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Mage Noir $8.99
Publisher: White Wolf
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by Megan R. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 09/30/2016 07:46:20

This is a fascinating sourcebook for anyone who wants to break out of the presumed 'present day' setting of Mage: The Awakening and take it back to 1940s America, drawing on the style of 'film noir' and hard-boiled detectives like Philip Marlowe as inspriation. The idea is to create the look and feel of the times rather than an historical recreation, but there's plenty of background material to help you get a grip on this. The Introduction explains all this, then lays out the theme as being 'the price of Awakening' and the mood as one of cynicism, laying out why these are felt to be appropriate.

Chapter 1: The Party's Over is a broad sweep through 1940s America, historically and culturally, designed to support the development of the theme and mood specified. This is developed further in Chapter 2: The Power and the Glory, which looks specifically at mages in 1940s America and how this particular time period affected individual and organisational outlooks, and the ways in which the various orders operate, a theme continued in Chapter 3: Nice Guys Finish Last. This chapter also describes what is like to Awaken in the 1940s, and come to Supernal understanding at this time in history, and there's also some discussion about how having participated in World War 2 might affect both the Awakened and those whose service contributed to their Awakening... and how they might feel when they got back home.

Next, Chapter 4: Stories in the Naked City addresses the sort of chronicles you might want to run, with loads of examples, tips and tricks to help you get started. But that's not all, there is a complete adventure (using the Storyteller Adventure System) in which the mages investigate a messy murder. And if you want to drive straight in, there's the Lamppost Cabal, pre-generated characters who are products of the time and have banded together to face the future together - and hopefully make some money in the process (a key sub-theme of this setting...).

Everything is neatly bundled up to make a mage-filled version of 1940s America come to life on your tabletop. You'll note I have coupled the date and the location throughout, for this is very much America-centric as well as being set in the 1940s. There's scope for exploring the effects of global war and technological advance in the rest of the world in your game, but this book - although it might give you a few ideas - is not designed for anyone running a game set outside of America. It captures the whole film noir vibe quite well and should help you craft some vivid and memorable chronicles.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Mage Noir
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