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The setting of mage is a gnostic universe. The modern world is the 'Fallen World' and magic comes from the 'Supernal Realms', cut off from fallen world by the Abyss. In the background legend, magical theory and practices were developed during a golden age of magic in Atlantis. The golden age came to an end when the mages built a ladder to the Supernal Realms, and then fought over who had the right to ascend. This war caused the ladder to shatter, sinking Atlantis, creating the Abyss and scattering the losers of the war to the different ends of the globe, remembering only fragments of the golden age. Presumably, the mages who won the war, the Exarchs, are still in the supernal realms controlling reality, wanting to keep magic out the world. However, they’re opposed by the Atlantean Kings, the Oracles, who’ve set up watchtowers in each of the Supernal Realms.
When a mage ‘awakens’ to the higher reality of magic (due to traumatic events or whatever sundry trigger) they usually have a vision of one of the appropriate watchtowers and sign their names on it, creating a sympathy with the supernal realm and thereby become able to draw down magic into the Fallen World. However, some of the NPCs described in the book don't visualise a literal tower upon awakening, so it appears that the symbology is largely subjective. It's up in the air whether the Atlantean theory of magic is really based on events or whether it's just a jumble of legends or even an attempt at a Grand Unified Theory of Magic by magicians in the past, now taken to be the truth of things. In play, the Atlantean background creates a certain homogenity amongst the Orders, but in play this didn't come up all that much, and was useful for giving players a point of reference for 'lost Atlantean artefacts' and so forth.
In the the modern age, four of the mage orders descend from the Atlantean civilisation while the fifth is based around finding modern techniques of magic. The cool stuff in the setting mostly comes through little, half-hidden nuggets of information that I would have liked to have seen more of: the Lone Watchtower and the Final Key where one learns the key to the mysteries and can ascend to the Supernal Realms.
The PC factions, the mage orders, support the usual World of Darkness archteypal organisations, which chan be seen across the current World of Darkness corebook lines. In Mage, they appear as Adamantine Arrows (warriors), Guardians of the Veil (sneaks/spies), Silver Ladder (leaders), Mysterium (scholars) and Free Council (modernists). However there's a few interesting spins on the this that I liked: the Guardians of the Veil are the magical 'Men in Black' that protect the secret occultic world of the mages and construct vast labyrinths of fake secret societies for true intiates to plough through until they arrive at 'the truth' and the Silver Ladder wants all of humanity to awaken (at least in theory).
In play, we found it slightly confusing on how the Orders worked with cabals and Consiliums (mage councils) to construct mage society. Although there are descriptions of a code of law and magical dueling, I had trouble seeing how it all fitted together. Are the orders ideals or concrete organisations, and if so, how does a mage relate to both their cabal and Order? Orders initially appear as bulky, homogenous blocs, but they’re supposed to be the bastions of the higher mysteries. But what’s the scope for independent orders or cultural-themed societies? In play, we sort of mixed things up with the Orders being the elite gatherings of mage society, and various, optional unaligned occultic groups that were either independent or allied to the orders, who then acted like trade associations.
(The new Boston Unveiled sourcebook clarifies things a bit better: most of mage society appears to be based on one's cabal (immediate peers), with the Orders acting sort of like political parties, unions and common interest groups. One's cabal, like the Special Media Group, might spend their time trying to hack the sourcecode for the universe, but they would also attend Free Council meetings and discuss various 'modern magic' issues. Even though the different Free Council cabals or mages would have different takes on their theme, their 'party' gives them access to certain resources and like-minded individuals. Cabals can choose to be independent of the Orders and the Consilium if they so desire.)
In terms of the crunchy stuff, magic is done through arcana, where the fundamental forces of the universe are divided into ten components: (Mind, Life, Spirit, Death, Fate, Time, Prime, Matter, Space and Forces) . Mages have a ranking of 0 to 5 in each of those components, and each ranking gives a mage access to a certain level power. There’s a framework called the Practices with give a standard set of effects for each arcanum, but I found myself using the rotes as guidelines mostly when freeforming spells. However, the practices appear to be consistent, apart from one or two glitches (such as as the Forces 5 spell, ‘Radiation’ being labelled as ‘Unmaking’ when you’re clearly ‘Making’ the stuff).
Depending on the mage’s path (the supernal realm they visit during their awakening), they’ll have two ruling arcana and one inferior arcanum (which is harder to raise through experience). Freecasting is best done through the ruling arcana, as freecasting spells outside one’s ruling arcana cost mana points (mage juice) which can be refueled by ‘oblating’ (recharging) at a special place called a hallow where magic from the supernal realms leaks over into the physical realm. Various oblation rituals can be customised to suit the character.
The paths are:
- Moros – linked the realm of Stygia (associated with ghosts, death, the underworld) and to the Death and Matter arcana.
- Obrimos – linked to the realm of Aether (associated with angels, celestial fire, energy) and to the Prime and Forces arcana.
- Acanthus – linked to the realm of Arcadia (associated with faeries, chaos, glamour) and to the Time and Fate arcana.
- Thyrsus – linked to the realm of the Primal Wild (associated with totems, beasts, primordial nature) and to the Life and Spirit arcana.
- Mastigos – linked to the realm of Pandemonium (associated with hellish imagery, demons, torment, catharsis) and to the Space and Mind arcanum.
The core of Mage, the magic system, supports both freeform casting and D&D-style spells, called rotes, which is good for both new and experienced players. Openly vulgar spells trigger paradox, which is a random effect.
Players can customise their mage either by following the classic 'Atlantean magic style' or select various magical tools and oblations to suit their 'fashion statement'. In play, there was a difference between characters who cleaved to the 'classical Atlantean' theory of magic and those who did their own thing with it, finding their way. (It reminded me when classical Newtonian physics was in vogue – it kind of explained everything, apart from few discrepancies, it was an accepted theory of how reality worked. And then there were those who rejected it in favour of different theories. And out there was an even more complex theory (quantum physics) that explained those discrepancies, but no one had put it together yet.)
Arcanum can be mixed together to create conjunctional effects. Having Space 2 in conjunction with other arcanum allows you to cast spells at a distance, having Fate 2 allows you to make trigger a contigency clause to another spell: "You will remain a cat until you can find the Golden Key".
Paradox kicks in when you cast a vulgar spell that works directly against the laws of the Fallen World or is viewed by non-mage witnesses. Magic is more succesful when it's subtle and indirect. In play, players just 'did magic' and didn’t bother too much with a magic paradigm or foci, although the frame work is there for those who want to explore such things. Personal style is something one acquires rather than starts out with, and this is encapsulated in the legacies.
Legacies are mage 'prestige classes' , but are much cooler than bloodlines (for vampire) or lodges (for werewolves). Legacies are mini-Orders where the mage crafts their own soul in a chosen style in order to learn paradox-free magic effects. Legacies have a legends and cultures assoicated with them and can even seem to serve as orders in minature, following a master-to-student relationship. So while a mage PC may start just 'doing magic', they may be inspired to customise their style and to learn the secret of a legacy.
Mage also has a chapter of vague storytelling advice and a neat roster of antagonists that include Banishers (mages that hunt other mages to rid magic from the world) Seers of the Throne (a secret illuminati of mages who serve the Exarchs and who oppose the Atlantean orders) and ‘left-handed’ legacies such as the soul-sucking Tremere and the demon-worshipping Scelesti.
The main problem with the book is a lack of advice on what to do with it – the storytelling chapter assumes that the reader knows what mages do and doesn’t give a clear focus on how the setting is supposed to work. ‘What is Mage about? Many things, actually...’ I’d have liked some more focus on uncovering mysteries and setting a secret occultic history for the world and seeing how it all works to make an interesting setting for players to interact with. How do I handle the ‘magic archeology’ vibe of the game? What’s this about leaving the Fallen World and the Final Key? What is the impact of Atlantis and how is its loss felt in the mage community, or how to do those who reject the myth handle things? The storytelling chapter instead tries to do everything and doesn’t succeed, leaving the Mage setting somewhat vague and needing more defined edges. (This is contrasted with the excellent storytelling chapter of Werewolf: the Forsaken, that told informed the reader on what it was like to be a werewolf, and gave examples of short-term and long-term campaigns, establishing a solid setting base for games.) Mage: the Awakening’s prettiness gets in the way of solid information-retrieval; the information on spell-casting is scattered through various tables and pages and unless you look at the top picture in the spell section, it’s hard to see what arcanum’s section you’re in.
Still, Mage provides a solid framework and ruleset for modern day magicians. The magic system works well in play (both rotes and freeform) and the paths serve to neatly create different types and flavours of mages that’s archetypal and easy to conceptualise. It’s a great addition to the World of Darkness line.
Style: 4 Substance: 4
Positives
Negatives
- Weak story-telling chapter and zoomed-out focus on setting doesn’t give a clear, crisp idea of what to do with the game.
- Spell-casting information a bit disorganised and scattered throughout the book.
- The art director’s fondness for funky fonts makes it hard to read the heading titles, especially in the rote section where information retrieval is critical. And some of the fonts used for the legacies were almost illegible.
- The gold ink, while pretty, is hard to read. Actually, eye-strain inducing at times!
