Mage: The Podcast

The mystery and mood of Mage are heavily informed by the art and artistry on the Mage tarot deck. Every edition of the Mage Core Rulebook has featured The Magician. and almost every book leads with a card or spread. What are these cards? Why are they special to Mage? What can they add to your game? Terry sits down with occult instructor and author of Nothing But a Pack of Cards, S Rune Emerson to talk about what these 78 cards can do for your table. Mage Tarot on Drivethrucards  Anders Tarot Game Mage Tarot Art Pack on STV Jodi Blake as Queen of Primordialism Kevin Andrew Murphy and the Penny Dreadful Novel  Truth Until Paradox  and Truth Beyond Paradox  Caeron Mustai as the Emperor Jet Boy on The Chariot Raging Eagle as Justice Saulot as Temperance Pre modern Koran cards meditation tool Duke of Milan Procession of the Triumphs ANtoine do something something Secret book of Thoth celtic cross Medea, Marauder Oracle The Game of Triumphs by Laura Powell Last Call by Tim Powers

Mage is often an intimate game revolving around neighborhoods, a small cast, and the hopes and perils of magick. But sometimes, Mage is about making sure space dragons don't eat your voidship and that may take depleted uranium and some Accelerated Force Cannons. Void Engineers is very much for that second type of game. Adam and Terry dive into the first real look we have of mages in space and far beyond the protections of the Horizon. Where is the COP? Who's Tychoides? What's the difference between a LERMU and a GENES? Listen and find out! Dyson Sphere Relics Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode Autochthonia in Mage Autochthonia in Exalted Chthonic deities Plural of apparatus Ka Luon Mathematics Research Group Doctor Robert Hill, Void Engineer 

RPGs have changed over time and one new family of play options involve handing players ways to change the story outside of the actions of their characters. Matthew Dawkins is an in-house developer for The Onyx Path and talks with Terry about ways to bring metanarrative tools into your games as well as some healthy speculation about what M5 should be.Also, if you see this before December 5th, another Matthew Project Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition is on kickstarter. If you like what you hear, go back it! Guidelines to submit on the OPP  He Man and Skeletor team up to fight Hordak  Green Ronin Age System  Adventures of Baron Munchausen    Fiasco RPG  Paranoia RPG  THe Truman Show  Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker  John Scfalzi's Red Shirts  It Came From the Late, Late, Late Show  They Came From Beneath the Sea  Redmoon Roleplaying Live Play of Mummy: The Curse 2e  The King in Yellow by Robert W Chambers  Storypath Nexus 

The Council gets their Tradition books, the Technocracy gets their Convention books, but what about the Hollow Ones? Not necessarily Orphans, not quite a craft, these creatures of modernity claim to go back to at least the Jazz Age but how do you play one? Outcasts: A Players Guide to Pariahs was the first supplement to give more information on this collection of goths and romantics along with information on the Caitiff of Vampire and the Ronin of Werewolf. Adam and Terry talk about the Hollow Ones changing story and the role of Orphans in Mage: The Ascension.References! Lord Dunsany - Writer of works that sound an awful lot like someone visited the Umbra Teratology - The monster manual for Invisible SunOther Books! Tradition Book: Hollow Ones - probably the best text on the group and published in Revised Book of Crafts: Whispers of Dissent - 2nd Edition's big book of entities not aligned in the Ascension War Orphans Survival Guide - Expands on non-Hollow Orphan groups in MageNext Book! Void Engineers - Fascinating group with a questionable narrator

James Estes, former Mage writer and current professor and library director, takes some time to talk with us about religion in Mage. Can it contribute something to our Chronicles and how should we handle it? He also shares his experiences about writing for Mage and offers advice for those thinking of contributing to Storytellers Vault.James Estes bioJames Estes Web siteWesley Theological SeminaryCelestial Chorus Tradition BookHalls of the ArcanumGuild Encyclopedias

Mage's Second Edition Core Rulebook had a strict page count and clocked in at fewer pages than First Edition. So what were these missing pages and where did they go? Hidden Lore was the collection of all the materials that ran over the page count and for the Second Edition Storyteller it's your best source for additional rotes and systems as well as an entire cabal.  Terry and Adam discuss what to take from it and what to leave behind. in this episode of Tomes of Magick. Troupe play from Ars Magica Dice for gaming on Discord Inphobia Magazine Alternative play styles in Mage A trip to Pike Place Market in Seattle Theater of the Mind Chantry Mages of Note Enlightened Grimoire list of all rotes Sphere handouts for M20 Umbral ships

Not every rule makes sense in every Mage game, but how do you figure out what to change and know when to change it? Monica Speca, developer and writer for Onyx Path Publishing walks through the design considerations for making the rules of the game fit the game you want to play. Learn about mechanics like momentum, stunts, investigation, stress, and relationship tension Jenga towers. Bonus Experience podcast - Monica's podcast along with cohost Rai Cole.  BXP episode 2 on House Rules "house ruling is basically just micro game design for an audience of like six people" Age system - Game with an investigation mechanic and the generic version  Gumshoe games - Game centered around investigation in different settings like: Ashen Stars - Sci fi investigation game Trail of Cthulhu - dark horror investigation game Star Crossed  - Two player Jenga Love Game Stunts in Exalted - a run down of stunts in Exalted Invisible Sun  - A somewhat pretentious but surreal game by Monte Cook that Terry loves a bit too much Planescape for Dungeons and Dragons 2nd edition - The best 2e setting Through the Breach - A game Monica likes, not all characters in the game are swol/skinny bitches Apocalypse World - gm doesn't touch dice system Blades in the Dark - A tight system with hard tradeoffs

Second Edition's intimacy and depth is sometimes viewed as a radical departure from First Edition's cosmic stories but what are the nuts and bolts of the differences? Was the change sudden or gradual and how was Brucato's vision implemented in a core book? Adam and Terry talk about how mechanics, mood, setting, and metaplot changed and what you should remember when looking back on Second Edition's groundbreaking release and what got left behind from 2e's strict page count.Changes:Mechanics Difficulties change for vulgar from rolling sphere to rolling arete in all cases Focuses opened up and focus-specific time requirements dropped  Orphans progress at same rate as other mages but require focuses Bonuses for being near a node no longer swing as wildly, capped at -3 instead of -5 Can now re-try failed effects without blowing willpower Damage chart unified and one-off modifiers listed for Spheres (Mind does bashing, etc) Coincidental now process Much of the content of Book of Shadows is baked in More difficulty modifiers introducedMood Game less cosmic interaction of avatars for the metaphysical trinity to something more personal Mage less might-makes-right with mages delivering sleepers from Technocratic control. Technocrats no longer fighting for strict rigid equality. 1e was "conflict between utopias". Utopia not visible in 2e.Setting Pure Ones no longer believed in by all mages Void Engineers no longer viewed as infected by the fae and no longer wish to destroy space Continuum dropped as a term Marauders no longer universally fighting for a return of the Mythic Age and in 2e are generally less sane Fight for Nodes and Quintessence less front and center Penumbra established, no longer just Near Umbra Nephandi no longer strictly star-squid cultists Oracles no longer those near Ascension but those who've stepped back from it No longer one Chantry per Tradition All nine spheres now used in metaphysical cycle rather than just six Essence de-emphasized Rotes change Metaplot Syndicate un-disappeared Amanda revealed to share avatar with former Sennex apprentice who went barabbus Fors Collegis Mercuris evacuated to Cerberus after Nephandi and Technocratic attack

How do you do The World of Darkness in the happiest places on earth? What's magick like when the sun doesn't set for weeks at a time? How does the Syndicate deal with social democracy? What are trolls really like and what is a well-pisser? Karl Erik Larsen Hoftaniska of the Symposium Podcast answers these questions and more.Correction! Erik corrected himself to say that the Nordic countries were Social Democracies but the sound for that portion was garbled.Notes! Kurt Anderson's Fantasyland  - Book on how America has always been a little bit crazy Scholastic movement Sami People - Culture of the way northMage things! Difficulty of being a necromancer - Every line does it a little differently Mage: the Awakening arcana fate vs death Werewolf the Forsaken - Chronicles of Darkness game Exarchs - Possible big from Mage the Awakening A giant discussion of Sorcerer's Crusade Valdaerman - Fellowship from Dark Ages: Mage  Itarajana - Magickal fellowship Spirit-Talkers from Dark Age: Mage Gabrielites or the Cabal of Pure Thought, the precursors to the New World Order Seiðr - Shamanic sorceryOther! Trollhunter movie - They can smell Christians Vices and Virtues - Album by Panic! at the DiscoCreatures! Trolls - Not the ones from Changeling Elves Fossegrim - Water spirit Brunnmigi - Well Pisser, yep, that's what they do Draugr - Pretty well the same in lore Mare or Nightmare - They sit on your chest

The Council of the Nine Mystick Traditions in response to the nascent Technocracy over 450 years. After nine years of squabbling, the Council sent out the First Cabal to spread the message of the Council and counter the Order of Reason but it fell to betrayal from within. Was Heylel a traitor, savior, or insane? Victor and Terry discuss the rise and fall of the First Cabal in reviewing The Fragile Path: Testaments of the First Cabal, Mage's in-world book on those who were there.The Fragile Path - The book we're talking aboutSorcerer's Crusade - Historical setting for MageThe Order of Reason  - Flawed book about the founding of the Order of ReasonAscension - Where we finally learn the identity of Heylel's twinsFishmalk - Problematic types of crazyFurther details on Heylel Further details on Eloine Further details on Akrites Motet - French musical formWorf just getting beaten up Victor's other work:Walking Away from Arcadia - The definitive Changeling: The Dreaming PodcastA Phoenix Rising - a chronicle quickstart built around the reconstruction of the New Horizon CouncilThe Symposium - a rambly podcast sometimes about Mage