Produktbeschreibung
Dir absolute Luxusausgabe auf 296 Seiten... in Kunstleder gebunden mit Goldstempel und einem purpurnen Lesebändchen... gelesen - aber in sehr gutem Zustand!
Enter the Mage. Mages represent an aspect of humanity that both vampires and werewolves couldn't provide, the act of will to choose one's fate. In Vampire, the character's choices were built on the level of their survival, and how their selection of social and bloodline characteristics aided them in nightly (un)living. Werewolf, conversely, had its characters' fates scripted from the first change, and their options were how to handle their building rage and destruction of the identity they knew.
A mage's options were always self-selected, for selfish reasons or selfish needs. When a mage grew in power, they grew in self, unlike the mostly stagnant vampire (needing Diablerie to advance in power) or the social constructed werewolf (each growth of power strengthened the ties to pack and tribe). In modern fashion, Mage offered a look at a version of modern hubris: when does one's power begin to affect so much around him or her that the fabric of reality resorts to kicking the powerful down (a variation of "more money, more problems" perhaps).
Mage began as a "Storytelling Game of Modern Magic" it says so right on the back cover of the original game. The cover featured a nice royal purple with gold letter accents. The front cover image, a mage using a computer with the Sphere of Prime, hints at the version of modern that will be explored within a cybernetic filled world with powerful mages and their spells. Basically, the game offered a better magic-user, which later books would reject as the basis of the game.
As the game line progressed, some initial aspects were changed from their intent and more refinement came in as the game system's were refined. While the books themselves, individually have several flaws, taken as a whole, Mage was a better, more positive "setting" set in the Original World of Darkness. As most of the game lines took their overall "adjective" titles to heart, so did Mage, hoping that we would ascend in our maturity while playing games.
This review tries to look at the core rulebooks that make up the Mage: The Ascension line, by using Mage itself as a lens through which to see how it unfolded. |
