Rating: 
Summary: Magic without the K
Review: I have been playing Mage for 5 years now, and have quite the collection of the books. When I heard that Phil Brucato was leaving the line, I was dismayed, for he has brought such a wonderful vision of what the world was like in the setting. It was with great trepidation that I purchased this new edition of Mage. I was hoping for something akin the the Revised Edition of Vampire (which is outstanding). I was disappointed, but relieved at the same time. I gave it four stars, only because technically it is quite well. It clears up some rules, revises the game rules to use the Revised Combat section, and cleans up a few minor problems that the other edition had. But as for an enjoyable read, this book fall flat. It is missing a great story ideas of the previous editions. It makes the game more selfish, and more depressing, rather than something with a glimmer of hope. The game takes away the world spanning information, and instead makes everything more or less self-centered. Something that goes against the basic feeling of the game in general. If you are looking to get into Mage, this isn't a bad way to start, but really try to find earlier material, because it is what the game is really about, and just use the cleaned up rules. If you are an experienced mage player or storyteller, than you can skip over most of it, although the Revised rules are nice, and makes things a bit better.
Rating: 
Summary: M:TA Revised. So close and yet so far
Review: I have found the White Wolf system to be a simple, easy to learn system. It is easy to make characters. Adventures take a bit more work, but WW has some good notes out there. You need a lot of dice, but they are all the same type.
It does require a bit more care & work from the GM to avoid the players abusing the system, but on the whole I find it to be one of the better game systems I have worked with. My main 2 gripes against them are: 1) There are a lot of things they put in suplements that should have been included in the main book. 2) They need a crossover campain book.
M:TA Revised has simplified a number of rules from previous editions. I haven't read all of their other revised eds, but it looks like they are working toward a simpler system that is easier to combine with other White Wolf games. (Hopefully, they are working on gripe 2.)
I hear a lot of people complaining about some of the rules, like the rules for paradox & spirits. My advice to those people is ... If you don't like the rule, don't apply it. White Wolf even tells you this in the book.Now the bad parts...
It needs more reference tables. Previous eds were much easier to look up info quickly.
Some things need more descriptions and/or creation rules... Resonance, Talisman, Fetish,... (This may be a case of Gripe #1 though, since I haven't read the Companion)
They need more sample rotes to help the new players out, and to save the GMs from the old players.
The index is an embarrasment. Take Paradox for example. There are 6 references in the index. 2 are incorrect (the word does not appear on the page). 1 refers to a table. The other 3 refer to single paragraphs. 9 groups of 3 or more paragraphs on Paradox were left off. Summary:
If this was software, I would wait for the patch. Since this is a book, the patch will probably never happen. If you like taking games and editing them, get this one.
If you have previous M:TA or M:TSC works, you might want to get this one. The previous eds make good supplements for this one.
Rating:
Summary: Worth it despite some flaws
Review: I just started running a chron (my third Mage chronicle), and we transitioned to Revised rules seamlessly. Overall, MAGE Revised is definitely worth the money. The clearer rules made a deep (and positive) impact on the flavor and pace of my game. WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Some art is cartoony, and the fiction is bland compared to the First and Second Edition material -- the intro piece in particular is simply an infodump without much entertainment value. Rules on the backgrounds of Node and Wonder and the new trait of Resonance are intriguing, but should have been clarified in the core book or wholly moved to another publication. Inclusion of such vague rules introduces confusion into the core sourcebook. In addition, some of the changes to the Sphere rules change the Sphere interaction somewhat drastically, and adding a page summarizing those changes would have been helpful to Second Edition players. WHAT WORKS: Rules for casting are much clearer, and the new rules on foci work beautifully. Putting a new emphasis on ritual encourages players to treat magic like magic, not psi or superpowers. Merits and Flaws are a welcome addition to the core book, and they include some wonderfully creative eye-openers. The clarification of rules governing Avatar, Arete, and accumulated successes are excellent. Aside from the omissions mentioned above, the rules are well-written and clear up a number of gray areas from Second Edition. Expanded material on the Traditions provides a nice overview of the various factions and weaknesses of each Tradition. Each Tradition receives four pages of text that present an overview of the factions, group organization and philosophy, group drawback, and the usual stereotypes of other Traditions. The stereotypes possess far less attitude than in previous editions, but this is a minor personal quibble on my part. Each Tradition includes a new faction not presented in previous materials. There IS a long-term plot cooking in the background now. In previous incarnations of MAGE, the Ascension War offered more of a framework than a metaplot. It was a formless war in many ways, and never seemed to carry over consistently between books. The MAGE universe seems a lot less static now, and I like the new sense of direction and momentum. MAGE Revised presents a darker look at the MAGE setting. However, it doesn't seem that different than the old mood. Contrasting a more personal street-level flavor with the epic aspects of MAGE makes the magical side of the game that much more powerful. The book contains plenty of story ideas and is not limiting in the least. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Not Better, Just different
Review: I remember Mage: the Ascension from it's first edition way back when, and it was a really good tabletop RPG. Players were mystic (or even technomantic, in the cases of the Virtual Adepts and Sons of Ether) revolutionaries fighting for mankind's freedom of thought, misfits championing ancient and/or fringe beliefs that could make people's lives better, protectors of cultural diversity in the face of the Technocracy's homogenizing cultural influence. I remember Mage Second Edition, which refined all this a bit and delved more into how Mages fit into the rest of the World of Darkness. This, too, was good, as Mages are as much a part of the world as anything else. And now there's the revised edition, the one above. The Technocracy and the spirit worlds aren't really dealt with in this book to leave space for dealing with the core rules. Yes, those things are important, but they have long since had their own sourcebooks for players interested in them. The Umbra in particular isn't discussed because starting players, given the current (as of this book's publication) metaplot, can't get there. Mages have been cut off from their friends and places of power in the spirit worlds, and are now forced to do what they had been avoiding for so long: dealing with the rest of the world on a regular basis. How do you champion individuality for an apathetic populace? How do defend freedom of thought for people who don't want to think for themselves? Is it worthwhile to aspire for wisdom, enlightenment, and personal gain while the rest of the world goes to hell in a handbasket? This edition of Mage: The Ascension is just as good as all the others, and brings up whole new themes for players and Storytellers alike to enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Not Better, Just different
Review: I remember Mage: the Ascension from it's first edition way back when, and it was a really good tabletop RPG. Players were mystic (or even technomantic, in the cases of the Virtual Adepts and Sons of Ether) revolutionaries fighting for mankind's freedom of thought, misfits championing ancient and/or fringe beliefs that could make people's lives better, protectors of cultural diversity in the face of the Technocracy's homogenizing cultural influence. I remember Mage Second Edition, which refined all this a bit and delved more into how Mages fit into the rest of the World of Darkness. This, too, was good, as Mages are as much a part of the world as anything else. And now there's the revised edition, the one above. The Technocracy and the spirit worlds aren't really dealt with in this book to leave space for dealing with the core rules. Yes, those things are important, but they have long since had their own sourcebooks for players interested in them. The Umbra in particular isn't discussed because starting players, given the current (as of this book's publication) metaplot, can't get there. Mages have been cut off from their friends and places of power in the spirit worlds, and are now forced to do what they had been avoiding for so long: dealing with the rest of the world on a regular basis. How do you champion individuality for an apathetic populace? How do defend freedom of thought for people who don't want to think for themselves? Is it worthwhile to aspire for wisdom, enlightenment, and personal gain while the rest of the world goes to hell in a handbasket? This edition of Mage: The Ascension is just as good as all the others, and brings up whole new themes for players and Storytellers alike to enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Nice updates but suffers from large omissions
Review: I resisted picking up a copy of Mage Revised even though I believe the Mage system is the best one in the World of Darkness. Mage 2nd Edition was so complete and well written that I didn't feel there was a need to get another main source book. What could White Wolf possibly do to improve on a book that was already so perfect? In an effort to keep up to date with the game I ordered a copy of Mage Revised and sat down with it. Let's start off with some good things I found in the book. Much like Vampire Revised, the book was well written and a lot of the systems have been cleaned up. The Traditions each got a few more pages worth of descriptions, which was great. Each one had numerous subdivisions and they were discussed briefly, but concisely. There were a few changes in each Tradition but overall they remained the same. The magic systems were reworked extensively. The description of the spheres was detailed and easy to follow, for the most part. Most of the spheres remained the same with minor changes here and there. A lot of the more devastating effects have been toned down. Magical effects can be fine tuned by the mage by dividing successes on duration and effect intensities. Finally, the Technocratic Union was not painted as the antagonist. I felt this was a good move since it is really up to the storyteller and players to decide whom the antagonists are. Yes they can still be used as the monolithic [enemy] but the gray areas of good and bad have grown to encompass them. Despite the many positive points used primarily to balance out Mages with the other denizens of the World of Darkness, there were also many problems with the book. One of the largest flaws was the lack of treatment of the Technocracy. The Technocracy had won the Ascension War but we got only two pages about it. Players and Storytellers will have to acquire the Guide to the Technocracy to flesh out this major faction of PC-compatible mages. Another large omission was information on the Umbra, Paradox Spirits, and Umbrood in general. This lack of information makes the Spirit sphere and possibly the Dreamspeakers somewhat PC-unfriendly. The metaplot had taken a front seat of the game. There was some dimensional storm that made piercing the Gauntlet dangerous and difficult, another blow to the Spirit Sphere. Most of the archmagi have been killed when the dimensional storm hit, which left most of the younger mages on Earth to fend for themselves with little experienced training. Doissetep and Concordia have been destroyed, but there was no information on exactly how these powerful strongholds went under. There was also the mention of some weird red star in the Umbra. I noticed this was mentioned in the Guide to the Technocracy, as well but there was little elaboration. Talismans and Devices were mentioned in the book but there was no information on how to make them. Almost all of the omissions I mentioned above were discussed in depth in Mage 2nd Edition. Though the discussions were brief, they provided enough information for you to make up the rest of the information as you see fit. There was also less of a reliance on the metaplot, thus encouraging storytellers to weave any type of story they deemed appropriate. Though you can still do that, the metaplot has influenced many aspects of the game. So is this book worthy of purchase? The answer is maybe. If you have Mage 2nd Edition, you probably don't need this book to run a good game. You can find a lot of the Revised systems in other core source books. If you are new to Mage than I strongly suggest you don't get this book unless you plan to purchase Guide to the Technocracy and the Book of the Worlds or the Infinite Tapestry. Get Mage 2nd Edition instead. So who should really consider getting this book? I would say people who want to keep up to date with the game and those who already have Mage 2nd Edition. Though a lot of the information was not new, I saw it more as an update to the existing system rather than a full replacement for 2nd Edition. It serves as an additional reference to the rules, which should clear up the sections that were unclear in 2nd Edition. Mage Revised wasn't a bad purchase for me because I had all of the supplements that adequately filled in all of the omitted information. But new storytellers should be aware that games that are run with only Mage Revised will be mostly limited to street-level survival games.
Rating:
Summary: Well...
Review: I run a a Mage LARP, not a tabletop. However, I have still found this book to be a valuable resource. Where the Laws of Ascension books skim over details, this book fills in the gaps. I have no experience with the previous incarnations of this game, but I like the direction this game is going in. This game focuses on the small changes that characters can make to make bigger changes for the world. It gives storytellers more room to take the game in the direction they want it to go in.
Rating:
Summary: A Storyteller's Perspective
Review: I run a Mage game, and I like Third edition slightly better than 2nd. Admittedly, I don't particularly care for Technocrats, so my games rarely deal with the White Wolf meta-plot. However, the Ascension war being over seems logical, and even overdue; how could the Traditions, disparate, ill-organized, and argumentative, hope to triumph over hundreds of years of subtle work by the impeccably organized Technocratic Conventions? Many of the complaints about 3rd ed., however, seem to center around the new difficulties for mages -- the Avatar Storm, increased Paradox, et c. However, if you look at the rest of the White Wolf World of Darkness games, you will see that mages have always been extremely powerful. A werewolf can take a mage in a fight, but not if the mage has time to prepare for him. The average mage can take down the average vampire easily, even using the White Wolf edict that considering vamps simple objects and transmuting them into lawnchairs should not be allowed. As for mage vs. a Fae, there is no contest. I have not read the revised editions of Werewolf or Vampire; however, in 2nd edition Changeling, which fits into the Revised publishing timeline, new abilities have been added to allow fae to more dramatically affect the mundane world, including ways of making your magical sword and pet dragon visible and dangerous to non-fae. I understand that balancing gestures are also being made in the other Revised books. White Wolf is attempting to even the playing field between the different books, so that if someone wants to, as people invariably do, mix PCs from different books together, the experience will be pleasant and balanced. As a Mage GM, I am very aware of how powerful the characters really are; luckily, the players I work with are intelligent and creative, and their characters have paradigms and personality quirks that keep them from abusing their power. Three dots of Mind and you can brute-force information and cooperation from the GM's painstakingly built Non Player Characters, for example. Mage is a very high-powered system, and a few checks and balances aren't at all unreasonable.
Rating:
Summary: What's all the fuss about?
Review: I simply don't understand the fuss being raised over the new edition of Mage. True, I concede that a few things were left out and I fault the publishers for that but the arguements being raised seem to be attacking the line developer as a common theme. The key is to not allow yourself to be tied down by the books. If you don't like something then change it. If you still want masters, then use them. If you don't want the avatar winds to figure into your game, then toss them out. I find it sad that most people had already made up their minds in regards to the new edition before they had even read it. Personally, I think the line is being taken in a good direction. The Adepts are no longer geeks, the Akashics aren't Bruce Lee knock-offs, the whole, silly neo-pagan, omni-Celtic Verbena stereotype has been at least checked. Most impressive of all is the elimination of the masters. Logically, the war is not over no matter what the creators may say. It has simply been put on the back-burner as no one has the collective oomph at the moment to push for victory. The marionettes have no more strings and the race is now about who will have control of their faction when the fighting starts again. Though darker and grittier, the game is now loaded with long-term possibility. You no longer play a simple Traditionalist cog, disreputable solitaire or sullen Hollower but someone who now has a chance of advancement where there was none before. The only catch is that they have to survive.
Rating:
Summary: Experience Issue?
Review: I somewhat disagree with the other posts by the "veterans", however that could be because this was the first Mage book I began on. I mean, yes, I disagree with the fact that some story elements are missing, Mood and the Example Of Play section for example leaves you kind of lost.Call me Technocratic, but I feel that the Paradox system is efficient, and the read overall isn't as confusing as most players can rumor it to be. "It's like rolling dice to a freakin' VCR manual!" I got the substance out of this book, but the actual purpose of a Mage after the Ascension War is still hazy to me...Which actually leaves a player with more reason to become an Ecstatic. Whatever, though. Being the die-hard White Wolf fan that I am, I'm satisfied enough with the Revised publication.
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