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Title: Mage: The Ascension by Jackie Cassada, Nicky Rea, Joshua Gabriel Timbrook, John Cobb, Larry MacDougall, Alex Sheikman ISBN: 1565044339 Publisher: White Wolf Publishing Inc. Pub. Date: September, 1995 Format: Paperback List Price(USD): $25.00

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Average Customer Rating: 3.33

Rating: 2
Summary: A great dissapointment
Comment: I urge anyone who is just coming to Mage to make an effort to get a hold of the pre-revised edition. Although there have been many needed rules improvements (paradox now works in a fashion more consistent with the rationale provided for it, magick rules have been cleaned up and the annoying increased tendency to botch has been fixed), the setting is closer to the dark, hopeless, millenarian world of werewolf than the open and vibrant world of Mage.

For starters, mages are now less powerful-they tend to gain more paradox, magick difficulties are higher and effects require more successes, and foci are harder to abandon. Spirit mages have been hit extremely hard by the "world winds" which make entering the umbra life-threatening. This device is, as someone else hs pointed out, completely inconsistent with the rest of the game line and is a transparent game device for forcing mages to stay on earth.

The setting is heavy on doomy, millenarian elements that were not present nearly as strongly in the pre-revised edition. The intent seems to be to make mage into a gritty, street-level setting, closing off story possibilities rather than leaving them open. I never considered the open nature of mage to be a problem, and am displeased about this enforcement of a "meta-plot" I neither understand nor care about.

The quality of the writing is also not nearly as strong-the fiction at the beginning is just one mage telling another about magick, with no story or atmosphere, and the little fiction pieces at the beginnings of chapters are gone. There is very little that helps you to understand the mood and power of the mage setting.

In all, Mage Rev is smaller, less ambitious, and darker than the original. Buy it for the rules and use the orignal mage book for setting and mood information.

Rating: 4
Summary: Magic without the K
Comment: I have been playing Mage for 5 years now, and have quite the collection of the books. When I heard that Phil Brucato was leaving the line, I was dismayed, for he has brought such a wonderful vision of what the world was like in the setting. It was with great trepidation that I purchased this new edition of Mage. I was hoping for something akin the the Revised Edition of Vampire (which is outstanding). I was disappointed, but relieved at the same time. I gave it four stars, only because technically it is quite well. It clears up some rules, revises the game rules to use the Revised Combat section, and cleans up a few minor problems that the other edition had. But as for an enjoyable read, this book fall flat. It is missing a great story ideas of the previous editions. It makes the game more selfish, and more depressing, rather than something with a glimmer of hope. The game takes away the world spanning information, and instead makes everything more or less self-centered. Something that goes against the basic feeling of the game in general. If you are looking to get into Mage, this isn't a bad way to start, but really try to find earlier material, because it is what the game is really about, and just use the cleaned up rules. If you are an experienced mage player or storyteller, than you can skip over most of it, although the Revised rules are nice, and makes things a bit better.

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.