Please share tips and resources for Mage the Ascension

[MNblockhead]

I like the flavor and concept of MtA and have the PDFs for the 20th Anniversary version. But the sheer volume content in just the core book is daunting.

I'm thinking that I will have the players all be "orphans" in the sense of not having much knowledge of the wider world. The characters can learn more about the different factions, lore, etc. as I learn it though game prep. I do want to have a fairly good grasp of the mechanics but even the quickstart guide is taking time for me to absorb.

If anyone has any tips for how to get started in MtA, esp as a game master, and if there are any good resources with rule summaries and cheat sheets or other game aids, please share them.

 

[opacitizen]

I haven't GMed Mage for ages (even though it used to be a fav rpg of mine), so I can only give you only a basic tip or two that you probably already have thought of.

Anyway: if I were you, I'd start by extending the Prelude into a series of full-fledged, short one shots. I'd introduce the World of Darkness gradually, through the eyes of mortals, or as Mage calls them, Sleepers — that is, all the PCs would start out as mostly ordinary people, maybe with a sixth sense, second sight, or something similar, a basic and hazy magical perception. Then, after a relatively low stakes confrontation or two with the supernatural (and learning the basics of the game system without having to deal with casting and spells right away), they could all awaken, preferably in connection with and as a (partial) consequence of the previous confrontation -- and over the course of the next few stories you could introduce the advanced mechanics, step by step, with time to practice and without everyone having to learn everything right away.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

It's been a long time for me as well, but I have fond memories of that game. Like all of White Wolf's products back then, it's got style.

If I had to share one bit of advice, I'd say be kinder when it comes to Paradox than I was. I enforced it very strictly, and I kinda feel like it made the game less exciting.

 

[Voadam]

GURPS Mage the Ascension is only 192 pages, I found it a good summary of the narrative elements of the world (factions, sphere concepts, individual traditions, etc.). It is set at an earlier period than the 20th edition though so no blowing up of the big guys yet.

Mage has a lot of factions so I would try and keep it more narrowly focused on core concepts to start. I'd focus on traditions and technocracy and leave Nephandi and Marauders vague and background at least to start. There is a lot of good stuff to explore within the allied traditions and with their traditional enemies of the technocracy.

 

[MNblockhead]

Thank you all for your tips.

Its funny, although I started playing TTRPGs in the 80s, I now struggle with older, text heavy systems.

I've been thinking of making my own Mage-like game using the Cortex Prime system. I like that it will have modern on-line tools and ruleset that is has more modern design sensibilities.

Seems strange to write, but creating my own game seems like less work than mastering MtA. In particular, I hate hate hate PDFs but am working abroad and just can't lug around a 600 page tome.

I'm so spoiled with D&D Beyond and wikis and such that having to sit at my laptop and go through the Mage 20th Anniversary PDF is just a slog.

But I do like the flavor and I have a few players in my current group that are fans, so I want to make it work, but fact that it is feeling like a chore before I've even started planning out a the story arc doesn't bode well for the campaign.

 

[Voadam]

It is easy to translate most of the flavor.

In D&D Verbena are druids, Order of Hermes are wizards, Celestial Chorus are clerics, Akashic Brotherhood are monks, Progenitors can be a secret society of (mad scientist) doctors in Ravenloft or alchemists in Pathfinder, Void Engineers are Spelljammers, and so on. The concept of spheres and pattern and paradigm is easy to bring over as well. It is neat to think of Tinker Gnomes as technocracy working against the dominant paradigm.

In Delta Green or Conspiracy X the New World Order and Void Engineers can be big players while most any faction or tradition can be behind any specific weirdness the PCs deal with. I have a few books but no direct experience with the Cortex rules to say how it would handle playing the mages themselves.

The mechanics of the specific freeform magic and paradox would be the toughest part to port to a new system.

 

[MNblockhead]

The mechanics of the specific freeform magic and paradox would be the toughest part to port to a new system.

Which is the part that most interests me. What sold me on even looking into running a MtA campaign is how magic works.

 

[Mark Hope]

Check out Mage Made Easy, by the guy who wrote M20. It's a collection of advice and hacks to make the game easier to digest and run:

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

Well worth a look.

How Do You Do That breaks down the magic system with examples and systems to use:

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

These are some cheat sheets I gave to my current batch of players (they summarise stuff in M20):

Creating Effects: M20 Cheat Sheet.pdf
Sphere Ranks: M20 Sphere Summaries.pdf

This is a general index I found online (can't remember who made it - sorry). It pretty extensive and handy:

Dropbox - File Deleted - Simplify your life

www.dropbox.com

Your idea of starting as Orphans and learning through play is the perfect way to go. The M20 Quickstart isn't great at explaining the game - it's more of a collection of rules excerpts. Mage Made Easy is a better place to look. But you should definitely start small, focus on a particular area and theme, and just explore that through play. Set a scope that you and your players are comfortable with and just stick with that. Mage is a huge game, but your chronicle doesn't have to be. My chronicle just turned 25 this August, and we started out with stuff like "save this church from being demolished because it's a Node" and "rescue your brother from the Nephandus" and "accidentally blow up the Technocracy safe house with a tragic gas explosion" and the like. Tight focus works well - the story will grow organically from there.

Fire off any questions you have as you go - myself or another Mage fan will be happy to jump in and share our thoughts. They will all be contradictory, of course, but that's Mage

 

[Raduin711]

Check out Mage Made Easy, by the guy who wrote M20. It's a collection of advice and hacks to make the game easier to digest and run:

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

Well worth a look.

I was going to suggest Mage Made Easy as well.

In my experience with the game, the very broad scope of the game, along with the scope of power tends to lead games to be very... disjointed. Characters need some reason to associate and work together, and "you're all members of the traditions" isn't very thick glue. Paradigm and power tend to encourage some very unique characters, sometimes with quite alien ways of thinking, which makes you wonder how such a person ever came to be in the first place.

Mage Made Easy has some good suggestions on how to keep the game focused.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

It is neat to think of Tinker Gnomes as technocracy working against the dominant paradigm.

It does sound a lot more tasteful that they're working against paradox in Krynn's paradigm, than them being genetically incompetent.

When I've ran Mage, the one thing I try to impart to players is that the main conflict isn't Magic vs Science, it's which group of Mages gets to decide what is Science.