Author: Beth Fischi, Allen Varney, Phil Brucato, Ethan Skemp, Chris Hind
Category: game
Company/Publisher: White Wolf Game Studio
Line: Mage- The Ascension
Cost: $15 (US)
Page count: 120 pages
ISBN: 1-56505-425-8
SKU: WW4012
Playtest Review by Bradford C. Walker on 04/16/00.
Genre tags: Fantasy Science_fiction Modern_day Espionage Gothic Asian/Far_East

A few years ago, White Wolf released a suppliment for Mage regarding the heart of the Nine Mystick Traditions. This was to be a grand book covering the realm of Horizon, where the Council of Nine resided, and the Nine Traditions placed their last, best hope for winning the war.

The book failed.

What arrived on the stand was a set of campaign notes coupled with some unremarkable artwork and a short, meandering story that served no purpose but to advance the heinous metaplot of the Mage line. If this was someone's fan page, I'd not be so bothered. It isn't; this is suppossedly a work of professional game design and development, so I expected to find things like plenty of maps, portraits of key NPCs, a clear and concise text, and other things that I've come to expect from one of the top dogs of this niche industry.

Follow along, and I'll show you what I mean.

Introduction

This is the calm before the storm. In these two pages, the book is at its best. In quick succession the reader gets hooked into the book, has the concept of "seasons" explained to him, has the alleged purpose of the book explained to him, and then receives the book's theme and mood. This is clear, concise, and concrete writing that gets the point across without fuss or misinterpretation. If only the rest of the book was like this introduction, for then it would be a book that I would acclaim far and wide.

This book sets itself in 1997. The travesties of Mage 3 have yet to occur, and it is clear here that the Ascension War is far from over. The Traditions are still a viable force, and they're preparing for a new offensive against the Technocracy. It's a time of renewal, of a new hope, and that bodes ill for those who'd oppose the Traditions. This faction-wide Spring stems from Horizon, which is about to undergo a renewal of its own. Renewal, then, is the book's theme.

The book's mood is Wonder. This is what the Sleepers lack, and what they hunger for. The Technocracy can't deliever it because it works against the goals of Security, Stability, and Supremacy at all costs; the Tradition leadership (finally) deduced this, and now they plan to introduce all sorts of Wonder through every avenue open to them. They get their inspiration from Horizon, which is a place where wonder is as abundant as clean air and Quintessence.

It's a great time to be a Traditionalist.

Chapter One

This chapter is story about Dante's visit to Horizon. In this story, he has a Hollow One named Nile as an alleged apprentice, and she's a hot-tempered bitch that goes off every time the two of them meet some dignitary or another. She does get to meet most of the Council of Nine, and live to tell about it.

(The fact that she doesn't get blasted, turned into something, cursed, or otherwise smacked upside the head for her ill-mannered behavior before people who can squish her like a bug is quite the stretch on my disbelief suspenders. This doesn't reflect well on the Council's membership.)

The gist of the story is that Porthos wants to get some new blood on the Council of Nine. He invites some replacements, and gathers them with most of the existing members. With the help of a Hermetic named Gillian, they nab a spy from Doisettep and get the plan on its way. Porthos then gets to work on the rest of the plan off-screen, and that is where the story ends. I found this rather boring.

As I said above, this chapter is more of an excuse to spew forth the advancement of Mage's metaplot than anything else of merit. As a tour of Horizon, it's a failure; not all of the subrealms show up, not any of Concordia's wards, and certainly not much of the wilderness beyond Concordia's walls. As a primer-by-example of local politics, it's a wash because there isn't that much going on and it's not sufficiently sophisticated for beings like these. ( Babylon 5, a science fiction television show with a similiar setting, was a far better model for politics at this level.) As a story, it bored me to death. I'd rather watch Showgirls.

The history of Horizon found later in the book should've been here. Furthermore, it should've been a long and detailed history, broken down by eras and supplimented by quarter-panel or half-page artwork that complimented the text of a key event in Horizon's history. The timeline should've been in the margins, or as one of the appendices. It isn't too much to ask because it was done before with Chicago By Night (both editions), and that's just as important a book (for its game) as this one.

And speaking of histories...

Chapter Two

This is the history chapter, where the book tells the reader what went on before and (maybe) how or why it happenned. What we get is a thing that is half-timeline and half-synopsis, and sometimes it actually goes into some detail about the events mentioned.

The information comes as a document from Horizon's archives. This means that the information is subjective, and that is a mistake. The reason for the subjective state is to give the user permission to make changes as he sees fits, but this is not necessary; the Golden Rule of Gaming applies to setting information as well as to game engines, so there is no reason to make setting information subjective. Instead, this information should've been objective because those who want to change things will do so, and those who have neither the time nor the inclination can just point to the book and say "It says so here, so shut up already!"

As for the content of the history, it begins in 1210 with the attack and destruction of Misridge by the Craftmasons and their cannons. In 1450 Horizon begins its existance. In 1466 the Grand Convocation occurs, and the Nine Traditions enter their first configuration. The First Cabal story goes from 1467-1470, ending with Heylel's betrayal, trial, death, and Gilgul. From there, things go up and down quite a bit until the 1990s. Now things look up, and Horizon is about to become quite relevant to the Ascension War once again.

There is a sidebar that delves a little deeper into some important historical events. From the first Grand Convocation of 1466 arose four documents: the Resolutions, the Protocols, the Declaration of Council, and the Compact of Callias. While I am glad that these details exist, there should've been far more of them. The story of the battle to tame Urushlakg'run is worthy of a sidebar of its own, and even that is but a synopsis. The same goes for many other key events in Horizon's history; a proper treatment of Horizon's history is far more than these 120 pages could allow, which is why it falls far short of being more than a glorified timeline.

A proper treatment would take at least 30 pages, and that's with the use of clear, concise writing coupled with the competent use of sidebars and complimentary artwork. Since this is sorely lacking at White Wolf, it would take about twice that much space to accomplish the same goal. As it is, what's there is just enough to get the dimmest of clues about this not-quite-realized place.

Chapter Three

This chapter is a dark pit of darkness. Feel its angst, see its magick trick, and know despair- because this is where anyone with a functional brain can see where the authors fell down on the job. In a proper suppliment of this sort, this chapter would be broken into at least two chapters.

One of them would be about geography, flora, and fauna. It would be broken down by continent, then by region (etc.) just like any other setting suppliment that dealt in unfamiliar lands. One would cover the political landscape of Horizon, with all that involves. (A third could be entirely devoted to Concordia.) Both of them would have well-designed, useful, color maps that properly show the reader what is where- and do so in no uncertain terms.

As the above paragraphs indicates, this is not what the book provides. Instead, there's a brief rundown of the common way for coming and going from Horizon. There are a list of Nodes, which includes the locations and their defenses (or lack thereof). Following that is a rundown of the legitimate and illegitimate accessways to Horizon, and how they're defended. A sidebar covers crossing into Horizon, and it is the only decent piece in the chapter; it gets to the mechanics of getting to Horizon on your own, both pro and con, without any fuss.

After this, we get the half-assed rundown out the geography, flora, fauna, and magickal acceptability of Horizon. (Another sidebar deals with the last item, and again it gets to the mechanics.) What's here is the equivalent of someone turning in a term paper written the night before while hopped up on caffeine; cutting down the information on the first page and a half down to what's actually there would result in a half-page article. I can reduce it to this: Horizon is mostly wilderness; Most of the 30,000 people live in Concordia; Horizon maintains strict control over development for the sake of the land; Magic creatures thrive here; Traditional Magick is Coincidental here.

It doesn't get better. Horizon has no Gauntlet, so spirit and flesh are one here; that information takes up a five-paragraph sidebar. The layout takes up most of a page (in space) to tell you that Horizon is a small moon with two continents, with Concordia at the center of one of them, and the two continents have land bridges connecting them. There are a handful of mystickal places in the realm, most of which have little or no relevance to what's going on here. The two maps of the continents are in black-and-white, are too small to be read well, and are too abstract to be of any use.

The defense of Horizon are few, far between, and appallingly weak. This realm, the capital the Traditions, sports of a Home Fleet of three overgunned hybrid flying submarines called "Cloudships". There is a lightning cannon the mountains, a pitiful army of 500 mundanes and 120 mages, and the rest depends entirely upon the prowess of the remaining mages as well as the magickal beasties roaming about. (Yes, there is a Plot-Device Gun in the Council Dome, and a force-field, but that won't stop a determined Technocrat assault.) Your average set of gamers can easily devise an easy-to-execute plan that will bring the place to its knees before the Technocracy. Whoever came up with this needs to read The Art of War until he can improve on it; this shows a decided ignorance of the military needs of such a place. Oh, and there's another useless map after this.

The material on Concordia is equally shallow and filled with holes. While there is a rundown on What To Do and What Not To Do, some joints to visit, local medical and communications facilities, local police, and so on none of this gets an in-depth treatment that something like this needs. What detail exists is shallow at best. The legal code is the best example. While it's different, it's not different enough. It shouldn't be that easy to recognize from anything on Earth; had the designers bothered to think this through, and artwork--color artwork--that shows the reader what certain key things (the police, military, and Council Guard) look like. The map of Concordia is bloody worthless; it's a bunch of lines with a half-assed key that tell you nothing than what ward (and tourist trap) is where- and it doesn't even tell you all of that.

(Aside: Yes, you get to see what the traps are and what they do. Yes, you get to see what the prison structure is like- and what gets you thrown into them. It's still a set of glorifed campaign notes, and nothing more. I expect far more than this when I pay for a professional game product, and if I don't get it I'll scream long and loud until I do.)

The biggest blunder is the Council Chamber itself. The map of the building covers all levels on one page; the confusion result from this will drive most folks bonkers, resulting in the book being thrown against the wall in disgust. The text description isn't much better, because it follows the trend of using far too many words to describe a simple concept. For the subrealms, there are no maps at all--there should be--and the descriptions are inadequate. It's like reading the room description of your average MU*, as done by a junior high student padding a book report.

Finally, we get down to the ruling mages of Horizon and their friends. This is all about the Council of Nine and their cabals on Horizon, which is the best thing about this bloated, missing-a-decent-editor chapter of steaming sewage. Each cabal has a paragraph describing its history, purpose, and political stances. Following this is a list of its current (as of 1997) members, and the cabal's heraldry. Again, this is clear, concise, and useful information- which is more than I can say about anything else in this chapter.

After this, there's some words on acolytes and consors, citizens, familiars, and guardians. More of this is brief and function, but not much more than that. There's another brief article on the current politics and government structure of the realm. Again, it's barely useful and not much more than that.

Chapter Four

This chapter covers running adventures in and around Horizon, and that includes basing campaigns out of Horizon. Other than details specific to Horizon, you're better off junking this and watching episodes of Babylon 5 for examples of intrigue, politics, and adventure in a place like Horizon. (If you have access to stories about UN politics, that will do as well.)

It also mentions playing archmages with Spheres above Rank 5, but that's covered in depth (as it were) in the following chapter. I'm not impressed by this at all.

Chapter Five

This is the stats and stuff chapter. Here's where you see the faces on the Council of Nine, the majordomo, the master archivist, the key guardians, and some of the notable magick beasties. The ambivalence I felt earlier isn't lessened here.

It also covers the first version of the Archspheres, and after seeing the slag that passed for playable in the Masters book you'll agree that this set--although limited--is better than what was in that pile of wasted wood pulp. Coupled to it is the first set of rules and ideas for using archmages in your games, and this is again largely a matter of panning for the (very little) gold admist the silt.

Quite frankly, the archmagi material should've been junked and the adventure material rewritten until it's playable by the dimmest of the populace. What a waste.

Conclusion

This should've been a hardcover book of at least 288 pages in length, with well-designed maps that anyone could use, and color artwork in key places. It could also have been a boxed set, much like the old Greyhawk set, and include all of the elements I mentioned here and above. As it is, the meat could've been put into 16 page pamphlet. This is Very Wrong, and is to be discouraged early, often, and repeatedly until the point gets across. Do not buy this book, unless it's a used copy and the price is below $5 (US), or you'll waste your finite cash.

Style: 2 (Needs Work)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)