#mage the ascension 20th anniversary

[legionofmyth]

Mage: The Ascension by White Wolf Publishing

🌌 Awaken your inner mage with Mage: The Ascension by White Wolf Publishing! ✨ Dive into a world where you shape reality, bend the laws of magic, and uncover ancient mysteries. Embrace your destiny and join the magical struggle! #MageTheAscension #RPG #TabletopGaming #Magic #WorldOfDarkness 🔗 [Link to your overview or article]

Mage: The Ascension by White Wolf Publishing What is it? Mage: The Ascension – 1st Edition Mage: The Ascension 2nd Edition Mage: The Ascension, published by White Wolf Publishing, Inc., is a tabletop role-playing game set in the World of Darkness universe. Players assume the roles of mages, individuals awakened to the hidden truths of reality and capable of wielding powerful magic. Set against a…

[theonyxpath]

Five years ago today we released Gods & Monsters for Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition in POD and PDF via our partners at DriveThruRPG! This book contains companions, divinities and beasts for use in your M20 chronicle! https://drivethrurpg.com/product/266029/M20-Gods--Monsters?affiliate_id=13&src=OPPTumblr

[clanlasombrasp]

// Just received.

[mekanikaltrifle]

'Vamily Spotlight': WoD Brand Team is Taking Art Without Permission

Recently, I was informed by a friend that some work of mine had shown up in the World of Darkness’ official ‘Vamily Spotlight’ section of their latest video. In this they talk about the gameplay reveal of Bloodlines 2 and generally drum up hype for it, which is largely what you expect from company channels when they’ve a new product out. 

There’s a problem with this: I was never informed, or asked. No consent was given to use that work, or any others.

Through some excellent efforts by friends I also found that my work was in two other videos, with the earliest being well over a year ago-- totalling three, and they were up on both Twitch and YouTube.

Now, you’ll note that I’m a professional artist with two separate art degrees and well over a decade and a half of training. I’ve also a basic understanding of copyright and fair use. 

The Vamily Spotlights are little to do with the review and news section of the video and therefore do not really have bearing on the main point of the video. To this end, I’d assume they’re there as a draw to viewers, maybe to see if their or their friends’ work has turned up in these official videos. And nominally that’s a valid tactic for engagement, if you have permission to use these pieces of work.

They do not however have permission, and certainly not from me. 

As of writing, (5th of February 2024) I’ve issued a DMCA request for all three of the videos my work shows up in on both Twitch and YouTube, and takedowns are pending but I would urge people in the WoD tag here on Tumblr to check the available videos for themselves, if they are as concerned as I am. The screenshots of art in the videos they use to spotlight seem to come from Tumblr, as well as whole TikTok videos and other social media posts. If this makes the rounds elsewhere, do check your stuff wherever you are, WoD fans. 

As the videos are also present on the Twitch VOD platform, this means they are actively charging money using our work without permission. I am unsure if their YouTube channel is monetised.

If they use your work for their spotlights, they are making advertisements and revenue off of your work without any reimbursement or prior consent. 

I don’t know if other artists were asked, but I definitely wasn’t, and by now we all know the issues with ‘exposure’ and how that does not keep artists fed or housed. 

And Paradox Interactive, having artists, they should know that you do not take for free from any of us-- at any level of influence or professionalism. The WoD community is not a free for all for companies to pick and choose free art to use like a bowl of cute little multicoloured sweets, it’s a bunch of creative, inspired and crafty people who come together across any edition of the many worlds in the setting to create as is our fair right to do so. Without being taken for granted, and without being cynically harvested for ‘content’. How vampiric. 

Additionally I would like to note that all of my World of Darkness fanworks are based on legacy books; Vampire 20th Anniversary Edition, Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition and Hunter: the Reckoning First Edition most often, though there are appearances from others. You’ll note that not one of these books is the territory of Paradox Interactive or their World of Darkness brand management team-- looks to me like they’ve simply trawled the tag without reading what they’re looking at, which means they certainly didn’t take the time to ask permission to use these works. Not only were these actions tantamount to theft, it was also not even their fanart to begin with. And once again, they’d have known this had they contacted me at all, which they did not. It’s a failure on their part on several levels and not only do I want the videos taken down, I think the community is sorely owed an apology for this frivolous theft of art under the banner of ‘community content’. I didn’t opt in to having my work taken, and it should not have been assumed that it was okay to take my work just because it’s using a tag they also use!

I want everyone to know I have had zero benefit from their use of my work-- no money, no notes and no dialogue. This does not help artists. This does not help the community.

I’m willing to talk about this should anyone want to ask, but this is a gross abuse of artists and creatives’ rights for the sole purpose of gain by the World of Darkness brand team, and I expected better. I know I personally deserve an apology for this at the very least, as well as the WoD team to commit to actually contacting artists and sourcing permission in future-- and to set up an opt-in or out system for whether people want to be featured. I know I don’t, and I never asked to be. My work’s lovely, and they’re right to have said so. But it’s not for Paradox, and it’s not for Outstar or any of the other Brand team.  

It’s for me, and people here on Tumblr who like it. 

I’m disappointed, in PDX and in the WoD Brand team, because they should know far better than this. 

[nw-of-dark]

Mage: Awakening vs. Ascension

So I have been playing World of Darkness for a short while now and I'm also contentious in regards to Mage and its two iterations; Awakening and Ascension. Awakening is part of Chronicles of Darkness whereas Ascension is a part of World of Darkness, and they are basically parallel universes of the same-ish game.

When I started playing Awakening, I found the rules to be fairly straightforward, and I didn't have to struggle through pages of flavor text like with other World of Darkness games. The one thing I really appreciate about Ascension is its lore. It's fascinating how philosophical the game can get, whether it's during character creation or actual gameplay. Ascension explores themes such as the nature of reality, the dynamics of power, and power over the narrative.

I generally play the setting of Ascension with the rules of Awakening, but I have recently been reading about Ascension more (particularly, 20th Anniversary/4th Edition) and a homebrew of Ascension 5th Edition.

As a fan of the 5th Edition World of Darkness game lines, I am disappointed that only Vampire, Werewolf, and Hunter have been released so far. Until we get a full set, I'll have to make do with homebrews and supplements from the 4th Edition to satisfy my craving for supernatural horror.

As for this blog, I will be covering both Awakening and Ascension lore but primarily focusing on Ascension. I will, masochistically, try to work the Awakening paths and orders into the setting of Ascension and I will leave you with this question; what are your thoughts on Awakening and/or Ascension?

[awakenedsalamander]

Hey so as a new DM getting into WoD (coming from D&D and Cyberpunk) where would you recommend starting for reading up on Mage?

I’ve got both VtM and HtR and there good sourcebooks but I’ve been told Mage has all the ‘deeper’ lore. I just don’t know where to start.

[Note: I answered this question in typical long-winded fashion, so you can skip to the numbered list at the end for a somewhat shorter summary of how I’d get into Mage, if you prefer. Also, this is my own opinion— I can’t promise it’ll work, but I know it worked for me, at least when I started actually doing it intentionally.]

This is a relatable problem!

So, I got into Mage by picking up pieces of the lore from a distance over the course of a couple years, and then diving into the M20 corebook while they were offering it for free during the pandemic. I read the intro, then skimmed the book, with a focus on parts I was interested in, and over the course of the past three years I’ve read almost all of it by now. It’s almost 700 pages of weird, dense material and while if I wanted to I could have gotten all of it read much quicker, it still would have been quite the task, which is not ideal for a game.

Alright, how should you do it then?

Okay, first, put aside the notion of “deeper” lore at least for the moment. Don’t let the fans of Mage who wax lyrical about how important and wild and vast the implications of the Ascension books are. While Mage does get pretty out there, it does not and should not overshadow the other games. Gehenna’s still coming, for instance, don’t let the incident with what was *maybe* the Ravnos Antediluvian take away from that.

Seriously though, it’s easy to get intimidated by certain Mage fans. They can be kind of a snobby crowd, frankly, and not just in the fun pretentious way. Enjoy it at you own pace, those guys think they know the game— nah. A lot of them just know the metaplot, and that does not a game make.

Approach Mage more like an all you can eat buffet, and you’re getting from it what you want. As much or as little, as big or as small, as focused or as broad as makes sense for your interests. You take the parts you want as you like, and go from there. There’ll be time for the rest when you’ve found your footing.

So, if I were to do it all over…

1st— Get ready to take the plunge—but carefully, and with some intent. Steel yourself with some deep breaths, and grab a book to get started with. I do actually recommend the 20th Anniversary Edition to get started, but it is a lot, so if you’re worried about getting distracted or overwhelmed, Revised should work too. (I personally think Revised is just a bit too limited in its take on the setting, but that’s really subjective.) Don’t start reading quite yet, though, just pick the book you want to start with.

2nd— Be ready to ask questions. I’m putting this up early not because you’ll necessarily have questions immediately, but it’s always intimidating to be confused and have questions, so just know that there are folks in the community who will be polite in answering questions.

I’ve had luck with r/WhiteWolfRPG in the past, but I haven’t dipped in there for a while so they may have gotten worse. The Onyx Path forums are generally fairly nice, though. And here on Tumblr I have to think there are people, though I’m new here. Still, I can speak for myself and say— I love questions!

3rd— Alright, here’s what I’d do now. Read the first chapter or so, enough that you know what this setting even is, and then it’s time to find the parts that you are interested in specifically. For example, I’m really into alchemy, hermeticism, that kind of ceremonial magic, and mashing that into a modern setting— playing someone trying to do this old school classical wizardry in the 21st century, basically. So I’d jump into the relevant sections of M20– I’d read about the Traditions, the faction most into old school magic, then read specifically about the Order of Hermes, the Verbena, maybe a few other factions like the Children of Knowledge and the Hollow Ones, and go to any linked relevant sections I’m interested in, such as the write-ups for Alchemy and High Ritual Magick in M20. I would recommend doing something similar. If you don’t know where to start at all, I’d recommend looking at paradigms, the Orphans, and maybe Avatars. That’ll give you the kind of basic introduction a newly-Awakened mage would get. Also, probably stay away from the Umbra for now. It’s got a ratio of weirdness-to-size that makes it a tricky thing to grasp, at least at first.

At this point you might still be confused, just cause it’s a lot to reckon with, but you should be grounded in the details that you plan on working with. You’re building the foundation, hopefully in a way that’s not too confusing.

4th— Something I find helpful for getting to know a game is making my own character, so when you’re comfortable with that notion, I’d suggedt getting a character sheet and finding the section for character creation, then going through it and filling out that sheet as needed. You may never play this character, but in doing so you’re getting a feel for how the mechanics and setting interact, and you’ll probably start to get some knowledge of the basic Mage-specific rules. If you’re like me, you’ll naturally be curious enough to check out those sections, but even if not you’ll still learn more.

5th— Now I’d say to just widen out from where you are. This may take the form of just reading the whole damned thing now, straight through, but for me with M20 that was still kinda scary. There’s just so much. So I read about the things I felt that I knew about, but only vaguely. The Technocratic Union, the nature of Paradox, how paradigm works mechanically, Avatars, that sort of thing. At this point you’ll likely be familiar with your corner of the setting and get a view of how it fits into the wider whole. If you’re feeling ambitious, you might jump into some crossover stuff— what happens if a mage drinks vampire blood, or how werewolves and the Awakened fight over Caerns/Nodes… I was a little overcautious about weaving in the larger World of Darkness when I was getting started, but I know that’s how some new players get a foothold.

(Optional 6th— On that note, I find Mage is a lot easier to run if you’ve gotten some experience with other WoD games. Maybe run a one-shot of one of them, or even a quick mini-chronicle, just so you know the basic rules and find your grove for Storytelling in the setting. You might feel you’re ready to just dive into Mage, and you might be! But I learned that I needed more practice, so just a word of advice.)

I wish you the best of luck! You’re stepping into some weird and wonderful stuff— magic, mystery, and madness, all that— and it takes some time. I hope you enjoy your journey, and remember, it’s never wrong to have questions.

Other than that…

You’re ready.

It’s time to Awaken. Begin walking your Path.

[tomoleary]

Michael Kaluta - Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Ahkashic Brotherhood illustration and poster art (2013)

Source

[cannontranscharacteroftheday]

Tried to remember as many characters off the top of my head as I could. I'm not sure if any of them have been mentioned yet.

Marina from Fear & Hunger: Termina. She is a transwoman that uses She/Her pronouns.

Sabra from Mage: The Ascension's 20th Anniversary Quickstart. He is a transman that uses He/Him Pronouns.

Ash from the DIE comic book series. She is genderfluid and uses She/Her and He/Him pronouns.

Norah from The Nice House on the Lake. She is a transwoman and uses She/Her pronouns.

Paladin from Autonomous. She is Agender and switches from using He/Him to She/Her during the events of the novel.

Aimee from Changeling: The Lost 2E. She is a transwoman and uses She/Her Pronouns.

Mindy Blanchard from Dishonored 2. A line of dialogue implied that she was a transwoman, which was later confirmed in a directors commentary.

Already posted.

Cannot find the source.

and the rest: Queued, thank you.

[bloodpotency]

Beginning the arduous task of tabbing and skimming thru mage the ascension 20th anniversary edition

[euthanatos-hitwoman]

"We must break the Wheel... the eternal cycle of rebirth. May everything fall into Oblivion!"

Aurora Fosca, Euthanatos hitman.

This is the RP Blog of DAWN DARK (or Aurora Fosca), Blood Mage of the Euthanatos Tradition and hitman (well, hitwoman).

This is a World of Darkness / Mage The Ascension 20th Anniversary character, based in our ongoing TTRPG M20 Chronicle "The Century of Magic" and V5 Chronicle "Crescent City By Night".

Mun is +21. Because the mature and dark themes written here minors are not welcome. I will note if the entry has any adult content.

Open to RP, cross-overs and/or MultiVerses interactions are welcome.

F.C.: Zoe Saldaña. This is a RP parody account, not related anyway with her nor claiming to be her!

[open-hearth-rpg]

#RPGCovers Week Thirteen Mage Traditions Books (1994 on) Michael Kaluta

I’m going a little out of order, but yesterday I talked about Christopher’s Shy’s visual reframing of later Mage: the Ascension. The flip side to that is the work of Michael Kaluta on the earliest edition of Mage, in particular the striking and distinctive Tradition Books. 

Like Frank Brunner, who did the Stormbringer cover & illustrations I talked about earlier, Kaluta came out of a graphic comics tradition, having worked on The Shadow, Madame Xanadu, and Starstruck. If you’ve ever seen the old music video of The Alan Parsons Project’s “Don’t Answer Me,” he did the illustrations for that (as well as directing it). In particular I love his work on DC’s Books of Magic. 

The covers for the tradition books are rich, blackline illustrations. They’re clean, yet wonderfully abstract. They speak to Mage as a setting which combines arcane concepts of the past with futurist impressions of technology. I adore them. 

However the problem is that White Wolf decided to print these on reflective paper: silver, metallic green, etc. This makes it more of a challenge to find good quality images of these, as you can tell from the ones I chose to present at the top of the post. Despite that they’re graphically great and striking and set the template for the rest of the line. 

There would be a set of images released (in addition to an art portfolio) which took those black & white illustrations and colored them. They’re good and solid, but I think they lose something in the colorizing. 

On the other hand images White Wolf had Kaluta do for the Mage 20th Anniversary are dynamite. They show Kaluta at the height of his powers– and maybe more importantly offer us these images in an era of easy high fidelity and resolution. Part of the issue regarding the earlier versions was simply that you couldn’t get good reproductions except by expensive means.

[theonyxpath]

On this day in 2015 we released Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition via our partners at DriveThruRPG! This tome of modern magick in the World of Darkness is available in PDF and POD at https://drivethrurpg.com/product/149562/Mage-The-Ascension-20th-Anniversary-Edition?affiliate_id=13&src=OPPTumblr

[lifeattomsdiner]

Though they all have different ideas about the specifics, Council members agree that an intersection of personal transcendence and the development of humanity is the highest aspiration of a mage.  People deserve better than some wretched World of Darkness--more than sedation or oblivion.  According to the Council, this broken shell of Creation cannot be the best we can achieve.  And so--even when that ideal seems further away than ever before--the Traditions seek personal perfection and the betterment of man.

- Mage: the Ascension (20th Anniversary Edition)

[manyworldsofdarkness]

Yes, this is an official White Wolf game, it even makes use of the storyteller system heavily modified to work for such a combat focused setting. Legend has it that Steve Weick, a co-founder of White Wolf and later CEO, got idea in during writing the first edition of mage (and Mark Rein•Hagen was too busy writing Wraith), he would take breaks at a nearby convenience store. He would play a Street Fighter II arcade cabinet there and was struck with the inspiration to convert the game into a TTRPG. They got into contact Capcom and got to look at a very early world Bible. This was around 1992-94, before all the rereleases and new editions so the lore was still sparse and White Wolf filled their books with their own OCs and strange lore like secret societies, cyborgs and animal hybrids.

Gameplay wise, it’s still using the base Storyteller system. Traits rated 1-5, dice pools rolled at a difficulty, willpower and power fuel to spend. It borrows from both Werewolf: The Apocalypse with its own Renown system and Mage: The Ascension with its Spheres, here replaced with techniques.

That’s right, instead of putting points in matter to bend steel or into life to heal wounds, you put points into how well you can kick! Jokes aside, your techniques let you learn Special Maneuvers, which are basically those moves you do in the game with all those button inputs. You write down your suplexes, air throws and hadoukens on these little combat cards you play in the game. Your moves could even link into combos just like in the games.

This was also a first for a Storyteller game as you were actually meant to play this on a hexagonal map as your moves had AoE.

It’s a very strange game, using a system that was making waves for how character and story driven it was designed to be now heavily modified into being such an action heavy, crunchy tabletop experience. White Wolf made more supplements with new fighting styles, moves and lore for this early versions of the Street Fighter mythos. White Wolf & Capcom seemed to of had a decent relationship. Capcom was developing a Werewolf: The Apocalypse video game for the Sega Saturn and their upcoming game Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire/Darkstalkers 3 used the World of Darkness title logo and White Wolf imprint on some American arcade cabinets.

This partnership quickly ended after this however as Capcom did not renew their partnership with White Wolf. The WTA game was cancelled, White Wolf partnered with Activision for video game deals and the Street Fighter TTRPG was quietly cancelled, even though some supplements were still in development or already finished. White Wolf did repurpose the combat rules into a conversion hack into the second edition World of Darkness games for players looking for a more crunchy action oriented games (this would require tweaking if you’re playing the 20th anniversary games).

If you’re looking to get your hands on a copy of the Street Fighter game, the books rarity makes it go for high prices on eBay, same for their supplements. Since White Wolf no longer has the license to Street Fighter they cannot sell PDFs of the game and its supplements on online storefronts either. But the game still has its fans as one has a whole website dedicated to the game, going as far to create programs, character sheets and even fan supplements and a 20th anniversary edition to update the game to the more modern version of the system. I recommend you check out the fan website for more information on the game.

Have you played STREET FIGHTER : The Storytelling Game ?

By WhiteWolf Game Studio

An officially licensed tabletop roleplaying game based off the Street Fighter game franchise by Capcom, using White Wolf’s Storyteller system. Create and play as your very own Street Fighter, a strong and cunning warrior that could be found all over the world. Are you fighting in world famous tournaments, getting renown for your martial arts? Are you uncovering a secret conspiracy ran by the Shadaloo and M. Bison? Are you just a wandering warrior, taking mercenary jobs hoping to find worthy opponents? Whatever type of Street Fighter you are, you can make your own in-depth move sets, unique powers and even combos to make your perfect World Warrior and even taken on characters from the games like Ryu, Ken, Blanka etc.

With a fan "20th anniversary edition" that updates the game with more modern Storyteller rules.

[tomoleary]

Michael Kaluta Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Illustration Original Art (White Wolf, 2014) Source

[theexaltedbride]

Technocratic Union agent Carmen Vasquez

(So it was my first time ever trying out Hero Forge. Just did it to try and see if I could create my current character from a game of Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition, its not perfect but I like how she came out and I decided to post it here because there is not enough love out there for the Technocratic Union. I never thought that I would be into them when I first got into the game. But after reading Technocracy Reloaded, I have completely fallen in love with the Technocratic Union. Who needs the Traditional Orders when you can be in the Magical MIBs? Marching as part of a brotherhood of black suits, to bring order and secure mankind’s continued survival in a World Of Darkness. While the Traditional Orders try to break down the modern world and invite in monsters and eldritch horrors with their careless pursuit of Ascension, the Technocracy will bring about a new golden age of Enlightenment, Technology, and Unity, for all mankind. Ascension will come in due time. When it is safe for all humanity to do so, not when a few Gandalfs feel its right for them to do so and leave the rest of us behind to deal with the fallout. ) An American woman of Puerto Rican descent (though a few generations removed from her original family members which came to the United States long ago). She doesn't carry on most of the traditions and acts of her extended family. She's considered very 'Americanized' by her extended family, as she only really shows her connection to her ancestral home in her choice of cultural cuisines (and in her swear words when angry). Though she's American enough now that she might enjoy a quick hamburger over taking the time to make herself some Alcapurrias. She still speaks Spanish fluently, though she sounds like she has an accent to native speakers. Carmen has always enjoyed a sense of order in her life and in her world. A sense of duty, and control. These things satisfy her to know that the world can be an orderly place (despite how fucked up it seems) and she feels that there is safety in it. As well as a true honor in providing that same sense of order and security to other people. It wasn't that surprising to learn that she found herself working in law enforcement, before being taken in by the DEA to help with translations. She was more than happy to move up in the world and take on bigger crimes (and honestly she really liked the paycheck better even if she was rarely ever out in the field). Recently though she's noticed more eyes on her, strange headaches, and a calling....a calling that she isn't sure she fully understands. But she will soon enough, as others intervene to bring her into the fold. Originally she was not meant to become part of the Technocratic Union, as she did not meet several of their required standards, but circumstances have changed. They need more manpower and more people to fill in the black suits. What happens after her induction is up to her, she can only hope to do her best and be a fine addition to those that keep reality safe for all humanity.

Carmen is as skilled with a gun as she is with a first aid kit, and a chemical analysis kit, making her a valuable addition to any Technocracy field team. She also cares deeply for other people, is naturally empathetic, always trying to boost the morale of her teamates or support personnel, and will try to negotiate or make peace with those that are not an active threat to her team, or to civilians. 

But that being said, if they are a threat to reality, or to innocents around them, she will put them down and not lose a wink of sleep over it. She truly believes in the cause of the Technocracy, and has been in the New World Order long enough that she is willing to shed blood sweat and tears for a safer world. She’s seen how fucked things are, global warming, anti-vaxxers, white supremacists, and more. All things trying to tear the world apart, to plunge it into a new dark age. (And that's before we get into the literal monsters and demons and freaking Cthulhus. Carajo!) Someone has to be out there looking out for the common person, and that someone is her and the Technocratic Union.

 ‘Enlightenment Through Knowledge, Discipline, Institutions, and Control.’