Storytellers Vault
Narrow Results
$ to $















Back
pixel_trans.gif
Night Horrors: The Unbidden $16.79
Average Rating:4.5 / 5
Ratings Reviews Total
8 1
5 0
0 0
0 1
0 0
Night Horrors: The Unbidden
Click to view
You must be logged in to rate this
pixel_trans.gif
Night Horrors: The Unbidden
Publisher: White Wolf
by A customer [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/29/2023 17:06:10

The long and short of it is, This supplement is meant to be read, not played.

If you want to play Mage the Awakening as a Storyteller, this book is not for you. You would be better served mining fiction, comics, video games, or watching movies. Listening to HP Lovecraft audiobooks on YouTube would be better. If you really want to get something 'in lore' you will get better horror and antagonist ideas from other 1st edition core books, such as Werewolf or Hunter than from this supplement.

The whole thing reads like a bunch of frustrated novelists who submitted their ideas and got picked by an editor who has never actually played a roleplaying game. The ideas are either too lethal, unworkable, or would be such a short encounter that the pages of details in the book are superfluous.

And that’s the problem here. If you read the main rulebook (Mage 1st Edition), then there’s nothing here that a reasonably competent storyteller with a passion for nerdy fiction, horror, or otherwise couldn’t come up with on their own. Why bother buying this at all? Oh yes, the main blurb about stuff 'between the stars' is all just marketing, flummery, there's none of that.

There are maybe three or four interesting antagonists, but the rest are basically one-use NPCs or encounters with endless text written about them. Is it well-written? Yes. Is it a damn good read? yes as a coffee table book. Is it fit for purpose as a roleplaying game supplement? No.

If you are a supplement reader or collector, get it. It’s very well-written, and the production values are amazing. If you want ideas for your actual roleplaying game chronicle, I’d look elsewhere.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Night Horrors: The Unbidden
Publisher: White Wolf
by Megan R. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 09/13/2016 08:20:55

Opening with a weird bit of fiction - the reflections of someone around whom terrible things happen, yet they can never quite remember - the Introduction begins by talking about the rules of magic. In, that it ought to have them, and indeed does... just that they are not always clear, even to those who study magic and make use of it. Even those who practice magic only think they know what they are doing, it can be unpredictable - a bit like herding cats. This book asks what happens when magic enters the world unbidden, just as a tornado or forest fire doesn't trouble to ask before it destroys your house. Magic doesn't care, if one can anthropomorphise for a moment, whether the mage wielding it is able to control it or not. Magic changes things, sometimes for the better and sometimes not, but always for the weirder.

So what does that mean for our game? Using magic is, for most mages, a pleasreable activity, a bit of a rush even - but it can so easily get out of hand. Mages can get carried away, drunk on their own abilities and power, becoming filled with pride at what they can do... and that's when magic turns and bites them, or escapes to cause unintended effects elsewhere in the world. This book is jam-packed with ideas for handling such events and their consequences in your game... it's time to make magic scary!

To aid you in making this happen, this tome contains a whole bunch of... well, antagonists for want of a better word. In presenting this feeling of forces bigger than the mages attempting to use them, and scary to boot, concentrate on description, on building up atmosphere - show, not tell. Each entry is designed to provide resources to make that happen, with detailed descriptions and backgrounds, secrets and rumours and above all story hooks - ideas about how to weave them into your plots and indeed build entire plots around them.

There are four sections, based on the nature of the entities therein. First up are Mages - well, that's obvious. We know what mages are. But these ones, well - the magic has got to them. Some are innocent (but no less dangerous for all that), others know exactly what they are doing and revel in it. Next is Characters and Creatures. They are not mages but have been touched by magic in some manner. Then there are Constructs and Objects. Not all artefacts were created deliberately, on purpose. Sometimes they just... happen. Then there are Conditions and Infections. States of being that can arise when magic and paradox run riot. As a bonus, there is actually a fifth section, Places. This describes three places where magic has got so far out of hand that it's affected entire locations.

If you like the idea of magic almost having a mind of its own, running amok, you will find ideas to inspire and help you make it happen in your game. Even better, if you'd like to inject some honest-to-goodness horror into your chronicle, here are some tools to freak out the most self-contained and confident will-workers. Indeed, it's when your mages are getting confident, think they know what they are doing and have everything under control, that it is a perfect time to spring something from this book upon them. But use sparingly: less is more when it comes to horror and wild magic... even a small instance will have everyone nervous about their next spell!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Displaying 1 to 2 (of 2 reviews) Result Pages:  1 
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif Back pixel_trans.gif
0 items