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Let me start by saying that this is not a bad book. It is a very good book in fact, but there are a few things I wish I would have known before reading the Infinite Tapestry that would have increased my enjoyment of this book immensely. Hopefully, this might help a few prospective buyers... caveat emptor and all that.
Overall, Infinite Tapestry can be considered the Umbra book for Mage revised. The book covers the near and far Umbras and discusses the heavy impact that the Avatar Storm has had on the spirit realms.
The art is solid, and includes Langdon Foss, Leif Jones (of course), Matthew Mitchell and Alex Sheikman. For the most part, the art follows the text generally, though none of the pics perfectly follows the text. Some of Leif Jones's work really hits the mark though- I think his work on Mage is some of his best to date and seems to reflect the setting nicely. The cover, by Lawrence Snelly, is really quite cool, and shows what looks to be the Fortress of Government in an unbrascape. The art is good, but not terribly great. Workmanlike is the best way to explain it.
I tried to think of an analogy that would some up my feelings about this book nicely, but no single analogy seemed to hit it on the head... so I will give you a couple of the ideas running through my head.
Reading the Infinite Tapestry is like...
Talking with a 4-year old. The kid just drew a really colorful and interesting picture of dragons, planets, flowers, mommy, hot dogs, and a computer. You are impressed with the picture for the kid obviously has some talent in him, but quite honestly the picture makes very little sense to you. Colors seem to be randomly scribbled about, icons barely look like what they should... and similar icons have very different shapes. The kid is excited and tries to explain everything that is going on but you have a hard time keeping up with their broken English and all the run-on sentences. You desperately wish the kid would take a breath and relax and methodically go through and explain everything... but you know he won't. Still, the picture is neat to look at.
Reading the Infinite Tapestry is like...
Reading Nietzsche. There are some great ideas therein, some really profound, challenging and genuinely fun ideas, but it is couched in a style of writing that makes those ideas more obtuse than there really need to be. Philosophy books are a lot like that for me... a single explanation is probably not adequate for you to understand the concept fully, but the six various ways it is explained just obfuscates the whole concept in competing ideas. Over all, it is a fun book to read, and the ideas imparted are worth a good deal of thinking, but you desperately wish Nietzsche would use different prose to explain his ideas... or that you were smarter so that you could understand the book without help.
Reading the Infinite Tapestry is like...
Reading a textbook. This particular textbook is the core book of your favorite class and you love the simple act of learning as it pertains to the class. The book is filled with pictures and examples and is essential to your understanding of the course. Still, you have to read certain sections twice or three times while having a dictionary handy to help you decipher just exactly what is going on. Fun book, sometimes it is a chore to read though. (as a quick aside, I have never, ever had a gaming book challenge my vocabulary like Infinite Tapestry has. I like to consider myself pretty well educated and well read, but every three or four pages in this book a new work I have never heard of would crop up.)
So, there you go; three analogies that still don't quite explain my overall feelings of the book. I want to love Infinite Tapestry, but the style in which it is written and the ideas it tries to explain make it difficult for me to understand it and utilize it fully. I honestly don't know if it is my failing or the book's (though I am leaning towards the book's... vain, I know).
So, what exactly is it about? Well, I think you can consider Infinite Tapestry as a follow-up book to the Book of Worlds. Infinite Tapestry is broken up into eight total chapters, with the first and last not actually labeled as chapters (Introduction and Appendix respectively). The book covers a lot of ground, moving from the near Umbra and spirit wilds up to the Astral Realms (the Umbra of the mind) and eventually into the Umbral equivalent of deep space (including the planets). All in all, the book covers a LOT of ground, so much so that it only really discusses a few critical things in detail- everything else is left to a couple of paragraphs and the Storyteller's imagination.
I did have a problem with this, as there are a lot of very esoteric ideas within this book. Infinite Tapestry is all about a realm that defies all sorts of logic. The Umbra operates on its own rules, and often those rules make no sense whatsoever or are contradictory with other Umbral laws. Now, considering the nature of the topic, this makes sense, but it also makes it very hard to understand and even harder to explain. This is a major burden for the authors, and I do not think a book double the size of Infinite Tapestry could handle the topic adequately. Unfortunately, this is a shortcoming of the book, the topic is just too big and I really wish there would have been more pages to help explain the Umbral situation a bit better. There are some passages that I had to read three times to make sure I understood in a general sense what was going on. It felt, at times, that the authors got a bit too caught up in the jargon and prose of the Umbra which made my understanding of the topic suffer. I will say that the same jargon and prose did help set a mystical tone for the Umbra, but I personally would have preferred a bit fewer big words.
The first chapter (introduction) gives a broad description of the destruction the Avatar storm created in the Umbra. It is here that I really got a feeling that the Storm devastated the Umbra and that the revised version of the spirit world is significantly different than the 2nd edition. Nothing is as it was, and just about all the great accomplishments of the Awakened are now ruins. This section is also where the book outlines its goal: to act as a more of a user's manual rather than a roadmap. The book strives to create a framework to provide Storytellers so that they can mold and change the Umbra to their liking. Like I mentioned above, though I admire the goal of the book as a whole, I think the topic was a bit too large to cover adequately and the style in which it was done made the framework a bit hard to understand at times.
The second chapter (Chapter One: Stepping Over) is a discussion of the basic cosmology and utility of the Umbra as well as a quick overview of the near Umbra. This chapter discusses the dangers of a lengthy stay in the Umbra (anything over one week starts to incur certain dangers). Herein is also a nice description of the various ways a character can enter the Umbra and just how catastrophic such a jump can now be. This is a good section, with minimal jargon and a host of useful rules and the occasional in-character tidbit. The Dreamspeakers get some extra attention in this section, as masters of the Spirit sphere and with good relations with totems, their ability to navigate the many dangers of the Spirit Wilds is second-to-none. I personally like this aspect of the new Umbra, giving that little extra advantage to the guys who are supposed to be the best at navigating the Umbra.
The third chapter (Chapter Two: The Lower Astral Reaches) discusses the realm of the mind, a place just above or to the side of the near Umbra (Spirit Wilds). Here, the ideas and dreams of humanity and thinking beings come to life... and it is here that the Mages call their own (as opposed to the Spirit Wilds). The Lower Astral Reaches operate differently than the Spirit Wilds and are a bit harder to get to, but can serve as a an interesting location for adventure. To facilitate the usefulness of this Umbral region (and the other Astral Realms) there is a bice discussion of Boons and what they can do for characters. This use of boons as rewards for encountering the locations and spirits outlined in the Infinite Tapestry is a really good idea and helped give reason for exploration... it also helps put the Umbra into understandable and useful terms for the Storyteller.
On the downside, this is also the chapter that really starts getting into the tough jargon. Though there are a couple of locations of interest discussed, they are done so with the nasty Mage jargon that makes them difficult to understand for anyone that is not a hard-core mage fan. The River of Language, in particular, is a nifty idea. It is a place in the Astral Reaches that reflects the many spoken and written languages of the world (both past and present) it freezes in some points, is foggy in others and empties into a big metaphorical ocean. The thing is, I am still not quite sure how it interacts with the rest of the Lower Astral regions and especially with the Spirit Wilds. I can't tell if it is overlaid on top of the Spirit Wilds or if it floats off in its own realm. I am having trouble envisioning where it falls in the general Umbral cosmology and how to get there. It is a really important place as it comes up again and again in other chapters, but for the life of me, using it in a game would intimidate me.
Chapter four (Chapter Three: The Upper Astral Reaches) deals with the courts of the older and bigger spirits (called Umbrood). This is where the really esoteric ideals of humanity come to life. The chapter opens up with an overview of how the Umbral courts work and gives a couple of examples of how a character might find one. The gates and geography of these courts are outlined (gates normally correspond to senses and the geography reflects the personality of the rulers of the courts). Examples are given for the various Elemental courts, both occidental and oriental as well as the well detailed Court of the Muses. Also in this chapter is a series of quick examples of high Umbrood, and the appropriate archetypes so that a Storyteller can create their own courts.
It is the Court of the Muses where Infinite Tapestry again shines. It details a number of the Muse Umbrood, including the more modern Muses, and goes over the courts' bans and boons. The stuff on the muses is really quite nice and easily useable in a game of Mage. The archetypes are not quite so useful, mostly because they are more like templates... but I can still see where they might help a Storyteller jumpstart their imagination.
The chapter on the Upper Astral Reaches finishes off with a good deal of examples of locations in the Upper regions and a discussion of the Epiphamies. This section admits that the Epiphamies are hard to describe, but even with that I still am having some difficulty imagining their use in a game of Mage. They are described as "transpersonal space" a sort of collective unconsciousness giving birth to pocket Umbral realms or something like that. There is a heavy use of philosophical jargon used in the latter half of this section, hindering my understanding of an already difficult concept.
To alleviate the confusion there are a number of examples given including the World Stage, the Continuum Orrey, the Fortress of Government, the Apex of History and Motherhood. These regions make sense generally, but in each case revert to the use of some very specific topic-related words and phrases that confuse the matter- especially when couched in the jargon of Mage. To their credit though, the authors do convey a certain level of loss and devastation regarding the Epiphamies- all due to the Avatar Storm. Again, some of these locations seem less than useful to a Mage game- especially Motherhood- which, while neat, gets a short description that does not reveal what happens when in the womb (something that I would have found useful in helping formulate ideas as to why and how the characters would get there). There is a boon for Motherhood but the overall concept is too vague to really be useful. We are all roleplayers here, so I am sure someone out there has or will use Motherhood to good effect, but I for one would have appreciated the extra words going somewhere else (like more on the Umbral courts).
Chapter Five (Chapter four: Beyond the Horizon) gets into the other celestial bodies in the Umbra. Here we get some discussion of Hollow worlds, Victoria Station (a marble way-station dominated by airships and the Sons of Ether), and the Shard realms (aka: the planets). This section is really a follow-up to the previous Mage book called the Book of Worlds and simply updates a lot of the content in that other book. Each planet or Hollow world gets a quick discussion of just how badly the Avatar Storm screwed it up and little more than that. The biggest failing of this section is that for it to really be useful a Storyteller needs access to the Book of Worlds. I liked a lot of the ideas, in particular Mars is now a frontier not unlike the Wild West with a goodly amount of HG Wells influence.
Chapter six (Chapter Five: From Beyond All Barriers) contains a selection of baddies from the deepest parts of the Umbra. The Chulorviah are a disease that infects squids and octopi as well as humans. The Chulorviah were originally detailed in Blood Dimmed Tides and this is mostly an update as to how they are going about their world domination scheme.
The next baddies are Umbral Demons- in this case not the same demons from Demon the Fallen, but more like demons from Exalted. These demons are from a very alien part of reality (the darkest parts of the Umbra) and rule their own little pocket realms from which they occasionally emerge (or are summoned) and wreak havoc on the minds and souls of humanity.
Next are the Hive Dwellers, which is the best presentation of a baddie in the book. The Hive Dwellers are a really nasty group of Umbral creatures that seem a lot like a cross between the Spectres (from Wraith) and the Umbral Demons discussed earlier in the chapter. Basically, the nephandi lost contact with a lot of their Nasty Umbral lordlings and recently made contact with the Hive Dwellers thinking that the Umbral monsters are their former masters. There is a really nice mystery here as to what happened to the Naphandic demons and just what the Hive Dwellers are up to. Of all the monsters, the Hive Dwellers are the best by far.
Fever Dreams are up next (called Acheri), basically nightmare Umbral creatures with connections to Changeling that infect whoever they come into contact with.
The last baddies are not a baddie at all. The Soul Guides (aka Psychpomps) are spirits that are somehow tied to the Avatars of certain mages and seem to help Mages randomly on different quests or seekings. Again, nice and potentially useful, but unfortunately not a whole lot of backstory to them.
All in all, all these monsters besides the Hive Dwellers desperately need more information. The Hive Dwellers is such a good entry because it goes into a bit of the hows and whys of their existence and just how they fit into the overall Mage world. The Hive Dwellers' appearance is linked with the Avatar Storm and seems to fit very nicely into the setting. The other monsters seem to need more definition and explanation... none of them are bad by any way-shape-or-means, just that I would have loved to see more on them and how they fit into the overall cosmology.
Chapter seven (Chapter Six: Walking the Worlds) is a section on advice for the Storyteller. This is a good section and really helps to bring the disparate aspects of the book together, addressing motivation for entering the Umbra, themes (which play an especially important role in the Umbra), lessons and uses of boons, and the use of the Umbra as an overall plot device. There is also a sample story that is a variation of rescue the princess/mentor. Quite honestly, the sample adventure is too short and straightforward and probably should not have been included at all- using the word count for other sections.
The Umbra as a plot device is a really well written and useful section since it helps make the Umbra into a cohesive entity that is useful to just about any Mage game. Rather than just using certain aspects of the Umbra as encounters or highways, the Umbra should become an integral part of the story with each scene having some significance to the overall story- maybe even to the point of making the Umbra much like an npc of its own. There is also a section on the changing Umbra and how it is different than the Umbra of 2nd ed. I really appreciated the rules addendum in this section as it allows players still using 2nd ed to simulate the Avatar Storm and the new Umbra of revised. Really good ideas herein.
The last section (Appendix: Rotes Wonders and Traits) puts into rules the rotes, magic items and Merits.Flaws discussed in earlier chapters (especially in regards to entering the Umbra).
...
So, my final reaction?
This book is not for newcomers to roleplaying or Mage. The concepts in Infinite Tapestry really play to the type of player that really gets into the whole Mage paradigm wars mentality. This book, in my opinion, is for the players and Storytellers really dedicated to the Mage game and the overall Mage metaplot and can leave casual Mage players in the dust. Still, for the dedicated players or fans of the Mage cosmology this can be a really nice book. I am not a hard core Mage player (more of a dabbler really) and as I am sure it is all to apparent, this book talked over me a couple of times.
Infinite Tapestry should also be considered a supplement to a supplement. In this case a Storyteller/player should try to get a hold of the Book of Worlds at least to help them understand just what the heck is going on as well as to flesh out some of the shard realms (which are glossed over). The Werewolf supplement Umbra (revised) would also be helpful as it explains the Spirit Wilds in more detail than Infinite Tapestry (which focuses more on the Astral Reaches). I would also suggest the Book of Madness to help round out the baddies and the role of the technocracy in the Umbra. Honestly, Infinite Tapestry will be a much more fulfilling read if you read at least one of these books beforehand. Again, this book will be most useful to experienced Mage players rather than someone who just jumped into the game with the release of Mage revised.
So, is it a good book?
Maybe. I liked it for the most part... though I think more dedicated Mage players will get more out of it and newcomers to the game will feel they wasted their money. In regards to Infinite Tapestry more than most other rpg supplements, you will get out of it what you put into it.
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