Mage the Ascension AAR (plans)

[Martinus]

A friend of mine is going to run a Mage of Ascension (that is the good old Mage, not the new Atlantean thing) chronicle and I thought it may be cool to post AARs from our sessions here, if people are interested at all in reading it.

The chronicle is set in modern day London and we are supposed to start as Sleepers, but with a definite Tradition in mind. So far we have:

- Cult of Ecstasy (a minor horror slash author, with an interest in psychoanalysis and occultism),
- Order of Hermes (a history and anthropology student),
- Akashic Brotherhood (a fake 'psychic detective'),
- Sons of Ether (a chick with an interest in fringe science), and
- Verbena (a fat wiccan chick).

[Barrister]

I loved the Mage setting - certainly my favourite World of Darkness setting.

But it always struck me as almost impossible to run.

[Caliga]

I loved the Mage setting - certainly my favourite World of Darkness setting.

But it always struck me as almost impossible to run.

Belive it or not, Wraith was even worse.

[Barrister]

I loved the Mage setting - certainly my favourite World of Darkness setting.

But it always struck me as almost impossible to run.

Belive it or not, Wraith was even worse.

I had Wraith as well - didn't seem quite so bad as a game whose basic premise is "reality is subjective".

[Caliga]

The issue with Wraith is that, because of the way the Shadow mechanic works, the gameplay becomes extremely confrontational.  You need to have a very, very patient group of roleplayers or it simply doesn't work.

[Barrister]

I have to back out of this debate.  It's been so long since I read any of this stuff I can't remember what the "shadow mechanic" even is.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Being a fan of Ars Magica I approve of the Order of Hermes.

[ulmont]

But it always struck me as almost impossible to run.

Always a great contest with the GM...anything a player can spin a decent bullshit narrative about is 1) doable and 2) coincidental.

[Caliga]

I have to back out of this debate.  It's been so long since I read any of this stuff I can't remember what the "shadow mechanic" even is.

Every Wraith has a Shadow, which is a split personality that is always trying to undermine the Wraith and make it fall to Oblivion (wherein it will often become a Spectre).  While you portray your own Wraith, another player has to portray your Shadow.

[Delirium]

But it always struck me as almost impossible to run.

Always a great contest with the GM...anything a player can spin a decent bullshit narrative about is 1) doable and 2) coincidental.

I concur. Although I would say collaboration is key: Mage is where I learned to work with the players, encouraging their narrative as a way of moving the story forward.

[Martinus]

Ok, so a bit of background about my character (the Cultist of Ecstasy wannabe; for uninitiated - we are using the Virtue/Vice system from the nWod instead of Nature/Demeanor, but everything else is old WoD).

Name: Sebastian Harker

Age: 30

Virtue: Fortitude

Vice: Lust

Essence: Primordial

Background: Received classical, upper class education. Read psychiatry and medicine at Magdalen College, Cambridge. Keenly interested in occultism and mind altering substances, he published a (widely debunked by the Royal Psychiatric Society) paper, claiming that various forms of demon and spirit summoning were in fact early attempts at psychoanalysis, with the "summoned" entities representing aspects of human psyche, and could have been successful, given a sufficient level of autohypnosis, self-abuse or intoxication. He has also published some dark fantasy / horror stories (bordering on soft porn) in some niche magazines. He now lives in West End, living off a moderate stipend given to him by his father and meagre royalties from his stories, working on a book about his theory.

Family: Father is Rt. Hon. William Harker, a former Tory MP, created a life peer by Mme Thatcher for his service to the party. Unsurprisingly, he considers Sebastian a disgrace. (As a hook for the Storyteller, he is possibly a low level Greyface).

Contacts: Phil "Piglet" Brook, a former colleague from Magdalen, now working as a coroner for the Met. Gavin Kirkup, the editor of a gay mag that sometimes publishes Sebastian's stories.

Recent Events: Few weeks ago, after returning from a night at a Soho fetish club, positively pissed, Sebastian attempted to summon, just for kicks, a demon from "Goetia". The event failed utterly, however ever since he has been having dreams about some strange figure. He could also swear he could sometimes see the figure at the periphery of his vision - he writes it off as a result of too much work, drugs and alcohol. (This is his "Manifest Avatar", i.e. a constantly present Avatar which is visible only to him and noone else; he is going to be a pain in the ass when Sebastian Awakens. Think a chav version of Tyler Durden meets Loki Lyesmith ).

Intended spheres: Time, Mind, Fate, Spirit.

Intended foci: Sex, pain, sigils, hypnosis, hallucinogens, sensory deprivation

[Martinus]

But it always struck me as almost impossible to run.

Always a great contest with the GM...anything a player can spin a decent bullshit narrative about is 1) doable and 2) coincidental.

I concur. Although I would say collaboration is key: Mage is where I learned to work with the players, encouraging their narrative as a way of moving the story forward.

I agree.

I also love characters who are flawed, do not always act rationally and offer many opportunities for a GM to "fuck them up" - i.e. come up with interesting story hooks. There is nothing more boring than a water-tight character with no weaknesses, who always acts like a cool-headed chess player.

[Martinus]

I loved the Mage setting - certainly my favourite World of Darkness setting.

But it always struck me as almost impossible to run.

We are using the revised (third) edition of Mage, which has some changes that imo make it easier to run. For example, most of the Umbra is unaccessible (due to a storm that started), so it is limited to the "normal" world, which makes it more predictable.

[Martinus]

That being said, I successfully ran Amber Diceless for several months in the past and it was a great experience - and this game is just crazy when it comes to the opportunities player have.

[Neil]

You might be more creative than I gave you credit for.