones no longer believed in by all mages
  • Void Engineers no longer viewed as infected by the fae and no longer wish to destroy space
  • Continuum dropped as a term
  • Marauders no longer universally fighting for a return of the Mythic Age and in 2e are generally less sane
  • Fight for Nodes and Quintessence less front and center
  • Penumbra established, no longer just Near Umbra
  • Nephandi no longer strictly star-squid cultists
  • Oracles no longer those near Ascension but those who've stepped back from it
  • No longer one Chantry per Tradition
  • All nine spheres now used in metaphysical cycle rather than just six
  • Essence de-emphasized
  • Rotes change 

Metaplot

  • Syndicate un-disappeared
  • Amanda revealed to share avatar with former Sennex apprentice who went barabbus
  • Fors Collegis Mercuris evacuated to Cerberus after Nephandi and Technocratic attack


Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Mage: The Ascension (Second Edition)
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Halls of the Arcanum
Publisher: White Wolf
by Terry R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/01/2019 12:39:44

I reviewed this as part of Mage the Podcast, list to it here.

Halls of the Arcanum depicts the workings of the Arcanum, a scholarly organization in the World of Darkness that seeks to uncover what is hidden. Halls offers a different take on The World of Darkness more as a place of danger and of things not illuminated rather than simply a gritty world of despair with the odds against you. The odds are against the Arcanum as they have no supernatural resources and the agents they’re working against are quite cunning but they have patience and scholarship which is often in short supply in the dire circumstances of some builds of the World of Darkness.

The book has that aged much more gracefully than at first I had figured. With the exception of the progress of computers, much of the book holds. The NPCs and templates could be used with little difficulty and the maps and schematics are still useful as are the lists. This book is largely about Sleepers and their attempts to unravel the World of Darkness but with varying degrees of success. Chapter houses are spread across the globe offering a lot of ability integrate local lore as well as lodges which are kind of frontline assemblages to research odd happenings. The book goes into these topics in some detail and does a good job of reminding the reader of how big the World of Darkness can be. Rather than just referring to Shangri-La, the book references a half dozen hidden cities. Instead of listing just a yeti as a cryptid, it again lists a dozen. Instead of just listing the five main lines in WoD, the book lists fourteen types of odd occurrences. While this book is geared towards mortals, there’s nothing preventing mages from investigating the same things.

The book also outlined internal politics within the organization and did so in vague terms at first and then in detail in the Storyteller Chapter. Rather than just saying “this is what’s going on” the book provides four options of what’s going on. It’s quite pleasing to have thoroughness plus ambiguity within a tome.

The only two sections that I felt ran flat were in regards to numena where I figured they would be all up in testing and developing that kind of power. Also, the question of accumulating information and where it goes brought up questions. It’s suggested that the group sometimes makes discoveries. Besides its in-house journal, when will this information be shared if ever?



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Halls of the Arcanum
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Mystic Armory
Publisher: White Wolf
by Terry R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/01/2019 10:20:36

Despite having run Mage for decades and having a reasonably strong grasp of the Sphere system, I'm still sometimes at a loss for power-level, appropriateness, and flavor that can appear in magickal items. In collecting literally every magick item from the game, Mystic Armory ameliorates that concern and does so with logical formatting and wonderful art selection. In thinking through the organization, I wonder if it would make more sense to organize based on effect, but that would quickly become either complicated or impossible with single Wonders/Devices that have multiple abilities from several spheres.

Were I to add an appendix, it'd be on device creation as well as on spheres required to manipulate Quintessence. These rules are exhaustively listed throughout M20, but a one page summary would be excellent.

It's hard not to encourage an ST to get Charles' compendia and this is no exception.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Mystic Armory
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The Fragile Path: Testaments of the First Cabal
Publisher: White Wolf
by Terry R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/30/2019 08:08:19

The Fragile Path is intended as in-world artifact for Mage: The Ascension and represents Porthos Fitz-Empress's attempts at using the testaments of the members of the First Cabal to pull together the Traditions. The book consists of an overview of the Cabal members, their eventual fates, a timeline, a copy of the founding documents for the Traditions and the Technocratic Union, and the five testaments of those that initially survived Heylel's Betrayal. The book struggles to cover everything and create the space for the fully written testaments, but ultimately, I think the book largely pulls off what it needs to.

The opening consists of two contrasts, the first being elderly Porthos talk about how in awe he was of Heylel (the master talking about how wide-eyed he was as a young mage) and the second being the time it took to assemble and get to work on the Ascension War between the Order of Reason (weeks, took over world in five centuries), and the Council (nine years of meetings, only was really together in the wake of World War II). Porthos rambles on in overly vague terms and the world doesn't feel real as he talks.

The overviews are fine and everyone is pretty and opinionated which I guess is partly the point of World of Darkness but it was a little much for me. The point was for the Disciples to be paragons of their Tradition making it more likely that they were likely dogmatic and unable to get along which is a little odd as one would expect that from masters. Periodic mentions are made of the time required to meditate or to shine weapons or pray as a reinforcement of how slow it was to get everyone to act. Given that the Cabal was together for years before betrayal, we only get one specific mention of actions the Cabal took which felt to me like an oversight. We got to see the Cabal fall apart, but we never saw it together.

A rare morsel we get is the write up of the Convention of the Ivory Tower, the founding document for the Order of Reason as well as the Declaration of Intent for the Traditions. I don't know of another place these are available.

The characters that don't receive an testament felt somewhat throw-away. This may have been necessary to get to the other parts but still even the short write-ups felt too short or elaborated thin characters. But then we get to the meat of book which are the proper testaments. Heylel's pre-execution oration is provided which gives a strong argument that what he wants is for the Traditions to be united and that his way of doing that was to betray their position to the Order of Reason. They claim that the Traditions will never be able to see past their differences and the Order of Reason will triumph. Whether or not you think Heylel acted correctly, their prediction regardless was somewhat accurate at least over the five centuries or so.

As a reader, I'm not sure why Heylel was accused of being a diabolist and trucking with demons when there was no evidence for this nor was it listed as one of the forbidden activities in the founding document of the Traditions. I felt this was included as a way of defending Heylel and showing that the Council was simply throwing everything the Council could at Heylel. Alternatively, this could simply be kind of a period piece as accusing someone of trucking with demons could have simply been the style of the time.

Eloine's testament was structurally interesting but felt kind of hollow. She's billed elsewhere as a very compelling figure but that kind of fell flat as she's in an inquisition cell. I suppose if someone's magnetism is around their appearance and charisma, one shouldn't expect it to translate into writing but she felt like a love object and bearer of children and little more. The section where Eloine talks about being drawn to Heylel just kind of screamed "MIND MAGICK" which made me cringe a little.

The Prophecy of Akrites itself was the richest in terms of world-building and provided three particularly interesting parts. The first was the idea of a prophecy that a storyteller could play with. Vague prophecies are offered in other game lines and provide ample ground for an inventive storyteller to allow characters to pursue or abandon prophecies and other such foretold events. In Mage, prophecy is both more and less intimate as the characters are familiar with the fact that, yes prophecy does exist and the characters may even know how to use it, but also that prophecy is very hard to work with. Second, the reflection on the role of the prophet and the failure to warn the others of the betrayal. Akrites saw it coming but didn't act decisively enough to prevent it from coming to pass. Third, we get a slice of life of what it was like to be part of the First Cabal. We see the group trudging around Scandinavia and all the difficulty that imparts as well as the perils of using magick even before the modern advent of Paradox. This section to me provided the most use for the storyteller and I wish we had more stories from the First Cabal that felt like this one.

The Song of Bernadette was inventive and interesting and consumed page count but it simply doesn't stand on its own. Luckily, it's in a book with several other testaments and therefore doesn't have to.

Finally, the testament of Walking Hawk gives the reader a look into a few things. Walking Hawk provides fresh eyes on the practices of the other groups such as pointing out that he and Eloine seem to recognize the same spirit of the earth but hers seems to be much more bloodthirsty. His commentary shows that from some vantages that the difference between the Traditions and the Order of Reason is smaller than between some pairs of Traditions especially when one indicates the level of technology to which the Traditions have already become accustomed to. Lastly, the section is well written in simple prose with style that at least rings true to my little experience of indigenous writing.

My criticisms are simple. The Porthos sections are too wordy as is Brucato's general style, the characters are all attractive and charismatic, and there's little information on what the Cabal actually did. If the intent is to show they were ineffectual and to deplete our sympathy for the group vs the individuals, mission accomplished.

I had ignored this book for far too long but feel I appreciate it mightily with the background of the rest of Mage under my belt. I think this book shines most to those who're familiar with the setting and want to answer the question of "so why has the Technocracy done so well and the Traditions so poorly" beyond just assuming conspiracy.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Fragile Path: Testaments of the First Cabal
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