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Given that I actually live in Las Vegas, I've gotten to see a lot of media portrayals of the city, most of which focus on a rather distorted picture of how life really is here. Roleplaying supplements aren't that much better. The best of these was probably the old Shadowrun book North American Nations 2, where a couple of the forum commenters mentioned how every time it rains in Vegas, people suddenly forget how to drive. It was the first time I got the impression that someone wrote RPG material about the city after actually *being* here.
Few commenters in popular media bother to ask if there's anything to the city beyond The Strip, or, more importantly, why so many people would not only visit Las Vegas as tourists but decide to stay. Is it worth it for a GM to set a campaign in Las Vegas, and is there anything of value in it for characters?
THE FALEN TOWER (well, that's what it says on the spine) was the first citybook for MAGE in any of its editions. In the Introduction, the authors claim that the goal was to reinforce many themes of MAGE, especially in its Revised Edition. At this point in the metaplot, the overall theme was that the Ascension War was over and the magic was doomed because of human apathy. In the aftermath of the Technocracy's apparent victory, small groups of Tradition mages and Technocrats, both cut off from their masters in Horizon Realms, started working together to accomplish common goals. The Fallen Tower basically reflects this post-war detente as a possible direction for MAGE campaigns to take. But it also hints at the efforts of the Rogue Council and the Panopticon to continue the War.
In the book Las Vegas serves as a microcosm of the current times, as it is a city in an almost permanent state of flux, obviously dominated by crass corporate forces represented in game by the Technocracy, but where quite a few individuals from all over the world have come to try their luck not on the casinos but on making new careers and new starts in life. The MAGE connection comes not just because of the obvious themes (like the use of magic to shape chance) but the dynamism of the city, which often reaches the point of sheer absurdity with various "theme" casinos packing New York City together with Camelot and an Egyptian pyramid that blasts rays of light into the sky for no particular reason. Even in the real world, a lot of people act as though Las Vegas is in some kind of reality bubble where the laws of nature have somehow been suspended. Which leads to tourist questions like, "do people actually LIVE here?"
OVERVIEW
The book starts with the usual White Wolf short fiction piece. As prose, and as a Las Vegas story, it isn't nearly as good as the two-part Vegas story given in the VAMPIRE Guides to the Camarilla and the Sabbat ('there's a running joke that one of these years we're all going to get dental'), but this piece does serve to set up a theme of the book: Low-level Tradition mages acting as "security consultants" cooperate with law enforcement and the local Technocrats to deal with occult threats, with all sides maintaining the status quo for everyone's benefit.
Next, after the Introduction, Chapter One presents the "real" history of the Southern Nevada area, in character as is often the case with White Wolf books. In this case the historian is one Nicole C. Bellweather, O.O.H. (Order of Hermes?), who goes over what is known of the original tribes, who were basically left alone by the Spanish but starved almost to extinction when white American settlers came into the area, with local ore deposits being almost as valuable as the valley oasis. This led to railroad development, then followed by the Hoover Dam project on the nearby Colorado River, which led to the government building several military bases (like Nellis Air Force Base) around the area during World War II, after which certain investors (not only The Mob) started taking advantage of liberal laws to build full hotel-casino resorts, setting the stage for the creation of the city as it is known today.
This section is pretty much a mixed bag. There are a few nice bits of trivia ('The Strip' was informally named after the Sunset Strip by a casino owner who fled Los Angeles after running an illegal gambling operation there), but a lot of the info is marred by inaccuracy; casino magnate Bill Bennett's last name is often misspelled, and Ocean's 11 is only dated as a "1960s film." Moreover, there's that de rigeur White Wolf reinterpretation of history through a supernatural standpoint, with (say) 1850s Mormon colonist William Bringhurst being an associate of the Celestial Chorus and his rival Nathaniel Jones being part of "the Technocratic Union." (As is often the case, White Wolf history isn't even consistent with itself; most MAGE sourcebooks list the use of the term "Technocratic Union" as starting in 1900.) This sort of in-character solipsism is par for the course with most World of Darkness material, but in MAGE it's actually reinforced by the metagame concepts, for instance where the back of the book lists a nuclear weapon not as an invention of physics, but as a 10 point Gadget using Forces 5, Matter 3 and Prime 2. MAGE's subjective metaphysic actually serves to explain why the Traditions were unable to adapt and why the Technocracy is so fanatic about purging anything outside of their model of "safe" Reality: The more one asserts that there is no reality outside perception, the more one is inclined to ignore new perceptions of the world in favor of increasingly narrow preconceptions. A Paradox, if you will...
"Players roaming up and down the Strip aren't the only ones gambling in Las Vegas. Corporations and billionaires alike risk fortunes upon the fates of the giants that line Las Vegas Boulevard South. A backroom deal that will seal the doom of your favorite casino- or flood it with an influx of new management cash- could be happening this very moment. The real world is an ever-changing place, and by the time this book sees print, it may have already turned over a new leaf." -The Fallen Tower, p. 36
Chapter Two is an overview of modern day Las Vegas, with a few basic maps of the Southern Nevada region, the Strip, and the original 'downtown' area. Fittingly, the authors point out (in the quote above) that as the real city changes with astounding speed, much of the info may be out of date. (And so it is: Steve Wynn bought out the Desert Inn, and the Horseshoe just went bankrupt.) They also point out that there are a few bits of local geography that they made up to distinguish the real city from its World of Darkness counterpart. Which parts are real? That's kind of beside the point. The cool thing about all this is that you could concievably make up your own casino in a certain area and chances are it wouldn't be any more or less absurd than what the authors- or the real casino owners- came up with. In this case, loose definitions actually enhance the realism of the setting.
What is spelled out for MAGE is that The Black Pyramid Chantry, a small group of Hermetic mages, is using the Luxor Hotel pyramid as a base for its occult geometry, even though they don't have the money to own the resort outright. The Technocracy has a Node in the decidedly more downscale Stratosphere Tower, mainly for its use as an observation post. Just outside of town, Nellis Air Force Base hosts the high tech "Advanced Energy Commission Construct", representing the Iteration X/Void Engineers branches of the Technocracy. Finally, the former Paiute land hosts the so-called Big Springs Node, guarded by ancient Anasazi wards so that no one knows exactly where it is. More primal mages (Dreamspeakers, Verbena) guard the area and protect local tribal interests in order to keep the sacred land safe from the Technocracy.
This is a generally good section, mentioning several points of local interest- like the fact that skyrocketing insurance rates have led to a shortage of doctors- proving that the authors have done some homework.
Chapter Three focuses on the local mage and associate population, with writeups including the characters who appeared in the opening fiction piece. While the theme of the book happens to coincide with a general rapproachment of the Tradition/Technocracy factions, the thing that makes Las Vegas somewhat unique in the MAGE setting is that that sort of cooperation has been going on for most of the modern history. For instance, while Hoover Dam was a federal project (thus taken over by the Technocracy) it was actually engineered by the Sons of Ether. The Syndicate frequently deals with Tradition mages to handle occult threats, because that's more cost-efficient than trying to kill potentially useful contacts. There's about as much intrigue and moral compromise involved here as in any spy novel.
The character writeups, while not earthshakingly powerful, do display the right combination of Skills and Backgrounds necessary to survive and thrive in the area, and can serve as models, both for PCs and for NPC contacts.
"In Vegas, everybody watches everybody else." -Robert DeNiro, Casino
Chapter Four is entitled "Questing for the Story." With the authors deciding (appropriately) that a lot of the details of the "real" Las Vegas would be made obsolete by current events, this section focuses on more intangible elements associated with the city, in order to convey the proper feel for Las Vegas chronicles. First they review the usual casino games, and then have a short essay about the extensive security that casinos need to ensure their profits, which is relevant to any story that involves a casino heist. Then they briefly discuss the underworld of crime and vice.
Afterwards they go over a few Storyteller tricks to enhance the sense of setting, like using actual randomizers (like the Mage Tarot Deck!) to create story elements. At the same time they caution against too much unpredictability. After a local scenario idea is provided, the book goes into discussion of the World of Darkness metaplot.
Finally, the book's Appendix, cutely titled "Infinite Third Wishes" mentions a few coincidental Rotes that take advantage of the Resonance and local myths of the area. For instance "Nobody Dies in Vegas" assists the mage in escaping pursuit while leaving the area; the name comes from an old Mob directive that people who'd robbed their casinos weren't allowed to be "hit" in city limits.
Speaking of Resonance, the Appendix features the most useful section of the book from a MAGE standpoint: Full details on how Resonance works in Revised Edition. In Second, Resonance was something that could be detected through Mind Sphere and had an effect on Tass in the place where it was gathered. In Revised, it is an actual character stat, with the mage's view of the world becoming a palpable thing that not only affects his magic but separates him from the rest of the world. Despite being mentioned as a required Trait in MAGE Revised, effects of Resonance Trait were not actually detailed- the authors of Fallen Tower say that due "to the focused nature of the main rulebook-" (!!!!!!!) "-this is not expounded upon, and little difference between one level of Resonance and another exists." In this book, more detailed rules are given. Barring extremely rare Effects, a mage must always have at least one dot each in Dynamic, Static and Entropic Resonance (even though most of the NPCs in the book often have Resonance in only one category...). Technically you cannot get rid of Resonance with experience, but (with Storyteller permission) you can buy Resonance with XP, at (new rating x 3). Resonances that act against each other effectively cancel out- thus if you have (Entropic) Violent 2 and buy a new Static Resonance, Peaceful, at one dot, this basically reduces Violent Resonance to 1.
In game terms, each point of Resonance creates a -1 difficulty (to a max of -3, plus cancelling out further negative mods to difficulty) for magic of appropriate Resonance; for instance (Dynamic) Fiery would boost fire-based effects. However Effects that act against the Resonance (like cold-based Forces or peaceful Mind effects for the 'Fiery' character) apply the Resonance Trait as a penalty to the Effect. Furthermore Resonance may affect dealings with Sleepers, applying a +1 penalty to social skills if a given Resonance would potentially disturb the other character. The book goes over a few ways in which this Resonance can be concealed, along with some ways in which Prime Sphere can be used to deliberately infuse Resonance into an object for certain purposes. The fact that Resonance is one of the more useful and interesting innovations between Second Edition and Revised, but was basically presented as an afterthought outside the corebook, is one of the several problems I had with the execution of Revised.
SUMMARY
Substance: 3. The aforementioned problems with the MAGE presentation of rules doesn't change the fact that you'd need this book to have real rules for Resonance, whether you run a Las Vegas campaign or not. If you do run an LV campaign, THE FALLEN TOWER goes over the basics- the hotels, the games, the surrounding environment- well enough for you to get started.
Style: 3. On the down side, the art is dominated by Langdon Foss, whom I don't especially like compared to Alex Sheikman or Leif Jones. And on review, the prose is often so sugary and overdone that it would actually be rejected by the Convention and Visitors Authority ('despite its location in the middle of the desert, Las Vegas beckons to travelers like an oasis calling out to a thirsty pilgrim'). Or maybe they decided that sounding like a travel brochure was the best way to convey the superficial aspect of the city.
On the up side, the book spends a lot of time using that prose in an attempt to convey the city by feel. The emphasis on the fluid nature of local society (transient population, business changes, etc.) is completely accurate. The fact that the book itself is itself going to become obsolete when ASCENSION ends the MAGE line makes it just that much more appropriate. The generally laid-back approach taken to local mages fits the real-world spirit of a city that puts up with a great deal that wouldn't be tolerated anywhere else- so long as the bottom line isn't threatened.
All well and good as far as it goes, but in and of itself THE FALLEN TOWER doesn't convey anything of the city's "charm" apart from the uncontrollable desire some people have to stare at a train wreck. The "real" city isn't that exciting for roleplaying purposes. While mentioned in passing, the fact that a lot of people live here with jobs that have nothing to do with gambling isn't mentioned, nor is the fact that while a lot of production industries have moved here, the city's revenue base remains far too dependent on the resorts- and when taxes for services get increased, they usually hit the middle class hardest. Moreover, while the city is now home to Studio 54 (at the MGM) and some of the hottest nightclubs and restaraunts in the world, many locals still complain that there isn't a real "scene" or true culture like you would find in New York or San Francisco. In this, at least, the authors are accurate; in mentioning how the book ties into the aftermath of the Ascension War, the book says that the current state of humanity in MAGE is one of apathy, but "if anything, MAGE is an expression of the idea that the actions of each person matter in the global community, although only a few rare individuals realize this. The masses swindle themselves with promises of comfort, security and amusement. Blinded by tunnel vision, they follow a path marked by someone else- toiling towards another's vision for the wages to survive. Billions of people while their lives according to a clockwork dream woven by those with the courage or acumen to shape the world around them."
Ultimately, if this city isn't living up to it's dynamic potential, the sense of possibilty that makes it far more attractive to the outsider than (say) Atlantic City, it's because out of all the Deadly Sins, it isn't Lust that rules Las Vegas, or even Greed, but Sloth.
Most importantly, as useful as this book is to present the city of Las Vegas to gamers, it doesn't mention the only Three Facts you need to convey the setting of Las Vegas to players who have never lived there:
1. Every major street in the city has at least one traffic light for every 500 yards of road. 2. EVERY SINGLE ONE of those traffic lights WILL turn red before you can cross the intersection. 3. Every single one of those red lights will force you to sit and wait for at least two minutes before it finally turns green again. For twenty seconds.
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