Somehow,
Mage: the Ascension is a game that managed to make players feel too power and too weak – at the same time. A lot of those standard magician tricks are beyond the reach of starting players, but some mind-boggling feats are also within the grasp of the truly inventive (provided you can weave the bullshit well enough to convince the Storyteller, of course). Games often end up being oddly frustrating fun, especially when you add in the wildcard (and dirty word) of Paradigm.
So playing a game where all your left with is that taste of power, and none of the ability to use it seems like a clear recipe for just frustration, doesn’t it? Yeah, maybe, but sometimes it’s that very frustration and anticipation that makes a game fun. To quote a section header from the book, sometimes the game is best when “now you’re fucked.” I know that it was often being screwed over in exciting new ways that have made a number of my most memorable games.
A book all about playing apprentices who have just enough power and just enough ability to get themselves in over their head (“a little bit of knowledge…”) could be a great idea indeed. A great idea, if it actually contained useful information – and that’s really where Initiates of the Art really falls short. With a rare few exceptions, it’s 88 pages of obvious advice, self-evident details and “Hell, I knew that!” moments.
I did enjoy the opening fiction, if only for the idea that only the worthless students are risked in all those life-and-death missions. Sometimes it’s just a bit of logic that makes a story fun. After that, however, the book seems to kind of lose it’s focus and drift around talking about the relationship between a master and a student as well as constantly saying “this can kill you, and this… and this… oh, and that too. Death and madness, everywhere you turn. Yup.” While the vulnerable nature of an apprentice is certainly important, it doesn’t need such repetition and reinforcement.
The first chapter talks about how apprentices get found and brought into a Tradition, mostly. It is also sprinkled with stuff like how it feels to Awaken and how easy it is to get hooked into one conspiracy or another. The following chapter is all about the mentor-student relationship, from how to find one to how to keep one (on both sides of the fence), as well as a look at the relationship between the new mage and his Avatar. The best parts of the chapter were the side notes. Questions like “What happens if I forget my lines during my initiation ritual?” and “What if I have pee during it?” are answered with a nice, frank and simple “You’re human, and so are the people giving the initiation – they’ll understand, so don’t sweat it.” Unfortunately that feeling does not extend throughout the chapter. Aside from the admittance that both talented mentors and willing students are in such short supply that both parties should remember to try to cut each other some slack, I found little interesting or inspiring.
The third chapter looks at an apprentice’s life. Different methods of teaching are given a cursory examination, as are other topics like Paradigm and child mages. A chunk is also taken up looking at the plethora of temptations facing the new mage, from simple laziness to trying to solve all the world’s problems with your new and glorious magical power. Stuff that certainly bears mentioning, but perhaps a bit too drawn out. Chapter four is really an extended look at the various things in the World of Darkness that could gobble up unwary apprentices for lunch, and spit them back out later to gobble them up again for dinner. It does, however, also contain the best section of the book, about three or four pages with advice on running adventures for apprentices. While all of the advice seems obvious in hindsight, it is very important to remember when the Storyteller is trying to run a fun game for “those meddling kids.”
The book rounds out with a chapter on rules, filled with merits and templates. To be honest, only the merit Pushy Avatar really caught my attention. The other merits played on aspects of Mage: the Ascension I am much less enamored of, like the Traditions having a monopoly on their Paradigm and mages needing a merit to learn outside the lines. There are a bunch of rotes as well and, of course, few of them seem to actually follow the rules. Tossing in superfluous Spheres into a rote is long tradition with Mage: the Ascension supplements, and it continues here. The very subjective nature of magic in the game makes it hard for everyone to agree on what you need to do what, but some of the Sphere combinations seem downright absurd in a number of supplements. Sadly.
As you can probably guess by now, I didn’t much enjoy Initiates of the Art. The writing was not poor, but neither was it gripping, and it’s lack of non-obvious advice and wisdom made the read as much a chore as anything else. The art in the book is similarly average and run of the mill - I even found Langdon Foss’ work to be okay, instead of mildly annoying as I usually do. Alex Sheikman, however, is a notable exception and he continues to produce superb, evocative and stylized chapter openings.
If you want great advice and new material with which to run an apprentice game, you won’t find it here. If you want reminds to make sure you don’t forget anything obvious (it does happen to all of use), then you will definitely find what you need in Initiates of the Art.
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