Page Count 310, Hard Cover.

What is reality? Is reality constant? Has there ever been something we could call now a griffon or a dragon? Why are our lives the way they are? Who are we, where do we come from and what’s the point of our existence? And, of course, where will we go? Mankind has asked these questions (mostly the latter ones) since time immemorial. There have always been things to wonder and be amazed at. Mage is not the answer to these questions, no game is. The questions lie out there for us to work on them, giving us important things to ponder upon. Mage is a game about wonder and amazing things. Mage is a game about people who question the universe. People who have dug a little deeper into the fabric of reality, and who can rewrite small portions of it. People who matter, who can make a mark.

Back in the mid-90s, when I first heard of this game, I was like: “Ha! What has a game of human magicians to offer me, when I have Werewolf: the Apocalypse, or even Vampire: the Masquerade?” But, what I didn’t understand back there is that Mage is not a game about stomping on stuff. It is a game that mixes philosophy and myth, the greatness of the universe and the small but valuable things of life. It is a game about the waning magic of the world.

The player takes the role of one of the Awakened. These Mages used to be (somewhat) common folks, who realized something about the universe around them. Something in their minds clicked, and they were blessed with the Awakening, the act of realizing that the world is a dream woven by billions of Sleepers. This knowledge gives them the power to literally rewrite reality. Unfortunately, reality is an almost alive, almost sentient, entity, and one it doesn’t like to be disturbed.

Mages must overcome the enormous weight of reality whenever they try to bend or break it in favour of their beliefs and needs. Sometimes, reality slaps back, and Mages can be quite sorry for the “damage” they inflicted on her. The “Traditional” Mages are divided into no less than nine factions, appropriately called “Traditions”. These Mages used to wage a war to help humanity achieve what they dubbed “Ascension” (thus the name of the game), which is a state of spiritual transcendence.

In the Revised Edition, this war was lost, mostly because people preferred mediocrity over amazement. The traditional Mages’ factions include the ever-present Hermetics, yes, those academic, Harry Potter-like, guys (also the mages in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld); the Celestial Chorus, a religious group that believes in Ascension through divine music; and the Verbena, druidic, pagan, “forest witches”, among many others.

The staunchest enemies of the Traditions are (or used to be) the Technocrats. The Mages in the Technocratic Union resent being called anything other than “enlightened scientists”. In their own eyes, they don’t perform magic, they only use ultra-advanced science to change the world around them. It is partially because of them that we can all enjoy our TV, computer and Internet connection. The Technocracy had their own way of helping mankind to Ascend: through technology. They gave people technological tools to empower them, to help them do the impossible. But humanity also didn’t realize the wonder in this, so the Techies ended up with a flawed world, and nothing good on the horizon.

The upper echelons of both groups have been severed from the world (those old fogies lived in alternate dimensional bases, beyond what Mages call Horizon) so now Mages have the unique chance to do some good without the weight of the war on their shoulders. The events that shaped the “Revised” World of Darkness gave a whole new twist to Mage. The death of the Ravnos Antediluvian and the destruction caused by the Sixth Great Maelstrom caused the Avatar Storm, which makes it hard and very painful to travel through dimensions, getting worse the more powerful you are. This makes it impossible for Masters and Archmasters to return and give advice to their “inferiors”.

Mage gives you the opportunity of playing an odd character, one that can make changes, for good or for evil (the World of Darkness has witnessed too much of that, though). Mages come in all shapes and colours, and each one may be unique.

Mage: the Ascension uses the Revised Storyteller System (the same from Vampire and Werewolf Revised Editions) and a great magic system, not based on spells like other systems (even in the same line) but on creative, dynamic magic! This might give players a hard time, especially when fine-tuning what’s acceptable for any given chronicle and what not, but it can be very rewarding. Mage Revised introduces (even though it isn’t very well explained) a new trait called Resonance, which colours each Mage’s reality-weaving with a unique flavour.

Anyway, I have to go to the Unseen University. A guy called Rincewind or something like that is waiting for me, and I’ll be late, as usual. Sorry, gotta run.

Reviewed by Matías Timm