A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition

Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition is a role playing game supplement published by Onyx Path Publishing for use with the Storyteller system. This is a primary sourcebook for the World of Darkness setting.

The supplement is available as a PDF from DriveThruRPG for $29.99, as a print on demand hardcover standard colour book for $64.99, as a premium colour book for $119.99, as both PDF and standard hardcover for $68.74 or as PDF and premium hardcover for $123.74. The PDF is the version reviewed although it was purchased at a reduced price. The PDF has 698 pages; two are the front and rear covers, two are the front matter, five are the Table of Contents, seventeen are the Kickstarter backers, ten are the Indexes, consisting of the Rules Index and the General Index, and one page is a character sheet. Also included is a separate PDF for an interactive character sheet.

No Fear There is For the wide-Awake is a short piece of in-universe fiction. It is rather confusing initially, and appears to have the same characters at different times.

Introduction: Pride, Power, Paradox gives some information on the creation of Mage, what mages are, including different factions, and the Ascension War and World of Darkness. It mentions the different editions of Mage, and its connection to Ars Magica, Future Fates, which are possibly optional events and how to use the book. The final section of the Introduction is the Lexicons. This is divided into three parts, Common, Tradition and Technocratic, and gives the meanings, with cross-references, of a lot of terms used in the game and setting, more than a few of which have been inspired by popular culture.

The book is then divided into three parts, each of which has multiple chapters.

Book I: Awaken is an overview of the mage’s world.

Chapter One: The Mage’s Path examines the power of the mages, Sleepers and how they Awaken, magick itself and the different factions of the Ascension and the Ascension War.

Chapter Two: Magick – The Art of Reality is about mages and what they do. How they affect reality, or how attempting to do so can cause paradox, how belief shapes the universe and constrains what mages can do, and how this has changed over the years. Magick is also divided into nine different spheres, and these are described.

Chapter Three: The Shadow World explains how different people see different realities, and how the reality built by everyone is currently frightening, but there are sanctuaries of different types that provide safe haven. Quintessence and Nodes are also covered. This chapter also touches on the worlds beyond, although these are covered in more detail in the next one.

Chapter Four: The Worlds Beyond is the final chapter of Book I. This has details on the different worlds beyond the barriers, and the different methods of travelling to them, and the dangers of using them. There are details on some of the inhabitants and overviews of different otherworlds, followed by more in-depth coverages of some important regions, including deep space, which has apparently altered with the rise of scientific reasoning, and the digital web.

Book II: Believe has more details on the world, specifically its history and the factions of the Ascension War, before moving on to character creation and how to tell the story.

Chapter Five: Ascension Warriors starts with brief overviews of the various factions – sorcerers are mentioned in a sidebar but not otherwise covered due to a lack of room. This is followed by a history of the world from the view of the Awakened, from prehistoric times to the present, with sidebars as to how to handle metaplots.

After the history, the different major factions are covered. The major factions are the Council of Nine Mystick Traditions, the Technocratic Union, the Disparates, the Fallen and the Mad. Each faction is described, and within each the different elements of the factions are also covered, such as the Nine Traditions. The opening section on the Fallen suggests that, given their nature and their vile means of operation, they should not be used by players. Likewise, the Mad, albeit for different reasons, are also not recommended to be used as player characters. This is less so than for using the Fallen and for different reasons, and some more guidelines are provided if Mad characters are going to be used.

Chapter Six: Creating the Character finally gets to, as it says, character creation. It explains how Traits and attributes are scored, how to create a cohesive group and an examination of a simple character sheet.

Next is a more in-depth look at the character creation process. This is divided into five steps and first there is a brief overview of each step, followed by examples and definitions of different concepts and parts of the character sheet. Step One is creating the character concept and identity, bearing in mind that the created character needs to be able to at least get on with the characters created by other players; mortal enemies will make for a brief game. Step Two is attributes, a more mechanical part of the character, as is Step Three, abilities, although specific abilities are not covered in this section. Step Four is advantages, of which there are a lot later and Step Five is finishing off the character, with such as appearance, quirks, beliefs, possessions and identity. Once the character creation process is explained, which requires using various other parts of the book to complete, a sample of the creation process is gone through. Following creation, the prelude is gone through, which is intended to firm up the concept of the character and their aims and desires.

Next are character traits which covers avatar essences and personality archetypes. The archetypes are in alphabetical order, and are considered to be samples that can be expanded on, and each archetype is comprised of a positive and negative side. Acting in accordance with an archetype’s Nature allows the Willpower Trait to be refreshed. Attributes are the mechanics of a character and are the core of most dice pools. Attributes comes in three groups of three, Physical, Social and Mental, and each has some suggested specialities for those with high levels in the attributes.

Core Abilities start with Talents, described as inborn affinities refined by practice. Each of these has a guide to the different levels of ability and suggestions as to who would possess them and some specialities; some have references to popular culture in these. Some Talents are groups with individual areas that need learning separately; Art does not cover every form of artistic expression for example. Following Talents are Skills and Knowledges which are handled in the same way. Secondary Abilities are similar, being laid out the same way and divided into Talents, Skills and Knowledges.

Backgrounds is laid out in a manner similar to the preceding sections, except for the possessors and specialities; however, in some cases background can go up to ten, double the normal. This is advised to be limited by the Storyteller; it may give characters resources seen with only a handful of people on the planet in some cases. Some backgrounds may also be pooled for a group. Members of the Technocracy have slightly different options; they have access to more resources but these are also more easily taken off them by the Union.

Arete/Enlightenment is essentially the ability to use magick and change the world. Willpower is an important element in this, and is covered next; Willpower has permanent and temporary stats, and it is possible for the permanent value to be altered up or down. Quintessence and Paradox cover these important areas of magick. Health is how the mage is resistant to damage.

The final part of this chapter is on character progress. This covers experience points, with guidelines for awarding them, how they are used to alter a character and how a character’s personality and even philosophy could change during play.

Chapter Seven: Telling the Story contains advice for the Storyteller – the GameMaster – on running the game. Much of this section is general rather than specific to games of Mage; setting a game, dealing with problems, choosing a play area, alternatives if things go wrong and the planned session cannot be run, providing food and drink etc. Those who have GM’d other games will be familiar with these concepts, as they apply to any RPG. Specific advice for the system includes putting together a party, for there are many difference factions that characters could be a member of and most of these factions do not get along that well; even those nominally allied may more tolerate other factions than truly like them. This chapter includes building up stories, telling them and handling the more specific elements related to Mage 20, rather than general role playing. This includes magick, with notes that the magic system of Mage 20 is different from many other systems, and references later parts of the book. The final part considers different types of chronicle, namely by the different groups of mage types, and different genres. Each group is given a description of what its own chronicle would be like, with added details on orphan chronicles, chronicles across several different factions and chronicles that crossover into other elements of the World of Darkness.

Book III: Ascend is the various rules for running the game, including dramatic systems and magick.

Chapter Eight: The Book of Rules starts by explaining that most situations are resolved by rolling a pool of d10s, but the most important rule is the rules are what you want them to be. It explains time, from a turn through a scene to a chapter to a story to a story arc to a chronicle, with what might be done during downtime. Dice rolls are then covered in more detail, with examples of difficulties and trying to do really challenging tasks. Next are the different kinds of actions and how characters can combine their abilities to try to perform certain actions. Degrees of failure, including botches, which are bad, especially for magick, and success are the final elements in this chapter.

Chapter Nine: Dramatic Systems has the various game systems for running dramatic encounters, which are divided into four types. These are initiative and movement, dramatic feats, health and injury and combat. Combat has suggestions for running it more dramatically than as a series of dice rolls and an option for cinematic combat, whereby characters are able to soak lethal damage, as they do in films, rather than suffering more realistic effects. Combat takes up the largest proportion of the four systems, and covers different types of combat, including the use of magic to make combat more effective. The mage marital art of Do is extensively covered. Finally, the section on combat covers various types of magickal duels.

Following this is Environmental Hazards, which covers the danger posed by weather, as well as other types of hazard, such as starvation, thirst, fire, explosions (there are options here about a cinematic way of handling explosions, but the idea of surviving a nuclear blast in a kitchen appliance is silly – clearly a reference to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), electrocution, falling, drugs, poisons and diseases, with a sidebar on damaging structures. This section ends with the various combat system charts.

Technology starts with vehicles, and how in most cases handling vehicles is considered a story element, unless there are potential problems that could arise. Therefore, details on vehicle systems are also included, along with charts for different types of vehicles and rules for handling them outside of stories. There are also rules on improving and modifying technology.

The Digital Web has its own section and starts by explaining that the real-life internet has changed a lot from the one that was covered in the 90s sourcebook on it, becoming far easier to access. There are different ways for getting into the Digital Web, such as using VR gear, astral immersion and projecting the entire body into the web. There are rules on using magick in the web and the effects of Whiteouts; essentially, Paradox in the digital realm. There is a brief note on the Avatar Storm.

The Otherworlds are next, starting with different methods of travelling to them; something that can be very dangerous. Especially as one Umbra requires the traveller to be effectively dead. There are many references on the Avatar Storm, and what effect it has, if it exists or, indeed, ever happened, as has been previously discussed. As well as travelling to the Otherworlds, travel between different layers of them is also covered. Finally, how magick works in the Otherworlds is covered; different types of magick work differently in different Otherworlds.

Umbrood Spirit Entities are the spirits who reside in the Otherworlds and, occasionally, the material world as well (the term “Umbrood” is actually considered offensive by them). It starts with a hierarchy of spirits, their traits, feats, metaphysical powers called Charms and optional rules on them using magick. There is also a section on roleplaying spirit entities, giving them atmospheric powers to make them stand out.

Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick is an extensive part of the supplement, perhaps the largest part; not that surprising for a supplement about mages. It starts with rules on how a mage uses magick, which is followed by many charts needed to do so. This is followed by The Spheres, which explains what can be achieved through each dot in each sphere and also what can be accomplished by combining different spheres. There are the normal spheres and optional Technocratic spheres at the end. A step-by-step process for casting magick follows the spheres. Next are sections on the effects of Paradox and the Quiet, the former being the backlash mages suffer when reality objects to their tampering and the latter the madness they can get, which comes in different types. Next, there are examples of casting in play. Foci follows this and there is a selection of common paradigms, which are largely familiar as regular philosophical beliefs.

There are different types of magickal practices, each of which is described along with associated paradigms and abilities and common instruments. Mages will often use more than one of these practices. Common instruments are next, and is a long list of many different things, that do not have to be physical as they include such as music and dance, that could be used as instrument. Following this are some common Effects and spells that mages could use and finally there is a section on Reality Zones, how the different types affect magick and how the nature of them can be changed.

Appendix I: Allies and Antagonists has a bestiary of animals, examples of various types of regular people, mages, Technocratic HIT Marks, enemies, spirits and totems.

Appendix II: Odds and Ends has merits and flaws, and the Toybox, details on various magickal and Technocratic items.

Finally, the Afterwords have notes from two of the authors and comments from various players.

Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition in Review

The PDF is well bookmarked, with major and minor sections linked. The Table of Contents is to a similar level of depth and is also hyperlinked. The Indexes are thorough, although sadly not hyperlinked. There are also a lot of internal links, pointing to relevant sections. Given the size of the supplement, navigation is good. The text maintains a two-column full colour format and a number of minor errors were noticed; this is a long book, though, and such would be expected. There are a variety of black and white and colour illustrations, some of which may be custom, others appear to date back through the system’s history. The styles of these illustrations are often not that compatible with each other, though. Presentation is decent.

The text is written in a conversational tone through much of the book – that includes foul language on occasion. This may or may not be appreciated, but doesn’t truly detract from the book. Over the years, a lot of supplements have been published for Mage, and this one frequently references others for when more information on a subject is needed. There are perhaps too many references; even though it would be impossible for a book, even one as long as this, to include everything referred to, there is a distinct impression given that it is incomplete without the other books. It isn’t, and is a complete system that can be used by itself, although the other books would expand the options, but the feeling is there. The organisation is a bit odd, as it is a long time before a reader knows how to create a character or play the game; a substantial portion covers the extensive history and world details before the game mechanics are approached.

Throughout the book are sidebars called Future Fates. These discuss some of the changes that Mage, and its world, have undergone over the years, with options to fully implement, partially implement or not implement the changes at all, depending on preference.

This is a big, complicated book and world setting. It apparently differs in some ways from previous editions, but that is only to be expected. For those who are entirely new to the setting and system, it is a bit overwhelming though. There is simply a lot of stuff to take in, and perhaps it shouldn’t be read from cover to cover by the newcomer. Instead, they should probably only read the parts they are going to use. Unfortunately, what parts those might be are not stated anywhere in the book. A first-time reader can get through to the end and can easily feel lost, rather than knowing how to play the game. New players are probably better off picking up the, free in PDF, Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Quickstart. It’s a fraction of the size and contains the rules they need to play. This may be a complete (but expandable) game in a book, but it’s a big, difficult to digest book for the newcomer. Reading the quickstart, using it a couple of times, then moving on to reading this might well work better. Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition can be found by clicking here.