Rating: 
Summary: No need for a fuss...
Review: The Mage Revised has some great concepts and better rules handling. Nowhere in any book have I read that you MUST go by the storyline or paradigm that they have set up. If you as a storyteller decide that the whole gauntlet winds thing is too harsh or not needed at all then don't use it. This book was well done in my oppinion and should be given some praise.There are only a couple of problems I saw with the whole Mage theme as a whole. 1)WW pretty much left the catch all phrase "Storytellers rule is final" to leave the burden of deciphering the rules and comprehenshion of the basic idea of mage on the ST. The best way I have found to play mage is to just sit down with the other people playing or running the game.. pile together our basic understanding of the game... and then just meet half way with the rulings. Because in the past the rules were so hazy. They are clarified a bit now, but still not what I would call dead set. Well.. not as well as Vampire or Werewolf. 2) The index in this book really stinks. I have only found a handfull of pages that were correct. The ability to find a topic in this book is only as good as you remember what you read because the index is useless. and 3) I would like to see some dead set rules on the Resonance thing. It looks REAL cool but my ST bless his soul is just as clueless as I am when I comes to it. My best understanding is this.. when you botch BADLY your resonance goes down.. and when you complete a spectacular feet your resonance goes up.. for the apropriate type of course. Other than that I love the book. I'm a big mage fan even though my ST hates them because of their SUPER GODLIKE POWERS.. he loved the new paradox rules needless to say. So all I can say to the people complaining about some of the new rules is be more creative. I feel that creativness is the heart of Mage and it shouldn't matter what your doing as long as it is creative and well thought out.
Rating: 
Summary: Junk
Review: The writers obviously did not understand what Mage is all about. How I wish the writers of Mage 1 and some of Mage 2 were still writing for Mage in White Wolf. When you play in a "World of Darkness" you're playing a character that against all odds, in the end, will win, even though despair and darkness are around every corner. Or at least, someday, their cause might win, even if they do not. In this version of Mage, that 'hope' is gone. The Ascension War is lost, and all your character does is sneak around, living his or her little life. Not much of a higher purpose involved there. I haven't purchased the book, just flipped through it at a bookstore and looked at a friends. I wouldn't spend a dime on this travesty. I knew when they were writing it, from rumors that I'd heard, and an actual conversation with one of the writers, that this was not going to be very good, but it's actually downright horrible.
Rating:
Summary: You could just say "No, you can't play a Mage."
Review: This book is an absolute piece of [junk] that is the ruin of Mage. I don't know what White Wolf was thinking when they put this together but it completely ruins the game as a playable system. The only possible chronicles that could come out of it are either Technocratic ones or Tradition ones involving the overthrowing of the Technocracy. It was a definate given that the Technocracy would eventually win the Ascension War, but it was altogether a concept that should have been left up to the Storytellers and players to decide. But this book gives no leeway in the World of Darkness for mage players to evolve any sense of creativity or spontanaeity without serious repercussions from paradox. And nobody likes that much. My suggsetion is that you just stick with the Second Edition rules and system and say the ]heck] with the Third. If you want a Technocratic ruled society, become a Storyteller and design your own.
Rating:
Summary: You could just say "No, you can't play a Mage."
Review: This book is an absolute piece of [junk] that is the ruin of Mage. I don't know what White Wolf was thinking when they put this together but it completely ruins the game as a playable system. The only possible chronicles that could come out of it are either Technocratic ones or Tradition ones involving the overthrowing of the Technocracy. It was a definate given that the Technocracy would eventually win the Ascension War, but it was altogether a concept that should have been left up to the Storytellers and players to decide. But this book gives no leeway in the World of Darkness for mage players to evolve any sense of creativity or spontanaeity without serious repercussions from paradox. And nobody likes that much. My suggsetion is that you just stick with the Second Edition rules and system and say the ]heck] with the Third. If you want a Technocratic ruled society, become a Storyteller and design your own.
Rating: 
Summary: The Best Revision yet!
Review: This game is a descendant of an older White Wolf Game called Ars Magica. The basic concept of this game is to posit a "reality" in which various styles and traditions of magic and technomagic exist in a world much like our own (the World of Darkness). Imagine an RPG (role playing game) in which you play the equivalent of a character like Neo from the "Matrix" who possesses the power to bend reality to your will. This game offers such possibilities. While several editions of this game are available, this latest revision makes the game more playable than all the prior versions. In this new and improved system Mages (those who can work magic) are more restricted by the beliefs of humanity, less able to interact with powerful Mages who are exiled from Earth and more able to create a world of their own. The setting has evolved with the times, modernizing it, streamlining it and putting it in line with the other World of Darkness games such as Vampire and Mummy. The game mechanics are a vast improvement and make the game simpler and more enjoyable. This is truly one of the best RPG games in the market and as a long time storyteller and player it receives my highest rating.
Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: The Best Revision yet!
Review: This game is a descendant of an older White Wolf Game called Ars Magica. The basic concept of this game is to posit a "reality" in which various styles and traditions of magic and technomagic exist in a world much like our own (the World of Darkness). Imagine an RPG (role playing game) in which you play the equivalent of a character like Neo from the "Matrix" who possesses the power to bend reality to your will. This game offers such possibilities. While several editions of this game are available, this latest revision makes the game more playable than all the prior versions. In this new and improved system Mages (those who can work magic) are more restricted by the beliefs of humanity, less able to interact with powerful Mages who are exiled from Earth and more able to create a world of their own. The setting has evolved with the times, modernizing it, streamlining it and putting it in line with the other World of Darkness games such as Vampire and Mummy. The game mechanics are a vast improvement and make the game simpler and more enjoyable. This is truly one of the best RPG games in the market and as a long time storyteller and player it receives my highest rating.
Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: For Clever Players and GMs only...
Review: This is White Wolf's second best game after vampire the masquerade. If you are a GM, just look for intelligence players, otherwise, the game won't be fun. if you are a player and think that you can play this game, look for a clever GM. Playing this game is not easy because you have to use your head for magic. There is no ready spells like AD&D, you are creating your own spells. that's why I'm speaking intelligence. by the way, I hate this "revised" thing that White Wolf started with Vampire. If you can, look for NOT Revised edition, buy this on the last chance.
Rating:
Summary: The Mage Tarot
Review: This item is not the Mage book. ISBN #1565044401 is The Mage Tarot deck.
I couldn't wait to see a deck published after being teased with scattered images of tarot cards in the Mage books, and this is a full deck. All 78 cards!
In addition to the spreads, and interpretations for each of the cards, the booklet lists associations with the traditions, concepts, and creatures of the "World of Darkness". There are also ideas for using the cards to aid in character creation, suggest plotlines and subplots, and more.
This deck is meant as more of a storytelling tool than as a true tarot deck, but I like it both as a gamer, and as a tarot collector.
Rating:
Summary: I miss Phil Brucato
Review: To experienced Magers- The lack of Phil is the problem with this book. Brave of the developers to try and make money *sorry* make it their own, but it is too Vampire. As has been said above, second edition is better (with some tweaking).
To others- buy this book if you have been roleplaying a while, it is pretty complex. It is your game if you like Magic (obviously) Philosophy, the occult, shamanism religion anthropology etc. NOT your game if you like to play superheroes, hit things, or powergame in general.
To say I love Mage is an understatement, I have been playing and running it for seven years (it came out in 1993) and have accidentally obsessed on it. I, like many others, have the first two editions and was eagerly looking forward to the third. As soon as I saw it I was captivated (it's a beautiful edition) but once I had read it I was appalled. Avatar storms? Red stars? Crossovers with Vampire? "Oh my God" I thought, "What have they done?" To me it seems that the WW end-of-the-world storyline has brutalised my favourite game. They destroyed Horizon, killed all the masters, emasculated the Dreamspeakers and cut off the Umbra. Even the way magic works changed, with no plausible explanation.
One of my favourite things about Mage was the immaculately worked out metaphysics (Thanks to Phil Brucato) and the way that was reflected in the way reality worked. That was shattered by 3rd edition, which basically changed the world without explanation. Deus Ex Machina.
Mage should be a framework you run a game in, not a genre in itself. I believe you should be equally able to run a dark conspiracy game as a high fantasy spiritquest or even an apocalyptic ragnarok game, as you choose. WW have pretty much imposed their plot on the game, to it's detriment.
On a more positive note, if you ignore the background plot (Avatar winds, death of all the masters etc) and make up your own, this is great! The mechanics work, the details are great, all you need is this and the Book of Madness and you're away.
Everybody seems to say get 2nd edition instead, I say get them both, and then loads of supplements too, and then play it every week for a few years, then give the books away to a novice player and transcend the books entirely :)
Remember the golden rule- It's The Story That Matters...
Rating:
Summary: Put your d20's down for a bit and look at this
Review: Until I got this book, I was a lifelong D&D player. The d20 system is great, but one of its weaknesses is having too many options and not enough opportunities to use those options. What's the use of having lists of skills and feats a mile long if you only have an extremely limited number of skill slots and feat slots to spend? Enter the White Wolf system of rules. Without classes and levels, you're free to develop a set of strengths and weaknesses which make your character truly unique. Now this can probably be said about any WW game, but I like mage for the genre: present-day to near-future. As a sci-fi and cyberpunk fan, mage meets and exceeds all my expectations of what the genre should be. It's tough, gritty and dark, but the world gives your characters a chance to make a difference. Anyone who wants a mix of magic and modern culture should give this game a try.
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