Mage the Awakening

So I just learned about this setting. It sounds very fun because of making up spells. Has anyone ever played before or how hard is it to do? I would love to try it so I like to hear more if you have played it!

It's not an easy setting. There's A LOT of intricate lore to the game and it's setting, the PCs can be incredibly powerful and the system is a bit quirky... That said, it's a popular game but it's tough to run without the ability to herd cats or nail sand to the wall.

I really like the setting but the system...that's another matter entirely. Personally, I feel like it's a game that presents itself like it's supposed to be used in "sandbox style" play but really shouldn't be used that way. One of the major pieces of advice that I can give, if you want to run MtA, is to have a defined story you want to tell and have players willing to craft characters to fit that story otherwise it's going to be a zoo of misfit characters that can hobble gameplay more than enhance it. A good Session Zero where you and your players lay out your expectations and craft the Saga premise is really important.

I agree with @witchdoctor that it can be a difficult game to run. There's a lot of awesome concepts and ideas, and not a lot of direction on the best way to steer players through the game. Still though, the concepts are REALLY awesome. Dang, now I may need to run this soon. ;-)

I agree with Witchdoctor. @Qralloq and I have tried a few times to get a mage game going. Its though. A solid session zero where the game premise is thoroughly discussed and expectations are aligned are necessary.

I think the real question to answer is what can Mage do that other less gritty games can't? Is it the improvised / make your own spells mechanic? Then check out FATE or Kinds on brooms. Both are not as mechanically heavy as Mage.

That being said I'm still fascinated by mage and would like to play it

Is it Mage the Awakening or Mage the Ascension people want to play?

What’s the difference?

Mage the Ascension was first, and part of White Wolf's original World of Darkness. It was first published in 1993. In 2004 White Wolf rebooted their games and Mage the Awakening came out in 2005. There are some setting and thematic differences, but also conceptual and mechanical similarities. I prefer the former myself.

Oh so they are similar games like a 1st edition vs a 2nd edition? I would like to try either 😊

Not quite, but close enough. Unfortunately I have too much on my plate right now to run a game of Mage. If I ever get one going I'll certainly let you know.

Thank you! I’d love to try.

Mage the Awakening and Mage the Ascension are different in the same way Vampire: The Masquerade and Vampire: The Requim are different.
When White Wolf ended their old World Of Darkness shared universe they almost immediately started to launch reimaginations/reboots of their main games.

They are essentially two different, completely seperate takes on the same concept, each set in their own seperate continuity.

I played the original vampire and mage and liked the magic flexibility. Is the Awakening mechanics similar to Ascension magic in that if you bend reality too much the feedback gets worse?

It's been a long time since I've played any version of Mage. If I recall there was some sort of consequence mechanic built into Awakening, but I don't remember what it was.

It has been a long time here too, so I was hoping someone else would answer, but I recall the Paradox Mechanic (at least I think that is what the 'feedback' for 'bending reality' was called) was absent from the second version. While the rules where substantially cleaned up and easier to grok, that was a mechanic I missed, it was one of the best things about the first version.

I think Paradox is still a major thing in Mage: the Awakening.
From wikipedia

Oh, good.

Can't really add anything to the conversation other than to say I'd be interested in playing!!!

Just kidding, I do have something to add... All of the 2e Chronicles of Darkness books, have created a lot of good systems to support narrative play with the aspirations and beats used for character advancement. I haven't read it, but I assume Mage the Awakening 2e also uses these mechanics.

That’s good! At least there are 2 of us now WarDomo.

One of my other pet peeves about M:tA is how generic the magic feels. I know it's supposed to be a unified system to hit the "high points" of being a "mage" but there's no real difference in any wizard with the equivalent dots in the same sphere of magic and that loses a lot of the individuality that the game espouses. That and you really can't make a "theme" wizard without doing a whole lot of mental gymnastics with the system. That seems "off" from the way the setting lore seems to work.

@witchdoctor I think the point is that you take your generic magic effect and flavour it with your tradition. The "tracking" spell that leads you to your target is very different from the technology inclided mage, the traditional hermetic mage and the tribal mage/shaman.

Here I feel that pbp is at its best as I can tell how my technomage link up to all the gps satellites while the hermetic mage perform thaumaturgy.

I get that you can flavor a Mage in a number of ways according to their traditions but there's a lot of limitations beyond that. Some are easier than others; Time Lords are a two Sphere focus and pretty easily done, theme wizards like an Ice Mage require a lot of mechanical tricks.

Well I have the book now (it is very big!) so I hope I will see some more of what you have been talking about.

There's definitely several ways to skin a cat in that system. You can change a die roll by using Fate directly or Matter to change the center of mass of the die, or Forces to affect the wind, or maybe Time to stop its movement, or mind to change your opponent's perception of the die. Mechanically, those all result in the same outcome, but the flavor is very different and I feel like it gives a lot of freedom on how to approach spellcasting.

The Mage Sight, Mage Armors, and Attainments are pretty different for the various Arcana too.

I'd be surprised if you couldn't approximate fairly closely a Mage that feels like a traditional magic-user archetype. An Ice Wizard would primarily use Matter (for changing the state of water to ice or just creating water and ice) and probably Forces, but the flavor would just be on the player to limit themselves to portraying their spells as ice-based. Rules as written, that mage could also use lightning and fire and do a bunch of other stuff that ice wizards don't, but if that's the character you want to play, you can.