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Mage is a game where you play humans who have "Awakened", unleashing the latent potential within you to alter reality to your will. These Mages are thrust in a world of occult weirdness, personal horror and a lot of action. Against these mages stand the Technocracy, a monolithic group of Scientist-Visionaries who are eradicating magic and wonder from the world, replacing it with the dull, monotonous existence of predicatbility. Between these two groups, an Ascension War was fought, a bitter struggle to defeat the other side to determine who would determine the future of mankind's enlightenment. Will humanity learn to embrace their inherent powers and rise to their own goals, or will they embrace the wonders of technology and seal off magic forever?
In the end, Humanity chose neither of the two, lulled into total complacency. Mankind lost its spirituality and its taste for adventure, and the Mages and the Technocracy realized that the war they fought had come to a bitter stalemate.
This is where Mage: the Ascension Revised begins. With the unconscious vote of the consensus, reality has conformed to the collective belief of humanity. Magic has become harder to weild, often striking back at the Mage in the form of twisted Paradox. At the same time, the more "cutting-edge" technologies of the Technocracy no longer function predictably, as mankind has settled for Cable TV and Microwave Dinners.
Does this mean that all is gone down the toilet and it's as depressing as it seems? Certainly not. The Mage: Revised edition sets the stage for the players of the game to take the world into their own hands. Not as would-be conquerers, or Crusaders of an enlightened ideal, but rather as humans with a gift. Both sides, Mages and the Technocracy are forced to look inwards, not at their powers, but at what they can do for their fellow man.
The two rival groups still fight each other, but the battlefields have changed. Overt strikes at Technocracy bases with fireballs and voodoo attacks have been replaced by careful manipulation of events and education. The battle of information has come to the fore, and Mages find themselves bringing enlightenment to one soul at a time. It may not be as grand or glamorous as worldwide ascension, but it achieves a greater goal.
Gameplay-wise, Mage: the Ascension Revised uses the venerable Storyteller system used by White Wolf Games. Simple and intuitive, character creation takes very little time and allows for a variety of options for any kind of character.
The most important aspect of the game however is Magic. Mage is one of the few games which allow the most freedom in creating and casting spells. Magical aptitude is measured in two stats: Arete, which is a measure of a mage's magical strength and overall ability, and the Spheres, which are the facets of reality that a mage can manipulate. These Spheres are, in no particluar order: Correspondence, Time, Life, Mind, Matter, Forces, Spirit and Entropy and Prime
There are no spell lists in the game. Imaginative players can come up with countless spells by playing with the range of power allowed by their spheres. Intermediate players will soon learn to combine spheres to create even more complex effects, lending the game a ton of options and variety.
Paradigm however, is the hardest concept for most people to wrap their heads around. A mage's paradigm is his "magical style" a means by which he casts magic. This is not merely relegated to "I wave a wand" but rather, a complex explanation of what belief his magic springs from, and how much his belief will allow him to do. For example, a mad-scientist type of character can create a lightning gun, or perhaps a pair of hover boots, but if his "science" does not believe in ghosts, no number of dots in his Spirit Sphere will grant him the ability to zap ghosts. However, paradigms change with the mage, so if the said mad-scientist gets a harrowing encounter in what he cannot explain, then he might be able to develop some understanding of the Spirit Sphere, and then begin working on a "ghostbuster" weapon.
Overall, Mage may not be a beginner's game, but it is indeed a rewarding one. The sheer amount of possibility in the Matrix-y, Gaiman-esque world of Mage lends more than just a power fantasy, but a realization that if a person is given a chance to change the world to their will... just how far will they go?
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