The Inside Scoop on Gaming

As it is stated in the Introduction, all the material in Hidden Lore was cut from Mage 2nd Edition, and thus it looks more like an Appendix than as a full supplement. Anyway, Hidden Lore has some valuable information to complement Mage, and some really nice goodies for the storyteller. Players should be advised to avoid this book, though, as it can ruin much of the fun when encountering the darker factions from the Ascension War.

Chapter One is a mixed bag of new rules and styles of play, Rotes and some "Mages of Note", or, how White Wolf calls them in their webpage, signature characters. Overall this section is rather scarce if you're looking for a complete section regarding any of them three, but as a whole is interesting, although you can find better information on any of those sections in several other supplements. Thus, if you already own a lot of supplements, you won't find this section particulary useful.

Chapter Two is a setting for Mage in Seattle. Though not bad, I've never enjoyed Mage setting much cause the thing I like the most in Mage is that you can do anything you want with your game. Putting aside my personal tastes, the setting is well done and describes all you need to know to run a short chronicle based on the Conjurer's Cubbyhole (the name of the starring Chantry in this setting). Don't aspire to make a very large chronicle from this setting, though, as it is detailed but short.

Hidden Lore was one of my first supplements, so I found Chapter Three (Storyteller Goodies) really useful. The Chapter is composed of two sections, both of them valuable. The first one is regarding the antagonists' magicks in the form of Rotes (Nephandi, Marauder and Technocratic Rotes). The second section is about some Ascension War hints that in my opinion should have been included in the original book at the sake of something else. It states what each faction seeks in Ascension (which is fundamental in constructing your character beliefs!), and some extra goodies that I really found useful but that are much better explained in other books (like Umbra Ships, that are excellently displayed in The Book of Worlds).

The book ends with 9 photocopiable pages that have a nice "summary" of what each of the Spheres doeas at each level. It's a good thing for a Storyteller to have all his/her players photocopy these valuable pages so that they don't get lost in Mage's complex magick system.

As for the Storyteller Screen that comes with this book, it's nice looking and rather useful, but lacks a lot of important information, so the ST has to memorize a lot of missing parts. You won't find, for instance, data on Paradox backlashes (not even when to roll them) or the Sphere summary (It would be nice if it had at least the 9-sphere list with the 2 or 3 word basic description of what it can do at each level), but it has some other useful information so you don't have to secretly check the book each time you don't remember something. I've heard it won't work really well with Revised edition, though.

All in all, Hidden Lore is something they had to do, but if it were not for the fact that the the majority of the information should be on 2nd Edition, this book shouldn't be worth your money; but as things are, you can really find some use for it.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Hidden Lore + Storyteller Screen
Author: Phil Brucato, Brian Campbell, Deena McKinney, Kevin A. Murphey, Wayne Peacock, John R. Robey, Allen Varney Category: game Company/Publisher: White Wolf Publishing Line: Mage Cost: 15 Page count: 72 (plus screen) ISBN: 1-56504-402-9 SKU: WW4301 Capsule Review by Andres F Pabon on 04/17/00. Genre tags: Fantasy Modern_day Conspiracy Gothic	As it is stated in the Introduction, all the material in Hidden Lore was cut from Mage 2nd Edition, and thus it looks more like an Appendix than as a full supplement. Anyway, Hidden Lore has some valuable information to complement Mage, and some really nice goodies for the storyteller. Players should be advised to avoid this book, though, as it can ruin much of the fun when encountering the darker factions from the Ascension War. Chapter One is a mixed bag of new rules and styles of play, Rotes and some "Mages of Note", or, how White Wolf calls them in their webpage, signature characters. Overall this section is rather scarce if you're looking for a complete section regarding any of them three, but as a whole is interesting, although you can find better information on any of those sections in several other supplements. Thus, if you already own a lot of supplements, you won't find this section particulary useful. Chapter Two is a setting for Mage in Seattle. Though not bad, I've never enjoyed Mage setting much cause the thing I like the most in Mage is that you can do anything you want with your game. Putting aside my personal tastes, the setting is well done and describes all you need to know to run a short chronicle based on the Conjurer's Cubbyhole (the name of the starring Chantry in this setting). Don't aspire to make a very large chronicle from this setting, though, as it is detailed but short. Hidden Lore was one of my first supplements, so I found Chapter Three (Storyteller Goodies) really useful. The Chapter is composed of two sections, both of them valuable. The first one is regarding the antagonists' magicks in the form of Rotes (Nephandi, Marauder and Technocratic Rotes). The second section is about some Ascension War hints that in my opinion should have been included in the original book at the sake of something else. It states what each faction seeks in Ascension (which is fundamental in constructing your character beliefs!), and some extra goodies that I really found useful but that are much better explained in other books (like Umbra Ships, that are excellently displayed in The Book of Worlds). The book ends with 9 photocopiable pages that have a nice "summary" of what each of the Spheres doeas at each level. It's a good thing for a Storyteller to have all his/her players photocopy these valuable pages so that they don't get lost in Mage's complex magick system. As for the Storyteller Screen that comes with this book, it's nice looking and rather useful, but lacks a lot of important information, so the ST has to memorize a lot of missing parts. You won't find, for instance, data on Paradox backlashes (not even when to roll them) or the Sphere summary (It would be nice if it had at least the 9-sphere list with the 2 or 3 word basic description of what it can do at each level), but it has some other useful information so you don't have to secretly check the book each time you don't remember something. I've heard it won't work really well with Revised edition, though. All in all, Hidden Lore is something they had to do, but if it were not for the fact that the the majority of the information should be on 2nd Edition, this book shouldn't be worth your money; but as things are, you can really find some use for it. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Hidden Lore + Storyteller Screen