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Underground > Games & Gameplay >

Mage:the Ascension/Awakening

14:45 / 02.07.05

I am a huge Mage fan. I ran several long campaigns over the years, I ran the first LARP Mage in the UK a few years ago in London, well before the MET stuff came out, and my claim to fame is an online article for Paradigma, the Ether mag. ('Around the World with Arcane and Attention Stare Quotiometer').

I've done nothing RPG-wise for about a year since moving to Brighton, and my Mage-brain is bursting- it's being re-issued! It could be great! Does anyone have any concrete leads or gossip on the revamp?! What is the tenth sphere anyway?! etc. etc.
Fellow fanatics enthuse here...

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17:07 / 02.07.05

I'm worried about them fucking it up, of course. It's too bad I no longer trust in White Wolf's benevolent creativity.

Mage LARP always struck me as just about as good an idea as Call of Cthulhu LARP-- in that, either it would be very good and people would get very into it and therefore horrible things would happen, or it would be safe and lame. But then, I've never played either of them. (And in the only CoC LARP I've heard of, one of the STs was apparently a robotics student with too much time on hir hands...) That being the case, I welcome stories about Mage LARP going well, or going horribly awry, or anywhere in between.

20:22 / 02.07.05

Well Greg Stoltz (Unknown Armies), Bill Bridges (Fading Suns) and Kenneth Hite (Pyramid Magazine's Supressed Transmission column) are all invloved in the re-write. So I've got high hopes indeed, apparently it's all to do with the fall of alantis and how the real villians are the mages who conquered heaven and then pulled the ladder up behind them. No more all powerful technocracy which was so very very 80's

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This is from a preview WW put out a few months ago and is referenced
in this rpg.net thread

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Acanthus: The Path of thistle, Watchtower of Lunargent Thorn, the realm of Arcadia, kingdom of Enchantment, abode of the fae, ruled by the arcana of fate and time. """"Enchanters""""" epitomize the tarot trump of "the fool" relying on luck and intuition to guide their way.

Magistos: the path of scourging, watchtower of the Iron Gauntlet, the realm of pandemonium, Kingdom of Nightmares, abode of deamons, ruled by the Arcana of Mind and Space, """""Warlocks""""" epitomize the trump of "the devil" exulting in unfettered will.

Moros: The Path of Doom, Watchtower of the Lead Coin, the Realm of Stygia, Kingdom of crypts, abode of Shades, ruled by the arcana of Death and Matter, """"Necromancers""""" epitomize the tarot trump of death' remaining steadfast througha challenge.

Obrimos: The path of the mighty, watchtower of the Golden Key, the Realm of the Aether, Kingdom of the Celstial Speres, abode of Angels, ruled by the Arcana of forces adn prime, """"Theurgists"""" epitomize the tarot trump of "Strength" pursuing a divine mandate.

Thyrsus: the Path of Ecstacy, Watchtower of the Stone Book, the realm of the primal wild, kingdom of Totems, abode of Beasts, ruled by the Arcana of Life and Spirit, """"Shamans"""" epitomize the tarot trump of "the moon" following the allure of passion and impulsive action.
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WW LJ community has a lot of previews and gossip from the office.

20:25 / 02.07.05

Oh yeah and how the hell did you run a Mage LRP game without a personal ref and hallucinogens given to each player?

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Randomly someone I know is writing up a Witchcraft/Mage inspired LRP game to run in London this september. When things are organised I'll stick it up on here.

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16:35 / 03.07.05

I hate things that all tie back into Atlantis, so I'm really not looking forward to that aspect of it. To me that's like saying it all ties back into Atlantic City. I mean, Atlantis.

Sorry. It's just not a part of my paradigm, and previously WW has been good about making things that people can play with regardless of paradigm. If Atlantis really is as all-important as people said on that thread, I'm going to have to substantially alter the setting to enjoy it.

17:43 / 04.07.05

how the hell did you run a Mage LRP game without a personal ref and hallucinogens given to each player?
Good players. (and lotsa props, hard working team of refs, NPCs with semi-ref responsibilites etc.) The hallucinogens helped.

Having looked at that link, I have to lean toward the 'sky is falling and WW have betrayed us' view. The sphere magic was the best element of Mage, why fuck with it? I think there's too much of a move toward Unknown Armies (heavy on background, clunky mechanics, but great style) which is understandable considering the team. But I liked Phil Brucato's Mage.

I *always* mess the background up beyond recognition, the thing I loved best was the flexibility of the system- you could play a steampunk Mage, renaissance Mage, cyber Mage or Noir, Horror, Comedy or Philosophical Mage using only the core rules (and maybe the book of shadows). By defining the background and factions in more detail it becomes more like Vampire *spits* and makes me inclined to buy Unknown Armies instead. Or just use 2nd Edition Ascension...

I'll still buy it though, like assassins buy Catcher in the Rye. I just can't help myself.

18:33 / 04.07.05

I'm prepared on the evidence of what WW has done with Vampire to give Mage a chance, well at least until I've had a good read. In Vampire they acomplished what I had thought was impossible, remove all the accumulated crap, throw in some ideas much closer to the orginal ideal of the game and mix briskly. Apparently they've done the same with Werewolf so *crossed fingers* as far as Mage goes.

So what did people get up to in your mage games, the game died due to OOC nonsense but had a lot of fun moments, a game of forms with an Oracle of Delhi style umbral small god was the one that sticks in my mind. Oh and how can I forget our two Sons of Ether, one of them had accumulated so much Paradox he had a small fleet of Mars Attacks martians dedicated to hunting him down *shakes head*.

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05:18 / 05.07.05

I remember one Mage game a couple years back, where the plot was "You're in Prague, things go to hell, an elder force destroys the entire Tellurian; now what?" It worked surprisingly well. All our spheres went absolutely batshit, because there wasn't any time or space per se anymore; just individual parts of a collective consciousness, battling to maintain our individuality. That was ambitious and it could have been a disaster. Instead it was a bizarre and confusing success.

I'm in one now which is, alas, somewhat too lighthearted for me so far. Lighthearted is good, of course, to an extent, but the ST is occasionally trying to make us feel threatened and it's not working. But it's early yet, so I'll just hang in there and see what he comes up with.

13:04 / 05.07.05

After the first few story arcs (Attack the Mad Dr Lao's Tropical Island of Doom, Investigate Nephandic Murders, Rescue Your Mentor etc) I gave the PCs loads of XP and moved them to Horizon, there to found a magical 999 (911 to you Americans) Mage emergency service. Great fun, each session they respond to some poor suckers trapped by a Technocracy attack or whatever. Works really well to break up long term heavy duty plots as well.

13:14 / 05.07.05

..and in the live game we just gave them a chantry and some enemies and watched them make a mess, teehee! Memorable moment in that was a Void Engineer Commando attack- I got to make a 7 foot silver void cannon and backpack, scared the crap out of everyone when we teleported in.

Bard: One-Man Humaton Hoedown

03:48 / 07.07.05

Mage Demo part 1 is up on the White Wolf site. It looks like some interesting stuff, to be honest. Looks like Mages still get 6 dots of spheres, and another 6 points to spread around on Rotes.

This is definitly NOT Ascension. Totally different game. But still looks like a lot of fun.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

13:21 / 12.07.05

I like MAGE as is except for the rules junkies who have read EVERY novel and supplement and expect that you have done so as well. I like to play characters who know little about their magick, so that it's fun for them to learn, but I find that many players don't have a lot of patience with n00bs.

But, then again, most of my best RPG session have been with games that only give you a loose framework for character generation and combat and let the GM wing it. WW seems almost fundamentally opposed to that, or am I just with a bad group?

13:38 / 12.07.05

Solitaire Rose- bad group. Rules lawyers suck in any system, even WW explicitly state the golden rule is to Have Fun and toss out what doesn't work. As far as I'm concerned (and I think most here will agree) the Rules are there to serve the group, not vice versa. The storyteller is ultimate arbiter of what's 'real' in the game, using whatever rules they decide.

The more freeform a game the better IMHO.

13:44 / 08.12.05

Frickin' White Wolf and their meddling, Awakening is a vapid bimbo, pretty but empty headed. Bah!

15:01 / 08.12.05

I don't know if I should post this in the other MAGE thread, or this one, but thanks to your feedback, Quantum, as well as a few others, I think I'm going to sell my copy of MAGE, and use the income to pay for a used copy of 2nd edition, if I can find it...

20:15 / 08.12.05

There's a copy Here

14:49 / 09.12.05

Good idea DH, backwards is the way forwards.

Tom Tit's Tot: A Girl!

20:33 / 11.12.05

I would mention, DH, that while 2nd Ed. is far superior to the others in setting information, Revised is much clearer and concise on rules and potential confusion with spheres, so if you have the spare cash you might want to snag it as well.

But yes, 2nd Edition rawks hard. Currently running a Mage game (on a break due to fatherhood) in fact.

22:28 / 17.12.05

Oh FYI here's Amazon's page for Mage Ascension Revised. It's out of print but there 6 copies for sale second hand on there.