Mage: The Ascension

Mage: The Ascension is a role-playing game from the Storyteller series by White Wolf Game Studio. The game is generally contemporary, but can be played in all ages as the setting is quite flexible. The basic assumption of the game is that reality is malleable: What people believe exists is what actually exists. All player characters in a Mage game are mages, humans with what is called an "awakened will" or "Avatar". Using this will, they can locally bend the consensus of reality and produce magical effects. However, consensus reality can snap back with a phenomenon called Paradox.

The metaplot[?] of the game involves a four-way war between the science-based Technocracy (Order), the insane Marauders (Chaos), the cosmically evil Nephandi (Entropy) and the nine magical Traditions, to which the player characters are assumed to belong.

The system is basically the same as in all Storyteller games. Only ten-sided dice are used: more of them if the character is more able at what is doing, with the score to be rolled on each higher if the action is more difficult.

Like other storytelling games Mage gives the players more freedom in comparison with conventional role-playing games, a power that can be used for deepening the story or simply to "win" more quickly.

Mage's unique point is the powerful magic system (even more free-form than Ars Magica). This poses challenges to players and gamemasters, since a large part of the game is about defining what the character(s) thinks the world actually is.

Mage has a reputation as the problem child of the World of Darkness[?] line, with a freeform rule system, a vague and esoteric subject matter and a complex message that writers and developers complain has been ignored or misinterpreted by players. The third revision of the rules, Mage: The Ascension Revised, made significant changes to the rules and setting, and alienated many fans who stuck with their second edition rules.