So, when do we get to play with our superpowers?
Last time, on the Werewolf review, I said that Mage: The Awakening is largely considered to be the worst of the supernaturals in the new World of Darkness series. I'll be frank, I'm not exactly a big fan of this game. There's some interesting thematic elements, but its rules are confusing and its mechanics counter-intuitive. I did both GM this game and played in it, and neither was very fun since I had to constantly flip through the book to check and re-check the rules in both cases and eventually, I just threw up my arms and said "Fuck it."
Setting
Mage: The Awakening has an odd place in the World of Darkness– it probably has one of the most complete cosmologies in the entire line.
The story of Mage starts in the mythical city-state of Atlantis, a nation formed because humanity had been hunted by howling beasts and harried by unholy spirits, as was mentioned in the Werewolf review. Some of them were possessed by dreams, and through these dreams they found the island upon which Atlantis was built, and the few enlightened became able to manipulate the universe by working in the power of the Supernal Realms, that is, the higher planes of existence, into the material, lower world.
However, some mages weren't satisfied with just being able to manipulate the world in this way, and a war broke out in Atlantis, and once the resistance was broken, the victors constructed a Celestial Ladder that could get them entrance into the Supernal Realms– instead of the Enlightenment experience every other mage goes through, these people opted to snatch the power of the Higher Realms for themselves straight from the source. With the creation of this ladder, a few managed to get into the Supernal Realms, who would later be called the Exarchs– mages who, for all intents and purposes, became gods. The intermingling of the Lower and Higher worlds, however, was a chaotic mixture, and while others scrambled to the Celestial Ladder, some to defend the Exarchs, others to overthrow these petty gods, the ladder shattered, and the Lower Realms and the Realms Supernal were separated by a gaping abyss.
That's not to say that everyone who got into the Supernal Realms were the god-dictators of the Exarchs– some others who believed their hubris took things too far got in, called the Oracles. It's said that the Oracles constructed Watchtowers in each of the five Supernal Realms, and when mages in the Fallen World Awaken, they come to one of these Watchtowers and carve their names into it.
In modern times, mages are relatively few in number, though they're separated in between the Awakened and the Seers of the Throne, the Awakened hoping to have humanity reclaim their magical birthright, and the Seers trying to ensure the rule of the Exarchs by stamping out mage resistance and keeping mortals in the dark. Pile that on with the fact that virtually every other creature in the nWoD has reason to be afraid of mages and there's a whole lot of conflict to go around, and that's not even beginning to mention all the problems that come with spellcasting, but we'll talk about that in more detail with the mechanics.
In addition to the Shadow Realm introduced in Werewolf: The Forsaken, as I mentioned earlier, Mage has probably the most complete cosmology in any of the nWoD Games.
The Abyss is the gap between the Supernal and Fallen worlds, and the five Supernal Realms, Aether, realm of Angels, Pandemonium, realm of Demons, the Primal Wild, a realm of Spirits, Arcadia, realm of the Fae, and Stygia, the realm of Shades. As we'll discuss in character creation, each of these places governs a specific school of magic.
The setting is incredibly detailed and well-written. Got to give it credit for really giving us a richly-defined world.
Setting: 8/10
Character Creation
So what kind of spell-slingers can you play in this game?
First thing worth mentioning is the practice of choosing a Shadow Name. A Shadow Name is essentially a fake name that your character uses when dealing with mages. Among mages, names have power, since they can form sympathetic connections and make it easier to use magic on them from a distance, so they keep their real names hidden. I do have to wonder how exactly they erase their names from other databases, and the problems that would arise from anyone with a bit of initiative deciding to look up information on the guy they want to mess up with some magic. Still, some props to having the foresight to conceal their real names.
Like in most of the nWoD games, there's 5 inherent traits and 5 factions to choose from. The inherent character aspects here are the Paths, which represent which of the Supernal Realms the mage visited during their awakening.
These paths govern which kinds of magic a Mage will have the most proficiency in. Topping it off are the Orders, organizations that sort of inter-mingle to build up mage secret society, and who also govern what kinds of spells the character will specialize in, as well as their place in magic civilization.
Given the setting, there's actually a lot to like about this sort of setup, and it feels like the mages are varied enough to be interesting to play. The different Orders have enough variation between them to have conflict between them, but a unified enough purpose to allow for characters from different Orders to reasonably cooperate. You feel pretty involved in the conflict, and I've got to give points for that.
Character Creation: 8/10
Mechanics
Alright, we've reached this point. This is the part where the game loses a lot of people and also where it lost me. Naturally, because we have magic in this game, and it's charged with so much backstory and elements of hubris and pride, it was bound to have been complicated, so I'm going to simplify it as much as possible.
There's a few different things that factor into magic: Arcana, which governs what kind of magic is being used, Gnosis, the supernatural potency of the Mage, and traits that can describe a spell include Covert, magic that's subtle enough to be passed off as something that could happen in the real world, like coaxing a lightning bolt to strike a dude in a thunderstorm, and Vulgar, the stuff we normally think of as magic like hucking lightning bolts at people through your fingers.
Most magic that you're going to cast is Improvised Magic (since you only get so many dots in Rote Magic, which offers a higher dice pool that involves your skills), which is used with a dice pool between the Arcana you're using and your Gnosis, both of which, early on, will be abysmally low. Gnosis costs 8 dots x new dots to increase, and an Arcanum, assuming it's your Ruling Arcanum, costs at least 5 dots x new dots to increase. Not to mention the use of Vulgar Magic, or using Covert Magic in such a way that it becomes "Improbable" to Non-Mage Spectators can invoke a Paradox, and the lowest level paradox can simply cause your spell to backfire. I should also note that paradoxes are rolled by the GM before the spellcasting dice roll, except in the case of extended spellcasting, in which paradoxes are only rolled when the spell is successful. This means that, regardless of whether the spellcasting is successful, THE PARADOXES CAN STILL FUCK YOU OVER.
In theory, this gives a problem-solving dimension to spellcasting in this game. It makes sure the players have to play it smart, and if this game were just by itself, this might make for an interesting system. If you want to play with your superpowers, you've got to earn the right to use those superpowers.
However, in practice, what this really does is make your players really frightened of using their superpowers and actually playing out the fact that they're, well, mages. Add on top of that the fact that they have so many restrictions on how and when they can cast spells, and then compare that to the other supernaturals like Werewolves and Vampires. Neither of these have half the restrictions to using their superpowers that Mages do. All they have to do is make the roll, and on some occasions, expend some of their Supernatural Resources (like Vampires expending Vitae and Werewolves expending Spiritual Essence), and BAM. Superpowers are go. Mages, you have to possibly expend Mana, be careful that no non-mages are looking, WAIT FOR THE PARADOX ROLL TO NOT FUCK YOU OVER, then roll and hope to God that it works.
It's so inefficient and so counter-intuitive that the players never really want to use magic, because what's the point if it can just be vetoed by a single dice roll that occurs BEFORE they even roll for the casting? They'd want to go back to playing Vampires in a heartbeat, at least they can use their superpowers and they always know the cost of it, and know the only thing standing between them and using it is a dice pool THAT THE PLAYER ROLLS. Once this system is put to the others, it frankly makes you wonder why anything is afraid of mages with all the issues that comes with their casting. There will be other magic systems in later nWoD games that I honestly think really trumps the one in Mage by a mile, particularly the ones in Changeling: The Lost and Geist: The Sin-Eaters. The Mage one just isn't fun and makes you wish you were using a simpler system that actually lets you get to play with magic in a game ABOUT MAGIC USERS.
Mechanics: 3/10
Storytelling
So, with that out of the way, just what sorts of stories can you tell with Mage? Mostly dealing with hubris and the keeping of secrets, and how damaging those secrets might be. You can have challenges of world-threatening proportions in this game to match the almost god-like capabilities of a mage. However, don't expect to really be able to tell a story about people wielding fantastic powers and being able to truly accomplish the impossible because of all the problems that go with it. As an exploratory nWoD game where you discover the secrets of the world as a mortal, it provides for a great setting. As a game about Mages, though, don't get your hopes up.
Storytelling: 6/10
Total Grade: 62.5% D
Yeah, this is considered the worst of the nWoD games by a lot of people, and I'm honestly one who shares that opinion. It's not very user-friendly, not very player-friendly, and just not very friendly in general. Yeah, I know, it's a horror game, friendly probably shouldn't be a word I use to describe it, but honestly, I feel like it puts too many restrictions on what the players can do. Originally when I read through this book, I thought it'd be impossible to GM for because of how much players are able to do, but then I realize that as a player, it wouldn't be much fun because the system restricts so much of your actions, and frankly, if you want to play a game as a wielder of fantastic powers that can use them in accordance with strange, arcane rules, you're better off with Changeling: The Lost or Geist: The Sin-Eaters, or even with Vampire.
Next time, though, I do a complete 180 and talk about my FAVORITE nWoD game– Promethean: The Created! Until then, Timere Defectum, everybody.
Mage: The Awakening, World of Darkness, Vampire: The Requiem, Werewolf: The Forsaken, Changeling: The Lost, Geist: The Sin-Eaters, and Promethean: The Created are all property of White Wolf Publishing.
However, some mages weren't satisfied with just being able to manipulate the world in this way, and a war broke out in Atlantis, and once the resistance was broken, the victors constructed a Celestial Ladder that could get them entrance into the Supernal Realms– instead of the Enlightenment experience every other mage goes through, these people opted to snatch the power of the Higher Realms for themselves straight from the source. With the creation of this ladder, a few managed to get into the Supernal Realms, who would later be called the Exarchs– mages who, for all intents and purposes, became gods. The intermingling of the Lower and Higher worlds, however, was a chaotic mixture, and while others scrambled to the Celestial Ladder, some to defend the Exarchs, others to overthrow these petty gods, the ladder shattered, and the Lower Realms and the Realms Supernal were separated by a gaping abyss.
That's not to say that everyone who got into the Supernal Realms were the god-dictators of the Exarchs– some others who believed their hubris took things too far got in, called the Oracles. It's said that the Oracles constructed Watchtowers in each of the five Supernal Realms, and when mages in the Fallen World Awaken, they come to one of these Watchtowers and carve their names into it.
In modern times, mages are relatively few in number, though they're separated in between the Awakened and the Seers of the Throne, the Awakened hoping to have humanity reclaim their magical birthright, and the Seers trying to ensure the rule of the Exarchs by stamping out mage resistance and keeping mortals in the dark. Pile that on with the fact that virtually every other creature in the nWoD has reason to be afraid of mages and there's a whole lot of conflict to go around, and that's not even beginning to mention all the problems that come with spellcasting, but we'll talk about that in more detail with the mechanics.
In addition to the Shadow Realm introduced in Werewolf: The Forsaken, as I mentioned earlier, Mage has probably the most complete cosmology in any of the nWoD Games.
The Abyss is the gap between the Supernal and Fallen worlds, and the five Supernal Realms, Aether, realm of Angels, Pandemonium, realm of Demons, the Primal Wild, a realm of Spirits, Arcadia, realm of the Fae, and Stygia, the realm of Shades. As we'll discuss in character creation, each of these places governs a specific school of magic.
The setting is incredibly detailed and well-written. Got to give it credit for really giving us a richly-defined world.
Setting: 8/10
Character Creation
So what kind of spell-slingers can you play in this game?
First thing worth mentioning is the practice of choosing a Shadow Name. A Shadow Name is essentially a fake name that your character uses when dealing with mages. Among mages, names have power, since they can form sympathetic connections and make it easier to use magic on them from a distance, so they keep their real names hidden. I do have to wonder how exactly they erase their names from other databases, and the problems that would arise from anyone with a bit of initiative deciding to look up information on the guy they want to mess up with some magic. Still, some props to having the foresight to conceal their real names.
Like in most of the nWoD games, there's 5 inherent traits and 5 factions to choose from. The inherent character aspects here are the Paths, which represent which of the Supernal Realms the mage visited during their awakening.
These paths govern which kinds of magic a Mage will have the most proficiency in. Topping it off are the Orders, organizations that sort of inter-mingle to build up mage secret society, and who also govern what kinds of spells the character will specialize in, as well as their place in magic civilization.
Given the setting, there's actually a lot to like about this sort of setup, and it feels like the mages are varied enough to be interesting to play. The different Orders have enough variation between them to have conflict between them, but a unified enough purpose to allow for characters from different Orders to reasonably cooperate. You feel pretty involved in the conflict, and I've got to give points for that.
Character Creation: 8/10
Mechanics
Alright, we've reached this point. This is the part where the game loses a lot of people and also where it lost me. Naturally, because we have magic in this game, and it's charged with so much backstory and elements of hubris and pride, it was bound to have been complicated, so I'm going to simplify it as much as possible.
There's a few different things that factor into magic: Arcana, which governs what kind of magic is being used, Gnosis, the supernatural potency of the Mage, and traits that can describe a spell include Covert, magic that's subtle enough to be passed off as something that could happen in the real world, like coaxing a lightning bolt to strike a dude in a thunderstorm, and Vulgar, the stuff we normally think of as magic like hucking lightning bolts at people through your fingers.
Most magic that you're going to cast is Improvised Magic (since you only get so many dots in Rote Magic, which offers a higher dice pool that involves your skills), which is used with a dice pool between the Arcana you're using and your Gnosis, both of which, early on, will be abysmally low. Gnosis costs 8 dots x new dots to increase, and an Arcanum, assuming it's your Ruling Arcanum, costs at least 5 dots x new dots to increase. Not to mention the use of Vulgar Magic, or using Covert Magic in such a way that it becomes "Improbable" to Non-Mage Spectators can invoke a Paradox, and the lowest level paradox can simply cause your spell to backfire. I should also note that paradoxes are rolled by the GM before the spellcasting dice roll, except in the case of extended spellcasting, in which paradoxes are only rolled when the spell is successful. This means that, regardless of whether the spellcasting is successful, THE PARADOXES CAN STILL FUCK YOU OVER.
In theory, this gives a problem-solving dimension to spellcasting in this game. It makes sure the players have to play it smart, and if this game were just by itself, this might make for an interesting system. If you want to play with your superpowers, you've got to earn the right to use those superpowers.
However, in practice, what this really does is make your players really frightened of using their superpowers and actually playing out the fact that they're, well, mages. Add on top of that the fact that they have so many restrictions on how and when they can cast spells, and then compare that to the other supernaturals like Werewolves and Vampires. Neither of these have half the restrictions to using their superpowers that Mages do. All they have to do is make the roll, and on some occasions, expend some of their Supernatural Resources (like Vampires expending Vitae and Werewolves expending Spiritual Essence), and BAM. Superpowers are go. Mages, you have to possibly expend Mana, be careful that no non-mages are looking, WAIT FOR THE PARADOX ROLL TO NOT FUCK YOU OVER, then roll and hope to God that it works.
It's so inefficient and so counter-intuitive that the players never really want to use magic, because what's the point if it can just be vetoed by a single dice roll that occurs BEFORE they even roll for the casting? They'd want to go back to playing Vampires in a heartbeat, at least they can use their superpowers and they always know the cost of it, and know the only thing standing between them and using it is a dice pool THAT THE PLAYER ROLLS. Once this system is put to the others, it frankly makes you wonder why anything is afraid of mages with all the issues that comes with their casting. There will be other magic systems in later nWoD games that I honestly think really trumps the one in Mage by a mile, particularly the ones in Changeling: The Lost and Geist: The Sin-Eaters. The Mage one just isn't fun and makes you wish you were using a simpler system that actually lets you get to play with magic in a game ABOUT MAGIC USERS.
Mechanics: 3/10
Storytelling
So, with that out of the way, just what sorts of stories can you tell with Mage? Mostly dealing with hubris and the keeping of secrets, and how damaging those secrets might be. You can have challenges of world-threatening proportions in this game to match the almost god-like capabilities of a mage. However, don't expect to really be able to tell a story about people wielding fantastic powers and being able to truly accomplish the impossible because of all the problems that go with it. As an exploratory nWoD game where you discover the secrets of the world as a mortal, it provides for a great setting. As a game about Mages, though, don't get your hopes up.
Storytelling: 6/10
Total Grade: 62.5% D
Yeah, this is considered the worst of the nWoD games by a lot of people, and I'm honestly one who shares that opinion. It's not very user-friendly, not very player-friendly, and just not very friendly in general. Yeah, I know, it's a horror game, friendly probably shouldn't be a word I use to describe it, but honestly, I feel like it puts too many restrictions on what the players can do. Originally when I read through this book, I thought it'd be impossible to GM for because of how much players are able to do, but then I realize that as a player, it wouldn't be much fun because the system restricts so much of your actions, and frankly, if you want to play a game as a wielder of fantastic powers that can use them in accordance with strange, arcane rules, you're better off with Changeling: The Lost or Geist: The Sin-Eaters, or even with Vampire.
Next time, though, I do a complete 180 and talk about my FAVORITE nWoD game– Promethean: The Created! Until then, Timere Defectum, everybody.
Mage: The Awakening, World of Darkness, Vampire: The Requiem, Werewolf: The Forsaken, Changeling: The Lost, Geist: The Sin-Eaters, and Promethean: The Created are all property of White Wolf Publishing.
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