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In Short

The Good: The entire system for enchanting items is creative, flavorful, and a welcome addition to Mage. Binding ghosts, harvesting pain to use as enchantment fuel, and other unexpected but interesting techniques are included. The discussion and rules for gaining power from the Abyss are also fun and flavorful, though they may remind fans of Mage: The Ascension of the sinister Nephandi.

The Bad: A lot of the discussion of magic just isn’t helpful. Much of the roleplay discussion focuses on the internal thoughts and actions of a character, which often is less of a focus during a roleplay session. Sometimes the discussion feels like it’s just repeating the core book with different words instead of expanding upon that material. The product fails at its attempt to expand the core mythos beyond Atlantis.

The Physical Thing

Under the Cover

I found the entire approach to be somewhat redundant and unhelpful. I don’t feel any more able to place a spell on the five dot continuum now than before I read this chapter, but then I wasn’t having any difficulties before. Take, for example, The Practice of Shielding – one of the two dot effects. Anyone can flip through the core book and clearly see that shielding spells appear at two dots. Does this expand on the metaphysics of those spells? No. It notes that shielding spells are useful to prevent harm to the character. They’re important, and smart folk have them. Being shielded from danger tends to make a mage more confident. While I certainly expect the book to recap the basics, I had hoped for more interesting discussion than “shielding spells are good”, but that’s what I got. You can safely expect the author to use many page filling words to present simple ideas and recap information from the core book.

There are new spells mixed in with The Thirteen Practices, but they tend to be lackluster. Some have neat ideas, but often the author is combining two or three Arcanum to produce an effect that seems like it could be produced with just one Arcanum. I won’t be making use of any of these spells, and the spells seem to be here more to show off the Arcanum than for their own utility and usefulness in a campaign.

Other than The Thirteen Practices the chapter discusses spell building and the nature of magic in the game generally, and this is a mixed bag. Some of the clear, bulleted points (such as that it takes at least 3 dots to generate a lethal effect) are useful for those that haven’t figured it out from reading the core book. A single page is provided which explains the difference between vulgar and covert magic, suggesting that vulgar magic violates the “rules of possibility” the Exarchs ground into reality upon storming the heavens. Exceptions to the Exarchs’ rules, it is suggested, are loopholes that the Exarchs never intended. It’s a pretty good explanation for everything, actually, and adds more of a feeling of the Exarchs keeping everyone else weak and under control.

Wisdom, play balance, and other concepts receive good treatment here as well. Unfortunately, the chapter wraps up with a poor discussion of magic and other supernatural creatures. This is often just a list of things that mages can not do, and adds little to the mystery and wonder of the World of Darkness. Even where the game allows a mage to do something new and interesting with their magic, it’s extremely minor – such as creating blood for a vampire.

If you need more detailed discussion of the Mage magic system then this chapter may be useful to you, but astute readers of the core book likely will take little useful information away from this section.

Chapter Two The Way of Air – Spell Lore 34 pages.

A large amount of this chapter is dedicated to roleplaying suggestions involving spellcasting. How your character thinks, what rites she uses, what she says, how her Order factors in, and other considerations all receive extensive discussion in order to make magic come alive in the game. The application of Skills to magic also receives extensive and well written discussion, bringing the relevance of all Skills and their relationship to magic to the forefront of the reader’s imagination. This is useful because it helps add flavor to Rotes, and the chapter provides several pages of new example rotes to drive this home.

One interesting new addition is a merit called Law of Embodiment that allows a character to combine magic with physical actions, such as martial arts. The example given is a Adamantine Arrow who uses life force attacks and eagle claw punches at the same time to devastating results. Even though this costs five dots, the merit does seem a little strong – but then again it is clearly labeled as “Optional.”

This chapter also introduces a collection of new magical spells, and they’re surprisingly good. They often fit spots not covered in the core book, niche areas certainly but still interesting effects (such as several spells using Forces to control magnetism). Even classic abilities like controlling traffic lights are presented, along with interesting ideas for using these spells. I quite liked the idea of creating a traffic jam to confine a target for assassination.

For my games I’m most likely to use the discussion of Rotes and a few of the new spells. Much of the roleplaying advice focuses on the Mage conceptualizing the magic, and I’ve noticed that players often spend less time discussing their character’s thoughts than their actions. The Law of Embodiment is certainly a neat idea, and I may give it a try in my game. Its extremely high cost will stretch a practitioner’s points thin in return for a circumstantial power increase.

Chapter Three The Way of Water – Magic and Being 42 pages.

The first portion of this chapter attempts to expand upon the setting background, playing up ideas other than Atlantis. This is one of the reasons I view this as a product meant to both “fix” and expand upon the core book, as it seems to be clearly responding to fan unhappiness with the Atlantis background. Unfortunately, the chapter manages to say almost nothing on the topic. This feels like a case where the author had an assignment but wasn’t allowed to actually say anything or weave together other ideas, instead having to throw out such vanilla suggestions as “the ancient society may not have been on an island.” The first third of this chapter is just bad, failing to expand on the setting while boring the reader with extremely general statements.

Discussion of how to build mage societies within the Orders is included, and it’s fairly bland as well. The example societies at least give the reader an idea of what a sub-society might look like, though I see them more as just the local flavor of a given society than an actual sub-faction. Fortunately, the chapter moves on to a hidden gem – magical tools, modern ideas, and how they work with magic. The list of tools is very short, less than a page in length, but I found it very useful for coming up with ideas and driving home the magical applications of modern items.

A scattershot of issues and ideas are presented next, but two big ones stand out. First, the ethics of magic is discussed in poor fashion. The author has strange ideas about evil intent, and I don’t clearly understand why it’s unethical to hurt a person but just fine to hurt a sapient spirit, vampire, or other creature. “They should not exist” the book tells me, yet spirits seem like an integral part of the World of Darkness that have as much purpose as anything else. I find the discussion to at times be very harsh (painting the rules of ethics mages follow in such an extreme light that they’re all destined to falter and fail in the first session) and at other times oddly permitting (such as treating non-humans as beyond consideration).

Second, and finally, a discussion of mage duels is presented. It’s actually pretty good, focusing on the social aspect of the duels and how seriously they’re taken. Most duels are the ultimate way to resolve a problem between mages, and the stakes are often very high for the mages to risk so much face (or even their very life) and take up metaphysical sword and shield. If you’d like to play up the importance of duels in your game, this is a fine (if short) resource.

Chapter Four The Way of Earth – Magic Manifested 34 pages.

Focused on creating magic items, this chapter is the best part of the book. Cursed items, items with spirits permanently attached, and all sorts minor and major enchantments fill these pages.

In order to construct an enchanted item the mage must first have a physical object she wishes to imbue. Anything will do, those mages who can find them want to snag items that are the perfect ideal version of that item. A radio that is just right, and reflects the concept of “radioness” more than any other radio ever could. These items are very, very rare and the idea is very cool – adding a sort of hidden wonder to mundane objects. The item is typically imbued with a variety of Matter spells to make it stronger and more effective, and the Prime 3 spell “Imbue Item” does the actual enchanting. Various other spells, ghosts, spirits, and even a Mana reserve can also be woven into the item at additional cost.

Normally, creating a magic item involves the loss of a Willpower dot, since the mage must invest some of herself into the item. Various techniques to get around this are presented throughout the book. One of my favorites is pain harvesting, where the mage uses a spell to gather up her suffering over time and uses that energy to fuel an enchantment later on. More mundane alternatives, such as paying Mana over several days, are also presented and several different Arcana are available to allow flavorful roleplay to get around the harsh Willpower dot cost.

Many more options for enchantments are included here as well. Cursed items are certainly one choice, and may serve as an excellent way to ambush a foe. Telepathic alarms, exclusive user recognition, and many other options are presented. A full system for creating alchemical potions and oils is also presented, and it’s easy to work with. The mage imprints spells on a quantity of gross matter (which might have mystical significance or could be chicken soup), performs an extended casting check, and that’s about it. A new merit, Alchemical Lab, is needed for the production of alchemical items.

The chapter wraps up with Soul Stones, which are concentrated bits of the mage’s very soul. This bit of soul stuff is usually concentrated into the form of an item, which is then enchanted (with nice bonuses). Soul Stones can be used as a focus for Watchtower sympathy, to convert vulgar spells into covert spells, and for other useful ends. Someone else’s Stone might be used to learn a Legacy, target them with magic from afar, or even summon their shade. Soul Stones are well done, like everything else in this chapter, and I intend to integrate them into my next Chronicle.

Chapter Five The Way of Void – Greater Secrets 28 pages.

The chapter kicks off with a discussion of the local Consilium and the NPCs that inhabit a given Chronicle, and it’s pretty basic stuff. Suggestions like “don’t feel the need to write out every NPC” are presented along with discussion of why the Storyteller would want supporting mage characters. This is a short (and, perhaps, not useful) discussion, however, and the chapter quickly moves into a discussion of Paradox. This section primarily deals with Paradox invoked through spell casting, providing suggestions for different types of paradox and how to make it useful as a storytelling device. Some of the support is very helpful, such as example Abyssal Manifestations, but most of it is bland and won’t provide new ideas for most Storytellers.

The book wraps up with a section on Abyssal Magic. The idea is that mages can gain direct, immediate power by drawing on the Abyss when casting spells. A lessening of paradox, aggravated spell damage, and a mental rush are a few of the benefits (and the only ones given) that a mage might get from doing this. On the other hand, they risk addiction and corruption for doing so. Some mages who take this further than the occasional brush with darkness actually align themselves with the abyss. A mage aligned with the Abyss can assign her Paradoxes to other mages, among other more potent advantages and disadvantages. It’s a neat idea, especially for Storytellers who want a despicable villain or a corrupting “dark side” of magic for characters to get addicted to.

My Take

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