Advice for a new Mage the Ascension: 20th Anniversary Edition player?

[Valorium]

Hey gang.

Long-time lurker, here for some advice on how to play Mage? Text-based, and I've already made a character. First session went well, but I want to get as much of a headstart as I can given that most of my fellow players are veterans of the system.

Anything and everything is welcome.

[LibraryOgre]

Who are you, and what do you want?

Not kidding, that's a big part of a Mage game. Think about what you can do, and think about how that might look if it was an accident.

[Valorium]

Who are you, and what do you want?

...Think about what you can do, and think about how that might look if it was an accident.

Can you be more specific? I have a good idea of what I want to do with the character – I can post a link to my character sheet if the information would be pertinent – but I'm not sure I understand the last part.

[Telwar]

Very simply, magic in Mage really, really needs to be coincidental-looking for it to not whallop you with bad feedback in the form of Paradox.

Like, fireball in a crowded street? Bad. Steam tunnel explosion under the target, or gas line break and explosion? Not bad.

[LibraryOgre]

Very simply, magic in Mage really, really needs to be coincidental-looking for it to not whallop you with bad feedback in the form of Paradox.

Like, fireball in a crowded street? Bad. Steam tunnel explosion under the target, or gas line break and explosion? Not bad.

Very much this. But, also, how your character thinks about the world and magic is supposed to heavily influence how you do things. Also, precisely what magic you have is going to heavily affect how you approach things.

Are you a Verbena with Life as your biggest sphere? Or are you a Son of Ether? Does your Akashic Brotherhood character focus on Mind, or Correspondence, or Spirit? If you're a Verbena who favors Life, what is your background? How did you come to think about magic and reach enlightenment?

[Mechalich]

The biggest general advice for MtA is that extended effects are your friend. Your 3 dice of Arete (you did start with Arete 3 right?) aren't going to amount to much rolled once. Fast effects may save your hide at times, but real power comes from slowly working your way through the big spells in a safe place.

It's also important to recognize which of MtA's many dubiously necessary mechanics are actually seeing use in a given campaign. For example, Quiet and Resonance technically exist, but many tables ignore them as more trouble than they're worth. Likewise the presence or absence of certain factions, matters immensely. A game that includes Nephandi tends to become dominated by them. Likewise, how the GM chooses to utilize the technocracy (ie. how much the GM allows you to get away with) is very significant, but there's no way to really know without being in the room with your GM.

[Valorium]

Some necessary context:

I'm running Entropy 2 and Correspondence 1, with an emphasis on luck, probability prediction and supernaturally-talented gunplay.

My Nature is Idealist, while my Demeanor is Crusader. Their occupation is as an EMT, and their fundamental guiding principles are that the world is naturally predisposed to get better and improve over time. As long as one works hard to achieve their goals, they will prevail. Part of this is as a result of something unbeknownst to him; he has Blessing 5 as part of his background, giving him an intrinsic mundane luckiness that has worked in his favor.

We're basically ignoring most of the tool rules, as far as I know. You need a focus to cast spells with, but you don't need eight of the things.

The "subtle" vs. "vulgar" magic is simplified, and it's more about vulgar effects being harder to achieve than being harder when people are around.

The traditional factions/Ascension War is basically absent. It's a modern setting without much Technocracy influence if any. None of our characters are faction-affiliated.

Our characters haven't unlocked magic yet – at least, my character is a Sleeper at the start of the campaign.

[Mr Blobby]

Main question: are you already familiar with other WoD games [Werewolf, Vampire etc]? Need to know the 'learning curve' here.

Some necessary context:

I'm running Entropy 2 and Correspondence 1, with an emphasis on luck, probability prediction and supernaturally-talented gunplay.

Do you have a copy of 'How Do You Do That?' It's perhaps the best book so far to work out what you can do with your Spheres.

Another good thing to hit up are a 'Find Rotes' Database which is basically a compendium of Rotes from the various MtA books.

We're basically ignoring most of the tool rules, as far as I know. You need a focus to cast spells with, but you don't need eight of the things.

I've never seen it played as needing 'eight' tools for a rote. Basically, you're either playing it like everyone else house-rules it or you're doing it right in the first place.

The "subtle" vs. "vulgar" magic is simplified, and it's more about vulgar effects being harder to achieve than being harder when people are around.

It's already kinda simple. 'Vulgar' is when something clearly magickal is done in front of Sleeper witnesses. Nothing more or less. I've never seen it harder to pull off vulgars in such a situation, more that Paradox is gonna whip your arse and sometimes that can be a 'spell backfire'.

The traditional factions/Ascension War is basically absent. It's a modern setting without much Technocracy influence if any. None of our characters are faction-affiliated.

There may be no Technocracy, but are there still technomancers? Plus are the individual traditions etc still existing?

Our characters haven't unlocked magic yet – at least, my character is a Sleeper at the start of the campaign.[/QUOTE]

If your PC is still sleeping, what's with the Correspondence/Entropy mix? That what you've earmarked or something?

[Valorium]

Main question: are you already familiar with other WoD games [Werewolf, Vampire etc]? Need to know the 'learning curve' here.



Do you have a copy of 'How Do You Do That?' It's perhaps the best book so far to work out what you can do with your Spheres.

Another good thing to hit up are a Find Rotes' Database which is basically a compendium of Rotes from the various MtA books.



I've never seen it played as needing 'eight' tools for a rote. Basically, you're either playing it like everyone else house-rules it or you're doing it right in the first place.



It's already kinda simple. 'Vulgar' is when something clearly magickal is done in front of Sleeper witnesses. Nothing more or less. I've never seen it harder to pull off vulgars in such a situation, more that Paradox is gonna whip your arse and sometimes that can be a 'spell backfire'.



There may be no Technocracy, but are there still technomancers? Plus are the individual traditions etc still existing?

Our characters haven't unlocked magic yet – at least, my character is a Sleeper at the start of the campaign.

If your PC is still sleeping, what's with the Correspondence/Entropy mix? That what you've earmarked or something?

1.) Never played a WoD system before. I do have a copy of How To but I've not heard of the other one - thanks!

2.) I just recall looking at *something* that said you needed a bunch of foci or something similar to cast spells. Maybe I misinterpreted it.

3.) That's what I mean about it being harder - witnesses don't incur Paradox or backfires in this house ruled setting, as far as I recall.

4.) I'm...not really sure? As far as I am aware, there's no Ascension War, the Technocracy either isn't a thing or isn't something the average Sleeper would be aware of in any capacity.

5.) It's just earmarked as a proof-of-concept thing.

[LibraryOgre]

2.) I just recall looking at *something* that said you needed a bunch of foci or something similar to cast spells. Maybe I misinterpreted it.

So, the standard rule is that you need foci to do magic, until you grow beyond it. You will have 1 focus per sphere, though nothing says you can't have 1 focus that covers several. As your Arete grows, you discard some of these as unnecessary (though you can still use them to get a difficult reduction, IIRC).

By way of example, a long time ago I had an Order of Hermes character. One of his most common foci was drawing symbols... occult and alchemical symbols which described the magic he was doing. However, for Correspondence and Time, he used divination techniques.

His main focus was Matter, so, to make things easier, I got rid of the Matter focus first. I still used it, especially if I was being vulgar (in for a penny, in for a pound), but it wasn't necessary.

[Mr Blobby]

Or 'Instruments' to use 4th parlance...

Anyway, I've never seen this strictly enforced. Normally, the ST has allowed us to use as few/many Instruments as 'felt right' to whatever stuff the character was pulling (as long as we explained *what* the PC was doing, and how 'it would work'). And I've never heard of you having to define them by Sphere - is this in Da Rules and I never noticed?

1.) Never played a WoD system before. I do have a copy of How To but I've not heard of the other one - thanks!

Well, congrats - you've got to learn both the 'Storytelling System' and Mage at the same time! As you PCs are all Sleepers right now, perhaps your ST will be nice and run a couple of sessions for you to get a grip on the former before starting on the latter? Are the other players WoD newbies too?

One thing I've found helps a hell of a lot is for you to produce a 'spellbook' for your character - as in, pre-prepared Rotes. Think of it as the moves your character already knows and has practiced. If nothing else, it allows your character to have the needed Instruments on-hand. Another bonus; you'll be able to cut/paste descriptions etc if playing a text-based game.

3.) That's what I mean about it being harder - witnesses don't incur Paradox or backfires in this house ruled setting, as far as I recall.

I don't get why your ST decided to do this, really. Mage is real complicated in parts, but the Paradox bit is in fact one of the simpler ones to work.

4.) I'm...not really sure? As far as I am aware, there's no Ascension War, the Technocracy either isn't a thing or isn't something the average Sleeper would be aware of in any capacity.

You need to clear this with your ST (OOC, of course). If there is no technomancers, this means not only are Union Conventions non-existing, but also the Etherites and Virtual Adepts (and technomaner Orphans). If no Traditions exist at all, this means all Mages are basically, Orphans.

These two things are kinda important if you're thinking ahead of what your PC might become.

[LibraryOgre]

Or 'Instruments' to use 4th parlance...

Anyway, I've never seen this strictly enforced. Normally, the ST has allowed us to use as few/many Instruments as 'felt right' to whatever stuff the character was pulling (as long as we explained *what* the PC was doing, and how 'it would work'). And I've never heard of you having to define them by Sphere - is this in Da Rules and I never noticed?

Not sure; I don't have the rules handy. I also remember my ST being pretty lenient about that... they required foci, but they were content with "I am doing something that resembles my Tradition" rather than a strict following of foci.

[Mechalich]

Not sure; I don't have the rules handy. I also remember my ST being pretty lenient about that... they required foci, but they were content with "I am doing something that resembles my Tradition" rather than a strict following of foci.

The actual foci rules, at least in Mage Revised, run to like three pages and include specialty foci, unique foci, and a bunch of other stuff, all of which applies small bonuses/penalties to effects. It's a massive amount of excess bookkeeping to do this, so I don't think anyone really ever bothered, especially as veteran players would deliberately chose foci to avoid being vulnerable to losing their foci when necessary or being limited in any way accordingly (Mage, as an extremely meta game, was shockingly vulnerable to metagaming).

I don't get why your ST decided to do this, really. Mage is real complicated in parts, but the Paradox bit is in fact one of the simpler ones to work.

Paradox basically requires the GM to actively inflict harm on the players. Some GMs are uncomfortable doing this (even though the general observation is the more GMs swing the pendulum too far the other way). However, using magic was always supposed to be more difficult when Vulgar+Witnesses anyway, in addition to incurring more paradox.

However, playing MtA without Paradox is...impossible? Without Paradox there are no limits on what Mages can do, like, at all. Paradox was the primary limitation previously, in that any effect that accumulated 30+ Paradox - which was absolutely possible on some 10-roll extended task monstrosity to blow up a mountain or something - would reduce your character into molten goo (there were examples of characters in the fiction doing such things anyway as a heroic sacrifice). Without Paradox there are essentially no limits on the power of sphere magic. I mean a perfectly coincidental Forces effect can be used to cause the Sun to go nova, and if there's no Paradox the Nephandi have already done that and the setting ceased to exist thousands of years ago.

[Mr Blobby]

The actual foci rules, at least in Mage Revised, run to like three pages and include specialty foci, unique foci, and a bunch of other stuff, all of which applies small bonuses/penalties to effects. It's a massive amount of excess bookkeeping to do this, so I don't think anyone really ever bothered, especially as veteran players would deliberately chose foci to avoid being vulnerable to losing their foci when necessary or being limited in any way accordingly (Mage, as an extremely meta game, was shockingly vulnerable to metagaming).

4th merely has 'unique', 'personalised', 'regular' and 'unfamiliar' in Instruments (as far as I remember). To use Harry Potter as an example, the Elder Wand is 'unique', Harry's own wand 'personalised', Ron's hand-me-down 'regular' and Draco's wand Harry stole after his broke 'unfamiliar'. I got the impression that the 'unique' ones are normally Wonders in their own right.

From experience, I've had to detail the general 'types' of Instrument used but after that the STs have been fairly lenient to the details. And yeah, experienced players would look to pick at least one/two types which would be unlikely to be completely devoid of - but this isn't really 'meta' because it's rather likely their mentor(s) would have pointed this out too as every Mage will get into a few jams in their lives and well, the lessons are taught by the survivors. But it's also got to fit the paradigm too, obviously.

Paradox basically requires the GM to actively inflict harm on the players. Some GMs are uncomfortable doing this (even though the general observation is the more GMs swing the pendulum too far the other way). However, using magic was always supposed to be more difficult when Vulgar+Witnesses anyway, in addition to incurring more paradox.

However, playing MtA without Paradox is...impossible? Without Paradox there are no limits on what Mages can do, like, at all. Paradox was the primary limitation previously, in that any effect that accumulated 30+ Paradox - which was absolutely possible on some 10-roll extended task monstrosity to blow up a mountain or something - would reduce your character into molten goo (there were examples of characters in the fiction doing such things anyway as a heroic sacrifice). Without Paradox there are essentially no limits on the power of sphere magic. I mean a perfectly coincidental Forces effect can be used to cause the Sun to go nova, and if there's no Paradox the Nephandi have already done that and the setting ceased to exist thousands of years ago.

You're 100% right. Paradox is the only thing which is stopping Archmages from becoming immortal rulers of the world - because they'd actually - power-wise - give a 5th Gen ancient vampire or a pack of elder werewolves a run for their money.

However, in this case the OP will be (I assume) playing an Apprentice game. This means generally speaking they're simply too weak to generate that much Paradox at once. Which means any Paradox generated could be done in a more 'annoying' manner, which would only last for one game session or something.

[Valorium]

Okay, addressing a few more points:

I'm the only total noob as far as players – some of them are veterans, one of them has a modicum of experience and the ST's been doing it for the past 14 years so I'm fairly certain they have a half-decent grasp of the mechanics by now.

Yeah, the foci thing about tracks. Just needs "something" to cast through that's appropriately specific.

I have a handful of simple Rotes that I've written down that I verified with both my ST and the rest of my party and they all seemed fine with it.

My ST isn't really bothering with Traditions at all as far as I can tell. He literally told us essentially verbatim "you can skip the entirety of the first 254 pages of lore except for the early bit that roughly describes what magic is, I don't bother with it and I won't make you read a novel for this."

I also don't really know if Technomancy is a thing that people do. Like, it's not come up at all in any of the pre-sessions or character creation. As far as I know, everyone is an Orphan mage.

I can try and link my character sheet, if that would be helpful.

[Mr Blobby]

My ST isn't really bothering with Traditions at all as far as I can tell. He literally told us essentially verbatim "you can skip the entirety of the first 254 pages of lore except for the early bit that roughly describes what magic is, I don't bother with it and I won't make you read a novel for this."

...

I also don't really know if Technomancy is a thing that people do. Like, it's not come up at all in any of the pre-sessions or character creation. As far as I know, everyone is an Orphan mage.

I... don't really get what the ST means by this. Okay, does this mean all the group paradigms don't exist either? Saying 'well, the Order of Hermes doesn't exist as a distinct entity' is one thing, but does that mean there's not even unofficial 'Hermetic' cabals or chantries anywhere?

Plus, how can you produce Rotes yet even when you don't know what your character's 'magick style' is going to be? This is important, because it defines what your character believes and how they perform their art.

*scratches head*

[Valorium]

Look I dunno man. It's been kinda vague and my ST has evidentially playing this way for a while (and none of the other veterans of the system with whom they've not played before have raised an eyebrow at it to my knowledge), but I imagine it'll get a little more clear once we actually, y'know, stop being normal schmucks and actually start being Mages. We still have two of the four one-on-one sessions to get through before we're actually getting together as a party.

[The Glyphstone]

My best guess is that the ST/group are jettisoning the massive crushing weight of the setting and its backstory so they can basically write their own in the void. So advice on raw mechanics is basically all we can safely give until we find out more from OP about what the world is like in the absence of 99% of established lore.

[Mechalich]

My best guess is that the ST/group are jettisoning the massive crushing weight of the setting and its backstory so they can basically write their own in the void. So advice on raw mechanics is basically all we can safely give until we find out more from OP about what the world is like in the absence of 99% of established lore.

Very tricky with regard to White-Wolf games, since the lore was so intimately entwined with the mechanics. Especially in Mage, where the space of 'what a party can actually do' was bounded on all sides by 'things the Technocracy will kill you for trying' and testing and pushing those boundaries was in some sense the whole point.

A Mage world of all orphans all the time is hard to imagine, unless the number of awakened is really small, like only a few hundred on the planet or something, and this prevents them from forming into natural groupings of any real size. And they really ought to group up based on something. A number of the Traditions hewed pretty strongly to an ethnic basis (this was not handled with a lot of delicacy), but that does make intuitive and linguistic sense.

On strict mechanical advice, one thing I can mention is this: ward everything. This will be tricky with only a few spheres to start, but long term protective effects, even if they aren't very powerful, are extremely useful, especially since fast magic effects are so weak. In particular your home based, whatever it is, should be warded to the gills, especially against Correspondence, otherwise anyone can essentially detonate it remotely (especially without paradox and in a world where google earth exists).

Oh, and if the technocracy doesn't exist, there's nothing to stop you from using magic to acquire truly gigantic piles of cash, especially if you have entropy magic (you don't even have to physically go to casinos anymore, you can use online sports betting), and in the World of Darkness being rich is a superpower.

[The Glyphstone]

Yeah, thats also why we need to wait. I doubt an experienced ST is not going to have something in the world to stomp on players who go too nuts, or a world where its impossible for Mages to form groups and shared beliefs. We just dont know what they are yet, or any details, until the OP's personal story reaches that point.

[Mr Blobby]

Very tricky with regard to White-Wolf games, since the lore was so intimately entwined with the mechanics. Especially in Mage, where the space of 'what a party can actually do' was bounded on all sides by 'things the Technocracy will kill you for trying' and testing and pushing those boundaries was in some sense the whole point.

Not just the Technocracy. I'm currently in a chronicle where our group has ended up pissing off other 'Supers' too - mainly our city's Ventrue and a pack of Garou.

A Mage world of all orphans all the time is hard to imagine, unless the number of awakened is really small, like only a few hundred on the planet or something, and this prevents them from forming into natural groupings of any real size. And they really ought to group up based on something. A number of the Traditions hewed pretty strongly to an ethnic basis (this was not handled with a lot of delicacy), but that does make intuitive and linguistic sense.

This is ironically similar to an argument I had with my ST regarding Etherites; they were going along the 'every Scientist is 100% unique theories/inventions!' etc while I argued that there would be some distinct 'schools' within the Society depending on field of study, geographical location, who their teacher(s) were etc even if they didn't exist formally.

Anyway, we need to remember this is the *World of Darkness*. Of all the 'Super' groups, Mages are perhaps the *weakest* - Awakening alone does not grant much freebee benefits, unlike the First Change, Embrace etc. Even if you take away the need/desire for a Node and the very inate desire to 'know others of your kind' / instruction etc most Mages need to combine for purposes of self-protection.

So finding out whether any of the others exist either is sorta needed.

On strict mechanical advice, one thing I can mention is this: ward everything. This will be tricky with only a few spheres to start, but long term protective effects, even if they aren't very powerful, are extremely useful, especially since fast magic effects are so weak. In particular your home based, whatever it is, should be warded to the gills, especially against Correspondence, otherwise anyone can essentially detonate it remotely (especially without paradox and in a world where google earth exists).

I say don't get obessed with just accumilating Spheres. In many ways, a 'low-powered' but skilled Mage can produce better results than vise-versa. A similar vein is to make good use of Backgrounds - I've seen too many players relatively ignore this aspect.

Oh, and if the technocracy doesn't exist, there's nothing to stop you from using magic to acquire truly gigantic piles of cash, especially if you have entropy magic (you don't even have to physically go to casinos anymore, you can use online sports betting), and in the World of Darkness being rich is a superpower.

Yes there is; Sleeper authorities. This is discussed in one of the books; that a supernaturally-brilliant Mage stockbroker NPC deliberately picks a few dud investments each year so their trading house doesn't get mass investigations regarding insider trading etc, while in the Chantries book the Orphans in Chicago pick *low* winning lottery tickets - enough to sustain them, but not enough to get press/IRS attention.

Even if the Mage avoids the obvious appeal of making bricks into gold or emptying ATMs with a clicker it's possible they'll end up being investigated if they appear to be 'living beyond their means' - even if they're doing it by [for example] doing an 'Entropy-restore' on all their goods so they can effectively buy a new TV for the price of a coffee. [However, this all depends on whether the ST sees 'Resources' as 'income level' or a more generic 'standard of living'.]

Next, general 'Sleeper attention' will not be welcome, unless you're in a Masquerade-free world. You're allowed to look like a genius, to have 'excellent sources' and so on, but no healing wounds with wands and fixing cars with prayer. Traditionally, Paradox stopped folks from doing this; now Mages will simply need to learn to be more circumspect simply so you're not bothered all the time.

Lastly, the issue with Nephandi and other 'bad Mages'. If there's no Paradox they will be more common, and if there's no groups they won't have organised systems to deal with them. Who will, you ask? Well, the logical conclusion are 'super-hunters'. From a team of Buffies to secretive 'X-files' groups within law enforcement groups.

After all... what's stopping a powerful cabal of Mages marching up to the White House, blowing apart the Secret Service with Forces and using Mind to turn the President into their puppet? Or abduct Bezos or Musk, use Life/Matter to assume their form and hijack their business empires? Or an extremist Communist cabal deciding to destroy capitalism by tearing the global economics system apart with massive assaults of Entropy/Correspondence to destroy stock markets and banks? Or that same cabal using Time to send back to Lenin in 1917 a copy of History of the USSR, blueprints for the AK47, a bulletproof vest and a big box of statins [plus instructions] so he's able to 'do it right this time'?

Okay, I wasn't planning to write that last bit. But I've just thought through to the logical conclusion of the info we've been given on this world so far. There are alternative solutions to this (as Glyphstone says), but the ST *does* need to think this through.

[Valorium]

In what is swiftly becoming my daily ritual, responses:

I've talked to my ST and Paradox *is* a thing - you just don't gain *more* of it from Sleeper witnesses. Vulgar magic is just harder by virtue of incurring more Paradox in general.

My impression is that there's going to be some sort of secret society of Mages that will serve as antagonistic forces, if just as a balancing factor.

I have actually followed the low-power high-skill dichotomy without realizing. Most of my fellow party members put a lot of points into better Spheres or Avatars while I focused most of my freebies into Skills and Backgrounds. I may not be able to chuck fireballs or move objects with my mind, but I roll 9 dice on every Medicine or Firearms check and I have a supernatural Blessing so powerful that their entire worldview is shaped by their innate mundane luckiness, so. I have that going for me, I guess.

There are paranormal supernatural entities - one of the party members who had a more horror-themed session encountered a spooky ghost that nearly killed them to death, so I have a feeling it may end up being a more traditional "venture places and kill the monsters" deal. Not positive either way, though.

I will take note of the warding thing. One of our party members has been investing heavily into Prime (granted, they can't knowingly imbue common metal objects with enchantments so who knows if it'll actually be feasible) so they can probably work some enchantments on whatever space becomes home base.

I don't think my ST is overly worried about "get totally rich" as a thing, given the only member of the party investing into Entropy (me) is specifically not very interested in doing so by virtue of their personality. It is a good thought, though.

Will continue to update as time goes on – the next one-on-one session is later this week and apparently centers around a chronically-online character with severe Touch Grass Syndrome. Should be fun and might shed some light on if there's a Technocracy.

[Mr Blobby]

Well, the fact Paradox exists is good. Because it is possible to make tons of money from any Sphere. Matter can turn bricks into gold, Time can be going to 2050 to buy a Gray's Sports Almanac or back to 2000 to buy a load of Amazon shares. Life can lead you operating a 'resurrection service' for millionaires while Correspondence allows you to split yourself into 10 of you and thus, send them all out to work different jobs...

A strong Avatar is good. In fact, it's critical. I personally see this as one of the problems with WoD in general - that your dots in Generation/Pure Breed/Avatar etc are the most 'baked-in' stat and this normally leads players to load up on them in anticipation. Personally, I feel STs should be a little willing to offer PCs ways *occasionally* to improve on this stat, but that's not really a topic for here.

[Valorium]

New developments as answers:

In response to my asking if there was a Technocracy, this was the response, verbatim:

"Not for now at least, the Ascension War is kinda so big that it'd take over everything else and while I like the technocracy vs tradition thing it's also something I've engaged with a lot already personally[.]"

To my asking what the limiting factor on Mages was:

"There is no limiting factor on mages aside from Paradox[.]"

'So why isn't the government and elite entirely composed of or controlled by Mages?'

"I mean, they are."

So, it's basically a mage vs. mage conflict being orchestrated by a bunch of absurdly powerful mages with ideological differences based on Order vs. Hedonism vs. Chaos.

Additionally, we've started off with a hard limit of two dots in any given Sphere to start with (with one exception taken alongside a massive penalty).

[Mechalich]

New developments as answers:

In response to my asking if there was a Technocracy, this was the response, verbatim:

"Not for now at least, the Ascension War is kinda so big that it'd take over everything else and while I like the technocracy vs tradition thing it's also something I've engaged with a lot already personally[.]"

To my asking what the limiting factor on Mages was:

"There is no limiting factor on mages aside from Paradox[.]"

'So why isn't the government and elite entirely composed of or controlled by Mages?'

"I mean, they are."

So, it's basically a mage vs. mage conflict being orchestrated by a bunch of absurdly powerful mages with ideological differences based on Order vs. Hedonism vs. Chaos.

Okaaaay...I think your GM is really missing a key point here, namely that without an extant and dominant Technocracy, or something very similar, the Consensus shifts to some dramatically different paradigm and the modern world ceases to exist (this was actually something M20 with its 'reality zones' stressed even more than Revised). But that's okay, you're playing on an alternate Earth somewhere in the Umbra, nothing wrong with that actually at all.

However that does make it hard to provide advice, especially since your GM is apparently keeping the party separated during early sessions. A key piece of general advice in oWoD games is 'make sure the party has complimentary abilities and an actual reason to work together' but your setup would seem to preclude that.

[Mr Blobby]

I can actually get what the ST is coming from here; that 'the Ascension War' *can* in fact look to be all-dominant aspect of Mage, esp if you're simply going from reading 3rd-era books. But it doesn't have to be; an ST can turn down the heat of said war [I'm playing a MtA game where it's a kind of 'Cold War' level] or even roll them back a bit, returning them more to their 'pre-War' mission brief of protecting humanity from the worst excesses of various Super's actions - which would make them less openly antagonistic to a Mage.

Plus, removing the Technocracy entirely leads to other canon issues with WoD in general. For example, it's quite possible they're the main folks stopping the vampire 'Camarilla' from utterly overwhelming the free agency of governments, companies and militaries [my current ST has OOC said basically, this is stopping the Union pogrom against the Traditions - they're almost at full stretch dealing with Worse Things.]

In this world, the Traditions might have never formed because of lack of reason to. However, the individual Traditions would still exist. And Crafts. And Orphans.

Though to be honest, it reads like this ST is starting to Think Things Through and realising if they remove the Technocracy... they will need a group like the Technocracy to do the non-Mage killing things the Technocracy does (the Technocratic Order, striving for an ordered world?). And that they in fact rather like the 'factional Mage fighting' idea.

Taking Mecha's point further, the lack of a Technocracy historically also means no Etherites and Adepts. Another point of where this ST's decision seems to be creating more problems and holes than solves.


But back on to the 'general advice' side; be careful to get the ST to identify what Abilities cover what - I've learned from bitter experience your idea may not tally with their ruling (and this might be so serious an error it might cause a rage-quit). So basically, outright say 'how many Drive dots do I need for [PC] to be decent on motorbikes?', '[PC] is good at finding stuff online. Is this 'Computer' or 'Research'?' and 'as [PC] was in the military, they know how to handle some heavier weapons like RPGs. What Ability covers this?'.

This is needed because there's quite a few bits where the 'category' is not exactly clearly divided. Examples; Brawl/Martial Arts, Computer/Technology, Awareness/Alertness - every ST seems to have their own ideas on this [and a lot more].

Lastly, experience tells me that almost no ST actually checks a sheet past 'illegalities' and simple mathematics. I remember getting odd looks when I would point out that vampire PC's lacked the Ability dots to use their own Disciplines and on occasion, the ability to even hunt.

[The Glyphstone]

At this point we need to just accept that the game is taking place in a homebrew modern Earth setting that uses the Mage ruleset and nothing else, except as noted. Its the only way to not get bogged down in the endless daisy chain of side effects and setting-destroying consequences that come from changing literally anything in the horrific suffocating morass of stifling plot devices that is OWoD lore.

Even the idea of consensual reality might not be canon here. In fact, if Sleepers do not augment Paradox its very likely there is an Objective reality that magic violates. Basing any assumptions on "canon" at this point is suspect and complaining about plot holes is premature.

[Valorium]

Sorry if all of this is making it more difficult to provide advice. I appreciate all the advice provided so far.

A few more things:

I believe we have a pretty healthy party balance; we have a close-range brawler stylized as a lucha wrestler, a versatile magic skill-monkey with video game themed spells, a Prime enchantments-focused support caster and a luck and gunplay focused combat medic (me). We have some overlap in that multiple players have dots in Prime and Correspondence, but overall our Spheres and roles in the party are pretty well-balanced in my opinion.

My general impression about the setting revisions is "simplify, simplify, and cut everything that isn't immediately relevant to the story I'm trying to craft", which is understandable to an extent given how long the preface is. I like to read, but 254 pages of lore before you can even touch character creation is a bit much for me and my small brain. No one expressed interest in playing Etherites or Adepts, ergo their inclusion probably wasn't deemed necessary.

I'll think on the abilities question – I have a pretty good idea of what my abilities are, what I want to do with them and what my ST will allow, but if anything comes up I'll ask them about it.

[Mr Blobby]

MtA Homebrew: Yeah, I know. And don't take any of my comments on that personally, Valorium. Though partly it's my fault as it's not like I get to take about MtA often...

It's the 'immediately relevant' bit which worries me a tad. Just because you don't see a need for X right this moment it doesn't mean you'll never need it - and the longer a game goes on, the harder it comes to retcon stuff.

The 'I like to read, but 254 pages of lore before you can even touch character creation is a bit much for me and my small brain.' point is to be honest irrelevant. From the sounds of it, you are playing an Awakening/Apprentice game; one where your PC is taking their first steps into the 'World of Darkness'. Therefore, you can be learning the stuff while your character does. I've always started at Disciple games and out of 254 pages, I can bet my PC has not known 80% of it. Why should they? [or even you, for that matter?] That core book is so an ST can run Mage the Ascension. With hindsight, perhaps it would have been better for players to stick with the Quickstart instead [the 3rd one is a 'pay what you want' PDF from DriveThruRPG] - so you learn the mechanics and bare-bones meta so you can play it.

Okay, something not directly useful here, but something I shall bear in mind 100% next time I ST an 'origin' WoD game.


Back to general points of vague use; With the party, you don't seem to have a 'face'. Mage can be a very social game at times.

Shame nobody picked a technomancer; even in an Technocracy-free game they have their own edges. Ideally, someone will at least become a 'techno-mystic' of some form - this will really help if you're playing in an advanced-nation 2019 or whatever [I assume the date is to avoid the obvious].

[Valorium]

I am actually running the party Face, both thematically and stats-wise - a combination of Entropy and Manipulation 4 (with a specialization in "The Truth", which is both getting people to tell it and obscuring it from others) makes it reasonably easy to succeed on social checks, and my character has basically been assigned "ambassador to the Sleepers" because they're the only reasonably normal and social person in the group (i.e. not a socially-awkward college student, a pot-addicted hospital janitor or a depressed lucha wrestler). Hell, my ST even gave me bonus freebie points just to chuck into my Background for Contacts and Allies. So, with luck, it won't be a big issue.

Don't worry, I'm not taking anything personally! I just recognize that it's hard to provide advice when the lore is so different to what's normal (and said lore is integral to the gameplay).

My statement about their setting revisions is TOTAL conjecture. I don't really *know* what they're going for, but that's my general impression from the way they've been presenting the story.

MtA is only the third system (that I haven't made) that I've made an honest attempt to learn. I've only previously had real experience with D&D 5e and with Powered By The Apocalypse, MOTW specifically. The common thread between those two is that they get to the proverbial point very quickly, getting to character creation VERY fast. So, admittedly, it throws me for a bit of a loop when the lore is put in front of me in such an explosive fashion. It didn't help that the immediate response to my asking if I actually had to read all of it was "It's not actually gonna matter." I dunno. The book has been fine.

As far as techno-interfacing or whatever, the above-mentioned socially-awkward college student has a bunch of abilities revolving around Watch_Dogs-style hacking, so it'll be fine.

Probably.