Role Playing: Mage the Ascension

[Dolphin's Eye]

Merry Meet,

Any of you heard of the game? :-) I play it for a few monthes now, a young Verbena (what a big surprise, ha?), and keep being amazed by how much these people reasurched and copied Wicca, including quotes from StarHawk and songs by Loreena McKennitt, Clannad, and so on... Anyone else noticed?

[slvr_phoenix]

If you think that Mage copies Wicca (or Witchcraft in general), then you should check out Werewolf: The Apocalypse. My findings are that Mage blends Witchcraft in with Hermetic Magi and, well, a bunch of other very differing magickal views, and ends up being a hodge-podge of concepts that sometimes only vaguely work well together.

Still, it's a fun game. White Wolf makes some great RPGs, even if their system is a little too easy for min-maxers to take advantage of. But often running their games is the most fun when you mix their systems together, since they are all (or at least mostly) written to work with one another.

[Sephiroth]

yes i played it. its part of the white wolf companies games and 100% compatable with vampires and werewolfs.

i have all of the white wolf games

[Dolphin's Eye]

I jave played werewolf, and i's pretty similar in concept maybe, but Mage, and especially Verbena, is IDENTICAL, the history, the viewings, just take Wicca as it is, make it 'real magick' coz they are mages and there you go!!

[flar7]

Yes, but prefer Vampire the Masquerade and Werewolf the Apocalypse...more gothic.
I run Vampire and a friend of mine runs Werewolf, he is Cherokee and seems to have an affinity for that mileau. (spelling?)
Activision put out a great RPG computer version of Vampire, and I am hoping they follow through with the others..

[Lucidia]

used to play a pretty decent mixed game (VtM, MtA, and WtA).

i played a malkavian. heh.

people say my glyph tattoos look like the designs from werewolf.

[Dolphin's Eye]

I like WW more too, but I am not the one running the show and Mage is alot of fun believe me, we have the best GM ever...

[Socharis]

ive never played it is it any good?

[slvr_phoenix]

I still think that the best system White Wolf ever put out was Aeon/Trinity. Their explanation of psionics was a little cheesy, but the way that the skills worked was a LOT better in my opinion than their typical method used for Mage, Vamp, Puppy, etc.

Vamp 3rd Ed was a really bad route to take too. It turned the average 2nd Ed vamp into a nearly indestructable god. Talk about making the vamp hunters generally pointless. Playing reasonably plain old humans (sorcerer, ghoul, hunter, gypsy, lost-puppy, etc.) used to be fun in those types of games. Now though, with what I've seen of 3rd Ed Vamp, playing anything but a vamp is generally pointless.

I think White Wolf is going to write themselves into the ground at that rate.

[Illuminatus]

I play all the damn time. I have a few Magi, but the two I have currently on my front burners are Marty Hale the Dubious Hermetic and an NWO Adjuster who hardly remembers his old name since the Union has changed it so many times.

But my fave characters are my vampires. I wept openly when my Malkavian Superhero died... now I am playing a Malk raver/hacker, he is pretty fun. Last game he went anarch just for something to do. I have many funny stories about my characters, but I will spare you.

Mage The Ascention, in my experience, is only as good as the Storyteller running the game.

[slvr_phoenix]

Well, that statement holds true to just about all RPGs. Without a talented storyteller, the game folds pretty quickly. Especially with those canned adventures in which the players never follow the path that the writer of the adventure designed the adventure for. Heh heh.

My two favorite characters were a ghouled sorcerer who hunted vampires/demons and a crazy mage who thought she was part fae and part were-kitty. Though I had a ball with a Tremere once in a Dark Ages campaign.

I think Mages and sorcerers make the best characters. :)

Think we'd be allowed to go off-topic enough to discuss crazy RPG hyjinks?

[Illuminatus]

It's their fault for making this silly thread :)

Good ST's are a must, but especially for a mage game. You can get by with a crappy vampire ST because the game mechanics aren't subject to interpretation. But mage is different, because the characters can literally do ANYTHING, and a lot of time, characters don't know exactly what they are and are not capable of.

Funny, my hermetic is a vampire hunter too. First thing he ever did was made some powerful friends, went out and gak'd a gangrel and slurped his yum. Then I retired him and brought him back as a Villain in another game, working as a henchman for a demon.... I was amazed, the characters actually encouraged him to switch sides, and he joined up as an NPC hero in my Hunters game.

I hear the new Hunters book and the new Mummy books are waste of space... the Hunters.. well, they lack the style of all the other previous hunters: Arcanum, Inquisitors, Ghouls, the like. And I heard the new Mummys are so weak they're not even worth playing.

[flar7]

I have to disagree with being able to get by with a crappy ST in Vampire. The ST makes the game, and how he runs it determines to amount of story vs. mechanics. When I run, after a few sessions we dont use the dice hardly at all. You're character is either able to or not. Mostly comes down to your personality of your character and how he interacts with the public.

I started Vampire when it first came out, and there was no Mage, although we knew it was coming. So we used what little there was for the Tremere and made are own Mage system. I consider ours superior to theirs in ease of play, feasibility, and power.
While not Gods, a talented mage is a match for most single vampires.

Also have many good tales of things that happened in Vampire and Werewolf games. Maybe we should start a thread about some of our more interesting cases?

[slvr_phoenix]

Hmm ... that is a good point about Mage STs having to be a lot more skilled and flexible than with other systems. I've run into cases where a ST wasn't as creative as I was and thus I got totally limited to almost straight-out-of-the-book examples. :( That sucked. Mage is a great system by itself and probably one of the most fun if you're creative.

But most mages would be toast in a one-on-one against a combat oriented vamp or puppy. Mages have flexability, but they lack umph. Especially since if the fight dragged on, the difficulty for doing magic (without being smacked upside the head by a pardox spirit) would keep increasing. Yet no other supernatural (including the only half-awakened sorcerers) have that problem. It's a very large flaw in the inter-mingling of the White Wolf systems that makes playing a mage more difficult than the other types of characters in cross-system campaigns.

[Fear-farsain]

I'm a rabid fan of pretty much all WW's work, though typically I have a taste for Werewolf more than anything else. Just a few points.

Mummies are not weak by any means. They are practically indestructible, as they resurrect themselves easily (part of their nature). Their powers, although unusual, can be just as effective.

"Vamp 3rd Ed was a really bad route to take too. It turned the average 2nd Ed vamp into a nearly indestructable god. Talk about making the vamp hunters generally pointless. Playing reasonably plain old humans (sorcerer, ghoul, hunter, gypsy, lost-puppy, etc.) used to be fun in those types of games. Now though, with what I've seen of 3rd Ed Vamp, playing anything but a vamp is generally pointless."

-slvr_phoenix

I suppose that depends on persective. Vampire hunters, even the none Imbued type, still pose a threat to vampires. The entire being able to work in daylight thing puts them at a huge advantage. I've found that its not what you are, but how you play and use your powers that gives you the real power.
Besides, I don't believe in mixed-race gaming (as in mages teamed with vamps, werewolves with mummies etc) unless there is a very good reason. True, it would probably make for some fun, but the essence of the World of Darkness is that these races know relatively very little about each other (werewolves are simply lupines to vamps, vamps are wyrm-tainted etc). So, why a bunch of them would team up would only really make sense for the lucky few who have to work together for some MAJOR thing. Therefore, in my opinion, mixed-race gaming simply just does not befit the WOD universe.
Yet, as White Wolf often point out, its your game. But, I think that with 13 clans, 13 tribes and all the other varieties of ONE race, you can have very varied gaming. :) Crossovers can work, but they have to be carefully managed to not turn it into a power gaming experience, and werewolves, for one example, work better as Lupines in Vampire rather than Garou, if you catch my drift.


If anyone wants to talk more about the WOD, any of the systems or just roleplaying in general, feel free to message me, I'd be happy to talk. :D

(as a side note, hopefully this will mean the start to a more active role at Mystic Wicks, I've been lurking for too long) :D

[Sequoia]

the only one I've really played is Vampire, though I've heard good things about mage and I'd like to try it!

Unfortunately, my vampire experience was thoroughly ruined by a hideous ST. First, he tried to pull a story out of nowhere. This involved vampires on the humanity path packing huge guns and lots of ammo. You can imagine how sucessfull that particular game was. Lasted all of two sessions, I think.

Then, he decided he was going to play a game-in-a-can, the Giovanni chronicals. Only. . . he read it all straight from the book. And as soon as he and I seperated - boom. My character became the snot-rag, his new girlfriend was the favoured character, and well life in general went downhill from there *chuckles* so let's just say that my experiences with Vampire havn't been the best. Uncreative game master and well just crappy situation!

Anybody nearby? I'd like to try again!! . . . anyone? anyone? *crickets*

[MzNeko]

As far as mixed-race gaming goes, one of the most fun games I played was a mixed game. But hey, nobody of our own kinds liked any of us. :p

Fondly remembering my favorite character - a gangrel veterinarian. Imagine being a vet and then finally being able to hear your patients tell you where it hurts... :D

[Fear-farsain]

I will definitely agree that a good storyteller is a must, luckily for my vamp troupe we do :)
I've never thought that much about playing any RPG online, let alone WOD stuff, yet if anyone knows how we could go about it, I'd be happy to have a go.

[Armitage]

I can't find anyone in my area to play this stuff with, and I don't want to be stuck Storytelling. I've been wanting to get into a game of Mage or Changeling for a while, and Werewolf looks pretty rad too. I was in a game of Vampire for a short while, and those people got WAY too into it.