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Review of Convention Book: N.W.O.
This review will take two readings of the work into account: the first is the book's viability as a resource for players and Storytellers to use the NWO in a Chronicle, the second, as an overall indication of the direction the remaining Convention books will take and possibly, Mage 20th Anniversary Edition as a whole.
Each section of the book will be detailed, with both objective descriptions of the content and subjective opinions included. These sections will be clearly marked as either OD or SO. YMMV on the SO sections is in full effect and I look forward to my opinions being lambasted.
Physicality
OD: My copy is a Print on Demand Copy purchased from Drivethrurpg.com. It physically resembles the other Mage Revised Splatbooks with similar layout and internal graphic design. The page are rather thin compared to the traditional (heh) printed books, such as the ItX Revised Book. There are also some instances of low print quality, such as the nigh invisibility of the Convention and Tradition insignia in the background on pages 40 and 41; they are so faint that I though they forgot to include them on my first read through but they are there. This maybe a specific issue with my printing and may not occur in other purchasers copies.
SO: I think the book is rather flimsy but I understand the limitations of print on demand. I'm just glad to have it in my hands.
Artwork
OD: The front cover features the computer generation NWO splatart by Christopher Shy which first appeared as the chapter heading art for the Introduction (page 22) of Guide to the Technocracy. Other artists featured are Alex Sheikman, who did the chapter heading art, Vince Locke, who did the Methodology Character art, JUstin Norman, Alex Trabbold, James Denton and Borja Puig Linares.
SD: I never liked Shy's splat artworks but the use of it here provides a familiar face and keeps it in line with the Art Direction for the other Mage Splat Books, including the three remaining Convention Books. Sheikman's art is very familiar to me as an old skool Mage vet though it doesn't seem particularly NWOish but generically Mageish, especially with the use of the Sphere sigils. Locke's Methodology Character Art is very good, certianly better than Leif Jones' Convention art in Guide to the Technocracy and Mage Revised. The of the art is serviceable and some of it captures the mood of the perfectly, like on pages 4, 22, and 79.
Prelude/Epilogue
OD: Both of bits of game fiction will be discussed here as they provide a continuous narrative. The Prologue details the Processing (Mind Influence enhanced brain washing) of a captured Order of Hermes Mage. The epilogue picks up almost a year later, detailing what (not who) the Hermetic has become after undergoing extensive Processing. The result isn't pretty.
SO: This is a bad sign right off the bat. I despise fiction in my gaming books, I think the space can be put to better use. On the other hand, game fiction can serve a valuable purpose, especially in a game like Mage where it can be used to provide perspective on a mindset/paradigm unfamiliar to the reader. The original Euthanatos, Cult Ecstasy and, most especially, Syndicate splat books are the stand out examples of this in my opinion. As such, it would have been very nice if the story was told from the perspective of NWO Processor rather than the Processed so as to humanize an utterly dehumanizing act. Considering the nature of Processing and the Hermetic's fate, the fiction reinforces all the worst cliches and stereotypes of the NWO and Technocracy in general.
This isn't to say I disliked it as a Mage story, it's well written and contains the following little gem:
"As the soldiers lead him to his fate, Frank Burlingame's first thought is that the Technocracy needs to stop embracing tired science fiction cliches."
Keep that line, the very first line in the entire book, in mind when reading this review. I'll come back to it.
Introduction
OD: This a bog standard White Wolf splatbook introduction discussing the Theme (The Human Spirit), Mood (A House Dividing) and the Contents of the book. A short section entitled "A Different Time" discusses the reboot of the Mage setting, briefly explaining which events and themes from the Year of the Reckoning/Time of Judgement will be included in the book (and one can presume Mage20).
SO: It's a bog standard White Wolf Intro, not much to say. I will say that I think the Theme section sets up an "ends justify the means, antiheroic martyrdom" tone that pervades the entire book. There is also no Bibliography or list of inspirational media; those were always my favorite parts of previous Mage books as they provided a means of getting across themes, mood and tone in different ways. Of course, there is an extensive list of such in the Guide to the Technocracy, which is absolutely essential to get the most out of this book. I'd also recommend the Official CIA Handbook of Trickery and Deception as a reference for NWO Mind Procedures.
Chapter One: History
OD: "Playing Catch Up" (p. 15-17) looks at the past decade's shifts in the geo-political and technological paradigms and how they relate to the NWO. This can also be read as a stealth update to the Mage setting as a whole. "Truth in History" (p. 18-36) is a history of the NWO presented as a research paper by a member of the Ivory Tower. There are comments by other members of the Tower discussing the research as an example of Technocratic Mind Procedures. There is nothing new here for long time Mage fans though; the Craftmasons, Cabal of Pure Thought (both from Sorcerer's Crusade) and the Skeleton Keys (from Guide to the Technocracy) are mentioned in the usual contexts."NWO Relationships" (p. 37-43) details the NWO's opinions of the other Conventions, Traditions and other factions (Marauders, Nephandi, Kindred, Garou, etc). Finally, there are a number of sidebars scattered throughout the chapter detailing various topics that don't fit in anywhere else (like New Newspeak and the Collegium of Gender Studies).
SO: Playing Catch Up is probably one of my favorite section of the book as it focuses on incorporating real world events into the game setting and introduces a number of possible story seeds for those, like me, who prefer to take a "Bitter Road" approach to Mage and downplay the tired hunting down "Reality Terrorists" trope. As a professional academic, I found Truth in History equal parts amusing and chilling. Amusing because the comments from the Professors about the writer's subtextual goals reminds me of discussions I've had on the same topic with respect to my own research, sans the Mind Procedures of course (a girl can dream...). It's also chilling due to the off hand references to Processing the readers of the work; there are shades of the old NWO = fascist thought police cliche here. The Relationships section is nothing new though I have two quibbles. One, I understand that using the Sphere names in character is a convenient short hand but it's still jarring to me, and two, Demon: the Fallen gets shafted (again).
Chapter Two: Division of Labor
OD: This chapter discusses the organization of the Convention, recruitment, desired skill sets (p 45-50). A section detailing the Four Methodologies (p. 51-61) rounds out the chapter. Of particular note is the Feed, a new Methodology whose goal is managing the impact of the Internet on the Consensus. Q Division gets relegated to a sidebar.
SO: There is little that is surprising here. Some things I found particularly interesting are the integration of Extraordinary Citizens (Hedge Technomancers), which makes me wonder if Mage 20 will at least the discuss the place Sorcerers have in the Traditions (not everyone has Sorcerer Revised even if I do), the Feed (even if the name makes me think of them as the kids from G4/Tech TV) and a little sidebar called Men (and Women) in Black, which states "A significant number of Operatives are women, constructs who used to be women or identify as women." As a transsexual woman myself, this made me happy; the only transgender references in Mage before this were to Heyel Teomin, the Alchemical Hermaphroditic Solificatus in the Fragile Path and Sorcerer's Crusade (who was not a positive character in my opinion). One thing I would have liked to see more of is how the NWO operate within the real world, i.e, what do they do besides monitoring/capturing/eliminating Reality Terrorist and policing the Technocratic Union? How do they educate the Masses? How do they further the Consensus and the Time Table? Things like that. The book portrays being a member of the NWO as a full time job with little time for life outside of it; that may play well with some troupes but not for mine.
Chapter Three: Assets
OD: This is the crunch chapter. It covers the usual ground for a Mage splat book: Important NPCs (p 63-65), Legends (p 66-67), Fronts (68-70),Troupes (p. 70-74) including a sample Amalgam featuring Aisha Jones who has shown up before in Mage but I can't place her), a new Sphere called Data (p 74-78), Devices (p 78-84), Procedures (p. 84-87), and sample PC templates (p. 88-97). The new Sphere, Data, is to Correspondence as Dimensional Science is to Spirit; it is based around utilizing the Internet and information science as the Paradigm for effects.
SO: First, there is no Storytelling Section and the section on troupes makes it sound like the writers (and/or Developer) had a very specific sort of game in mind regarding NWO troupes: they would be assigned missions to undertake, probably hunting down Reality Terrorists. That reminds me of something Jess Heinig, the Second Mage Developer, said to me at Gen Con in either 2001 or 2002: "The Technocracy is only good for bug hunts." As I mentioned above I would have liked to see discussion of other mission profiles.
Second, Data is worth the price of the book. It is excellently thought out, well written and conveys just how much the Modern Paradigm has changed in the past decade. IT also addresses a hole in the Technocratic paradigm that's bothered me since Guide to the Technocracy: how do the soft science conventions (NWO and Syndicate) view the Spheres? I'm hoping that the Syndicate Convention book does something similar with Entropy. It's probably too late for that given development and writing times but one can always hope.
Third, the Devices included are also nice look at the new paradigmic realities and feature upgrades of some old favorites, like the Spectre Limo.
Fourth, I found the Procedures section somewhat lacking. Then again, the sidebar on Smartphone Apps as Procedures was clever and turns a Technocrat's smartphone into a technomagickal wand capable of doing anything. Because there's an App for everything these days.
Fifth, none of the PC templates appealed to me. A University Professor template for the Ivory Tower would have been nice.
Final Thoughts
Remember the first line in the book, about tired sci-fi cliches? Yeah, a lot of the old stereotypes from first and second edition are back which is odd since I reread the original NWO book and found them far less menacing than they are portrayed in this revision. At least in the original book, the NWO would attempt persuasion or diplomacy before burning down Chantries and killing mages. The lack of a Storytelling section is rather jarring, though it can be assumed that this book is intended to be used with the Guide to the Technocracy (and word count limitations as well). That said I am of two minds regarding this book. On the one hand, there is lots of useful crunch for use in a game, especially Data and some of the fluff is useful; on the other, the general tone and assumptions behind the types of stories one tells with the NWO are rather straitjacketed. This maybe due to my assumption that the Technocracy has other things to do besides hunting down Mages. I'll say it one more time, what else do they do beside police the Union and exterminate reality Terrorists? My Mage games are less about the Global Ascension War and more about extraordinary individuals doing their best to make the world a better place on a local scale (or not), a very Revised Edition perspective. Playing Catch Up in Chapter One does introduce a whole host of issues a NWO troupe tackle and most of the ideas I came up with were stories involving those issues.
Finally, the most important test of a splat book, in my opinion, is whether it passes the Chupp Test: does the book instill a desire to play a member of said splat. A corollary would be: does it provide me with the tools, both crunch and fluff, to do that? With regard to the first, I can't say I came up with any character ideas (and actually had a bit of trouble fitting my old NWO NPCs into the new portrayal). Regarding the second, there is no doubt that if this version of the NWO is to your liking, there is plenty of support for you. As it stands, I'll probably cherry pick what I like from this and the original NWO book when I use them in my upcoming Mage Chronicle.
Regarding Mage 20, I am of the opinion that if it keeps the fundamental changes in the world of the past decade in mind, as this work does, it will be a fascinating take on the game. At the same time, I am a bit ambivalent that the Ascension War will become the central focus of the game again. Regardless, I know I'll be picking it up.
Where I'm coming from
1st Edition: Core 4/5, Digital Web 3/3, Book of Chantries 4/4, Loom of Fate 2/2, Technocracy: Progenitors 1/1, Chaos Factor 3/3, Technocracy: Iteration X 1/1, Book of Shadows 3/5, Book of Madness 5/5, Technocracy: NWO 4/4, Ascensions Right Hand 3/3
2nd Edition: Core 5/5, Hidden Lore 3/3 Destiny's Price 5/5, Fragile Path: Testaments of the First Cabal 5/5, Technocracy: Void Engineers 3/3, Horizon: The Stronghold of Hope 5/3, Book of Crafts 4/4, Beyond the Barriers: The Book of Worlds 5/4 The Book of Mirrors: The Mage Storytellers Guide 4/4. Technocracy: Syndicate 5/5, World of Darkness: Sorcerer 3/3 Technomancer's Toybox 3/5, Digital Web 2.0 3/3, MTAs: The Orphans Survival Guide 5/4, Tales of Magick: Dark Adventure 3/3, Guide to the Technocracy 5/5, Initiates of the Art 2/2, The Spirit Ways 2/2 Masters of the Art 2/3
Revised Edition: Core 4/4, Mage Storytellers Companion 2/3, The Bitter Road 4/4, Dead Magic 3/3, Blood Treachery 4/4,Dragons of the East 4/4, Sorcerer Revised 3/3, Lost Paths: Ahl-i-Batin & Taftâni 4/3. Guide to the Traditions 5/5 The Book of Madness Revised 3/3, Mage Storytellers Handbook 4/4, Manifesto: Transmissions from the Rogue Council 2/2 The Fallen Tower: Las Vegas 2/3, Dead Magic II: Secrets and Survivors 4/4, The Infinite Tapestry 3/3, Forged by Dragon's Fire 3/3, Ascension 4/4
Tradition Books: Akashic Brotherhood 1/1, Celestial Chorus 3/3, Cult of Ecstasy 5/5, Dream-Speakers 3/3, Euthanatos 5/5, Order of Hermes 5/5, Sons of Ether 3/3, Verbena 1/1, Virtual Adepts 2/3
Revised Tradition Books: Akashic Brotherhood 3/4, Celestial Chorus 2/2, Cult of Ecstasy 2/2, Dream-Speakers 3/3, Euthanatos 3/3, Order of Hermes 5/5, Sons of Ether 4/4, Verbena 3/4, Virtual Adepts 3/3
