Okay, obviously things have been pretty quiet here. There’s a good reason for that though — I’m working on some really cool material for the blog, which I’m hoping to have up by the end of the week. So keep looking for that! I’ll also announce it on Twitter — yes, that’s my feed over there on the right. Feel free to follow me.
What time hasn’t been taken up by working on Tabletops, NaNoWriMo, a new home-based business my wife and I are starting, the utter madness of work, and a little break time with Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has been spent working on ‘Mote’, my first Mage: The Ascension character. (Actually my first World of Darkness character at all! Crazy, I know.) Even though I’ll be joining the game in about a week, the GM (who’s a good friend) let me sit in on the last session of the game. That’s not something I’ve seen a lot before at other tables, and let me tell you, being able to watch people interact at the table while you wallflower a bit really isn’t a bad thing at all. Especially when it’s a game whose mechanics and spirit are unfamiliar to you, I might seriously recommend that a new player joining an existing group ask to do this, and very strongly recommend that GMs make the offer to any new member of the group.
The thing I’ve discovered about Mage, by the way, is that it really taxes parts of my gaming brain I didn’t really know I had. I’m used to discrete numbers in games–even in reasonably flexible games like Unknown Armies there’s a number of specific effects. But having to use one’s component spheres–the generic “building blocks” of magic in Mage–to create unique effects? Tricky–a lot tricker than I really expected.
This has me a little worried; I’m beginning to think that I’m not the creative gamer and writer I thought I was (let’s not talk about my NaNoWriMo status right now.) On the other hand, I’ve not actually had to use these magical effects in the game yet. They’re being created in a vacuum without any firsthand knowledge of how they work in-game. So I figure that once I get some playtime under my belt these things will make a lot more sense.
There’s no real advice here or thoughts for you to take home to your own game–this is just me musing about how different Mage is from anything else I’ve had the pleasure of playing. Certainly I’m looking forward to playing the game; I’m just a touch nervous.
Anyway. Stay tuned–the cool stuff should be here no later than Friday!
1 Comment until now
Spheres are tricky; they are one of the parts that I’ve had the most trouble guiding my players through in the first sessions of the game.
One useful thing that I have done is to write down rotes for players that demonstrate what can be accomplished. You might benefit from doing the same– look at your character’s personality and see if there is magic that fits, that you’ll probably try often. [Sensing magic does well for detective types; fireballs for the combative, etc.] See if you can create the effect– which spheres it takes. If you can’t, see if there’s a different approach that leads to a similar end result. [Maybe you want a fireball, but you're no expert in forces. A good dose of Entropy might cause a nearby gas main to fail, or perhaps you could call a spirit of fire to immolate your opponents instead.]
The “play” of trying to do something and seeing how close you can come is a good way to stretch those mental muscles. Don’t worry though– everyone struggles at first!
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