Mage the Ascension and why it is so hard

[jarratt_gray]

So I'm running a one off Larp in a couple of weeks which will include a couple of Mages and I find myself wondering what have I got myself into. Mage 2nd Ed is a fantastic game with some brilliant ideas and a whole new way of looking at the world

Comments

[jarratt_gray]

That is the other disconnect with Ascension. The mechanical system and the world system are not the same. How you do something mechanically does not connect with how your character views the world and does stuff. This makes things much harder. The world system is fine, but the mechanical system needs to be built in a way that teaches and integrates the world system so that playing ones character and performing magic is a more intuitive and elegant process.

Awakening still could have done with a more elegant system IMO, but conceptually it has a better Mages in the modern world feel. That said the scope of Ascension is amazing. It does fit together, but the idea that the traditions exist as a group is silly, and for the most pat reality deviant, or reality shaper is a better term than Mage.

Awakening Mages are all mages, they all get their magic the same way, they just have different affinities based on how they awakened and therefore they might ritualize their magic differently, but in the end it is all just magic and it all comes from the same place.

[grandexperiment]

But Awakening mages do move toward paradigmal magic with the "advanced path" things whatever they are called. I liked the idea of starting with common ground and moving apart as being more playable.

[jarratt_gray]

Right I never really got that far, but yeah that is cool.

Still I don't know that paradigm differences is a real issue. It creates interesting conflicts among the characters. Some of the best scenes I played in Ascension were based on paradigm discussion/differences/conflicts.

I do agree that starting at that point makes it harder though. It is easier to start somewhere common and change through the course of the game.