TTRPGs Where Everyone's a Mage?

[Aldarc]

From what I gather reading through this thread, the answer seems to be that there aren't that many games out there (in the grand scheme of things) that fill this niche of characters only being mages by default.

 

[Thomas Shey]

There's certainly a lot more "everyone's supernatural" than "everyone's a mage", since even ones that are really focused on mages (like Wicked Pacts) will often have an outlier option or two.

 

[hawkeyefan]

The two I can think of that no one has mentioned yet are:

The Dee Sanction

Esoteric Enterprises

Like some other games, Esoteric Enterprises is not 100% practitioners of magic. PCs Are all members of the magical underground in modern society. Many will use magic or be supernatural creatures of some sort, but some are just mundane folks mixed up with magic.

The Dee Sanction, though, is specifically about practitioners of magic who are forced to serve the crown under Elizabeth Tudor, under the leadership of John Dee.

 

[Bohandas]

In Nobilis and Exalted the player characters have supernatural powers by default, although not necessarily spellcasting per-se

 

[The-Magic-Sword]

I recognize Mage: The Ascension and Ars Magica was mentioned, but that lineage also produced Mage: The Awakening, which is a very cool system with different lore that tries to iron out Ascension into a better experience. I love the flavor of reading these books the most out of the entire Chronicles meta-game-system.

 

[Tony Vargas]

D&D 3e

D&D 5e

It had to be said.

But, while 'most every edition of D&D has overwhelmingly favored casters, it has also had very efficient trap options like the oh so relatable and heroic-archetype -seeming Human Fighter (fighting man), and the lovable, daring, & soon deceased, Thief(Rogue).

Besides, it was specifically 'mages' and Clerics were both de rigueur in the classic game, and decidedly not mages.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

Runequest - as we played it back in the day, all chars had at least some battle magic.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Runequest - as we played it back in the day, all chars had at least some battle magic.

Of course in some versions, everyone of teen years or older, likely had some battle/spirit magic. It was like folk magic, and I think has a different dynamic than a case where magic is not universal but all PCs partake of it. (This is complicated by the fact battle/spirit magic was pretty limited in scope and was only occasionally flashy).

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

A superfan of Lev Grossman's The Magicians books and TV show has published free material to play in that setting using D&D rules. I have no experience with the game, though.

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