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Title: Mage: The Ascension by White Wolf, Dierd're Brooks, John Chambers, Lindsay Woodcock ISBN: 1-56504-405-3 Publisher: White Wolf Publishing Inc. Pub. Date: April, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.35 (40 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A Storyteller's Perspective
Comment: I run a Mage game, and I like Third edition slightly better than 2nd. Admittedly, I don't particularly care for Technocrats, so my games rarely deal with the White Wolf meta-plot. However, the Ascension war being over seems logical, and even overdue; how could the Traditions, disparate, ill-organized, and argumentative, hope to triumph over hundreds of years of subtle work by the impeccably organized Technocratic Conventions?
Many of the complaints about 3rd ed., however, seem to center around the new difficulties for mages -- the Avatar Storm, increased Paradox, et c. However, if you look at the rest of the White Wolf World of Darkness games, you will see that mages have always been extremely powerful. A werewolf can take a mage in a fight, but not if the mage has time to prepare for him. The average mage can take down the average vampire easily, even using the White Wolf edict that considering vamps simple objects and transmuting them into lawnchairs should not be allowed. As for mage vs. a Fae, there is no contest. I have not read the revised editions of Werewolf or Vampire; however, in 2nd edition Changeling, which fits into the Revised publishing timeline, new abilities have been added to allow fae to more dramatically affect the mundane world, including ways of making your magical sword and pet dragon visible and dangerous to non-fae. I understand that balancing gestures are also being made in the other Revised books. White Wolf is attempting to even the playing field between the different books, so that if someone wants to, as people invariably do, mix PCs from different books together, the experience will be pleasant and balanced.
As a Mage GM, I am very aware of how powerful the characters really are; luckily, the players I work with are intelligent and creative, and their characters have paradigms and personality quirks that keep them from abusing their power. Three dots of Mind and you can brute-force information and cooperation from the GM's painstakingly built Non Player Characters, for example. Mage is a very high-powered system, and a few checks and balances aren't at all unreasonable.
Rating: 4
Summary: Not Better, Just different
Comment: I remember Mage: the Ascension from it's first edition way back when, and it was a really good tabletop RPG. Players were mystic (or even technomantic, in the cases of the Virtual Adepts and Sons of Ether) revolutionaries fighting for mankind's freedom of thought, misfits championing ancient and/or fringe beliefs that could make people's lives better, protectors of cultural diversity in the face of the Technocracy's homogenizing cultural influence.
I remember Mage Second Edition, which refined all this a bit and delved more into how Mages fit into the rest of the World of Darkness. This, too, was good, as Mages are as much a part of the world as anything else.
And now there's the revised edition, the one above. The Technocracy and the spirit worlds aren't really dealt with in this book to leave space for dealing with the core rules. Yes, those things are important, but they have long since had their own sourcebooks for players interested in them. The Umbra in particular isn't discussed because starting players, given the current (as of this book's publication) metaplot, can't get there. Mages have been cut off from their friends and places of power in the spirit worlds, and are now forced to do what they had been avoiding for so long: dealing with the rest of the world on a regular basis. How do you champion individuality for an apathetic populace? How do defend freedom of thought for people who don't want to think for themselves? Is it worthwhile to aspire for wisdom, enlightenment, and personal gain while the rest of the world goes to hell in a handbasket?
This edition of Mage: The Ascension is just as good as all the others, and brings up whole new themes for players and Storytellers alike to enjoy.
Rating: 4
Summary: Well...
Comment: I run a a Mage LARP, not a tabletop. However, I have still found this book to be a valuable resource.
Where the Laws of Ascension books skim over details, this book fills in the gaps. I have no experience with the previous incarnations of this game, but I like the direction this game is going in.
This game focuses on the small changes that characters can make to make bigger changes for the world. It gives storytellers more room to take the game in the direction they want it to go in.
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Title: Werewolf: The Apocalypse by Brian Campbell, Mitch Byrd, Steve Prescott ISBN: 1565043650 Publisher: White Wolf Publishing Inc. Pub. Date: December, 2000 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Vampire : The Masquerade (Revised Edition) by Justin Achilli, Andrew Bates, Phil Brucato, Richard E. Dansky, Ed Hall, Robert Hatch, Michael B. Lee ISBN: 1565042492 Publisher: White Wolf Publishing Inc. Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Demon: The Fallen by Michael B. Lee, Greg Stolze, Adam Tinworth ISBN: 1588467503 Publisher: White Wolf Publishing Inc. Pub. Date: November, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Hunter: The Reckoning by Bruce Baugh, Geoff Grabowski, Angel McCoy, Greg Stolze, the White Wolf Staff, Ken Cliffe, Ed Hall, Stewart Wieck ISBN: 1565047354 Publisher: White Wolf Publishing Inc. Pub. Date: November, 1999 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Guide to the Technocracy by Phil Brucato, Steve Long, Tom deMayo ISBN: 1565044177 Publisher: White Wolf Publishing Inc. Pub. Date: August, 1999 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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