Tradition Book: Celestial Chorus is a splatbook for the Revised edition of
Mage: The Ascension. It is a revision of the previous, Second Edition version of this splatbook that takes into account the dramatic changes in the World of Darkness since the game's revision. The new character templates include stats for tabletop and live-action players, the sample rotes do likewise and the content has plenty of sidebars that serve to punctuate elements in the main body of the text.
All of this does little more than made a bad book merely mediocre. Why? Because the worst flaw, one that's plagued World of Darkness splatbooks for years, remains: burying the solid, objective content that buyers want underneath a pile of lame gamer fiction that taints everything else in the book.
And now, the details.
The book begins with the Prologue and the Introduction. The former is nothing but lame gamer fiction that poorly acts as unnecessary flavor text. The latter is nothing but simple non-fiction text that gets the point across without muss or fuss. I didn't get anything but annoyed with the former; the latter explained to me what the avowed point of the book is, what the Chorus is about and what's in the book; on the side is a revised Tradition-specific set of lexicon.
Chapter One is the history chapter. It splits the Tradition's reckoning of time into four ages, the boundaries of which are set in the lexicon. During this part of the story, the major arcs of the Chorus' history are addressed and highlights. The story text, as is usual, is questionable at best in its utility; the good bits are all in the sidebars. This includes the geopolitical status of the Chorus, their common points of schism, explanation of pertinent historical bits and some information regarding the Knights Templar.
Chapter Two is the focus upon the Tradition's society. It covers the way that the Chorus recruits new apprentices, how newbies get trained, what the paradigm is and why they're about it, common foci in Chorus willworking (such as prayer), elements where Choristers cross paths (one way or another) with other Traditions or the Technocracy and the many subgroups within the Celestial Chorus. Once again, the story is far less helpful than the objective text; by this point, it got so annoying that I skimmed it for content and moved on. The non-fiction text is far more useful all around. There are far more groups in the book now than in the previous edition, many of which go far to point out just how diverse the religions within the Chorus really are. The groups can and do contradict each other, hobbling the Chorus' efforts and preventing the very Unity that they seek. (What do you want from a group that includes Templars, Mithraites, Rastafarians, Sihks, Jains and Sufis--amongst many, many others--under one umbrella grouping?)
This is also the chapter that has the sample rotes and goes into the details with regard to how the Chorus see and performs magic. Once the lame fiction goes away, this part of the book quickly becomes a valuable part of the book. The new Tradition-specific Merits and Flaws help in put into playable terms many of the key concepts in the book's text. It's the best and the worst of the book.
Chapter Three is the Who's Who of the Tradition. It has the notable NPCs--including a former Techie--and quite a bit to say about running an all-Chorus campaign. This includes dealing with theological issues, fighting the infernal and other big issues. (The sidebar that deals with evil is the best GM advice in this book.) As a model, the Interfaith Outreach Choir doesn't do a bad job of showing how it could be done; there's just enough variety within the Tradition to make it work. It also includes the (obligatory) legends within the Chorus, which includes the Kingdom of Prester John, the Merovingian Conspiracy and the Celestial Temple of the Sun. (The latter two are good choices for Horizon Realms.) Finally, the templates cover many of the bases of gameplay; that most people wouldn't think of using a Chorister PC for these concepts is a bonus, but not much as other Traditions are far better fits.
In conclusion, this is an improvement. It'd be even better if the lame fiction got chucked into the garbage bin; when the inevitable next edition comes, let it be purely non-fiction and treated like the technical manual that any RPG rulebook or supplement really is. I do not want fiction obscuring the content; that's what I get when I play, not when I'm in the game store looking to buy a splatbook.
Playtest Notes: Despite my dislike of the fiction, I did find that the content went a long way towards reviving the Chorister NPCs in my Mage game. I used the Templars, the Knights of St. George and other militant groups as a direct model for a new group based out of Horizon in my campaign. The comments I got from my gang ranged from mirroring my opinion on the fiction to complementing the treatment of Awakened theurgy. Aside from the lame fiction, the book's okay.
Go to forum!
(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)