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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5388334" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 212: December 1994part 5/6Role-playing reviews has a Mage: the Ascension special this month. It seems to be focussing on the technowizardry side of the game in particular this time. This may be because Allen has recently joined the online community, and gives out his email address to all and sundry who may be reading. Man, things have changed. First there was the trust no-one and lie about your personal details to avoid weirdos and pedophiles phase, then there was the no-one is real on the internet irresponsible phase, then there was the realizing they were real, and most of them were perfectly normal, by which time internet use was standard in business and everyday life, so there's no point separating the two. Or maybe that's just how it was for me. Since this is a game specifically about the subjectivity and malleability of reality, I'm sure there's room for plenty of other perspectives and experiences.  The book of shadows has a ton of new bits and pieces from a ridiculous number of authors within it's pages. It showcases the inherent fractiousness of mage traditions, and also their need to overcome this if they want to make the world a better place (and unlike the other supernatural splats, they can) The main complaint is that all this cool writing is made hard to read by gray patterned backgrounds. Now that's a mistake they continue to make for ages, with both Kindred of the East and secret of Zir'an messed up by it. Silly overzealous art directors. The book of chantries is of course all about building a homebase for your cabal. The system sounds pretty familiar. Pool your background points and spend them on various aspects of your pad. Get ready to spend lots of valuable freebie points if you want a really good one. In addition to that, there's plenty of sample locations and the NPC's that inhabit them. Unlike many white wolf products, which can get over-specific, this stuff is easy enough to pick and choose from for your own campaign. A bit more tookitiness is probably a good thing. Virtual Adepts is the splatbook for the good guy techno-wizards, letting us know about their history, and their very bright-looking present and future. With the internet rapidly taking over the world, they're having great fun, while being rather unpopular with the other Traditions. It's a great setup for lots of intraparty bickering, which lets face it, is what's so great about white wolf games. Technocracy: Progenitors isn't quite so imaginative. The bioengineered creatures are pretty unexceptional as monsters go, and the IC bits are mostly dry lecture notes. The villains aren't getting as much effort as the heroes, which seems a little odd. Technocracy: Iteration X is a bit more fun, cybernetics having more scope for obvious flashy effects than biotech. This includes the classic HIT Marks, but also ridiculous things like the Cyber-toothed Tiger. Exercise your imagination, because there's a lot of ways you could enhance your character with these kinds of resources, and many of them look damn cool. Now your players'll want to be one. Forum: Gregory Johns thinks that Bards ought to have more freedom in making up <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> about history if they succeed their legend lore roll. The DM should let other people collaborate in world creation and roll with their ideas. Jim Looper Points out to the guy complaining about young gamers that they're actually older than he was when he started. You really ought to remember what you were like at that age, and put up with some inanity at first. They'll grow out of it a lot quicker with a little guidance than if just left to their own devices. Kevin Lighton thinks it's not just the game you're playing that can get stale, it's the players you're playing with. Remember, you can change either independently to revitalise your interest in gaming as a whole. Mike Delmonico praises Ravenloft, but also points out it's flaws. Of course, he has his own house rules to mitigate these. You've got to give them a reason to stick around. Robert Griffin let his players take a temporary vacation to play evil characters, and then applied the consequences of their actions to his regular campaign. No-one seems very keen on repeating the experiment. Muahahaha. Evil genius. One I'd very much enjoy doing at some point.</blockquote>

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