The Book of Chantries
Mage: the Ascension Supplement
White Wolf
182pp - [sterling]9.99
<Body Text>After buying Mage and being hooked, I eagerly awaited the
inevitable supplements that would render the game playable without vast amounts
of legwork from me. White Wolf don't disappoint - too much . . .
Chantries are the sanctums where mages pursue their studies and the bases from
which they wage the Ascension War. The most interesting Chantries aren't on
earth at all, but exist in custom-built Horizon Realms where the creators
define the laws of reality so as to work magick without fear of Paradox.
Awkwardly, Horizon Realms need to be powered from Nodes on earth and these
Nodes are vulnerable to raiders - but then, you can never be completely safe,
can you?
A lot of the background material is familiar from Ars Magica: there are four
"seasons" in a Chantry's life cycle and communities of human "acolytes" keep
the place ticking over.
Ten Chantries are described in detail: seven Tradition Chantries including
hoary old Doissetep (graduates of Ars Magica will pore over this intently), a
nasty Euthanatos graveyard in the Shade Realm of Entropy, a tribe Native
American Dreamspeakers in a Wild West paradise, a lost city controlled by Aztec
refugees and a haunted house in Chicago where some groovy Hollow Ones hang
out.
The interesting places are the Technomancer "Constructs": MECHA is a prison
dimension like something out of Blake's Seven, Null-B is different from how
it's described in the Mage rulebook and Moreauvia (ho! ho!) is a jungle world
where the Progenitors breed mutant beast-men. This section also gives a lot of
information about the ground-level organisation of the Technocracy. These
Chantries and the NPCs running them are by far the most interesting in the
book: perhaps we ought to be playing a different game called Technomancer: the
Angst.
Two unpleasant Nephandi "Labyrinths" are described, one, the House of the Jade
Demon, set in Chicago's Chinatown and right out of Fu Manchu.
Every Chantry is listed with its Cabals, Nodes, earthly aspects, research
facilities and internal and external politics, concluding with several story
ideas. NPC profiles are given for sample mages, all with ridiculously high
Arete scores.
A scenario is included but I wish it were otherwise. White Wolf have already
demonstrated that they can ignore all their own advice when it comes to
published scenarios: here is no exception. The PCs are passive spectators in
a linear plot and the Chantry itself is a lousy example of its kind, being a
pokey out-of-the-way place with no Horizon Realm or politics to explore.
The book concludes with systems for Chantry design, Nodes (contradicting the
Mage rulebook) and new Rotes for making use of Nodes - all very valuable but it
should have been in the original rules. There's a shoddy "creation point"
system for PC Chantries, but no one has bothered to check the maths, so best
ignore it.
All in all, a mixed bag, but, so pivotal are Chantries in most Mage chronicles,
this sourcebook ends up being invaluable - until a more comprehensive 2nd
Edition rulebook arrives.
Jonathan Rowe
