Author: Justin Achilli, Aldyth Beltane, Brad Beltane, Phil Brucato, Rachelle Udell, with Mark Cenczyk, James Moore, Kevin Murphy, and Lindsay Woodcock
Category: game
Company/Publisher: White Wolf
Cost: $16
Page count: 136
ISBN: 1-56504-436-3
Capsule Review by Heather Grove on 01/05/99.
Genre tags: Fantasy Science_fiction Modern_day Horror Conspiracy Gothic

"The Orphans Survival Guide" is "A Handbook for Rebel Magi in Mage: The Ascension." It's about mages who don't follow either the Traditions or the Technocracy. Maybe they started out in one or the other and left (more properly called an Errant or Renunciate), or they were self-taught, or they were taught by someone who didn't belong to either hierarchy.

Flavor and Style

This book has a shtick as big as the Eiffel Tower, and it waves it about in the wind as though it was the most important part of the book. It's nice that White Wolf wanted "Orphans" to have something of a consistent feel, and I rather like the whole ultra-personal, street-bound idea of a game, but it's over-done. Sometimes more is less, not more. While I appreciate the author's desire to get across the brutality, dirt, degredation and disgust of life on the streets, it gets to be a bit much sometimes. I don't think there's anyone who would call me squeamish, but there are things in here I just didn't need to know in that much detail. If people are too disgusted to finish reading your carefully-crafted paragraphs on the effects of dumpster-diving on people's digestive systems, then what good have those paragraphs done?

For flavor and style, stick with later chapters rather than earlier ones. Especially Chapter 5, "When the Fire Starts," the chapter on Storytelling an orphan chronicle. It may get a bit in-your-face, but it does it to make a point, not to wave a shtick around. Learn the difference.

Living on the Streets

Not every orphan mage lives on the streets. Not that you'd believe it to read this book, of course. I think there's one orphan in the templates who truly isn't a part of street society, and one place in the chapter on locations that caters to non-street-level mages. Luckily when you get to the Appendix section on popular magickal styles, you will find that some of them lend themselves pretty clearly to non-street-level mages.

I agree that most orphan chronicles should be set on the streets, just because it's more interesting there. I don't agree that they all should (and that's essentially what's said). Be creative, guys. If you had an entire chapter on the Hollow Ones, then you should have had one as well on non-street-mages.

Oh, and some concepts get very repetitive, especially toward the beginning. Yes, we know that survival is the hard part. You've already told us that a dozen times, and I'm getting so tired of it that the rest of this page I'm reading no longer looks interesting.

Advice to Storytellers

Chapter 5, or "When the Fire Starts," concentrates on advice to Storytellers. For the most part, it's a great chapter, and I'd recommend it even for Storytellers who don't plan to run Orphan chronicles. There's a fair amount of decent advice, with good examples.

This chapter makes the all-too-rarely-made point that being a mage does not necessarily mean being in control, or rich, or strong, especially if you're an orphan. It stresses the human level of an orphan chronicle -- these chronicles aren't about travelling around the universe or fighting off hordes of nexus-crawlers. There's less distinction between Awakened and Sleeper here, and I think that's a good thing.

Templates, Famous People, and Useful Places

The Chapel Perilous, with its "hideous shambling things" beneath the basement, is a bit over-the-top. It is, however, nice that the subject of vampires as predators is adressed (here and earlier in the book); after all, the street-orphans are living in exactly the segment of society that vampires like to prey on. As for the Heights, it's nice to finally have (by implication) a place involving orphans who don't necessarily live on (or very near) the street. All of the locations have interesting ideas to them; I wouldn't use any of them unchanged, however.

The template chapter makes the point that not all orphans are goths. Hallelujah! The Wall Street Wizard, a non-street-orphan, is nice, but none of the templates were incredibly brilliant.

Some of the "Noted Shadows" (famous orphans) were fun. There were a number of plot hooks left dangling, which is the meat and bread of some Storytellers. It would certainly make the characters easy to work into a campaign. The wacked-out former MiB is a great idea, but a few of the details really need better explanations (for example, if a dead Man in Gray is going to help rescue our newly-Awakened MiB from the NWO before they can reprogram him, the author should **** well put in a word or two about why! Just because a MiG is dead doesn't automatically set him against his former loyalties!). And if some author thinks he's being up with the times because he has a wacko preaching that the world will get turned upside down by the Y2K bug -- please. This has already gotten very, very old, and waaaay too out-of-hand. I already saw this plot in the tabloids, and it certainly didn't deserve the better part of 2 pages in a White Wolf book.

The Hollow Ones

Enough with the name-dropping already! This chapter is worse about dropping the names of historical figures than a week-ful of the most outdated plot threads on alt.games.whitewolf. I do, however, like the fact that the Hollow Ones are painted as being fairly screwed-up. Not only do they have their cliques and rivalries, but they're fairly prone to going Marauder. The description of what the Hollow Ones do to traitors was pretty ho-hum...until it got to what they did to the technocracy infiltrator. But, seriously, all Hollow One avatars have wings?? Nice image, but...it's predestined that you have to join the Hollow Ones, or will be forever excluded from them, based on whether your avatar goes for the feathers look or not? Please.

Mage as Mage, vs. Mage as Person

"Your senses are your best weapon." Take that, everyone who thinks that a low-level mage with only level one Spheres is useless! It just isn't so -- unless you've created a mage who is only a mage. And how many mages are mages, without being people? Not many, and certainly not the mages in this book. Mages were people before they were mages, with likes, dislikes, hobbies, and professions. If your mage is good at other things besides magick, then it won't matter that they aren't Masters of their craft yet. And level one sensing effects can be very useful indeed, as this book shows. Rah!

Fiction

Bits of fiction pepper this book, both at the beginning of sections and chapters, and within the information narrated to the reader by various characters. They're beautiful. Gorgeous. The story at the beginning finally, after three years of playing Mage, really brought home to me what the Awakening is like.

The Magick

On this subject, this book has a minor case of Multiple Personality Disorder (not nearly as bad as the one in Wraith's "Renegades", thank goodness).

I like the "magick must be special" concept. It isn't whether you do the right ritual...it's whether it feels like you do the right ritual. Orphan magick is rarely huge and flashy. But the idea that orphans all find their magick by instinct, and thus have a clearer perception of how magick works ("our kind have always seen the arts within the Arts"), is overstated. Yes, I imagine this would happen on a regular basis. But not until a much later section of the book (presumably written by a different author) is it addressed that orphans might regularly follow established belief systems (black magic, Paganism, Voodoo, "wishcraft," etc.). Just because an orphan suddenly finds herself being able to do unusual things doesn't mean she won't think it's spirits working through her, or devils. Heck, some orphans are even budding technomancers (just see the Appendix if you don't believe me); I love it!

Now, I like the section in the Appendix detailing common uses for various Spheres on the streets. I didn't like it when one of the "narrators" brought up the Spheres and lectured on them, even if by other names. I suppose it was necessary to address them, but I really liked the concept of seeing magick in terms of what it's needed for, rather than a bunch of abstract Spheres. There's all sorts of possibility for unusual world-views when the characters have never heard of Spheres. What about an orphan who has learned how to heal but has no idea that shape-shifting might fall under the same realm of ability?

It's nice to see magick not always viewed as a tool or gift. Sometimes it does what it wills, not what the mage wills, especially if you're an orphan without benefit of formal teaching.

The handful of rotes provided in the Appendix aren't particularly startling, but they are good, basic things appropriate to the living-on-the-streets orphan. They will certainly come in handy.

All in All

I'm glad I bought this book -- but then there's an orphan mage in my future. It's indispensible if you want to run an orphan chronicle; it'll make you answer questions you didn't even know to ask about your character. It's well worth the $16. Just keep your eyes open for the stuff you'll want to trash or rewrite. And if you're planning on just reading it for fun, then the attitude might get to be a bit much.

You thought I was done with my review, didn't you? Ha! Not so lucky. But the rest of it is less to do with the content of the book and more to do with two semi-related issues, so read on, or not, as you wish.

Insults and Where to Draw the Line

I'm going to tell you about three different insults, and why I think two are fine and the third is unacceptable.

On page 110 of "Orphans", there is printed a list entitled "In Case I Haven't Insulted You Yet." It includes things like, "I've encountered enough dim ****s who think you can 'dodge' a point-blank bullet to make me want to stress a few things while we're on the subject."

The content of the list is fine. I think a simple list of "you can't dodge bullets if you're a mortal" sorts of things is great. I think it's well-needed, since a lot of people get their ideas of what's possible and not from the movies these days (and from White Wolf's combat system). That's not my problem with this list.

It's unclear whether the author meant this as an "if you have this in your game you're stupid" kind of rant, or an "if you think this in real life you're stupid" sort of rant. If the latter, this shouldn't be here. What misconceptions people may have about real life are not this book's province. If the former, it is entirely inappropriate. White Wolf's Golden Rule has always been that the storyteller and players should take what they like of the books and leave or change the rest. An official book should not contradict that by telling people, in essence, "change what you want...but if you change it this way you're dumb." ("Change what you want...but here are some useful guidelines," on the other hand, would be fine.)

I can understand that White Wolf might be frustrated with some of the ideas people come up with. Phil Brucato (the Developer for this book) has obviously had a very strong vision for Mage, and obviously cares very much about the line, so it probably hurts a bit when people do things with it that bother him. But what makes roleplaying special is that the storytellers and players make it their own. They take someone else's material, and turn it into their own unique entity. To try to take that away by telling people what they can and can't change is selfish, and goes against what roleplaying is all about -- especially in White Wolf's universe. Besides, this is just that -- a game -- and games never completely and accurately represent everything as it is in real life.

"So where do you draw the line?" you ask. "Justin Achilli, current Vampire Developer, rants at and insults people on alt.games.whitewolf or on the White Wolf web page; why haven't you taken offense at that too? And what about the other things in the Storytelling chapter of 'Orphans' that could be interpreted as insults?"

Two questions are important here, and if you answer "yes" to the first and "no" to the second then in my opinion it's inappropriate. First, did a reader have to pay to get insulted? While it may be argued that some people have to pay for access to the web and to newsgroups, we certainly didn't pay a cover charge to White Wolf's web site. And getting insulted by people on netnews is old news. Readers of this book did, however, shell out a hefty $16 for the privilege of reading it. Even if you aren't one of the people directly insulted by this list, that's pretty insulting in and of itself. Also in my opinion, it's a bad idea to lend insults and "if you run your game this way you're an idiot" statements the kind of official air that being published in a White Wolf supplement will lend.

Second, did the insult or rant serve some other purpose? Did it entertain me, or inform me? Did it enlighten me in some small way? Justin's rants (on the newsgroup and on the web page) are great because, as I think most (though certainly not all) would agree, they're funny. They're hysterical. I forward them to my friends. And sometimes they even make a few good points. This little list, however, did not entertain. It did not inform. Most of it was nothing more than a stack of bitter insults. In short, it crossed the line.

If you want to see an example of how these sorts of things can be said and said right, then you have only to look at the Storytelling chapter in "Orphans" ("When the Fire Starts"). There are sections that make similar points, but aren't as bitter about it. They're entertaining, which makes them more likely to be read and appreciated. The funny part is that the list is contained within that same chapter, which means there's a pretty good chance that they were written by the same author. Yet in one place I believe it was done right, and in the other it was wrong.

I apologize for spending such a long portion of this review on one page of the book. I believe this to be important, though, just as I believe that White Wolf has a certain responsibility to watch what they say and how they say it. They're professionals, not just fans, even if they don't get paid what they're worth.

A Note on Phil's Departure

Phil Brucato has been the Mage Developer at White Wolf for a very long, long time, and this was his last development project. I haven't always agreed with what Mr. Brucato has done with Mage, as is evident in my reviews. However, I'd like to point out that this is normal -- no two people are ever going to have the same idea of what a roleplaying universe should be like. And while Mr. Brucato is to some extent responsible for the parts of Mage that I disagree with, he is also responsible for the fact that it's my favorite gaming line. If anything, I hold Mage to a higher standard than I do other games because I've come to expect more from it -- and that's something Phil accomplished.

While people are busy telling the new Developer, Jess Heinig, what it is they don't like about Mage in the hopes that he'll change it, they should keep in mind how much of Mage works for them. If they care enough about the line to bother the Developers about it, then clearly it struck a chord in them somewhere, somewhen. And if they're running the system with their own home-grown changes, then perhaps they should step back for a moment and notice just how much they haven't changed.

Thank you, Phil, for a wonderful ride. I wish you the best in whatever you choose to do next.

And Jess, remember this when you're up to your neck in complaints: they care enough to say something. As irritating as the complaints may be, people wouldn't make them if they didn't care enough to read Mage in the first place. And for every person who complains, there's a whole bunch kicking back at home, enjoying the books too much to say anything at all.

My personal wish list for the future Mage includes better organization, clearer Paradox rules, and a less black-and-white Technocracy. But this is Jess's game now, and he has to follow his own vision, not mine, and not yours.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)