Editing Mage: The Ascension (section)

== The Magic System, Or Why Playing ''Mage'' Sucks ==
To make a long story very short, ''Mage'' is extremely complex and difficult to understand. The game relies on some basic knowledge of Occultism and metaphysics, and likewise requires a good deal of creativity that isn't present in games like [[Vampire: The Masquerade]]. The rules are often criticized for being simultaneously OP as shit in crossover games (once he or she gets to about Arete 3, an individual mage of equivalent "level" will, one-on-one, reliably curb stomp any other supernatural in the oWoD gameline if they can get the first shot off, and can, depending on the opponent, give whole ''teams'' of other types of PC a run for their money), frustrating to manage (virtually ''anything'' can be too "cool" to avoid Paradox in public, and the rules aren't great at examining different levels of "acceptance"), and possessed of intensely, artificially complex mechanics (For those of you not up on your game design, complexity and depth are two different things).

''Mage'''s open-ended magick system enables players to translate their real-world  knowledge and creativity into magical effects so it is a game in which  knowledge truly is power; for example, a chemist playing a ''Matter'' mage is truly a thing to be feared [[meme|''("This... is not meth.")'']].  On the other hand, this raises ancient problems of character mastery vs. player mastery, and to what degree someone making use of their real-world knowledge to flex on the GM is just being a dick.  Indeed, this system is arguably hardest on the GM/Storyteller, who needs to not only have a deep understanding of every single Sphere but the ability to counterattack if one of his players starts confidently spewing bullshit, and rule on various complicated subjects that are deliberately not designed to make sense or be easily understood.

===Making a Mage===
A mage has a composite soul, with a special portion acquired at birth called an Avatar, which is what grants the mage her magical abilities; a mage's Awakening to magical ability is specifically the awakening of the Avatar portion of her soul.  There are four types of Avatars: three corresponding to the [[Metaphysic Trinity|Metaphysic Trinity (Dynamicism, Stasis, Entropy)]], and a fourth middle ground; from [[Dynamicism]] comes ''Dynamic'' avatars which urge toward acts of creation, from [[Stasis]] comes ''Pattern'' avatars which urge toward protection of what is valuable, from [[Entropy]] comes oddly named ''Primordial'' avatars which urge toward elimination of the worst parts of reality, and the middle ground is ''Questing'' avatars which urge toward higher quality and harmony of the Metaphysic Trinity.  Players choose their Avatar type as part of character creation; depending on the game your [[gamemaster]] runs, the impact of your character's Avatar type could range from center-of-plot to inconsequential.

The difficulty of playing ''Mage'' often begins right at character generation, since newly Awakened mages are almost always incapable of grasping their capacity to bend reality. They're forced to fit their newfound powers into methodologies and belief systems that help them rationalize what they're able to do. This is called a "[[Reality Paradigm]]" ("Paradigm" for short) - and is by far one of the most difficult character creation experiences you can come across in table-top gaming. A paradigm is not only a belief system but also delves into your character's backstory and psyche - you have to craft an entire, logical reason for your character to be able to do magic. Maybe they're a Wiccan who believes they're chosen by the Goddess, or a devout nun who practices humble miracles on behalf of the Lord, or a strung-out hippie who believes they can see beyond reality and time when they listen to the Grateful Dead; it's a fair bit deeper than just picking a nature and a demeanor. 

Crafting this "reason" for their magic likewise brings with it the process they use to cast their magic. While someone who believes themselves a hermetic mage may chant in Latin and have specially prepared ritual circles, the nun example above would have her rosary beads and meaningful passages from the Bible to make her magic. The concept and Paradigm of a mage naturally flow into the process of their magic. While having your character be a member of a Tradition (discussed below) helps with figuring a lot of this out, you more often end up with people tossing aside interesting characters to just play easy-to-make Neo-Pagans.

===Wizzads 'n Shit===
So, once you have all that bullshit figured out, how do you start casting spells? Magic in Mage is different from other systems in that you aren't assigned pre-created spells that you can cast - but rather a mix of "rotes" (tried and true magical effects that are a bit easier to cast) and "spontaneous magic" (whatever you BS in the moment). You use "spheres" (designated segments of reality that your mage has studied) as your guideline of what you can and can't do. Spheres provide rough outlines of the areas they govern, and how many dots are required to do certain things within them. Spheres are discussed in depth below, but a rough approximation would be this: Sister Agatha, our Nun, is focused in the Life sphere, granting her power over bodies, biology and anything alive. Agatha has two Dots in the Life sphere, so she has the ability to sense all the various aspects of life - age, sex, health, race, species - anything related to its biology and anatomy. Since she has two Dots, she can also gently encourage the plants in her garden to grow strong and healthy, and heal herself when she gets hurt. But, Agatha can't heal other people quite yet - as this requires three Dots in the sphere. 
[[File:32155541.png|200px|thumb|left|A realistic possibility in a game of Mage.]]
Actually using magic in the moment is a game of artful bullshit. Mage is a game about bending rules - be they the rules of reality, or even of the game system. Much of the nit-and-grit is left nebulous, so that it can be taken advantage of by creative players. A player needs to figure out what they want to do, what spheres they intend to do it with, and how they're going to get away with it without getting their teeth kicked in by Paradox. Not every act of magic will cause paradox, especially if a player is creative and can soothe the ego of their overeager [[GM]]. Multiple different effects can be accomplished by using different combinations of Spheres - it ultimately boils down to how creatively a player has their mage perform it (and how creatively the player rationalizes the magic to the GM). If we use Sister Agatha as an example again, she's going up in the world with three whole dots in the Life Sphere, now! So, she's started healing the sick and lame. When she wants to heal someone, she goes through the same ritual: she applies a handmade poultice of monkshood and chamomile to the damage area, "to ease the pain", and sings a hymn while ritualistically applying bandages or a splint - and just like that, the person feels better already. Blood might be staunched, pain from a sprained limb eased, a fever might ebb. But, something like a broken bone might just heal faster (since that's much easier to believe than it just healing immediately).

===But I Don't Have My Degree From Hogwarts===
Odds are, this sounds really fucking arcane to you (pun intended). That's because it is, and while some people may love it, you most likely do not! Thus, any player who wants to play ''Mage: the Ascension'' has to beat a completely different game first: namely, the game of finding another set of magic rules to use in place of the ones provided in any of the ''three'' editions of ''MtA''. The [[GURPS]] version of ''MtA'' was a common pick back in the day, as it has roughly the same fluff. (And if your players are running ''to'' the "Generally Unplayable Role-Play System" to get ''away'' from the rules, that's how you can tell you've got a '''special''' level of rough on your hands.) Nowadays, the most common choice is to back-port the nWoD [[Mage: The Awakening]] rules via the ''Mage Translation Guide''. Both keep the basic idea of not using magic in public and stuff but aren't quite as blunt and over-complicated about it. Or maybe just play ''[[Ars Magica]]'' and be done with it, it's where they copied/stole a lotta this shit from anyway.

There's a reason why ''Mage'' is the game that you love to read all the awesome fluff of but never quite get a group together to play, is what we're getting at.