The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I'll start by saying this book, along with Guide to the Technocracy, is the best supplement ever written for Mage, in my opinion. Plus you can use it in other WoD chronicles, maybe even more than The Velvet Shadow supplement for Werewolf.

That said, I'll start to explain what the book is all about. The book, as it's name implies, details the Umbra, that mysterious spirit reality that was only briefly described in a lot of other sourcebooks. The Introduction is written by a fiction signature character who is known to have been mentioned in both SoE Trad book and in Hidden Lore: the Etherite explorer Alexis Hastings. She tells us the basics of Umbral travel, this time in a much more detailed way than in past sourcebooks, and tells us she's been busy collecting information about the Umbra from diverse sources among her friends, colleagues and allies. It also gives us, for the first time, a graphical representation of the Umbra as the Order of Hermes views it in their Mercurian Cosmology.

Chapter One is about the Astral Worlds (or High Umbra), where thought has a manifestation. As this is probably the most visited layer of the Umbra for Mages, the chapter has a huge seection of Realms in the High Umbra, and explains extensively the methods for traveling within it. Places like Heaven and Hell, a huge warehouse of inventions and some even more abstract concepts given form can be found in this chapter, and players and storytellers alike would love to visit one of these strange Realms.

Chapter Two is about the Middle (or Spirit) Umba. Although this theme is a lot more detailed in the aforementioned The Velvet Shadow for Werewolf: the Apocalypse, this Chapter gives you what Mages percive of the Spirit Umbra, and the Realms they know. These Realms are considerably less than the ones the Garou know, but even the ones the Garou know are given a complete new conception by the Mages. If you can grab this book don't use the Werewolf supplement to run a Middle Umbra adventure for Mage; this chapter is just what you need for that.

The "Enigmas" chapter is about four sections of the Umbra that only a few Mages know: the Shadowlands (or Low Umbra), Paradox Realms, Maya (or "the Dreaming" in Fae Lore) and Etherites' favorite place, the Hollow Earth. Some of these can be found more detailed in other White Wolf books (Shadowlands is the topic of Wraith and a bunch of sourcebooks for it and Maya is Changeling's main setting), but what you'll find here about all of them is really useful for the point of view of a Mage. With the exception of the Shadowlands section, which is really scarce, this chapter is very detailed and really useful. Maya is described to have a lot of Realms within it, and some of them are really interesting; the Paradox Realms section is not all-encompasing, but very inspiring; and the Hollow Earth section really makes you want to run a chroncile down there ASAP.

Next chapter is about Horizon Realms, and although most of them are mentioned in other sourcebooks, in this chapter they are really detailed, complete with descriptions, history, places of interest and even ecology. Each Realm gets 4 or 5 pages (some of them get even more) and the information found here is clear enough to make the places interesting, but open-ended enough to let your imagination do the rest.

Chapter Five depicts the planets as Shard Realms, and their corresponding Shade Realms that represent each Sphere of Magick. Each planet (and even the Sun) gets a full description, as with all the other Realms depicted in this book, and the history sections in particular can be really interesting as they collide completely with the modern technocratic paradigm. Although personally I found more interesting some Realms in other chapters, the ones depicted here are really charming!

Chapter Six is about all the denizens you can find while travelling the Umbra. All kind of spirits, space monsters, dinosaurs and even spaceships are described here, leaving also space for your imagination to complement the creatures found here.

The Appendix is a necessary one for this book, as it finally explains the game mechanics to visit all the wonderous places that have been described through all the book.

As a whole, the book is really just a collection of interesting places to run your chronicle, but all of the places are so wonderous that you'll never tun out of theme in your chronicle. As I've said a dozen times before, what I like the most in Mage is that you can do whatever you want with your chronicle, and run it in whatever setting you can imagine; and the settings that are given to you in this sourcebook are not only interesting, but also inspiring. Great job here, White Wolf!

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Beyond the Barriers: The Book of Worlds
Author: Phil Brucato, Heather Curatola, Harry Heckel, Chris Hind, Angel Leigh McCoy, Judith A. McLaughlin, Kathleen Ryan Category: game Company/Publisher: White Wolf Publishing Line: Mage Cost: 22 Page count: 197 ISBN: 1-56504-434-7 SKU: WW4007 Capsule Review by Andres F Pabon on 04/19/00. Genre tags: Fantasy Modern_day Conspiracy Gothic	I'll start by saying this book, along with Guide to the Technocracy, is the best supplement ever written for Mage, in my opinion. Plus you can use it in other WoD chronicles, maybe even more than The Velvet Shadow supplement for Werewolf. That said, I'll start to explain what the book is all about. The book, as it's name implies, details the Umbra, that mysterious spirit reality that was only briefly described in a lot of other sourcebooks. The Introduction is written by a fiction signature character who is known to have been mentioned in both SoE Trad book and in Hidden Lore: the Etherite explorer Alexis Hastings. She tells us the basics of Umbral travel, this time in a much more detailed way than in past sourcebooks, and tells us she's been busy collecting information about the Umbra from diverse sources among her friends, colleagues and allies. It also gives us, for the first time, a graphical representation of the Umbra as the Order of Hermes views it in their Mercurian Cosmology. Chapter One is about the Astral Worlds (or High Umbra), where thought has a manifestation. As this is probably the most visited layer of the Umbra for Mages, the chapter has a huge seection of Realms in the High Umbra, and explains extensively the methods for traveling within it. Places like Heaven and Hell, a huge warehouse of inventions and some even more abstract concepts given form can be found in this chapter, and players and storytellers alike would love to visit one of these strange Realms. Chapter Two is about the Middle (or Spirit) Umba. Although this theme is a lot more detailed in the aforementioned The Velvet Shadow for Werewolf: the Apocalypse, this Chapter gives you what Mages percive of the Spirit Umbra, and the Realms they know. These Realms are considerably less than the ones the Garou know, but even the ones the Garou know are given a complete new conception by the Mages. If you can grab this book don't use the Werewolf supplement to run a Middle Umbra adventure for Mage; this chapter is just what you need for that. The "Enigmas" chapter is about four sections of the Umbra that only a few Mages know: the Shadowlands (or Low Umbra), Paradox Realms, Maya (or "the Dreaming" in Fae Lore) and Etherites' favorite place, the Hollow Earth. Some of these can be found more detailed in other White Wolf books (Shadowlands is the topic of Wraith and a bunch of sourcebooks for it and Maya is Changeling's main setting), but what you'll find here about all of them is really useful for the point of view of a Mage. With the exception of the Shadowlands section, which is really scarce, this chapter is very detailed and really useful. Maya is described to have a lot of Realms within it, and some of them are really interesting; the Paradox Realms section is not all-encompasing, but very inspiring; and the Hollow Earth section really makes you want to run a chroncile down there ASAP. Next chapter is about Horizon Realms, and although most of them are mentioned in other sourcebooks, in this chapter they are really detailed, complete with descriptions, history, places of interest and even ecology. Each Realm gets 4 or 5 pages (some of them get even more) and the information found here is clear enough to make the places interesting, but open-ended enough to let your imagination do the rest. Chapter Five depicts the planets as Shard Realms, and their corresponding Shade Realms that represent each Sphere of Magick. Each planet (and even the Sun) gets a full description, as with all the other Realms depicted in this book, and the history sections in particular can be really interesting as they collide completely with the modern technocratic paradigm. Although personally I found more interesting some Realms in other chapters, the ones depicted here are really charming! Chapter Six is about all the denizens you can find while travelling the Umbra. All kind of spirits, space monsters, dinosaurs and even spaceships are described here, leaving also space for your imagination to complement the creatures found here. The Appendix is a necessary one for this book, as it finally explains the game mechanics to visit all the wonderous places that have been described through all the book. As a whole, the book is really just a collection of interesting places to run your chronicle, but all of the places are so wonderous that you'll never tun out of theme in your chronicle. As I've said a dozen times before, what I like the most in Mage is that you can do whatever you want with your chronicle, and run it in whatever setting you can imagine; and the settings that are given to you in this sourcebook are not only interesting, but also inspiring. Great job here, White Wolf! Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Beyond the Barriers: The Book of Worlds