How did you learn to run or play Mage?

[Umbran]

I didn't read very much of NWoD and never wanted to play it. I got the overall impression of an editorial stance of "This game is all about angst, and we're going to make sure you have plenty."

The problem is that this generated player frustration, not character angst.

Design hint: Don't make your game such that you can't actually play the game - players ragequit, and don't buy any more.

 

[Voadam]

I didn't read very much of NWoD and never wanted to play it. I got the overall impression of an editorial stance of "This game is all about angst, and we're going to make sure you have plenty."

I really like the concept of NWoD Changeling the Lost where you are magically warped escaped former kidnap victims of Mythos like True Fae. I incorporated some of that into my D&D/pathfinder games. I have not used any Changeling the Dreaming concepts or stuff.

In theory I like the more werewolf themed Forsaken idea of werewolves as spirit border police without the Triad stuff but I have not gotten into it as much as I do the OWoD Weaver/Wyld/Wyrm and their multitude of tribes Apocalypse stuff. I've used a bunch of Apocalypse in my D&D/Pathfinder games but nothing from Forsaken.

Similarly I want to get into the NWoD Mage but I just have not dived into it the way I did with OWoD Mage the Ascension and its concepts and factions. I have used a bunch of Ascension concepts in my D&D/Pathfinder games but nothing from Awakening.

 

[John Dallman]

In theory I like the more werewolf themed Forsaken idea of werewolves as spirit border police without the Triad stuff ...

The only Werewolf: the Forsaken book I read was the setting book for the British Isles. They are simply not a good place for werewolves, since all of the land is owned and managed. There just isn't anywhere for large carnivores to live without people noticing them. Werewolves are forced to live in contact with humans, and most of them really don't like that.

 

[RenleyRenfield]

For everyone who gets this far =

What Tradition did you like most? Why?

What Tradition was hardest to grok? Why?

 

[Ath'kethin]

I played Mage in a general World of Darkness game ca. 1995 or 1996. While I loved the concept of the game, there seemed no character archetypes that matched what I wanted to play and it was so hard to make anyhting magical actually happen I soured on the whole system pretty quickly.

I still love the old WoD stuff, especially the Changeling material, but I haven't been interesed in playing again.

 

[Voadam]

Oh yeah, the whole coincidental magic theme clashed a bit with a lot of my group who when they play powerful reality shaping beings want to throw actual fireballs or pull out crazy mad scientist devices. I was on board to hypnotize people with my crystal pendant and be undercover mage man, but it is a bit of a shift from a lot of RPG magery and super powers.

 

[kigmatzomat]

I see from time to time, folks pull from various comics/supers characters or ideas. Do you think there is a lot of value in coming to play Mage with a little bit of x-men or avengers ideas?

I wouldn't go that far. We used Highlander at the time, where th action was supposed to be out of sight. Now I'd go with Dresden or maybe some Mission Impossible or Fast & Furious (cars as magical focus and a threadbare excuse of Coincidence)

And, when you brought in vampire's and horrors and monsters = was that simply of the GMs creation, or did you use rules and stuff from the other WoD lines (vampire, werewolf, changeling, etc) ??

I leveraged the other oWoD materials. Some, like the Revenant/Crow, work really well. The black spiral dancer werewolves who can vanish into the spirit world are good long-term foes. Pentax, as either a cultist-run company or a mad Technomancer faction trying to force-evolve humanity (possibly both at the same time) is massive foe that can be good for many plot arcs.

Changeling had some weird rules, so I never used them as-is but treated them more like Lost Boys of Neverland, who had a bit of Whimsy and Glamour, making excursions to the Boring World to save kids in trouble. As grown-ups, the mages were inherently untrustworthy, but many of them with Prime and Spirit spheres could see the pixies and other Neverland critters, so maybe they weren't entirely bad.

The mage adventures, what there were, weren't bad but needed massaging. Loom of Fate was decent, Chaos Factor needed a huge pile of edits but there was a good adventure under all that Mary Sue.