3 of 5 Stars!Publisher:by Verified PurchaserDate Added: 03:14:52This book has a lot of good and the bad in my opinion. It repeats a lot of the same stuff over and over and over and over again. The Fluff section could easily either be cut in half or incorporate actual new information. It was nice to see the Disparates in the main book, but having all those groups aligned didn't make a lot of sense.

1. Mage The Ascension 20th Review

The fluff of this book, while containing some really good info overall, has been horribly mismanaged.The Sphere Rank rules seem sometimes to move some stuff just simply for the sake of moving them. A lot of that fluff could have been replaced with a bigger and better setup of what the Spheres can and cannot do. The How Do You Do That book would have been pretty unnecessary then, since that tome is also very repetitive in material.All in all, I enjoyed the book, as a I like some of the old fluff. But honestly, unless you really care about the Disparates in your game, just get a previous edition. This book is largely unnecessary. 5 of 5 Stars!Publisher:by Verified PurchaserDate Added: 20:10:02There's too much to say about how excellent this is - but it can all be culminated in a simple 'This is the BEST version of Mage.' Polygon abstract background after effects.

- any other discussion is just trying to convince you to be 'into' the game - but if you already know you are, then this is the best version to own. If you don't know if you're into Mage - the fact that you're thinking about it, shows you should be, and thus you should have the best version, and this is it. 5 of 5 Stars!Publisher:by Verified PurchaserDate Added: 14:42:50As a fan of World of Darkness fan, I like Vampire 20 and Hunter 20 a lot, and I adore Werewolf 20, I've read the first edition of Mage: The Ascension and so I was very hyped to get M20.M20 is great, the book is superb, explains well to tellers and give a crapton of options. Your players want to play tradition mages? They want to be orphans? They want to see how it is when you're a techno?

It's also aviable!The book is great and I love how much they use examples or details (like the book of Shadowrun 5th) to understand most.The only thing: don't use it with beginners players. Mage is hard to make them understand there are much risks. 4 of 5 Stars!Publisher:by Verified PurchaserDate Added: 00:56:31I was extremely disappointed in the binding and quality of this book. It feels like it might fall apart at any second, and I just opened it. I bought the Premium Heavyweight and the paper is pretty low quality, and I've bought new textbooks at the same price with better paper. The paper honestly feels like I printed it out of my printer on standard 8x11 paper, and threw it in a cheap hardback cover with terrible binding.:(. 4 of 5 Stars!Publisher:by Verified PurchaserDate Added: 07:09:38I have mixed feelings about this product.The book is too heavy for using it at a gaming table easily.

The binding is ok, and I have had no problems with it yet. The quality of the illustrations varies a lot, the quality of the printing in the heavy paperweight version is ok, and the space management and layout of the elements of the book is a bit underwelming.' Ok' means 'sufficient, but not great'.The books gathers a lot of gaming content. It touches the History and metaphisics of Mage, the worlds beyond Earth, and allows for player characters from the Traditions, the Technocracy and the Disparate Alliance factions. It covers a lot of topics but does not move into much depth. Some players claim that certain things are explained in not a deep enough detail for using them in the game despite taking many pages of the book.

I am prety sure any compenent Storyteller will manage to make something out of the content even if it is not explained in full detail, though.The content is badly organized. Certain pieces of information are duplicated, which is a problem because the book is already big as it is. I think it would be hard to follow by a newcomer to Mage: The Ascension.I think the 'focuses' of certain Traditions/Crafts/Conventions are arbitrary and that the authors did not put a lot of thought into making the suggested tools/foci related to the paradigms represented by each faction.

Hence you get cybernetics and hypertech as suggested tools for Verbena mages -who are portrayed as druidic mages with primitivistic beliefs and points of view. A good Game Master is obviously going to hack this if need be, but it looks ugly to me.As a side note, there has been some Internet drama and forum flaming because the authors made an active effort to be socially inclussive towards homosexuals and transexuals, that is, to include characters with gender identity crisis in the fiction and so on. Most of the time it is not annoying and it feels like a natural incussion. Some of the time you feel like they shoehorned a political advertisement at some sidebar. I think they had good intentions but did a lousy job: it is ok to have a computer advertisement in the Linux Magazine; it is ok to have ethics advertisement in a religious magazine; it feels odd to have ethics/political advertisement in high end entertaiment books for which you have paid premium. If they wanted to publish a socially inclusive product, they should have learnt from authors who introduce such concepts in a way that does not feel like the element was placed in the book just because they wanted to do a political declaration. Onyx Path also messed it up pretty badly when addressing related flames in the forums by sutting down, suspending, banning and locking related forum threads and people who disliked the way this was done.The book is entertaining to read and can be used as a source for inspiration.

If my books suddenly burned down, I am not sure I would buy it again, however. Too 'average' for a 20th Anniversary edition. 2 of 5 Stars!Publisher:by Verified PurchaserDate Added: 03:45:43To begin with it's a.meh.

The book is huge, inclusive and slightly updated to modern paradigm. I did sorta like it, there are all sorts of interesting bits that have been underdeveloped or omitted from the previous editions. However, it also has a host of problems that makes it just a next mage dust-off.To begin with, the book is still in 90ies. Written with opinions and language that remind past millenia. For an example, tazer bullets are mentioned as technocractic ammunition, when they are really just sold online, just as already working Life printers.

Paradigm and focus systems aren't well developed. Neither is the influence of modern media and science.On the other hand, it's inflated with repeated unnecessary information that contributes nothing but takes space. To add to frustration whole sections that would be facinating to read are missing under the excuse of 'not enough space'. The fiction bits are mostly horrible and problems that it mostly tries to raise and bring into spotlight of 'mage' attention are mostly irrelavant, uninteresting or misinterpreted. Every problem of the world is basically blamed on the devil.It's also amusing how book treats the reader with the mitten gloves, avoiding the topics and themes that could be considered gritty or insult mainstream sensibilities.Same with crossovers, Beast had dealt with that issue far better. Also, it introduces systems to handicap mages vs other supernaturals. Like giving them near innate ability to countermagic and quite a few other hacks.As for diversity, any mages outside the mainland America are mentioned at best with information that is neither relevant, nor well organised.

Just enough to leave you mentally salivating.To top it off, for a book that should concentrait on diversity and creativity illustrations are horrible. It's either an overcised mage tarot card, or a trendy 20 something with tattoos. Exceptions are rare and far between. 3 of 5 Stars!Publisher:by Verified PurchaserDate Added: 19:48:06It's exactly what you expect: an updated, lightly tweaked version of Mage that casts a wide net across the infinite expanse of the Tellurian.Minor nitpicks:.

Could use another copyediting pass, but anything this large will have that problem. Too big to be an easy introduction to a new player or group. Very short Merits and Flaws list, which may be for the best. How Do You DO That?! Would have made an excellent chapter but instead is its own book. Which makes sense, since it's 143 pages.

I took my sweet, sweet time reading this. It'sa huge book—in terms of pages as well as of weight. Actually, that's the kind of book that makes me feel like breaking into a church to steal a lectern and respectfully place the latter on a pedestal in my living-room, so that I finally have an appropriate reading spot. Except that the whole act wouldn't be respectful in many other ways.Anyway.I discovered Mage: the Ascension in 1998.

Mage The Ascension 20th Review

Possibly earlier than that, if you count the times I had seen it m I took my sweet, sweet time reading this. It'sa huge book—in terms of pages as well as of weight. Actually, that's the kind of book that makes me feel like breaking into a church to steal a lectern and respectfully place the latter on a pedestal in my living-room, so that I finally have an appropriate reading spot.

Except that the whole act wouldn't be respectful in many other ways.Anyway.I discovered Mage: the Ascension in 1998. Possibly earlier than that, if you count the times I had seen it mentioned in RPG magazines. At the time, I was a representative of that rare breed of young (and incidentally female) Storytellers who intended on doing something with this game, apart from using it as a doorstopper.

We used to joke about how you needed to go through a whole tube of aspirin before being able to understand what it was about. And yet, I still wanted to try my hand at it.I never came back from that experience. Even during the years I had stopped gaming, Mage had never left me, not really.This game is full of possibilities. Full of ideas. Bursting with potential. It's all about what you do with it, about viewing the world in so many different ways.

About interpreting reqlity about you. About shaping your own reality—as a much needed reminder, too, that reality is what we make of it, mages or no mages, and that at least for some things, for a lot of things, there may come a time when you have to decide: do I want changes to occur, and will I be the driving force behind those changes?This new edition was a joy to read, from one end to the other. Even some 20 years later, it's still holding that special place in my little shrivelled black heart.And I shall blame it henceforth for adding 'why not run a Technocracy game' to my long list of 'must do's'. Mage has always been the largest and most intensive game within the World of Darkness universe. It consistently tackles the most difficult themes and opens our eyes, Awakening us, to the broadest spectrum of thought.At over 600 pages, the Mage 20th Anniversary edition has outdone itself.

We are presented with nearly every faction conceivable, a new approach to describing 'Focus' and 'Paradigm' (arguably the most important concept of the game) and a new millennium view on technology, sorcery and Mage has always been the largest and most intensive game within the World of Darkness universe. It consistently tackles the most difficult themes and opens our eyes, Awakening us, to the broadest spectrum of thought.At over 600 pages, the Mage 20th Anniversary edition has outdone itself.

We are presented with nearly every faction conceivable, a new approach to describing 'Focus' and 'Paradigm' (arguably the most important concept of the game) and a new millennium view on technology, sorcery and faith.If you have been a fan of old Mage, prepare to be blown away by the updates, clarifications and comprehensiveness. If you have never entered the world of Ascension before, your life is about to change. A love letter for the Mage fans, indeed.Huge.

To the point. Without all the (quite necessary, after all, back in then White Wolf was trying to sell an ongoing series) ambiguitty and obscurity that oWoD books used to have.It was akin to trying to get a sip from a firehose, but oh man, it was entirely worth it. I started playing, and then narrating/dming RPGs back in 1998, and in the early 00's I discovered MtA 2end.My mind was blown.So it was with this edition. As my RPG life (gaming isn't A love letter for the Mage fans, indeed.Huge. To the point.

Without all the (quite necessary, after all, back in then White Wolf was trying to sell an ongoing series) ambiguitty and obscurity that oWoD books used to have.It was akin to trying to get a sip from a firehose, but oh man, it was entirely worth it. I started playing, and then narrating/dming RPGs back in 1998, and in the early 00's I discovered MtA 2end.My mind was blown.So it was with this edition. As my RPG life (gaming isn't as fun as it used to be,as I grow up, family enlarges, and life tooks over) is closing to an end, this is the best farewell party I could have.Thanks, guys. I loved every page. I have a lot of thoughts, a lot on Mage. Impossible to summarise here.

Mage was/is one of my favourite RPGs and I've played (and ran) it a lot over the years.The good stuff, the rules for magick are solid (in line with Revised) with the addition of focus and practices. The rules for Quiet are neat and actually usable. The Technocracy section is brilliant, gave me so many ideas.My big peeve though is that the Otherworlds stuff is very flat. As in, it's very complicated, with multiple layers and I have a lot of thoughts, a lot on Mage. Impossible to summarise here.

Mage was/is one of my favourite RPGs and I've played (and ran) it a lot over the years.The good stuff, the rules for magick are solid (in line with Revised) with the addition of focus and practices. The rules for Quiet are neat and actually usable. The Technocracy section is brilliant, gave me so many ideas.My big peeve though is that the Otherworlds stuff is very flat. As in, it's very complicated, with multiple layers and paths etc.

But no practical examples. No horizon realms described (except for one or two mentions in Technocracy). I couldn't see how I was to use it in a game, except as something that's there and Mages are magical. It's like this massive section that should have been brimming with premises and stuff, but wasn't.Also there wasn't enough example rotes, practices, wonders or merits and flaws at all. I really expected more of this stuff (as in the old line they always had a good selection in the core books) but I understand that the writers have moved all this into two other follow-on books, the Book of Secrets and How DO you do that?

Still, to me, I would have preferred to see other things taken out (like Technocracy getting it's own book and the Otherworlds getting it's own book) and this stuff put in.For me though, I'm a little biased. I've come to prefer Mages in mortal society as a premise, instead of where the original line went, which is Mages in a Mage society do Mage things with other Mages. I didn't like the history. Felt the new crafts were nothing more than a specialisation of the traditions and the oppressed - oppressors stuff had gotten all tumbled up (as in the Traditions were oppressors but the Technocracy were better at it and it was the crafts that were oppressed all along). YMMV with all this but I figured it's worth laying out my biases.I think I would have rated it higher if I had gotten more actually game-able stuff out of it.

I'm planning a campaign to run and half the core book offers me little. This was a frustrating book to read.

Role playing books are always more than half technical manual, and this book really failed on that front. I have read a lot of RPG books in my day and I have more than a passing familiarity with the World of Darkness, but I found this book confusing and overwritten.

Without the turgid prose, this book could have cut by 100 pages.With that being said, there are some great ideas in here. They could just be presented much better, and I suspect they aren’t as pr This was a frustrating book to read.

Role playing books are always more than half technical manual, and this book really failed on that front. I have read a lot of RPG books in my day and I have more than a passing familiarity with the World of Darkness, but I found this book confusing and overwritten. Without the turgid prose, this book could have cut by 100 pages.With that being said, there are some great ideas in here. They could just be presented much better, and I suspect they aren’t as profound as the author thinks they are.