A comparison of Mage: the Ascension and Mage: the Awakening
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[EDITED]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[/img]
FrankT:
We're going to do something similar to an OSSR here, but with two products instead of one. Actually, it's closer to four products, because oMage went through some pretty hefty revisions over the years it was active. oMage came out with its first edition in 1993, came out with a second edition in 1995, and came out with a “Revised Edition” in 2000. I guess they thought that calling it “3rd Edition” would keep it from doing well (considering it got the green light before 3rd edition D&D came out, this is not as pants on head retarded as it sounds). I'm mostly going to be looking at the Revised Edition for direct comparisons. We will not, of course, be doing direct chapter to chapter comparisons, because nMage has four less chapters and eighty two more pages than oMageR. We will also not be doing a chapter by chapter writeup of these books at all, because oMageR and nMage together clock in at a bit over seven hundred pages. And we're talking coffee table book pages, not novel pages.
We may actually do side by side comparisons of the prologues and epilogues of these books, because those are actually short and similar enough for that to make sense.
AncientH:
Both games feature a rather similar premise: it’s a Gothic Punk modern day world, and you the player character are one of the few Awakened characters that can reach behind the false façade of everyday life and tinker with the stuff of reality—in other words, however you chose to describe it, you can do magic.
This is in itself not a terribly new premise; the Gnostics were preaching hidden knowledge, mystic powers, and the select few around the time of Christ, and a bunch of groups that shall remain nameless still do it today. Hell, The Matrix and Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles is explicitly this same kind of premise, and if you reach back only a little ways you get Robert Anton Wilson’s The Illuminatus Trilogy and Aleister Crowley’s system of Thelema.
So as with Vampire: the Masquerade, the creators of Mage: the Ascension were not plowing new fields so much as kitchensinking a lot of old ones – but that’s okay, because before Mage most magical systems were stuck in fairly well-defined modern fantasy mindsets – one part Tolkien, one part Lovecraft, one part Moorcock, two parts Jack Vance, shake well and serve over crunchy numbers. oMage, at least, was a bit of a break from the conventional magic-user paradigm—even with respect to Ars Magica, as we shall see.
FrankT:
oMageR credits nine people with “creating” oMage. Wikipedia credits six people with “designing” oMage, and only about half of them overlap. I don't fucking know. It's clear that there were way too many cooks in this kitchen. nMage is even more insane: there are thirteen people credited with “concept and design”, with another seven people tasked with actually “writing” this thing. It is worth noting that Bill Bridges is the only name on all four of these lists (Stewart Wieck is on three), so when Bill Bridges goes off on weird tirades about how Mage is his baby, he's probably less full of shit than you'd think considering that there are literally more than two dozen people listed as having made this thing.
You might think that a book with 19 people working on it (or even just a setting that was created by nine people) would be droolingly incoherent. And neither of these books is going to gainsay you on that point. nMage is one of the most incoherent books I have ever read, and I have read a lot of incoherent books. You can kind of see this coming just by looking at the credits – with half as many people actually writing as there are people telling the writers what to make – and with most of the writers being work-for-hire freelancers having no connection to or feelings for the product. I have worked with Malcolm Sheppard, I respect and like Malcolm Sheppard. But I also know that he is a mercenary who will and has written for games he doesn't like or respect. I respect Stephen Kenson (AncientHistory has a well deserved grudge against him), but I also know that he would write a cancer based role playing game if you gave him money to do so. With the exception of Bill Bridges, there's nobody on the writer list who simultaneously has game writing experience and gives an actual fuck about the work being made.
But while oMage is less incoherent than nMage (as all game books are), it's still an insane rambling diatribe that was already the clear result of too many chiefs and not enough indians.
AncientH:
Part of the problem was the sheer number of influences coming to bear on the game. Vampire: the Masquerade was already an effort to port Ars Magica to a Gothic Punk setting, this was really White Wolf’s attempt to do it even more literally. So you have a game where the setting is essentially late-80s Detroit, when people were afraid Japanese corporations were going to swallow the world, ripped jeans first hit their nadir of coolness, and eyeshadow for men wasn’t just for glamrockers and transvestites anymore, and they’re merging it with this pseudo-Medieval set up of as many different magical societies as they can get, each with their own agenda, and on top of that they layer on the consensus reality shenanigans and the big Mage War against the forces of Science, Technology, and the Illuminati/Corporations/New World Order – who just happen to be mages to. And that’s not even counting the devils…
It was ambitious, and part of the reason it was such a mess is because consensus reality specifically allowed them to kitchensink things. Every magical tradition was allowed to be true for a given level of “true” if only you believed in it – that’s straight Phil Hines chaos magic from the Pseudonomicon – and if you had the Will to impose your changes on reality, which is straight Aleister Crowley/Kenneth Grant stuff (minus most of the sex magic, because nobody really wants to roleplay their character having a wank and trying to conceptualize a shower of gold coins as they ejaculate, or if they do then they can’t do that at my table.)
FrankT:
oMageR was the third edition of oMage, and was explicitly intended to bring the game “down to street level”. I'll let the White Wolf Wiki field this one:
If you thought that came with a divided fan reaction, nMage went “grittier still”, and the fan reaction was to have the entire product line closed with no new editions even before the company shuttered itself altogether.White Wolf Wiki wrote:The Revised edition of Mage purposefully made the game much darker and grittier, declaring the Ascension War all but lost to the Technocracy, and removing all the most powerful Council mages through the device of the Avatar Storm, which also made it much more difficult for mages to travel through the Umbra. These changes were met with a divided fan reaction.
Even in oMageR, shit is crazy compared things in nMage. Or most other games for that matter. It may be more “street level” than earlier incarnations of oMage (heck, it is), but we're talking about a setting that has secret dragons who can warp the laws of physics with their minds and player characters getting the power to invert time and shit. Removing a lot of the higher powered characters and stuff still left it with a game where if you wanted to destroy the world you could just do that. So nMage could have ratcheted things way down and still been deeply in crazy town. And they did.
AncientH:
Ars Magica had a basic Noun/Verb magic system, but oWoD went for an even looser system. This encouraged a high degree of creativity among players and a high level of fielding such efforts of creativity by gamemasters, which means that many sessions probably started and began with long-drawn out arguments about how you could use Entropy ●● to snuff out the sun and things of that sort. It was a game where the laws of physics and chemistry and everything else were explicitly make-believe and operated as they did because that’s the way everyone had subconsciously agreed they would work, but the people writing this weren’t very keen on physics and whatnot to begin with—they were still really stuck in D&D wizard mode mentality, where PCs played old men dressed in robes and incanting things to shoot off fireballs from their hands, and they imagined that is what players would want their characters to do and specifically wrote the setting so those people would lose.
I think part of the problem of oMage is that it almost requires a near-omnipotent bad guy for the setting to make sense. If you aren’t fighting the Empire as helmed by Darth Vader and Palpatine, then your band of rebels would just as happily be beating the shit out of each other because you want Voodoo to reign supreme and the guy next to you wants the universe to have come forth from the Cosmic Egg. By the same token however, at the street level there’s not a whole hell of a lot to fight for – are you going to go set a bunch of text books on fire and hope people will go back to believing in the Greek four element theory that your magic is based off of? Sure, Harry Dresden can wander into the local IRS office that acts as a front for the Technocracy, but how much does that really set the back? So even in 1st edition oMage, you the plucky rebel are supposed to be fighting reality and losing…
…but hey, look at these bitchin’ powers. Mage in every incarnation was all about the power trip, all the neat things you could do with your powers, and how you can overcome the limits. Some people went for enlightenment, others played pimp-my-chantry, but the thing is that the reality of “oh shit, if the Bad Guys wins our magic won’t work” was sort of drowned out by “look at all the neat shit I could do!” It was a supers game where everyone is a reality warper and no-one has any responsibility.
The War
FrankT:
Both oMage and nMage are defined by a central conflict that is supposed to be going on. There's the group of mages that you get to play, and then there is another group of mages that fight you because of a core philosophical conflict. In oMage, the conflict is that the enemy mages want reality to exist the way it does in our world, and you apparently want to overthrow that and replace it with a world of magic where wonderment is everywhere and there is no vaccine for polio. Now you can, and I do, make a pretty compelling case that this is extremely fucked up and that the Mages in oMage are total asshats and having them lose and lose hard would be totally balls to the wall awesome. But we can at least, all agree that this conflict is important and that people taking one side or the other of it seems like something people would want to do.
Putting out Carl Sagan's candles is your mission in oMage
In nMage, the central conflict is between the Seers of the Throne and the other groups of mages, and you play one of the members of the other groups. The Seers attempt to guess what a group of “exarchs” who may or may not exist want, and then carry out those orders; while the other groups want to overthrow those people and take over a tower in the supernal world that may or may not exist and may or may not do anything. So basically, you're playing a religious schism where one side believes that an entirely invisible group of intangible and possibly non-existent idea men are good, while the other side believes that an entirely invisible group of intangible and possibly non-existent idea men are bad. This is the central conflict which is supposed to propel you into battle to risk life and limb in order to drive your point home.
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[/img]
In nMage, you are attempting to make it known that you do not approve of a particular invisible, intangible, possibly nonexistent, group that never says anything and is also secret and wish to replace it with a different one
AncientH:
oMage was a magical kitchensink because every belief was true for a varying degree of true. This allowed oMage to borrow from any magical system and culture they wanted and cram into their point-based set of spheres. nMage however took almost the exact opposite tack—all the fucking magic came from Atlantis, and thus all magic in the world that worked was in some way or form derived from Atlantean magic, and you were all reincarnated or super-old Atlanteans, and that was fucking that.
So nMage took a lot of the mystique out of the setting—and with it went pretty much the entire feel of the game. You don’t get to be Neo in the Matrix anymore, you get to play one of those assholes from movies like The Covenant where random superpowered asshats oppose each other for vaguely defined reasons. Ascension always had in there—right in the fucking title, really—the idea that you could, with hard work and perseverance, become something greater; in Vampire: the Masquerade it was just called Golconda, but in oMage it was a magical/spiritual quest akin to achieving the Buddha nature, with awesome cosmic power as a neat bonus.
FrankT:
The big problem here is that I don't give a damn about the nMage conflict and neither does anyone else. It's all people having different interpretations of some legendary Atlantean stuff that may or may not have actually happened. It's like the part of oVampire where various factions were supposed to be pro- or anti- Antediluvian, but I really can't find any reason to care which way it goes. It isn't that the Exarchs are going to wake up and go all Queen of the Damned on everyone they can catch. They left the Earth, and the biggest threat they pose is that it's possible that no one can follow them. I think this needs a map:
It really doesn't help that not counting the sample characters, the primary antagonists get all of two pages in a four hundred page book. Other than that, you get this blurb at the beginning:
The villains are lobbyists, or possibly a public service worker's union. But they are never given any actual agenda that you would necessarily care about supporting or opposing.nMage wrote:Persistent rivals of all mages are the Seers of the Throne, mages from a mystical order that seeks control of the world in the name of the Exarchs. The Seers do not “own” or run the government, but their agents are certainly influential in the bureaucratic offices, speeding up or slowing down the engines of governance.
AncientH:
One of the problems in both games is that you’re not the only ones using magic. Oh sure, the mages are the only ones running around with “True Magick” and avatars and shit, but vampires have a bunch of different types of blood magic and werewolves have their gifts and faeries have their charms and there’s a metric fuck ton of sorcerers, mummies, psychics, ki-users, and all sorts of other crap wandering around using magic just fucking fine, and they don’t risk their head imploding if they go “Engorgio penes!” during a hot date. oMage sort of handwaved these guys in by pointing out that was all static magic, with highly limited effects and high costs and not at all as bitchin’ as True Magick! (with a k!) nMage though…their entire spiel is basically that all magic worth talking about comes from Atlantis. So the whole static-magic thing never quite had the same jive. Partially I think this is because the guys and gals making nWoD flat-out determined to avoid cross-game shenanigans as much as possible to avoid the kind of Samuel Haight crap that cropped up in oWoD, but mostly I think they didn’t think it through very well.
FrankT:
Don't get me wrong, the oMage war was jacked up. For starters: you're very obviously the bad guys. I mean sure, the books trotted out puppy kicking Technomancers from time to time to try to make you feel better about things, but the fact remains that you're fighting against a system where ordinary people can and do have electric light and running water. Life in the present is objectively better than life in the past. And you're supposed to be returning things to the “glory days” where mystery cults ruled everything, and life expectancy was half of what it is now. People sometimes make fun of religious people or conservatives for wanting to take things back to the Bronze Age, but in oMage that is literally and specifically what you're supposed to be doing.
These are the heroes in oMage, and they are coming to save you from the tyranny of flush toilets and antibioticsOld Mage wrote:We come into the world bloody and squalling; we prey on flesh and fruit for survival; we grow, learn and adapt; we wane and die, only to feed new life. This never-ending cycle occupies the Verbena, and its constant pulse is the heart of the Tradition.
And more than just being one where it is extremely obvious that you're supposed to be fighting on the wrong side, it's also fairly incomprehensible that you haven't already won. See, the way the war is fought is by convincing ordinary people (called “sleepers”) that magic is real. This means that right away that the premise is absurd, since a super majority of people already believe in magic. But it gets weirder than that. You want to convince people that magic exists because until you do, it becomes hard to cast magic while you are being observed. And that manifests with “Paradox”.
Paradox is bad for you. And you get it for “Attempting magic and failing badly can indicate that a spell has gone awry, which incurs Paradox”. And when you have it in large quantities, you get attacked by paradox spirits or the entire world unravels into a “paradox realm” where everything goes Twilight Zone for a while. So to ground this: if you fail to cast magic because people don't believe in magic, really obviously magical shit happens, and then they would presumably believe.
AncientH:
And, not to put too fine a point on it, White Wolf acknowledged in oMage that people thought the Technocracy was cool. People wanted to play in magical internetz astral realms and have magical shotguns and cars that ran on blood instead of gasoline but got 100 miles to the gallon. This is why I think that in later 2nd edition products oMage really pushed the various other Mage threats – Marauders (psychotic reality-benders), Nephandi, and Infernalists.
Now, I will take a step back for a second and say that the one good thing about nMage removing the central conflict of the setting is that it allows players to more or less relax and have characters that can be good, bad, or indifferent without actively trying to stop evil Japanese corporations from privatizing the multiverse. It meant that you could play an RPG version of Warren Ellis and Mike Wolfer’s Gravel, a big badass magician in a regular world where you can use your magic to get a little beer money than get to go use your clever mage powers to slot some other mage who also happens to be a kiddy-rapist. It’s the basic urban fantasy appeal there and I get it. The problem is though, you being a super-powered contemporary mage with lots of power and deciding how you’re going to act (ir)responsibly with it is not supposed to be the core conflict of the setting.
I mean, let’s look both games side-by-side for a minute here. In both, your PC is a member of a group of similarly-minded magicians, who train you in their secret arts yadda yadda. And then…what? In oMage, you’re criminals and terrorists living on the down low, working against the Technocracy in secret, and you join up with a group of like-minded fellow mages in a little domestic terrorist/paramilitary cell. You are the IRA, and the world is your Belfast. In nMage, you’re still the IRA, but the other bastards are the UVF, and even if you want to retire and live a quiet life of mind-wiping bartenders and prostitutes for free drinks and blowjobs, they’re not going to let you. And that’s terrible.
So the games, despite a vaguely analogous concept (“You are one of the chosen few GothicPunk reality-bender…”) they have vastly different reasons to play (“…if you are listening, you are the resistence.”/ “Them Hatfields is going down!”) embedded in the storyline. This shift in the central conflict from oMage to nMage has had a noticeable effect on the mythology of the game…continued next post.
