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Ascension point reviews11/27/2023 ![]() All the great multiplayer games have that one special hook - the mechanic that elevates them above the pack and fires even the most jaded of competitors up into a fist-pumping roar. It is, quite simply, all about the catch. Maybe if we stop buying every WW product like sheep, they'll be forced to put some effort into creating good games and supplements again.TowerFall Ascension is a superb multiplayer brawl, but you'll need to get together with friends in real life to enjoy it. Don't by H:tR, and don't buy anything else White Wolf puts out, unless they start putting out good products again. I say don't buy the new mage, and if you did buy it, send it back. Can you imagine the planning session? "Let's see, the magic is dying, magic is leaving the Earth, and the world is about to end, right? So, let's spontaneously spawn a whole new type of magically imbued supernaturals, as well as some cheesy B-movie monsters (which have no explanation or rationale) for them to fight!" H:tR was an poorly thought out, and ill-concieved game as well. The new revised edition feels and reads like it was a rush-job done to try and make Mage mesh with the new Hunter: the Reckoning game, and maybe the year of the revalations stuff they've been hinting about. I think the old, second edition is a much better game in pretty much all respects. Personally, I say this book isn't worth owning. If your players really can't play, get AD&D and put them back into remedial roleplaying. Really high amounts score aggravated damage, which really, really hurts.Īpparently White Wolf doesn't believe players and Storytellers can police their own games anymore, and have decided to destroy any character that dares botch a roll or use a vulgar effect. If it's a moderate amount of paradox, you take lethal damage, which you as a human can't soak. If you only have a little paradox, you only take soakable bashing damage, and get a minor flaw. Plus, you can no longer bleed of paradox bit by bit, you empty your whole pool at once, and it's -always- a damage causing backlash. And, paradox has been tweaked, so that mages can explode easier.Ī successful vulgar effect now scores a point of paradox per level in the highest sphere, as opposed to simply one point. The combat section has been updated, following the examples in Vampire. Those who played the game well used resonance already, and those who don't will probably more or less ignore it. Unfortunately, it is barely described and reads more as a vague idea translated (barely) into some semi-functioning rules. Now, about mechanics, like in Vampire Revised, there are very few changes in actual game mechanics. If you want a game where the goal is to get enough power to run and flee, and spend all your time in fear, the new mage is the game for you. ![]() They want their personal Ascension, so they too can depart Earth, and that's it. Apparently almost all the mages left have decided to hell with humanity. The writer feels the need to tell us, over and over and over, that the war is over, the traditions lost. Anyone who can climb towards their level of greatness will either have to leave or worry about the increased forces of paradox and the Technocracy. The majority of Masters, and almost every last Archmagi, have either been killed, driven insane, or are in the Umbra, and dare not interact with Earth anymore. The great chantries are either cut off because of the new reinforced (systemless) Gauntlet, or they've been destroyed outright. Now it's a game about hopelessness, fear, and survival. Mage used to be a game about wonder and awe. I suppose all of this needed to be left out so that the writer had room for the rest of the content. However, nowhere in the book does it give a new Gauntlet chart, nowhere does it give mechanics for damage while traveling to the spirit world, it mentions things like avatar storms but gives no description or system for them. In at least 10 or 12 places the writer is sure to point out that piercing the Gauntlet is much more difficult, more dangerous, and even damaging to the Mage in question. The chapter that's supposed to cover the Umbra, spirit travel, and such is completely missing. It's not a skill, and it's not covered in the combat section. Do, as it was in the First Edition, is not present. ![]() Also, there is several things that seem to be missing. The book is not well written, and, with the exception of the illustrations at the start of new chapters, most of the art is bad-most of it is silly looking. The new edition is a major disappointment. Now, after reading it, I'm just glad it wasn't -my- money that got spent on the book. When I heard he had already got it, I was rather jealous. A friend of mine got the new edition of Mage yesterday, I borrowed it and read through it last night.
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