 Goto [ Index ] |
THE BOOK: Mage: The Awakening is another cool-looking book in the new World of Darkness (nWoD) series, with its own cool color scheme, in this case a sea-green that shimmers in the light and seems to suggest hidden treasure underneath the waves... The details are an intricate mix of the various mystic symbols which together represent the connections between the ten... oh, wow, man, the colors... so peaceful... this looks just like the inside cover of the second King Crimson album....
Ah, as for interior art, all illustrations are done by Michael Kaluta, the award-winning artist who did all the Tradition pictures for the first edition of Ascension. The illos aren't quite up to that standard of quality for some reason, but they aren't actually bad, and they get the point across. Generally, the less realistic the subject, the more the style works. The main text is wrapped around the "magical journal" of the young viewpoint character Arctos, in which he details his "Awakening" to magic and touches on a lot of concepts that are fully detailed in the main book. One of his first notes is: "What can I say? I was young, stupid and Asleep. (Note Important Capital Letters. Magicians Use Lots of Capital Letters.)" In fact, if you look closely at the points where the pages meet, you'll see that all of them are set up to look like they're in a binder, which immediately suggests an academic-intellectual slant to the game.
In the Introduction, the authors state: "Instead of assuming that a character is a follower of a known magical practice, such as voodoo, Cabalism, Hermeticism, Taoist exorcism or any number of other forms, Mage posits a mortal who has become aware of a more real world than the one we live in, one from which we all once came. This Awakened mortal performs magic by connecting to this invisible world... entering a reality unknown to mundane occult traditions, but one that completes and realizes their fragmentary knowledge." This is a deliberate flip on Ascension, in that old Mage characters usually started from a distinct Tradition that had clear roots in a certain culture or magical practice, only to discover the common metaphysic of their arts. Here, magic has a known common origin and most of the mage "splats" are simply divisions of the first ancient order... but more on that later.
The Introduction also states that even though mages are supposed to be people in the modern world who use cell phones and computers like everybody else, "mages usually see little of our world beyond their own chosen ground." They are supposed to defy the stereotype of the wizard in the ivory tower, but they also "travel from their sanctums only when necessary". They require the solidarity of their peers (as in other White Wolf games) because not every mage has the same knowledge, but they also learn very quickly that they cannot share secrets. Indeed, the need to preserve the mysteries of the secret world is a huge part of the setting. Thus, "Ancient Mystery" is the Mood of Awakening. The Theme is pretty logical: "Power Corrupts." As the authors nicely sum up: "Balancing power with wisdom isn't easy- as can be imagined for anyone with the might to make his wishes come true. Beyond the alleged metaphysical consequences for misuse of power, there is the more prosaic: everyone hates a jerk."
In ancient days, when mystical shit was BIG and IN YOUR FACE, somebody FUCKED UP and BROKE EVERYTHING and now THINGS SUCK. – Bailywolf, as quoted by Tetsujin28
Chapter One (Arcanus Mundus - The Secret World) reveals the origins of magic and why mages are obliged to keep the secret world secret. The origins of virtually all magical practice in Awakening stem from a mythic island now referred to as Atlantis. Long before Plato's time, the isle was said to be the home of the dragons. When the dragons ascended to unknown realms, those who could dream of the island felt themselves mystically called to it, and on the isle they met and discovered their common quest. Discovering the power inherent in the land itself and its artifacts, they were able to project their souls into the "Supernal Realms" and Awaken to the powers of magic, by which they could manifest their desires in the material world by bringing this world into harmony with the Supernal.
Unfortunately as the magicians grew more powerful and organized, some factions fought for control of Atlantis, and once the victors seized the island, they built a magic ladder in order to reach the Supernal Realms in the flesh. Other mages organized against these "Exarchs", for control of the Supernal would allow the victors to rule Earth by their whims as gods. In the course of the celestial struggle, the ladder was broken, saving Earth from the corrupted magi but collapsing the bridge between worlds into a spiritual "Abyss" and destroying Atlantis. Surviving mages had to start over and recover lost lore, and they soon discovered that those people who had not yet Awakened were not only deeper in "Sleep" than ever but actually tainted by the Abyss, such that any obvious magic performed in their presence caused a reaction in their souls that strengthened the Abyss and warped the magic. Thus magic became not merely rare but almost impossible to perform. Shortly after the Abyss developed, however, surviving mages gained visions of five Watchtowers, which were created by Oracles, the anti-Exarch faction in the Supernal World, in order to preserve the possibility of Awakening in the absence of Atlantis. For their part the Exarchs use their worldly influence to maintain the "Lie" of materialism that keeps humanity at large in "Quiescence" and Asleep.
This Atlantean basis of magic is, to say the least, not universally popular with old Mage fans. In particular, at least one RPG.net poster said that the Atlantis myth was not only boring but Euro-centric and wiped out the presence of non-Western magical practices in the game. On that score, it should be pointed out that White Wolf in general and Mage in particular were never that devoted to multiculturalism, something that the company itself pointed out with the prequel game Mage: The Sorcerers' Crusade, in which the first Council had Hermetic, Wiccan, Christian and alchemist Traditions but jammed most of the African and American willworkers into one "Dreamspeakers" Tradition, akin to how the Omegas dealt with their non-white pledges in the first scene of Animal House. Second, doing real justice to foreign cultural backgrounds would require dedicated sourcebooks, and when WW does try to base its rules in non-Western cultures (e.g. Kindred of the East) people bitch about the results of THAT.
It could be argued though that paying lip service to other cultures is better than not recognizing them at all. And I do think that reducing all magical tradition to a singular myth, and an over-worn one at that, takes a lot of the exotic flavor out of the game. But then, if you're going to say that all magical practice in Earth's history stems from the tradition of a single mythic land, you might as well call it Atlantis if anything else. In any case, it achieves the desired result: Mages in the game have an ur-culture of their own, including a common magical language and runes that they can use to empower their spells.
The other game-design reason for all this is the core difference between Ascension and Awakening. Ascension, again, was rooted in the subjective reality concept, which basically meant that believing something strongly enough could create or reinforce the reality of that thing, so if "Sleepers" believe in a scientific, non-magical reality, that's simply the consensus reality that they reinforce amongst themselves, and against which magic has to struggle. And again, that theory had all kinds of holes in it, most notably the fact that most people are more familiar with religion than hard science, even nowadays. Awakening ditches post-modern subjectivist magical theory and goes back to more traditional Platonic/Gnostic ideas, in which magic works because the practitioner has learned to invoke the laws of a "higher realm" that is objectively real but outside mundane perception. So if the laws of magic are the same for everyone, it does make sense that magicians would end up learning the same techniques. It certainly makes more sense than limiting mages by "paradigm" when game simplicity dictates that they all end up using the same magic rules anyway.
This premise also means that Sleepers do not limit magic because they don't believe in it, but because they are part of the "Fallen World" that denies access to the Supernal. Failed spellcasting damages reality and creates a Paradox that the Abyss fills with twisted results on the mage or his environment. Sleeper presence not only increases the chance of Paradox but can unravel long-term spells: "The things of the lower world taint the things of the higher world, and poison their enchantments." In fact, the book explicitly states that just as obvious "vulgar" displays of magic in the sight of Sleepers provoke an immediate Paradox, Sleeper knowledge of magic likewise undermines the art on a different scale, bringing the Supernal to a mundane level and making some acts impossible to perform. Some scholars believe there were powers once within the range of Masters or even adepts that are now beyond the reach of mortal mages. Thus, before any other law, mages are sworn to keep their craft secret.
Some may disagree, but I like this interpretation of Paradox. While it retains the same game-design purposes (putting a lid on mage hubris and maintaining the realism of a modern setting by making vulgar magic risky), the need to preserve the Mysteries is a better in-game explanation for the rule than “the mean old Technocracy brainwashed the Consensus so that we can’t throw fireballs anymore.” Same result, but the reasoning is more… mystical.
As mentioned, since the Fall of Atlantis, a mage who is called to Awaken appears in his dreams (or a waking 'mystery play') before one of five Watchtowers, where he passes a certain threshold (the symbolism of which varies for each person) and then finally writes his name in a record at the Watchtower, gaining access to the Supernal World and the power of magic. The Path the character takes and the tower he ends up in determines the focus and character of his magic, with each Watchtower being tied to a certain Supernal Realm: Acanthus (Arcadia, the home of the fae), Mastigos (Pandemonium, realm of demons and nightmares), Moros (Stygia, the Underworld), Obrimos (the Aether realm of magical energy) and Thyrsus (the Primal Wild). The book deliberately does not confirm whether these are the true otherworlds; for instance whether Arcadia is the same Faerie realm as the one that abducts Changeling characters in the nWoD.
As also mentioned, mages, especially young and inexperienced ones, usually band together in groups for mutual protection, which at the base (PC group) level are called cabals. There are also larger mystical orders, which in true White Wolf fashion are five main groups, four of which trace their origins to the bureaucracy of Atlantis. There's the Adamantine Arrow (the warrior/guardian caste), the Silver Ladder (the rulership caste), the Mysterium (the scholarly caste) and the Guardians of the Veil, the self-appointed secret police of mage society, whose main responsibility since the Fall of Atlantis has been to conceal magic from the taint of exposure to Sleepers. And then there's the Free Council, who reject the Atlantis myth and embrace modernism, including technology. In fact, their description makes them seem like an alternate-universe Technocratic Union that rejected the Exarchs' offer of worldly control and embraced freedom and democracy. They aren't exactly Technomancers (the term is now meaningless, given that new Mage doesn't use the subjective-reality conceit that science is just the brand of magic we've been conditioned to accept as 'reality') but they are prone to use science, inventions, mass media and other "mythic threads" of modern society in their workings. Basically, just as oMage had the Sons of Ether and Virtual Adepts as a couple bones to throw at players who disliked the "Science BAD" slant of the oWoD, the new game gives the Free Council as a bone to the "Atlantis Sucks" faction of current players. The other "orders" are enemies of Awakening: The Seers of the Throne (who deliberately serve the Exarchs for power) and the Banishers, whose traumatic Awakenings have convinced them that magic has to be destroyed, which of course doesn't prevent them from using magic to destroy other mages.
After discussing magic and magical politics, this chapter concludes with an overview of "The Magical Landscape." The Shadow World of spirit phenomena (also described in Werewolf: The Forsaken) is technically part of the Fallen World below the Abyss and Realms Supernal, and beings like ghosts that are ephemeral but appear at the boundary of matter and spirit are said to be in "Twilight." There are certain spots in the material world that create access to the spirit world (loci), and similar realms where Supernal power reaches Earth more freely; these latter spaces are called Hallows. Mages treasure such places for several reasons. It is easier for Sleepers to Awaken in a Hallow, and each Hallow is a source of spiritual power, thus being a prime site for a mage to build a headquarters or sanctum for himself, his cabal, or his Order. However, such spiritual resources are also valuable to other supernatural powers, especially hostile mage orders and werewolves.
Chapter Two (Character) gives the character creation rules for a mage. In addition to the base human character created with the corebook rules, you apply a mage template guided by the choices explained in Chapter One. In choosing an Order one gains access to certain specialties that allow the mage to gain 1 to the dice pool when a magical rote spell uses a Skill favored by the Order (e.g. The Free Council favors Crafts, Persuasion and Science). In addition to choosing an Order (which is technically optional, but there aren't any rules for 'solitaries'), each mage PC must take a Path and Watchtower. Chapter Two goes into more detail on how these work. As mentioned in the next chapter, there are ten Arcana (sing. Arcanum) and each Path has two "Ruling Arcana" that its Realm has affinity in and one Inferior Arcanum that costs extra experience to learn or use. For instance, a mage who takes the Path of Doom (Moros) has the Ruling Arcana of Death and Matter, which is based on the logic that souls incarnate and take on the limitations of the material world until they are finally released by death. Their Inferior Arcanum is Spirit. Each Path also colors the flavor of a character's magic with a Nimbus, mainly when using vulgar spells. For instance, the Moros Nimbus is "Haunting", creating a sense of decay or causing shadowy figures to arise. Each Path also causes a mage to increase a Resistance Trait by one dot; for three of the five, this 1 goes to Composure, while for Mastigos and Obrimos it goes to Resolve.
Mages have two specific Advantages: Gnosis and Mana. Gnosis is the "raw power" stat and Mana is the "power points" stat. Gnosis rating determines, among other things, how much Mana a mage can have at one time, how powerful his improvised spells are and how quickly he can cast extended-action spells. The drawback to high Gnosis is that this mystic power draws attention to itself, making it easier for other mages to detect him with spells and also increasing the chance of Paradox. Mana is required for casting improvised spells (unless the primary effect is in the mage's Ruling Arcana), for using sympathetic magic that does not target by sight, to inflict aggravated damage with an attack spell or to otherwise empower the effect. Recovering Mana points is difficult. It is usually done with an oblation (ritual ceremony) at a Hallow. Mana can be gained with Prime Arcanum, but not every mage has that. It is also possible to scour one's Pattern (Physical stats) or Health, exchanging one Health box or dot of Physical attribute for three Mana; a burned Attribute recovers in 24 hours, while Health damage is "Resistant Damage" that does not recover with healing spells. And finally, it is possible for a mage to gain Mana by sacrificing a small animal for one Mana or a living human for one Mana per Health box... which leads to the modified Morality stat, here called Wisdom. Unlike the Werewolf "Harmony" trait, Wisdom does not replace Morality so much as add mage-specific acts to the Hierarchy of Sins- for example, a Wisdom 7 mage has to check for both petty theft and laying a curse on someone. In addition to the other drawbacks of losing Morality, a low-Wisdom character finds it harder to deal with spirit beings socially or fight Abyssal forces, while the high-Wisdom mage gains a bonus with both spirit dealings and combat with Abyssals. Also, in several cases a mage's Wisdom rating is used to determine the duration of a Paradox effect or as a dice pool to resist the Paradox. Mana points start at a rating equal to beginning Wisdom (7) while Gnosis starts at one dot and can be raised one during character creation for every three Merit points.
And this book has a LOT of mage-specific Merits. Among them are three different types of special item: "Enhanced" items that have been Matter-reinforced to perform better than normal but do not create Paradox, "Imbued" items that have low-level magical effects that can be used even by Sleepers, although they're still not immune to Paradox or the Sleeper's own disbelief, and Artifacts of Atlantean origin that are only usable by mages, including the ability to use the artifact's own pool of Mana. You also have obvious Merits like Familiar, Sanctum (which like the Vampire Haven can be either individual or pooled by the group) and Status in a particular Order.
In addition to all this, mages get six dots in Arcana, of which two must be spent on Ruling Arcana, and five must be spread between three Arcana (so two in one Arcanum, two in another, one in a third, and a 'free' dot that can improve one of the existing Arcana or buy a fourth). They also get six rotes, pre-memorized spells that are described further in Chapter Three. All mage PCs are pretty much required to make up a “shadow name” which is much like the Wiccan “craft name” but made necessary by the fact that one’s true name (or True Name) is a sympathetic connection that enemies can use to target you with spells. The example Shadow Names given are neo-Goth fantasy stuff like “Glorianna,” “Arctos,” and “Morvran.” The book does not describe the mystic consequences of choosing a Shadow Name like Runs-With-Scissors, Wellhung Thickrod, or “Iron Balls” McGinty.
Of course this isn't even as linear as what I've described. The bulk of this chapter goes to "splat" descriptions of the five Paths, their prejudices towards other groups, etc. which themselves are in a different chapter from the Order descriptions. The Path descriptions are placed at the end of the chapter. Before them but after the other parts are descriptions of magical tools, which in addition to being confusing (if a mage can have only one dedicated Path tool but can have one tool for each Arcanum, how many can a character have total?) are spell modifiers that properly belong in the next chapter...
Chapter Three (Magic) gives us the game's magic system. As you might expect, it's pretty involved. As in the Ars Magica game (in which old Mage has its roots), there is a clear distinction in game mechanics between Improvised Magic and Rotes (formula magic). The former uses a "raw" Dice Pool of Gnosis the spell's Arcanum, the latter allows the mage to roll a Dice Pool of the spell's main Arcanum plus a relevant Attribute Skill. In most cases that gives the rote a higher Dice Pool. A rote also has less chance of invoking Paradox. The drawback of a rote is that it costs 2x the rote's rating in experience points (so a Forces 3 rote is six XP). The advantages are such, however, that most of the spell system operates on the assumption of rotes (whereas in Ascension, a rote was merely an example description of what could be done with a Sphere or combination of Spheres, and most magic was 'improvised' casting- in Awakening it seems to be the other way around). The actual Arcana are: Death, Fate, Forces, Life, Matter, Mind, Prime, Space, Spirit and Time. With "Space" being the old Correspondence, you have the same divisions as oMage Spheres, except that Entropy (which dealt with probability and decay) had those two influences split into Fate and Death respectively, so now there's ten schools instead of nine.
So first the mage decides what he wants from his spell. He picks the Arcana or Arcanum needed (if he has them) and casts as an improvised spell or rote (if his repertoire includes the right rote). Then he decides if he wants the spell to be an instant or extended action. An extended-action or ritual spell usually requires special material components but adds successes like a standard extended action, which is important if you want to add certain bells and whistles that come in later. Now the mage decides if he wants his spell to be covert or vulgar magic, and if covert, how he wants the effect to manifest. Covert magic is something improbable, like an action-hero vehicle stunt or lightning striking a certain target outside during a thunderstorm. Vulgar magic is physically impossible, like firing lightning from your fingertips or increasing Paris Hilton's Intelligence above one dot. This book specifically states that repeating the same "coincidence" multiple times in the same scene to justify a spell as covert stretches credibility to the point that the Storyteller can declare the effect "improbable" and effectively vulgar. It's a judgment call, obviously, but it most cases it's not a difficult one. In most cases a spell has sensory (line-of-sight) range but mages with the Space Arcanum can use sympathetic magic on a faraway target, with "range modifier" based on how much the mage knows about the target and how easy it is for him to visualize the target; this means the difficulty can be reduced with photographs or more intimate connections like a lock of hair. Not knowing the target's name increases the difficulty by two factors (again, that's why mages take shadow names- there are also some spells that can erase one's mystical 'connections'). Moreover, casting a sympathetic spell creates a connection that works both ways, such that casting against an enemy mage allows that mage to strike the caster with his own spells, although he has his own penalties for level of familiarity to the original caster.
But that's not all! A mage can apply various spell factors to modify the results of a spell. A mage can alter Potency (spell strength), Target (which includes number of targets, size and/or area of effect) and Duration by taking dice penalties on an instant spell or extra required successes on an extended spell. For instance, a spell with a Duration of Concentration lasts as long as the mage concentrates on it. By increasing the difficulty, the mage could make that spell run on its own for a little while after breaking concentration to do something else, although he couldn't resume concentrating to maintain the effect once he quit doing so. Other factors include the possibility of restricting a spell's targets, spell tolerance (each spell cast on the character in excess of his Stamina rating takes -1 off his magic rolls, which acts as a limit on 'buffing') and casting spells with more than one Arcanum. "Combined spells" are a lot more difficult than they were in Ascension, where major effects usually required conjunction of at least two Spheres. In addition to needing Gnosis 3 to do this, the character must have 1 dot over the requirement in each Arcanum (so combining Forces 3 with Prime 2 would actually require Forces 4 and Prime 3). Once a spell is defined and targeted, the dice pool is rolled against a Resistance Attribute (like Stamina for direct attacks or Resolve for mind-affecting spells). Mages add Gnosis to this Resistance dice pool, making it easier for them to resist these powers (vampires and others use their own 'mystic power' stats for this purpose). But before all of this, if the spell is vulgar (or defined as 'improbable' to a Sleeper witness), the mage must roll against Paradox with a base Dice Pool determined by his Gnosis (high Gnosis means higher chance of invoking a Paradox). A vulgar (as opposed to merely improbable) spell witnessed by Sleepers adds 2. Using a rote subtracts 1 die, as does using a magical tool in the casting. Success on this roll creates a Paradox whether or not the spell roll succeeds. The results of such are mostly under the control of the Storyteller, using the rules at the end of the chapter.
After all this, you get the rules for the Arcana themselves and how they work. On review, the main thing that becomes clear is how linear the effects of the Arcana are and how deliberately interchangeable they are. One dot in any Arcanum allows "Mage Sight," for instance, although a given Arcanum is better for perceiving some effects than others (Death is better for finding ghosts than Spirit for instance). Likewise level 2 in an Arcanum allows a mage to put up some type of protection spell that acts as armor versus various effects. Another thing is that the upper-level effects are actually less powerful than oMage in that most of the creation spells (for artificial life, regenerating limbs, etc.) can never be of a permanent duration, even at level 5 in an Arcanum. Presumably those are the powers lost when magic was exposed too much to Sleepers; in any event one needs to be at Archmage level to learn level 6 Arcana, which are beyond the scope of this book. More irritating is the fact that the book's attention to detail fails when actually listing the spells. One or two spells reference the dreaded "Page XX" and a few omit minor little trifles like duration and effect. The Prime 5 spell "Dead Zone", for example, doesn't say whether it prevents spellcasting or just makes it difficult, especially considering that it does say the caster can use his own Mana but cannot channel it from outside the spell effect.
After the lists of Arcana and rotes we get the rules for Paradox. The number of successes on a Paradox roll determines the severity of the effect, with one success creating Havoc (spell goes haywire), two creates Bedlam (temporary derangement), three creates an Anomaly (environmental disturbance), four creates Branding (permanent disfigurement or 'witch's mark') and five creates a Manifestation, where the Abyss opens up and its weird residents attack the world. Another effect of Paradox is Disbelief, in which Sleeper reaction to an otherwise lasting spell causes the spell to erode and the witness himself goes into a sort of hysterical amnesia (akin to the Lunacy in Werewolf). This section also contains an interesting sidebar, "The Secret Soul", that is worth reading in full, because it may in its own way express the general paradox of mage existence. After the Paradox section comes a fairly good example of spellcasting combat between three PC mages and a deranged mage NPC. After this come discussions of the soul (what happens to a person who doesn't have one, and how magic can steal it), including the master mage's option to create a soulstone as the foundation of a Demesne, a sanctum where all magic is covert except if witnessed by a Sleeper (which is why mages with Demesnes keep them well-hidden). The two drawbacks to creating a Demesne are that the soulstone reduces the spiritual potential of the creator (maximum Gnosis drops to 9, two stones means maximum drops to 8, etc.) and this potential can never be regained if the soulstone is destroyed. Thus a mage who has control of another's soulstone is considered to have the other mage as his "Thrall" for a limited period of time after which he is traditionally obliged to hand the stone back to the creator. The other problem is that the Paradox-free zone of a single stone is really not that big, so truly impressive Demesnes require several soulstones, which usually means that a cabal's Demesne, like a normal sanctum, is a group project.
Other subjects here include brief discussions of the spirit world (whose denizens are described in the next chapter), the Astral Plane, the rules of the "Duel Arcane" between mages, and the process of "Creative Thaumaturgy", which doesn't seem any different from just casting an improvised spell. However, practicing and formularizing a favored spell allows the mage to turn it into a rote, which costs a permanent Willpower dot but gains the advantages of the rote method, not to mention prestige within the mage community.
Chapter Four (Storytelling and Antagonists) gives the Storyteller advice on how to run a Mage chronicle. As with Werewolf, the authors mention the perspective of the characters' supernatural senses, which in the case of mages are highly developed due to their general capabilities and access to "Mage Sight" with any given Arcanum. (It's also mentioned earlier in the book that other supernaturals REALLY don't like it when they notice that humans can detect their abilities.) In role-playing and scenario-setting, much of the action will revolve around the local mage politics, both within the player cabal and with any rival cabals in the area, who are collectively ruled in magical affairs by the local Consilium and the Lex Magica, legal standards dating from the Fall of Atlantis (these are dealt with in more detail in Chapter One, and again basically amount to not allowing the Sleepers to know about the mystic world, in addition to adjudicating any conflicts between mages). Naturally, this can involve a lot of politicking and power games, especially in an academic-intellectual community, and especially one in the World of Darkness. The upper ranks of the Consilium can also serve as "quest givers" and other story seeds. These higher-up mage conflicts also mirror the personal conflicts of PC mages who use magic to settle scores and achieve other personal goals; as the book says: "Mages are gatekeepers of what makes humanity frightening. They lay claim to ancestors who would swallow the universe with their will. The Exarchs may have transcended mortality, but their legacy - the Quiescence - is an expression of all-too-human hubris. Like mages today, they refused to accept their weaknesses. Even so, they knew the flaws in their own hearts, the fear of the unknown that can chill us to the bone."
The Antagonist section actually has a very wide section of potential opponents, one that displays a lot of variety and imagination compared to the new Vampire or even Werewolf. There's an extended description on the Seers of the Throne, who ironically Awaken via the Watchtowers like other mages (it is theorized that since the Exarchs couldn't destroy the Watchtowers, they decided to subvert them by recruiting their own mage servants). They're set up as the main antagonists of the setting, and their agenda to suppress mass Awakening makes them a pretty obvious analog to the Technocracy, the difference being that while the Technocrats came to believe that their version of reality control was real science and occult magic was a threat to "Safe Reality", the Seers know the truth about magic but conceal it to protect their own power (sorta like the Emperor in Star Wars). Naturally, with their tactics of social control, the Seers tend to act through agents and many of them have special Artifacts that allow the user to read and then possess a subject's mind. Mages and other supernaturals are resistant to this control, which is one reason the Seers prefer weak-willed mortal servants. After this are more brief descriptions of Banishers and "the Mad" (that example being basically a magical serial killer).
This section also includes rules for spirits, which are pretty much the same as in Werewolf, except that the mage names for the ranks of spirits are taken from the ranks of European nobility (Marquis, etc.). This is the really exotic part, though, with some of these spirits including the "Cryptid" mythic beasts of yore, ghost mages and the potentially freaky idea of Goetic "demon" summoning, in which a mage can wrestle with his own Vice in order to avoid his weakness but still get Willpower from it. At higher levels the Goetic mage can project his own Vice onto another or manifest it as a true spirit, which may live on after him.
Appendix One (Legacies) says that even though a mage may be associated with a Path and an Order, others will come to know him by his chosen Legacy. A mage gains his Legacy by tutelage under a master who has attained it, and in the process learns to "craft his own soul." At three points he reaches a different attainment in the Legacy. The main advantage of these attainments is that they are not spells, which means they are not detectable as magic, do not strain spell tolerance, AND do not cause Paradox. The book presents five (naturally) Legacies but mentions that each Path sponsors at least three. Each Legacy also has an association with an Order. For instance the Perfected Adepts (yogic martial artists) are sponsored by both the Obrimos Path and the Adamantine Arrow, given that their goals of power and physical perfection align so well. After the main Legacies we get examples of the "Left-Handed" (Evil NPC) Legacies, which are pretty nasty variations on old themes: The "Tremere Liches" who were made immortal by vampires but must steal and consume souls to stay alive, and the Scelesti (or Nefandi) who serve the Abyss in the same way that the Seers serve the Exarchs.
Appendix Two (Boston) is the sample setting, which gets further detail in the Boston Unveiled sourcebook. In addition to reviewing the local occult history (which is of course wrapped in dangerous secrets) the Appendix brings up a few real-life bits of local color, including Boston's frightening level of vermin and the fact that, as a college town, rents have gotten so expensive that it is common for four people to share the same home. (This will probably be the arrangement for a beginning PC cabal.) One's opinion of the setting will probably align with one's opinion of the new game- either it's dull, musty and whitebread, or it presents new opportunities for mystery and horror (New England was Lovecraft's territory, of course).
SUMMARY
As has been pointed out on RPG.net, the Mage: The Awakening game line has since produced a large number of supplements which go into greater setting detail and do a lot to convey the intended goals of the game line. I have not yet read those supplements. So my opinion of the setting book is basically the same as I had of the game when it came out. That opinion is that Awakening, much like Wild Talents, has some great ideas that are sorely in need of a second edition with better editing and playtesting- and Awakening, unlike Wild Talents, much less the new Vampire and Werewolf games that preceded it, is quite lacking in flavor, which makes a second edition (that incorporates the ideas from the supplements) that much more imperative.
Mage: The Awakening does accomplish its goals, however. Whereas new Vampire is much like old Vampire and new Werewolf likewise has a similar premise to the old, Awakening is not Ascension. The latter game exploded the familiar RPG image of the scholar-mage to encompass all manner of mystical traditions and reality "adjustments", but Awakening goes back to the original concept of the intellectual search for enlightenment and forbidden knowledge, and the Faustian question of what price a seeker would pay for that knowledge. Because that knowledge is power. And that is the common element: You are a mage, and with magic, you can change the world. You could even turn a vampire into a lawn chair, although he'll probably get better.
Style: 3
A well-put together book but one that's not too organized, doesn't convey its concepts well (apparently, not as well as the supplements) and is not that clean to read, especially on those little gold-ink sections.
Substance: 3
A great new magic system that isn't terribly well detailed and is greatly in need of editing and clarity.
Help support RPGnet by purchasing this item through DriveThruRPG.
