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Note the first: My biases are large and in charge. I've been a dedicated Mage Storyteller since the first edition was released, have a complete library of the game line and am running a long-term chronicle. I am naturally predisposed in favour of a book from this game line, inclined to be forgiving, and am coming at it in the context of Mage Revised's development as a whole. If any of that bugs you, the rest of these weeks' reviews are a mere link away.
Note the second: I'll say this here to save people time - this book was announced when in predevelopment as having Trinity crossover material, and a sizeable minority of Trinity players have been looking forward to it based on that (and the cancellation of Trinity as a game line). That material was apparently written, but in one of the many redraftings of the book didn't make it into the published pages. I won't speculate on the reasons (though I will in the forums if it comes up) - but it isn't in here. Don't buy the book thinking it will be useful as a Trinity supplement. It won't be, you'll be disappointed and the last thing this game line needs is yet another flame war.
Originally announced as coming out well before now, the Storyteller's Handbook for Mage has been one of the books affected by the change of developers earlier this year. As such, it has the job of summing up the Development of Mage as a game line and as a setting since the Book of Mirrors, of preparing the Storyteller for the future and of doing the job it was announced as doing - being a guide to how to "Spindle, fold and mutilate" the Game to suit an individual gaming group. It finishes the job of the main rulebook, the two "Guides to the T-" books and the Storyteller's companion.
Overall, the Handbook is surprisingly heavy on the text and light on the artwork - what little artwork there is restricted to chapter-headings and the occasional half-page piece. There weren't any glaring monstrosities against the eye (which, again for Mage is unusual - this game normally has quite a hit-and-miss record) and the art is surprisingly un-abstract. There's also a notable lack of game fiction - hardly any at all, in fact. The end result is 212 pages of dense text, cramming as much in as is possible. Kudos White Wolf - now try doing all the books like this.
As a Handbook to "Folding, Spindling and Mutilating", the chapters follow a basic pattern - first, the subject matter is talked about in the context of the default, or "canon" Mage setting. Then come the options, advice and alternatives. The end result is that the reader comes away both full of ideas and educated as to why the game line is the way it is.
Introduction: Weaving The Tapestry
First off - there is no introduction fiction. The short introduction explains the premise of the book - that it is intended as inspiration and encouragement to the Storyteller, and to demonstrate what happens when you do cetain things to the game. The text states that the book's primary use is not during play, but during preparation for it.
Chapter One: The Craft
Again unusually for White Wolf, the crunchy bits are right at the start. First, the Errata and Addenda to Mage's rules, moving on into the most mechanical rules changes a Storyteller might incorporate. The chapter begins with the FAQ list which has been available on the website for as while now - mostly common sense, though it clears up the Life 3 healing question, the explanation of permanent paradox and what happens when you change Tradition/Convention. So far, so par for the course - anyone capable of reading this review that runs Mage has probably already seen this FAQ.
Next come the optional rules - alternate mechanics for the Avatar Storm, Synchronous Abilities, Combat Changes (including exalted-style mooks). Then how to alter magic rolls, starting with the magic rule engine being picked apart to show why certain elements are hard or easy. Possibilities suggested include no foci, no success cost, double successes and using Arete Sphere in rolls.
After that, it's time for the alternate Resonance System, for those that thought it wasn't detailed enough - three 20-point scales going from -10 to 10. I don't like it very much; some of the scales have at 6 "character is no longer playable" and one of the scales (banality vs. madness) is both a Changeling crossover AND an alternate explanation for Maurauderdom while another scale posits that it's possible to become Nephandic by having too dark a resonance. I see what it's doing, but it just isn't for me.
Next, we're into Spheres territory - including building "minor" spheres, like a cross between Sorcerer Paths and the default Spheres, the suggestion of running every single character like that (which would turn the game into something much closer to Dark Ages: Mage), and a few optional rules about spheres bleeding into each other - using one sphere to resemble another. The idea was first raised in Masters of The Art, and I liked it both there and here.
A brief discussion on the idea of doing away with the sphere system entirely and basing all Magic effects on straight Arete rolls coupled with the Mage's paradigm - or of doing away with Arete as well - links into the alternate Paradox rules. Highlights include the In Nomine-esque "Magic use alerts nearby supernaturals" idea, or the Demon: The Fallen-like Paradox increases the successes on your dice roll. Botch when lighting a cigarette, burn the house down", and a couple of ideas for alternate ways of balancing magic use without using paradox at all.
And then we're into the Metaplot. Starting with the justification for having it in the first place, then a note about checking for the knock-on effects of altering the "canon" game background (If the Batini never built the Web of Faith, The Technocracy would never have invaded their territory, so they'd still be in the Traditions). Everything that's happened since halfway through Mage Second Edition's run is in here - along with both the causes, effects and White Wolf's reasons for doing it.
Then the Lions of Zion, left out of the Storyteller's Companion, get their three pages of fame.
Then follows the Development team's definitions of the game line - the modern World of Darkness theme, Magic as a tool, not a superpower, human scale, earth-based problems and so on.
It's hard to make a summary judgement of what boils down to a grab bag of optional rules - the vast majority of which are mutually exclusive. Some of them (Paradox as unintended scale, spheres being used as substitutes for one another) I like, some of them (the Resonance Scale) I don't, but their worth will depend entirely on the individual game.
Of interest are the repeated mentions of the upcoming metaplot return to the Umbra. The upcoming Umbra sourcebook is name checked, and the avatar storm section notes that it will soon become a moot point in "canon". Didn't take long, did it?
Chapter Two: The Awakened Struggle
Here's where the meat of the book starts - having examined the rules that model the setting, the book moves onto the setting itself, with an examination of each of the forces that make up Mage's game world population, and the themes they were intended to be used for: Sleepers, The Traditions, The Technocracy, Nephandi, Maurauders, Umbood, Outsiders, Sendings and Ascension / The nature of reality. There's a lot of material about the Ascension War - Past, present and future, the position of the Traditions (who, after Mage Second edition's metaplot's hard fall and the Nadir of the Revised corebook are starting to regain strength and fight back against the Consensus), the division between the low-level, well-intentioned Technocratic operatives and the high-level, fully-aware-how-magic-works Control. Ultimately, the main point the chapter attempts to get across is that the Traditions vs. the Technocracy was not about Magic vs. Science, despite Technocratic propaganda to the contrary, and it was fighting on those terms that made the Traditions lose. It's about Liberty Vs Control, and the Traditions (who after Revised's arc now have a lot more Technomages) are now in a position to try to fight it properly.
After this material, which includes details of the next Mage sourcebook to be released later this month and to be concerned with the "New War", the Nephandi and Maurauder sections are a disappointment - reading like "The Book of Madness lite" and repeating that book's admonitions on the difference between a Nephandus and an Infernalist, and how to make Maurauders insane but not wacky. The "Others" section is better, despite the inclusion of material that should really be in chapter six (see later). Ka Luon (The World of Darkness version of "Gray" type aliens) are finally covered after five years of occasional cryptic comments in hard to find supplements, Sending (the best new idea from Mage Revised, and the least developed) get a short bit of coverage, and Ascension get tiny piece of prose.
Where to start in analysis? This chapter is really like "Mage: Cliff Notes" - Nothing semi-devoted buyers of the game line haven't seen before (especially if they've been paying attention to what Developers and Authors say in online discussions), but condensed and made as clear as is humanely possible - An attempt, I think, to address the many misconceptions about the direction of this game in it's current edition. It's a heartfelt piece of work, clearly intended for those who want to stick with White-Wolf's own version of the setting, and feels like a "last word" on the edition controversy. They've said their piece now; the game is about to blast off in a new direction, shut up about it already. More on that later.
Chapter Three: Awakening The Storyteller
The Obligatory (because this is, after all, a Storyteller's Guide) "how to run a game" section of the book, chapter three assumes from the outset that the reader is already an experienced Mage Storyteller. It therefore concentrates on the trickier aspects of running a game - and running Mage in particular. From initial advice on story flow, conflicts and antagonists, payoffs, playing to the crowd and mediating disputes, it moves into further detail - with repeated advice that this is meant to be fun for the Storyteller as well as for the players. A handy classification system for NPCs accompanies notes on organisation, and then the chapter puts it into practice - giving a transcript of a faked (I hope) game session, with notes like "See what the Storyteller did there?" and "Notice that this player is using out of character knowledge in character?" Then it's back off into options land - Blue (and Red) Booking - the practice of In character journals - where to use the mechanics and where to go with the story, a guide to stimulating senses other than your player's hearing, a brief bit of fatherly advice on nutrition when you're gaming, and shout-outs to Diceless and Freeform play. At the end of it all, there's a guide to various types of philosophical
thought and how they apply to Mage both in and out of character - this is, after all, the game where characters are almost expected by stereotype to spend every third session in a coffeehouse talking about the nature of reality.
The Chapter is refreshingly informal, and often funny (the brief segue about making your players pay for the food, "You're trying to tell your story - meanwhile you have these upstart players", "Fun. Yes this includes you", the section on players upsetting your plot being entitled "Meddling Wizards", "Using a Cattle prod on your players" and so on.) Storyteller Chapters are hard to write, and very difficult to get right - it's a fine line between being useful and being condescending. This book takes a third tack - informality, and playing up how annoying players can be as a means of forcing that informality. I'm not sure it's entirely appropriate, but I managed to read all of it without skipping, so it has something over most GMing advice pieces.
Chapter Four: Avatars And Seekings
Here it comes. Avatars and Seekings received very short shrift in the corebook, and barely more in previous editions. This chapter redresses the balance. First, the nature of what an avatar is is discussed (and neatly made more mysterious, after the almost mechanical treatment of the subject in Bitter Road), along with a checklist for the storyteller building an avatar for a player or Storyteller character and suggestions for the behaviour and appearance of each of the four Essences, with a specific example for each. A sidebar notes how other backgrounds - past life in particular - can be plugged in and used to develop the Avatar. After that, there's advice for using the things in play - the benefits they give the mage, how to motivate a character via the avatar and complications such as Nephandic inversion, Marauderdom and Gilgul. The chapter then moves into Seekings - how they're triggered, how to design them, some sample symbology, success and failure, ending with an example Seeking for each Essence (using the same characters as the example Avatars earlier). Sidebars deal with handling disappointment in failure, when to use mechanics (as Seekings are usually dream-like narrative-driven experiences) and the suggestion to do away with XP costs for raising Arete entirely - but to make the Seekings extra hard in compensation. I like! And I now use.
All of the above is useful, and like so much of the content in this book long overdue. There's not much more to say about it other than that I would have liked more examples of symbology.
Chapter Five: Alternative Settings
After a brief bit of fiction, the Alternate Settings chapter starts off, rather incongruously, with discussing the "Canon" setting - an essay on the responsibility of Mages to make the attempt to save the world, instead of giving in to the defeatism and apathy of the setting, about the reasons for the shift from First and Second Edition to Revised - and what that shift entailed. This section makes the intended themes, moods and subject matter of the main game line crystal clear, then immediately dives into how to throw it all out again.
Starting small - changing the genre of the game to realism, cinematic gaming or high fantasy (the extras rules are repeated here - in greater detail - for some reason), the chapter moves on to historical settings, alternate history settings and then further strangeness. There's far too many to go into here, from Ancient Rome, to a Wu Lung-based version of Camelot, to a discussion on what happens to the game world if different groups become the Traditions, or if the Traditions were formed on geographic rather than cultural lines.
My favourites are the world where an enterprising proto-Son of Ether paid Guttenberg off and mass-produced the Kitab Al-Alacir alongside the Bible, creating a glamorous electropunk space opera, the idea of the Traditions forming 1100 years early, creating a FVLMINATA-style alternate Roman Empire and the alternate version of the Reckoning, in which Ravnos awoke in 10th century England instead of 21st century India, and was defeated by the Order of Hermes dropping a comet on the blighter, causing an environmental disaster. The suggestion of turning New Bremen - the official White Wolf IC chat rooms - into in-character Digital Web sectors got a snort of coffee.
After this blatant strangeness comes some more blatant strangeness. Regional Paradigms - the idea that the Consensus changes slightly depending on where you are firmly entrenched in Mage, and this section deals with the possible different "degrees of difference" that a Storyteller might use - from a game where nothing changes by regional paradigm, to one where the location can produce magic effects - where praying at Mecca can heal, and where you always leave Las Vegas with more money than when you went in. The example given is "Sleepytown" - a lost town in "One of the I- states" where German citizens were moved during world war two, which now resembles the Truman Show - the inhabitants are perfect Americans, and noone ever, ever leaves - a test bed for the Technocracy, who have painstakingly removed all evidence of Technology going bad and magic from the inhabitants' lives as an attempt to make a "Super-Sleeper" who cannot even conceive of magic.
There follows a section on mining films for inspiration, with suggested films for all Conventions and Traditions as well as a basic guide to deconstructing plotlines so you can use them yourself.
While this chapter is the longest in the book, it will probably be of limited use to the reader, short of the initial section about Mage Revised's setting. Many of the ideas are downright inspirational - and I'm going to plumb them for Umbral realms - and several put back the sense of "ooooh" that many people find lacking in current Mage. Like the alternate rules chapter, it's very much a grab bag, a long list of thought-parcels whose worth will entirely depend on what the reader finds inspirational.
Chapter Six: A World Of Magic
Last comes the Obligatory crossover chapter. To be fair, it doesn't even attempt to discourage the practice, noting that if a Storyteller is going to use Vampires in a Mage Chronicle, nothing they can say will stop them so the book may as well go into how to give that Storyteller the best chance of pulling it off. After an initial primer on ensuring what game you're playing - which notes that in the following rules, whenever there's a clash between another game and Mage, Mage wins - because this isn't Namebreaker: The Kinfolk Sidekick. Which is fair enough, though it may frustrate those who insist that the World of Darkness games are like Exalted in their mechanical balance - The section on Vampire Crossover happily contradicts the corresponding section in the Vampire Storyteller's Handbook (and points out that it's doing it). Each of the five "active" World of Darkness lines except Demon get coverage (Vampire, Werewolf, Hunter, Mummy and Kindred of the East). Vampires get extra blood points for drinking from Mages based on the Quintessence stored in the Mage's pattern, but the unfortunate Vampire gets Paradox for doing it. The Life/Matter (for Vampires) and Life/Spirit (for Werewolves) questions are cleared up, the Business of hacking the secret Hunter language is gone into, as is pretending to be a Messenger by using Mind magic. Most interesting to fans of Hunter is that the Messengers appear to be related to Paradox Spirits.
It's all very mechanically competent, though it may as I've said disappoint those who wanted "One WoD to rule them all" - I was on the whole pleased (especially with the thought of Vampires finding out what Paradox is like the hard way - that got a chuckle.)
Appendix One : Index
No... wait. There isn't one. You may now commence gnashing of teeth. The book concludes with adverts for Demon and the next supplement, with a product list of Mage sandwiched between them. For a game book to have no index is annoying - when that game is as sprawling (and cursed with such a terrible core book index) as Mage is it's near unforgivable. A victim of word count, I suppose, and I understand the desire to have content before spending pages on such things, but this is the only area that the Book of Mirrors (the old second edition Storyteller's Guide) remains superior in, with it's master indexes of the product line, rotes and rules. In fact. I now have a project. I'm going to go write one myself.
Summing Up.
Mage has long been a game at war with it's own fanbase. Readers of the corebook didn't "get" what the authors intended, or badly misinterpreted it (or, indeed, it wasn't communicated very clearly in the first place). Accusations that the game's metamorphosis was an attempt to turn a game about wonder into cyberpunk - or that the changes were started to bring the game line "back under Vampire's heel" - flew around Net forums. There's been a rising level of frustration with the game's own fanbase evident in the writing of supplements - Guide to the Traditions begins it's Avatar Storm section with "In case some people STILL don't get it." - and it's clear in several places of this book that the writers have taken the start of a new Developer's time in charge to make a last-ditch effort at getting the point across. While it's good to see what Mage Revised was intended to do, and while these sections of this book will help readers understand earlier - and future - supplements, I don't for a minute think that this will settle the Net arguments. If anything, a reader already unkindly predisposed towards the current direction of the game will just get annoyed at being preached at, and I don't like seeing the writing going down to these desperate measures.
As for the rest of the book, it's a heady mix of material that fills a hole that's been gaping for years now (chapter four - I'm looking at you) and a veritable idea-mine of alternate rules, options and best of all explanations for why things are as they are in the default setting.
Does the Mage Storyteller's Handbook succeed in showing how to "Fold, Spindle and Mutilate?" Yes. Yes, it does.
One thing that niggled - the repeated information. Did we really need explanations of Mage's setting in both Chapters two and five? Did the mook rules need printing twice?
Style. A Four. Less Game fiction is good, less artwork is good, but we still have the huge half-page chapter headings and the over-use of Visitation as a subheading font. Still, a huge leap in the right direction.
Substance. A Four. While there's a lot here - more than comparable works - much of it will only be of limited use to each individual reader. Such is the nature of the book, but chapters 2, 3 and 4 which alone are worth the price of admission, will satisfy everyone. While I'll never use most of the alternate settings suggested, they at least got my brain working, and if I wasn't a Freeform Storyteller I'd be cherry-picking the alternate rules as I write.
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