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Mage: The Ascension review...
"... At its core, Mage is about giving a damn, about caring and believing in something so deeply that your beliefs can change reality. The world is not shaped by passivity or acceptence. It is moved forward by the deeds of those who reject the old ways and carve new ones, without regard for obstacles or enemies..." (p. 7, "The Meaning of Mage." Mage: The Ascension, Second Edition.)
Mage, as a game, I feel started as a response to the growth of the Original World of Darkness. As that setting developed, certain things were looked at with a “modern” viewpoint (or, post-modern, depends on how you see things, really). In the early ‘Nineties, roleplaying games had been stuck as character-as-humaniform-heroes or cyber-laced vigilantes. The crew of White Wolf took a decidedly character-as-monster approach, showing that a vampire and werewolf archetype would allow for development in the hobby. But like most ideas, giving a human player a means to access the system (or setting) by point of reference, here meaning human characters, meant that the monster archetypes couldn’t be alone.
Enter the Mage. Mages represent an aspect of humanity that both vampires and werewolves couldn’t provide, the act of will to choose one’s fate. In Vampire, the character’s choices were built on the level of their survival, and how their selection of social and bloodline characteristics aided them in nightly (un)living. Werewolf, conversely, had its characters' fates scripted from the first change, and their options were how to handle their building rage and destruction of the identity they knew.
A mage’s options were always self-selected, for selfish reasons or selfish needs. When a mage grew in power, they grew in self, unlike the mostly stagnant vampire (needing Diablerie to advance in power) or the social constructed werewolf (each growth of power strengthened the ties to pack and tribe). In modern fashion, Mage offered a look at a version of modern hubris: when does one’s power begin to affect so much around him or her that the fabric of reality resorts to kicking the powerful down (a variation of “more money, more problems” perhaps).
Mage began as a “Storytelling Game of Modern Magic,” it says so right on the back cover of the original game. The cover featured a nice royal purple with gold letter accents. The front cover image, a mage using a computer with the Sphere of Prime, hints at the version of modern that will be explored within—a cybernetic filled world with powerful mages and their spells. Basically, the game offered a better magic-user, which later books would reject as the basis of the game.
As the game line progressed, some initial aspects were changed from their intent and more refinement came in as the game system’s were refined. While the books themselves, individually have several flaws, taken as a whole, Mage was a better, more positive “setting” set in the Original World of Darkness. As most of the game lines took their overall “adjective” titles to heart, so did Mage, hoping that we would ascend in our maturity while playing games.
This review tries to look at the core rulebooks that make up the Mage: The Ascension line, by using Mage itself as a lens through which to see how it unfolded.
Dynamism...
"... Stories of shadowy alleyways and distant realms. Stories arising from the dark recesses of your mind, but reaching toward the light. At the heart of these stories are mages—humans blessed (some might say cursed) with the gift to work magick... Mage is about the tragedy of a world gone awry. It is the tragedy of a decayed and squalid lanscape of lost hope..." (p. 17, "Chapter One: Introduction." Mage: The Ascension, First Edition.)
Those familiar with the first editions of the Original World of Darkness books remember the pandering descriptions of how this game’s modern setting is like our world, only darker. Mage’s introduction to the original five core books was no different. It’s pages churned out the genre definition, Gothic-Punk, and it told you that the cracks in the pavement were deeper, the garbage fouler, and the people more apathetic than normal real-world people. It’s more of a historical reference now, but the pages tried hard to get a sense of setting across to those who’s characters would go out to change it.
This Gothic-Punk milieu, which dragged down the other settings on purpose, making them feel more angst-ridden and woeful so that the character’s plodding actions in those settings fit. Mage’s Gothic-Punk became the weight that a mage struggled against. With the world’s crushing apathy, the reality that mages encountered fought back against change. There stood reason why a mage’s will working on reality garnered Paradox, it wouldn’t let them otherwise. Still, in spite the glossed over setting details in the original Mage, it stands out as a testament to how far the setting progressed (and regressed, too).
Mage took blind steps forward by trying to advance the role of magic in the World of Darkness settings, but like most creative energy, it faltered along the way. The rules included for the setting were not well defined, as any Sphere (of magical influence) added with another may produce, in essence, any effect as long as the magic points are there. (An infamous question is could a mage transform a vampire into a long chair and summon margaritas and host a house-warming party? With the vagueness of the original rote and sphere effect system, a Storyteller might have had to concede to a player in this.)
The remaining bulk of the first edition’s rules are chunky parts taken from the other books in the Storyteller series, as not much was added to reflect Mage’s unique take on the Original World of Darkness.
The first edition of Mage suffered from underdevelopment and over-packing. The world surrounding the characters is one of vague suggestion, nothing to concrete is handed out. The players get defaulted into one style of mage, those of the Traditions, who place an ironic emphasis on free choice.
Several of the other ideas presented within Mage first edition’s pages confused some readers and put others off. Storytelling Mage was hard, as story concepts that came from the book seemed out-of-place. Mages are raiding garou and holy sites for quintessence, a mage’s magic points, for lack of a better idea, seemed to adventurous for people who might be better suited to uplift the whole world. Or an rousing tale of fighting a war with magic in a world that doesn’t think that magic should exist (this is the underlying principal of Paradox).
Mage’s identity problem gets cluttered as one goes through the book. Are mages freelance, if magical, spies that tussel with government agencies in the purview of the Technocracy? Are mages just normal people with magical abilities? Why wage a war to uplift people that don’t care about being uplifted?
In spite of the identity flaws, the shifting away from an easily understood core concept, even away from a flowing, cohesive text, Mage stood out as a different way to play magic-users in a very modern age. It gave a breath of air into the Original World of Darkness that would let some in that didn’t want to play the monster, but play the person on par with the monster. In that regard, Mage was well on its way to something great.
Stasis...
“... From the time they first Awaken, all mysticks must seek their own Path towards further enlightment and understanding. All too often, the neophyte simply prostrates herself at the feet of her seemingly-omnipotent teacher and begs for knowledge... Yet magickal enlightment cannot be learned secondhand and most definitely cannot be learned through another...” (p. 73, “Conclusion: The Continued Quest,” Mage: The Ascension, Second Edition.)
Mage set about with its second edition with promise. Several things had changed between editions; the setting grew during the interim with each volume added to the Mage library, the setting gained refinement a couple of books into that library with a visionary line director, and even the willingness of the gamers playing Mage changed. Reality was up for grabs in the purple hardcover.
The first change to the core rule set was obvious by the densely packed text that filled the volume: the writing of the rules. The rule’s, and of course the setting’s, presentation were adapted to the world that Mage became. The world of Mage became a tangled web of shifting alliances and trapped sleepers that awoke to fight the good fight against the crushing weight of apathy. Mage’s writing took on an evocative tone, presented the setting with a flair for language that highlighted the undercurrent of paradoxical magic power with responsibility.
The world presented in this edition far outstretched the original’s “mad dash” feel. The concepts were in place and the writing team knocked it out of the park, so to speak. This edition carried the concepts forward from the original by way of embellishing the minor details that the setting’s additional material provided.
The subtlest change in Mage’s direction was the fact of being a mage, now it was a hallmark to heroism and bravery, not just a happenstance or forced event. Second edition Mage described reasons for caring enough to challenge the crashing weight of apathy. At least, that is how the text made it come across. Mages now cared, or had reason to care, as soon the Technocracy would pave reality into a parking lot of the masses.
However well the book’s writing was, the overall direction was static. Other than a mild refinement as the Traditions and Technocracy’s role were presented, the second edition presented the same setting in better words. The world’s course remained, largely, unchanged—good guys versus bad guys, technology versus wonder, man versus nature, and, of course, magic versus disbelief. While not overall a bad thing, the initial spark of creativity found in the staggering first edition was shaped and formed into a poetically versed picture—understandable, but at points too lucid to follow.
The whole picked up more metaphysical baggage as the world came developed over the game line’s span. Several were put off by the heavy-handed litany of change the world, because otherwise, your bones will be buried underneath the Technocratic heel. Several gamers wished for a view on the bad guys from within, to see how the bad guys saw themselves. But this rule book backed away from too closely revealing them as worthies of them own right, just as it did with the other “factions” in the Ascension War. The Ascension War, it should be noted, appeared as in the original Mage, but was not seen as a full-out assault as this edition presents it.
The rules underpinning this edition makes the five-dot rating system seem better developed, though having played two or three of the Original Storyteller system games, these concepts were very familiar and become rote without trying. The writing in this edition though makes the entries very evocative and compelling. The best part of this edition of Mage was the magick system got an upgrade, or seemed to. With clearer language then the first edition, this time around the magick system was given a better presentation and with better descriptors on how things worked. My friends didn’t have a problem seeing how magick worked, as they had that complaint with the first edition.
This edition is my favorite of the trilogy of core rule books, but after reading some comments about the way this book presented itself and its world, I’m inclined to say that I loved the way it was written, as it made me see the world of Mage with a poet’s eye. But, I have to say that it basically kept the world as it was.
Entropy...
“... The key is that the chronicle does have, in fact, an ending, a place where the story is over. While there may well be chronicles that follow afterwards, based on the events in the previous chronicle, they are separate entities. They tell different stories, though some of the characters and places remain the same...” (p. 264, “Chronicle of Ages,” Mage: The Ascension, Revised Edition.)
Taken in the context of the building towards the Time of Judgment, this edition views begin to make sense. Taken by the tone when first published, this book seemed an angry backlash at the previous book’s forays down Metaphysical Lane. The ever-so minor change from “magick” to “magic”ticked a number of fans off, being so witty remarked as that “magick, was too pretentious to be included in this game.” From a White Wolf book, talk about irony.
Mage’s revised edition took the Ascension War to its natural conclusion, loss for most sides. The Technocracy got the award by default, not a committee selection to be sure. With the ushering in of the Time of Reckoning (birthing the Hunter: the Reckoning game line, by the way, as well as the swan song of the classic “fourth core line” Wraith: the Oblivion), the Technocracy helped eliminate a reality deviant with spirit nukes and other goodies from the toy box, rending the Gauntlet into a Storm that severed the ties from the Horizon Realms and the World. In essence, the world got cheated by keeping the “things that should not be,” not being.
With the removal of the older vanguard of the Traditions, the newly Awakened are floundering to get a grip on their world, a world tinged with paradox and magic. The rules governing the basic character statistics didn’t get altered much, just more clarified with the new third edition Storyteller System. However, rules that were present in the older editions, got more limelight in this version of Mage. The resonance traits got pulled up and retooled to add (or force additions) to the will-worker’s magic. The role of Paradox in this edition got pumped up and the ease of magic (both coincidental and vulgar effects) got complicated. The rules gave the trump cards to Paradox, and made it harder to reduce Paradox without garnering an effect or flaw. (Play with magic, get paradox. Simple, but always paradox and stopping players from enjoying the fluidness of reality as the earlier editions touted.)
It was this view on reality, and the use of magick, that made this edition a hard pill to swallow. The bitterness, the anger, the pure hopelessness came through in this edition’s writing. It wasn’t easy to set a game book aside, but with one so unbearably counter to the first two edition’s feel, that became a better thing to do.
Though looking back with a lens of forward planning the Time of Judgment, I can see why this edition’s authors carried such a tone and theme forward. It added poignancy to the coming end. If these characters have already lost so much, yet carry forward taking the “Ascension Guerrilla War” to the masses, then these characters are better for it. They actually give a damn, that makes this game live up to the traditions of its earlier incarnations—where choice influences reality. It’s just sad to think that this book has lingered on the shelf until the world ended. The implicit promise made in the first edition, and better written in the second, is given breath in this book.
Ascension...
“... Some would say that a mage’s whole purpose is to bring about change. This change may be personal, affecting only the mystick himself, or external, affecting the world around him. In its ideal form, this transformation is called Ascension...” (p. 226, “Personal Growth,” Mage: The Ascension, Second Edition.)
Mage, for me, was the best of the Original World of Darkness. Of the products I own, I regularly look at my Mage books to get ideas for my other games and adventures. I can’t think of a better sentiment than that to give a game, or its books. Mage was a progressive setting, in regards to its world view and its presentation. Not many games give you the keys to the kingdom at the very beginning, even if you still had to learn how to open the locks.
The setting plugged into the World of Darkness for its beginning genre definitions and its “gothic-punk” subtext. But from this starting point, it grew to envelop more than its creators probably wanted (or conceived). With multiple views on what makes a world, in that everyone perceived themselves a hero of one need or another, the big, purple book opened doors as people opened pages.
The trilogy of core rulebooks doesn’t work for everybody, and I don’t think that they should. Some people should be happy with the cast-fireball-lose-spell-for-the-day magic-users. Mage wasn’t designed for people happy with the fifth-level spell charts and spells-per-day, it was designed as an alternative to that syndrome. For those up to the challenge of it, Mage is more rewarding than a day in the dungeon. For those not wanting to play with magick concepts, it shouldn’t be trifled with.
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