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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Graf" data-source="post: 3221558" data-attributes="member: 3087">Sure, actually I was hoping to get more posts. There was some kind of pseudo-flame thread a while back between one of the uber-fanboys of the original setting and a new author where they argued. It was a bit pedantic at points but enlightening.Psion’s (kinda cynical…) comments did make me think about something.Personally I think that Mage is currently very unfocused. The Mage mainbook doesn’t have much of a local feel. You’ve got the Atlantis myths, the super-humans (i.e. mages are humans with special powers, not monsters-that-look-like-men), the world-spanning organizations, powers with a huge reach (especially when you use rituals). It has some of the “you need to save reality” type stuff going on. I got a bit of Indiana Jones type feel (mages get special magical xp for going out an experiencing new supernatural phenomena, etc).But the Boston Supplement (part of which is stuck into the back of the mainbook) is relentlessly local. It felt a lot like a vampire book actually. There is this prince of the city type guy who is really evil and he’s got this alliance with some other mages and they rule together, but uneasily and there are these Guardians (who seem to be just like the Nosferatu, they hide in the darkness and wear creepy masks instead of being ugly but its kind of the same) who want to take over the city.People have talked about the breakdown between the kind of game that the main book seems to be setting up and the kind of game that the supplements seem to be supporting.nWoD Werewolf, by comparison, is almost an “indy game”. The world is tightly structured and (despite a huge volume of supplements) it’s avoided ‘bolting on’ a lot of new world details.They just stay focused on the “core werewolf behaviors” i.e. protecting your territory, policing the spirit world, fighting the pure. You can toss in a bit more (Bale Hounds, Magath, etc.) for variety but the day-to-day Werewolf lifestyle (you must patrol your territory, you must Shapechange periodically, you need to tend to and protect your locus) is very defined and it’s easy to see a tight, locally-oriented campaign fall out of those activities.Mage doesn’t have any of that. Mages are similar to werewolves, in that they get together in groups around magical loci to share essence/mana but they don’t really do anything except jocky for position (sort of like vampires only not needing blood). I find it relatively easy to come up with fun character ideas for Mage, but relatively tricky to come up with an interesting campaign without introducing some other factor.If you are considering getting mage you should definitely look at the online mage introduction. It won an Ennie last year (or the year before) and is very detailed an interesting (like 8 pdfs).It’s kinda tough to find, but if you search for the mage demo on the white wolf website you should be able to dig it out.</blockquote>

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