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Mage: The Ascension (First Edition)
 
$9.99
Average Rating:4.0 / 5
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Mage: The Ascension (First Edition)
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Mage: The Ascension (First Edition)
Publisher: White Wolf
by Gábor [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/03/2024 15:41:19

I'm not going to review the contents of this decades old book.

If you don't know it, there are tons of reviews out there. Look up some, make sure this is the right edition for you (and make sure this is the right version of Mage for you too, because there's also Mage: the Awakening which is moderately similar to this game. Read up on about that too.) If you know Mage, though, you know why you are here. What my rating and my very short, cautionary review is about is the current pdf presentation of the game.

The pdf is a scan. That would be OK, if only

...the font wasn't a bit blurry, making it tiring on the eyes

...the pdf had actual bookmarks (you know, it's 2024)

...the OCRed text would actually match what's on the page (proof: select a paragraph, copy and paste it into a plain txt file, or try and have a sceen reader read it, notice chances are you won't be getting exactly what's on the page)

...there was a (form fillable) character sheet included with the download.

The game itself is awesome (imo, but see my 2nd paragraph above), but for this price, in 2024, from a company that (used to be) a big name in the gaming industry, I'd have expected much better quality, UX, and accessibility, especially for the current price. I'm a little disappointed, really. Which won't stop me from playing the game, but I bought the pdf copy for searchability and such, because it's faster than paging thru my old, old, beloved physical copy, but it was a bit of a waste of money.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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Mage: The Ascension (First Edition)
Publisher: White Wolf
by Rory H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/12/2020 16:49:47

The 1st edition of the game was still very much a formative set of ideas, some of which were quite developed which is both a weakness and a strength as it gave agency to the reader to interpret in their own way still. The magic system was very free form which, along with the philosophical take on concensual reality, paradox and coincidental magic was groundbreaking at the time. In my view, the general tone of the writing was slightly less 'in your face' than some of the later editions. Moreover, it was one of the first games that seemed to feel attuned to real world magical thought, themes and pracitices, which was a revelation for many when it was first released. For me, it is a gem and well worth keeping in print.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Mage: The Ascension (First Edition)
Publisher: White Wolf
by Charles S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/16/2020 00:30:45

Mage first Edition is quite a game book. I will openly say that I'm just not a fan of it, and that if this was the first Mage book I'd seen, I wouldn't be neck-deep in the game to this day.

That said, about half of this book worked. Unfortunately, it was the underdeveloped half. The rest included things like the Technocracy interrupting their REM sleep so they wouldn't dream, the Void Engineers being Fae-touched and wanting to kill space, and the generally overwhelming nature of the Technocracy against the much less gray than later Traditions.

What did work though were things like study points (they dropped from Mage and now Mage is known as an XP sinkhole because it was balanced assuming them), the basic premise of a war for reality, and the mechanical effects of various foci (which could have been brought back in M20 with the Instruments, but weren't).

Overall, it's a playable game, but not one I'd want to play, and I'm glad that Mage Revised was my first Mage book.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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