Customer Reviews

Mage: The Ascension, 2nd Edition

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Let's face it, in the World of Darkness, hope is all too rare. Vampires are abberations of the natural order whose agelessness serves only to illustrate the beauty of death. Werewolves are fighting a losing battle against the Wyrm, the spirit of active destruction. Wraiths are dead souls wishing for Oblivion. Hunters are angsty mortals with nary a clue about their benefactors' identities ... but they kill the Outsiders anyway. (Changelings I don't know, sorry.)

And among all this chaos ... the Mage stands tall, looking to Ascend.

Oh, it's not all fuzzy bunnies, being a Mage. There's pain, and death, and the rest of the World of Darkness to contend with. But Mages have something to fight for other than survival. They have ideals. (Perhaps morbid ideals, but nobody ever said morbid is wrong ...) They have dreams. And, in the World of Darkness as in our own world, the perception of reality shapes reality itself. (Okay, I play too many Malkavians in Vampire. So sue me.) This is what it means to be a Mage.

It would take far more space than I have here to explain the worldview behind Mage. Suffice it to say that Mage (at least Second Edition) is positive in outlook, with a scope that encourages the imagination. This setting focuses on wonder, pain, and Ascension to a higher state. The group Storyteller will either love this game or hate it: love because of the openness of a magic system that's actually -realistic- (okay, you Christians are probably laughing at me now - oh well), or hatred because you've just spent twenty hours of preparation on Umbral Lords and now your players just want to use the spirit world to break into a Technocracy stronghold.

When I read this book for the first time, it was almost a spiritual experience. This is what a magical RPG is supposed to be like, in my view. However, hack-n-slashers can wreak havock on the system, mainly through over-use of Forces. I find that taking Forces away entirely is the best way to deal with this nuisance ... although with a group of powermongers, perhaps Werewolf would be a better game for you.

Warning: Revised Mage takes all the wonder and hope out of the setting and leaves you with the same old gloom and croon of the rest of the World of Darkness. The developers certainly did a wonderful job of making sure that the backstory fit the rest of the WoD, but I'm rather sorry to see hope go. (Life is painful enough without vicarously living through a rotting pile of bones, IMHO.) So, I proudly recommend Mage: The Ascension Second Edition to the Real Roleplayers and Loonies out there, Revised Mage to the Real Men among you (heaven help us all), and Harvard to the Munchkins that exist like worms at the heart of every gaming group...

yes, I gave it five stars, and I will get to the why. But I do believe, like other reviewers, that this game might not suit everybody, and it is certainly not easy to either explain nor play without running into some quite peculiar pitfalls. I started out with RPGs when I was 12. I have read, played and "directed" at least 10 different RPG systems. Fantasy, star wars, star trek, marvel superheores (anyone whot thinks I was waaay to deep into it is absolutely RIGHT, I was positively addicted). I even wrote a short monthly column on RPGs for an "alternative culture" magazine for a while. So when my best friend and companion in roleplaying introduced me to White Wolf games (with a copy of Mage as a birthday present), I was openly distrustful. (Mages with computers? you gotta be kidding me!). However, I overcame my first impression and read it, read it and re-read it. I was hooked! What was going on with this game was REAL MAGIC! All the other RPGs I have played and directed have the same problem: magic is a static thing, confined to the stereotypes which are known by all: wizened old men, reading out of musty old books, recipes including bat dung and frog eyes. Interminable list of spells, some of them useless, some inaccessible until the characters were incredibly powerful already, and the eternal problem of mages being weak and useless once their spells were spent. Mage: the Ascension is my favorite RPG (out of, like I've mentioned, many others I've met and struggled with for a while). But, it's not for everyone. It's not a game you can throw at the players out of the blue. It's a challenging game for the Storyteller. Yes, it's White Wolf as far as the basic system is concerned, but the Storyteller must do extensive homework ,and at least skim some of the reference works and recommended further readings given by the authors (some of which, BTW, are very good). Otherwise any chronicle will look and sound bland. I agree with other reviewers in that the designers reach out for much and leave a lot of spaces and gaps: I believe this to be intentional. The flexibility implied by a game where reality is "up for grabs" does not allow any hard-and-fast rules regarding the nature of the stories or the possibilities of what the players might do. For example: the Technocracy's struggle can (in my opinion) be seen as equally "noble" than the one from the traditions, in that they can be understood as seeing themselves as protectors of humankind from "what's out there". They can also be insane megalomaniacs out for world domination, will ye or nay ye, but it's another thing the Storyteller must decide beforehand. The Traditions are another kettle of fish: in my opinion they are more guidelines than models to build characters upon. For example: the Akashic Brotherhood is way too big, attempting to encompass many different real-world beliefs in one page of description. Again in my opinion, an Akashic can be fashioned after Indian yogis or Tibetan ascetics just as they can be made to look and act like your regular action-film martial arts master. I tell my players not to delude themselves into thinking that all Akashics are bald, and assume kung-fu stances, and that not all Dreamspeakers wear loincloths and beat drums. The Avatar is another thing that most people I know who've played Mage seem not to understand. It's a great tool for the players to relate to their character and for Storytellers to keep the pace of the story in moments when the players seem to lose track of everything that's going on under their noses, but, again, if the Storyteller is not consistent with the Avatar thing, it either gets left out altogether, or the players see through it and cry foul when the Storyteller turns their Avatars on them. As for the system: I believe it to be a blessing, through and through. White Wolf's system really lets you forgo dozens o dice rolls, and its by far more "realistic" than any other RPG system in my experience. All the White Wolf books insist on it: tell stories first, roll dice only if it helps the story. Because, despite the occassional confusion in interpreting this or that (or finding stuff in the index: I agree, it's dreadful), can anybody deny that a magic system like this would be flat-out impossible to run with any other set of RPG rules? It's a great game, folks, but in order for it to be truly enjoyable and all that it can be, it does require more careful attention and input than other RPGs. Take the contents of this book as GUIDELINES, to be greatly expanded upon, and more than any other RPG let a lot of you into it. Do not be afraid to innovate, to discard what you don't like, and I venture to say that it will prove an unprecedented, exciting experience for all RPG enthusiasts, players and gamemasters alike.

Let me start my review by saying that I view all White Wolf games (at least the 5 main games) as being equal. That's right, I'm not going to promote one book over another. The beauty of all White Wolf games is the "Golden Rule:" The game is up to the storyteller and players. If you don't like an idea, change it or ignore it completely. This works quite well with small groups if you feel comfortable with table top or LARP. However, when you get to larger groups (esp. roleplaying online) it's more difficult to decide on which rules are practical and which ones aren't.

This edition of Mage *does* have a slight problem with clear definition of rules and systems, and I've yet to see any of White Wolf's books completely cover the systems as they pertain to other games (for example, can a hedge wizard be discovered as such using the gift "Scent of the Trueform?"). As with all of White Wolf games, I think this is a game best played with a small group of close friends.

Now a little more about White Wolf and specifically Mage. I don't know how many have noticed this, but all of these games probably seem like they're shaped after Myths or other real-world beliefs (no matter how obscure). The reasoning for this: They are! Take a look through the bibliography of a White Wolf book and marvel at the resources. This is one area where I would promote Mage above the other books (although I said I wouldn't) because in reading through this you get a small glimpse at the beliefs of so many other cultures. What's even scarier - notice how people of different cultures seem like they live in "another world?" If you really think about it, the Mage concept isn't hard to follow at all. We see this in everyday life. We believe things to be one way, and that's true for us. Others believe differently, and that makes their reality. What happens when the two collide? Disagreements, fights, all-out wars (think of the Inquisition)... It's really a great game to get into, but if you're not all that much of a roleplaying fan it's just nice to read and ponder the concept. Great little quotes and mini-stories, too!

If you want a game to melt your mind, pick up Mage. This is the third of five lines of game books in the World of Darkness, and the one with the most hope. In Vampire, Werewold, and Wraith, you play the monster. In Changling, you play the doomed to die crazy hero. In Mage you wrestle with Reality. Your views shape the world around you. You are fighting other views, that clash with yours, to the point where your magic can be harmful to you. Overall, this is a great game. The layout is average, the system is standard White Wolf. The philosophy is fantastic. The world is what you make it. Literally. Things exist and happen because people believe they do. Your job is to change or survive people's beliefs. On the negative, the index is one of the worst I've seen. 1st Edition Mage had a much better index. The index is too short and not nearly complete enough. It even lacks the normal page framing, making it look like the authors forgot to do it before sending it to the printers, and just whipped something together. If you use this book and this game, make sure to use sticky notes for your most common rules...

This game has an incredible backstory that makes reading thrrough it a pleasure. The concepts behind it are so advanced and complex that most gamers I know wont even touch it for fear of migrains. That aside the concept is just to incredible to be ignored . Imagine if you will that you could manipulate reality itself by a willpower and enlightenment alone. You could do the immpossible and the unimagined. For you 'make belive' events are an everyday occurence. But your not alone. Other seek your path and their own. Wittnes the Techonracy who devotes itself to the preservation of mankind by destroyng 'reality deviants'. Or the Nephandi who seek to destroy and corrupt all exsistence for their dark masters. Then their our the Mauraders. Wyld incarnate, they do things that shouldn't be done or that are impossible even by mage standards. And lastly the Nine Traditions whos eek to walk the Balancing Path. Also you your power is limited by what is belived 'possible' by the masses. The harder you push rerality the harder reality will push you back (and it will)! This balance of power and potential is what makes the game so much fun.

Mage is a great book in that it can be as simple and as complex as you want, with the typical WW anarchy when it comes to a storyteller following the writen rules...a much more plausible system of magic than the T$R crap with rules only to handicap with hardly a good explanation...And the magick system is much more plausible than the RIFTS system, which parallels T$R slightly but gives more explanations and better spells....This is the perfect game for elite players because it gives so much individual play into what the player wants magick to be for their character...Definitely a little too complex to be someone's first game without a satey net of good players though, but that's hardly a bad point...Put simply, White Wolf's World of Darkness is the best multiverse RP system, and Mage is the best part of it...

Forget Revised, this is what the game is really about. A generic setting in which you can launch a game in any time, any where, with any who. The revisions made from visionary-but-glitchy First edition make it much clearer and smoother to run.

Has everything you need to start an Ascension War chronicle (whether you want to get involved in the War or not is another matter), including details on the Technocracy, governments, secret organisations, the Umbra, the Digital Web, and a little on history.

Magick is appropriately powerful, and the game flows much more than the "crunchier" games like Vampire or Werewolf. It's a harder game than those, requiring more in the way of maturity and intelligence, but far more rewarding. And you don't have to play some kind of freaky monster.

Beautiful Role Playing Game, but very hard to play, I think it's good for experienced Masters because character are very malleable, so it's simple to crash an adventure for loss of game practice

Mage: the Ascension, for which this is the basic rulebook, is an RPG that takes magic into the modern world and then turns right around and makes magic of science, and reality a function of the will. A game for dreamers, philosophers, and armchair mystics, Mage is everything a mature RPG should be.

M:TA seems to be one of those games people either love or hate. It's been my favorite in the storyteller series ever since it first came out. It's strengths are it's unusual premise (beleif determines reality), it's strong character orientation (the game practically forces you to define a belief system for your character), and the malleability of the setting. Are you interested in philosphical stories pondering reality, religion, and beleif? Do you want an action shootemup with cyborgs and gun-toting hermeticists? Maybe you'd like to do a sci-fi space opera? The setting can be adapted to all these genres and more.

True, it also demands that you take a new approach to gaming and that the player accept more responsibility for placing limits on their own characters. Your first game can be extremely difficult. And there are, as others have pointed out, some rather annoying inconsistencies in the rules (particularly with regards to the mechanics of paradox).

On the whole, though, this is still very much my favorite game. the rules are flexible and allow you maximum discretion and creativity. Those of you chafing under the class and alignment restrictions of AD$D will find this game a welcome change.