[.ca] Mage Tarot Deck with Book(s) (ISBN 1565044401)

Well...:
I run a a Mage LARP, not a tabletop. However, I have still found this book to be a valuable resource. Where the Laws of Ascension books skim over details, this book fills in the gaps. I have no experience with the previous incarnations of this game, but I like the direction this game is going in. This game focuses on the small changes that characters can make to make bigger changes for the world. It gives storytellers more room to take the game in the direction they want it to go in.

The Best Revision yet!:
This game is a descendant of an older White Wolf Game called Ars Magica. The basic concept of this game is to posit a "reality" in which various styles and traditions of magic and technomagic exist in a world much like our own (the World of Darkness). Imagine an RPG (role playing game) in which you play the equivalent of a character like Neo from the "Matrix" who possesses the power to bend reality to your will. This game offers such possibilities. While several editions of this game are available, this latest revision makes the game more playable than all the prior versions. In this new and improved system Mages (those who can work magic) are more restricted by the beliefs of humanity, less able to interact with powerful Mages who are exiled from Earth and more able to create a world of their own. The setting has evolved with the times, modernizing it, streamlining it and putting it in line with the other World of Darkness games such as Vampire and Mummy. The game mechanics are a vast improvement and make the game simpler and more enjoyable. This is truly one of the best RPG games in the market and as a long time storyteller and player it receives my highest rating. Enjoy!

The Best Revision yet!:
This game is a descendant of an older White Wolf Game called Ars Magica. The basic concept of this game is to posit a "reality" in which various styles and traditions of magic and technomagic exist in a world much like our own (the World of Darkness). Imagine an RPG (role playing game) in which you play the equivalent of a character like Neo from the "Matrix" who possesses the power to bend reality to your will. This game offers such possibilities. While several editions of this game are available, this latest revision makes the game more playable than all the prior versions. In this new and improved system Mages (those who can work magic) are more restricted by the beliefs of humanity, less able to interact with powerful Mages who are exiled from Earth and more able to create a world of their own. The setting has evolved with the times, modernizing it, streamlining it and putting it in line with the other World of Darkness games such as Vampire and Mummy. The game mechanics are a vast improvement and make the game simpler and more enjoyable. This is truly one of the best RPG games in the market and as a long time storyteller and player it receives my highest rating. Enjoy!

Not Better, Just different:
I remember Mage: the Ascension from it's first edition way back when, and it was a really good tabletop RPG. Players were mystic (or even technomantic, in the cases of the Virtual Adepts and Sons of Ether) revolutionaries fighting for mankind's freedom of thought, misfits championing ancient and/or fringe beliefs that could make people's lives better, protectors of cultural diversity in the face of the Technocracy's homogenizing cultural influence. I remember Mage Second Edition, which refined all this a bit and delved more into how Mages fit into the rest of the World of Darkness. This, too, was good, as Mages are as much a part of the world as anything else. And now there's the revised edition, the one above. The Technocracy and the spirit worlds aren't really dealt with in this book to leave space for dealing with the core rules. Yes, those things are important, but they have long since had their own sourcebooks for players interested in them. The Umbra in particular isn't discussed because starting players, given the current (as of this book's publication) metaplot, can't get there. Mages have been cut off from their friends and places of power in the spirit worlds, and are now forced to do what they had been avoiding for so long: dealing with the rest of the world on a regular basis. How do you champion individuality for an apathetic populace? How do defend freedom of thought for people who don't want to think for themselves? Is it worthwhile to aspire for wisdom, enlightenment, and personal gain while the rest of the world goes to hell in a handbasket? This edition of Mage: The Ascension is just as good as all the others, and brings up whole new themes for players and Storytellers alike to enjoy.

Nice updates but suffers from large omissions:
I resisted picking up a copy of Mage Revised even though I believe the Mage system is the best one in the World of Darkness. Mage 2nd Edition was so complete and well written that I didn't feel there was a need to get another main source book. What could White Wolf possibly do to improve on a book that was already so perfect? In an effort to keep up to date with the game I ordered a copy of Mage Revised and sat down with it. Let's start off with some good things I found in the book. Much like Vampire Revised, the book was well written and a lot of the systems have been cleaned up. The Traditions each got a few more pages worth of descriptions, which was great. Each one had numerous subdivisions and they were discussed briefly, but concisely. There were a few changes in each Tradition but overall they remained the same. The magic systems were reworked extensively. The description of the spheres was detailed and easy to follow, for the most part. Most of the spheres remained the same with minor changes here and there. A lot of the more devastating effects have been toned down. Magical effects can be fine tuned by the mage by dividing successes on duration and effect intensities. Finally, the Technocratic Union was not painted as the antagonist. I felt this was a good move since it is really up to the storyteller and players to decide whom the antagonists are. Yes they can still be used as the monolithic \oenemy\c but the gray areas of good and bad have grown to encompass them. Despite the many positive points used primarily to balance out Mages with the other denizens of the World of Darkness, there were also many problems with the book. One of the largest flaws was the lack of treatment of the Technocracy. The Technocracy had won the Ascension War but we got only two pages about it. Players and Storytellers will have to acquire the Guide to the Technocracy to flesh out this major faction of PC-compatible mages. Another large omission was information on the Umbra, Paradox Spirits, and Umbrood in general. This lack of information makes the Spirit sphere and possibly the Dreamspeakers somewhat PC-unfriendly. The metaplot had taken a front seat of the game. There was some dimensional storm that made piercing the Gauntlet dangerous and difficult, another blow to the Spirit Sphere. Most of the archmagi have been killed when the dimensional storm hit, which left most of the younger mages on Earth to fend for themselves with little experienced training. Doissetep and Concordia have been destroyed, but there was no information on exactly how these powerful strongholds went under. There was also the mention of some weird red star in the Umbra. I noticed this was mentioned in the Guide to the Technocracy, as well but there was little elaboration. Talismans and Devices were mentioned in the book but there was no information on how to make them. Almost all of the omissions I mentioned above were discussed in depth in Mage 2nd Edition. Though the discussions were brief, they provided enough information for you to make up the rest of the information as you see fit. There was also less of a reliance on the metaplot, thus encouraging storytellers to weave any type of story they deemed appropriate. Though you can still do that, the metaplot has influenced many aspects of the game. So is this book worthy of purchase? The answer is maybe. If you have Mage 2nd Edition, you probably don't need this book to run a good game. You can find a lot of the Revised systems in other core source books. If you are new to Mage than I strongly suggest you don't get this book unless you plan to purchase Guide to the Technocracy and the Book of the Worlds or the Infinite Tapestry. Get Mage 2nd Edition instead. So who should really consider getting this book? I would say people who want to keep up to date with the game and those who already have Mage 2nd Edition. Though a lot of the information was not new, I saw it more as an update to the existing system rather than a full replacement for 2nd Edition. It serves as an additional reference to the rules, which should clear up the sections that were unclear in 2nd Edition. Mage Revised wasn't a bad purchase for me because I had all of the supplements that adequately filled in all of the omitted information. But new storytellers should be aware that games that are run with only Mage Revised will be mostly limited to street-level survival games.