Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary

[JeenLeen]

I saw an ad for the Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary book on DriveThruRPG.

Has anyone seen this, and if so, could you give me your opinion on the following:
1. Does the book have consistent rules on what Spheres can do what? (Ex. if it says in one place that Prime 5 manipulates Life Patterns, it shouldn't have a Prime 1 rote that mildly manipulates a Life pattern)

2. Is the combat system different?

3. Does it go over in detail how Marauder and Nephandi work (ex. Paradox for marauders, Qlippothic Spheres for Nephandi)? The blurb I saw said it had info on them, but I'm wondering if it's more in-depth than the little in the 2nd ed revised that I've read.

[Asmodai]

I'm a kickstarter backer. It's a very pretty book and it's intended for people who already have a good grasp of Mage. A lot of the material is a wink and a nudge to the past of the whole gameline.

It delves into the single biggest analysys of all the splats that have come in bokks before it, but changes and leaves out some of them (No Dragons of the East Material except Wu Lung, Taftani are different, no Hem Ka Sobk, the Hollow Ones areslightly different). Most of the changes are for the better, but especially among the disparates some of the stuff may look weird in this book.

The Marauders and Nephandi are covered in the book. I'm not sure what you have read of Mage before, but the Revised Book of Madness is still the authority on the subject. There are no Qlipphotic spheres, but they are not exactly mandatory since they follow the same rules as the normal spheres except for the flavour. The Nephandi are covered quite well and presented in a way that makes them quite striking villians.

The Marauders have the effects of Quiet well represented and are quite well written, presenting their madness and the effects on their surroundings as well as making them good antagonists. The book stresses how they should not be played for laughs, which is something that I can always get behind.

As far as Magic rules. Oh Boy. This is a can of worms that's been blowing up for a while now. This book was way too big when it was written - the published version is over 700 pages, and things needed to be cut out. This means that the spheres section is very sparse - there are very little rotes and actual mechanics represented beyond the baseline definitions of the spheres and an excellent treatise on how to actually implement and stress paradigm (it's a joy to read and something that Mage has always needed).

However, this also means that the Magic rules are not very easy to parse for someone who has never played Mage. Never fear, though, we are getting a supplement very shortly which is essentially Mage spellcasting 101 with a lot more guidelines and exampls of how Magic works. This might be something you will be interested in, and it will be available on DTR (not sure if it will be free or paid for).

As for consistency... this is a 20th Anniversary Mage the Ascension book. It's proud of its legacy and it's not reinventing the magic system. So, yes, even with the new spellcasting book, it still won't have the rules of Mage the Awakening.

Combat is the same. Just with practially all the subysystems EVER crammed into that book. It has the most detailed rules sections of all the 20th anniversary books.

[JeenLeen]

Thank you for the information. The setting details sound very interested and like a read I'd really enjoy.

Unfortunately, lack of refining the Spheres and the same combat system (the many rolls of roll Accuracy, now Dodge, now Damage, now Soak made combat take too long) gives a negative taste to me. My friends and I had a long-running Mage campaign that I loved, and I was hoping this might have some updates but keep the flavor and metaplot so I could encourage a new game, but I don't think it would.
...maybe I'll buy it eventually and try to run it with nWoD magic and combat. It does sound like a really fun read (maybe not a worth-$30 read, though), but just not for running the game I'd like to run.

[Andreaz]

M20 KS Backer here.

It extrapolated whatever happened until the End Times and tells in broad strokes some possible follow ups to everything since the Indian Demon incident.

On the rules... I find the new way they're written actually easier to understand. Like, way easier. There's the short explanation of what each sphere does at each level, a chart with common effects like shapeshift, gaining extra actions, illusions, perfecting objects, telepathy. Then it brings a few examples of spells and wonders.

The short explanation is enough to get a grasp on what the spheres can do, and the creativity to work from there is expected of you since first edition. The chart is fairly extensive and does cover a LOT of what you'd want every mage to know, and the example effects are nice.

Then it focuses on your damn paradigm, practice and instrument. It gives you a great idea how to work your mage, and the practice/instrument part is way, WAY better than previous editions, both mechanically and ease of use.


On the usual combat rules... That's inherent to Storyteller. You want to make it faster? Don't roll damage and soak in order... roll [damage - soak]. One less roll, exactly the same effect, but you lose on difficulty changers for soak pools(thankfully they're rare anyway, and can be easily converted to extra/less soak dice).