Rating: 
Summary: It's White Wolf... what can I say?
Review: Let me start my review by saying that I view all White Wolf games (at least the 5 main games) as being equal. That's right, I'm not going to promote one book over another. The beauty of all White Wolf games is the "Golden Rule:" The game is up to the storyteller and players. If you don't like an idea, change it or ignore it completely. This works quite well with small groups if you feel comfortable with table top or LARP. However, when you get to larger groups (esp. roleplaying online) it's more difficult to decide on which rules are practical and which ones aren't. This edition of Mage *does* have a slight problem with clear definition of rules and systems, and I've yet to see any of White Wolf's books completely cover the systems as they pertain to other games (for example, can a hedge wizard be discovered as such using the gift "Scent of the Trueform?"). As with all of White Wolf games, I think this is a game best played with a small group of close friends. Now a little more about White Wolf and specifically Mage. I don't know how many have noticed this, but all of these games probably seem like they're shaped after Myths or other real-world beliefs (no matter how obscure). The reasoning for this: They are! Take a look through the bibliography of a White Wolf book and marvel at the resources. This is one area where I would promote Mage above the other books (although I said I wouldn't) because in reading through this you get a small glimpse at the beliefs of so many other cultures. What's even scarier - notice how people of different cultures seem like they live in "another world?" If you really think about it, the Mage concept isn't hard to follow at all. We see this in everyday life. We believe things to be one way, and that's true for us. Others believe differently, and that makes their reality. What happens when the two collide? Disagreements, fights, all-out wars (think of the Inquisition)... It's really a great game to get into, but if you're not all that much of a roleplaying fan it's just nice to read and ponder the concept. Great little quotes and mini-stories, too!
Rating: 
Summary: My Favorite WoD Game, Hands Down.
Review: Let's face it, in the World of Darkness, hope is all too rare. Vampires are abberations of the natural order whose agelessness serves only to illustrate the beauty of death. Werewolves are fighting a losing battle against the Wyrm, the spirit of active destruction. Wraiths are dead souls wishing for Oblivion. Hunters are angsty mortals with nary a clue about their benefactors' identities ... but they kill the Outsiders anyway. (Changelings I don't know, sorry.) And among all this chaos ... the Mage stands tall, looking to Ascend. Oh, it's not all fuzzy bunnies, being a Mage. There's pain, and death, and the rest of the World of Darkness to contend with. But Mages have something to fight for other than survival. They have ideals. (Perhaps morbid ideals, but nobody ever said morbid is wrong ...) They have dreams. And, in the World of Darkness as in our own world, the perception of reality shapes reality itself. (Okay, I play too many Malkavians in Vampire. So sue me.) This is what it means to be a Mage. It would take far more space than I have here to explain the worldview behind Mage. Suffice it to say that Mage (at least Second Edition) is positive in outlook, with a scope that encourages the imagination. This setting focuses on wonder, pain, and Ascension to a higher state. The group Storyteller will either love this game or hate it: love because of the openness of a magic system that's actually -realistic- (okay, you Christians are probably laughing at me now - oh well), or hatred because you've just spent twenty hours of preparation on Umbral Lords and now your players just want to use the spirit world to break into a Technocracy stronghold. When I read this book for the first time, it was almost a spiritual experience. This is what a magical RPG is supposed to be like, in my view. However, hack-n-slashers can wreak havock on the system, mainly through over-use of Forces. I find that taking Forces away entirely is the best way to deal with this nuisance ... although with a group of powermongers, perhaps Werewolf would be a better game for you. Warning: Revised Mage takes all the wonder and hope out of the setting and leaves you with the same old gloom and croon of the rest of the World of Darkness. The developers certainly did a wonderful job of making sure that the backstory fit the rest of the WoD, but I'm rather sorry to see hope go. (Life is painful enough without vicarously living through a rotting pile of bones, IMHO.) So, I proudly recommend Mage: The Ascension Second Edition to the Real Roleplayers and Loonies out there, Revised Mage to the Real Men among you (heaven help us all), and Harvard to the Munchkins that exist like worms at the heart of every gaming group...
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite WoD Game, Hands Down.
Review: Let's face it, in the World of Darkness, hope is all too rare. Vampires are abberations of the natural order whose agelessness serves only to illustrate the beauty of death. Werewolves are fighting a losing battle against the Wyrm, the spirit of active destruction. Wraiths are dead souls wishing for Oblivion. Hunters are angsty mortals with nary a clue about their benefactors' identities ... but they kill the Outsiders anyway. (Changelings I don't know, sorry.) And among all this chaos ... the Mage stands tall, looking to Ascend. Oh, it's not all fuzzy bunnies, being a Mage. There's pain, and death, and the rest of the World of Darkness to contend with. But Mages have something to fight for other than survival. They have ideals. (Perhaps morbid ideals, but nobody ever said morbid is wrong ...) They have dreams. And, in the World of Darkness as in our own world, the perception of reality shapes reality itself. (Okay, I play too many Malkavians in Vampire. So sue me.) This is what it means to be a Mage. It would take far more space than I have here to explain the worldview behind Mage. Suffice it to say that Mage (at least Second Edition) is positive in outlook, with a scope that encourages the imagination. This setting focuses on wonder, pain, and Ascension to a higher state. The group Storyteller will either love this game or hate it: love because of the openness of a magic system that's actually -realistic- (okay, you Christians are probably laughing at me now - oh well), or hatred because you've just spent twenty hours of preparation on Umbral Lords and now your players just want to use the spirit world to break into a Technocracy stronghold. When I read this book for the first time, it was almost a spiritual experience. This is what a magical RPG is supposed to be like, in my view. However, hack-n-slashers can wreak havock on the system, mainly through over-use of Forces. I find that taking Forces away entirely is the best way to deal with this nuisance ... although with a group of powermongers, perhaps Werewolf would be a better game for you. Warning: Revised Mage takes all the wonder and hope out of the setting and leaves you with the same old gloom and croon of the rest of the World of Darkness. The developers certainly did a wonderful job of making sure that the backstory fit the rest of the WoD, but I'm rather sorry to see hope go. (Life is painful enough without vicarously living through a rotting pile of bones, IMHO.) So, I proudly recommend Mage: The Ascension Second Edition to the Real Roleplayers and Loonies out there, Revised Mage to the Real Men among you (heaven help us all), and Harvard to the Munchkins that exist like worms at the heart of every gaming group...
Rating:
Summary: Love it or hate it...
Review: M:TA seems to be one of those games people either love or hate. It's been my favorite in the storyteller series ever since it first came out. It's strengths are it's unusual premise (beleif determines reality), it's strong character orientation (the game practically forces you to define a belief system for your character), and the malleability of the setting. Are you interested in philosphical stories pondering reality, religion, and beleif? Do you want an action shootemup with cyborgs and gun-toting hermeticists? Maybe you'd like to do a sci-fi space opera? The setting can be adapted to all these genres and more. True, it also demands that you take a new approach to gaming and that the player accept more responsibility for placing limits on their own characters. Your first game can be extremely difficult. And there are, as others have pointed out, some rather annoying inconsistencies in the rules (particularly with regards to the mechanics of paradox). On the whole, though, this is still very much my favorite game. the rules are flexible and allow you maximum discretion and creativity. Those of you chafing under the class and alignment restrictions of AD$D will find this game a welcome change.
Rating:
Summary: All you need for free flowing elite gaming..best game WW has
Review: Mage is a great book in that it can be as simple and as complex as you want, with the typical WW anarchy when it comes to a storyteller following the writen rules...a much more plausible system of magic than the T$R crap with rules only to handicap with hardly a good explanation...And the magick system is much more plausible than the RIFTS system, which parallels T$R slightly but gives more explanations and better spells....This is the perfect game for elite players because it gives so much individual play into what the player wants magick to be for their character...Definitely a little too complex to be someone's first game without a satey net of good players though, but that's hardly a bad point...Put simply, White Wolf's World of Darkness is the best multiverse RP system, and Mage is the best part of it...
Rating:
Summary: An excellent and indepth metaphysical RPG
Review: Mage is the most indepth and interesting RPG I've ever played. It deals with magick in a frighteningly real way, and paints the opposing forces of the technocracy and the traditions as vivid and realistic. The conflict is very alive; I've come across people playing the game from both sides, and both sides of the battle are equally justifiable. One of the few games that knows even evil thinks it's doing the right thing.
Rating:
Summary: Mage is the Best RPG around
Review: Mage: the Ascension, for which this is the basic rulebook, is an RPG that takes magic into the modern world and then turns right around and makes magic of science, and reality a function of the will. A game for dreamers, philosophers, and armchair mystics, Mage is everything a mature RPG should be.
Rating:
Summary: Reality is at your will.
Review: My favorite of the all the White Wolf games, Mage the Ascension is also the most flexible. People who role play with me say that I have a wild imagine, and with Mage, that is true! Wacked story lines, heavy individuality between characters, styles, and an endless variety of magickal abilities make this one rock. A character doesn't need linear Disciplines, single-purpose Gifts, dead Arcanos, or any other stuff. Reality is what you make of it ( of course that can be dangerous and more then a little weird :}). White Wolf better continue this series deep into the future with tradition books, etc.
Rating: 
Summary: Sounds like good ideas -- and then breaks down...
Review: Oh, White Wolf has brought another helping of teenage angst into the world. Mage is the second most intriguing concept they have come up with (Changeling is the best), but it falls apart is so many ways that it is hard to tell where to begin. I guess the magic is the best place as it is so central. Everything in Mage is about personal and collective perceptions. Good start. Magic doesn't usually work because most people do not believe that it can work. Again, good. Therefore when a magus attempts a spell around nonbelievers there is a high chance of failure unless the spell is incredibly subtle. Wonderful! And when a magus attmepts a spell with no nonbelievers around, there is a high chance of failure... Why? If the use of magic or science is based on personal beliefs and biases, then a magus in the presence strictly of other magi or off by himself should be able to go to town; this would fit with the underlying philosophy. Not so! The world itself, which appears to be the ultimate Tabla Rasa in so many instances, reacts negatively to the magic. I am tired of the Doomed Gothic-Punk world of White Wolf. Most of the ideas are retreads of my high school days (I graduated in 1977...). Magi with guns just seems silly. Magi with computers is interesting, but seems to work at cross purposes to the underlying premise of the game -- belief systems. Nice for some ideas; poor if you actually follow the philosophy out to its logical conclusion. The gaming system itself is nothing to write home about, either. Not really bad, but not really good. It just sits there. Most of the 15-25 crowd will adore this game. I'll stick to Ars Magica
Rating:
Summary: Take the art of Storytelling one step further.
Review: One of the greatest Role Playing games on the market. Make your Friends discover the fantastic and horrible world of darkness, a place where everything is possible and the war for Ascension rages between the most powerful beings the world has ever seen. Use true Magick to chape reality to your bidding, nothing is impossible, but be sure to disguise your actions to the sleeper society, or else your chances are thin to reach Ascension.
I recomend this game to all who is intersted in Role playing games. Henrik Lindh
| 
