LFG Looking for a Mage: The Awakening Game

Ah... Always an ST and never a PC, it is the story of this Mage player's life, heh. Looking for a group so I can be on the other end of the ST's screen for once.

*leans on Henry and bumps his thread*

D'awwww... *hugs the Megan* Dankes.

I share your pain. I have some great characters waiting to be played but I need a ST for that. But where are the Storytellers?

*hugs Henry back* I would definitely be open to a game, but WoD isn't a system that I'd feel comfortable trying to run, so I'd have to sign on as a player.

*bumps again*

Seems to be the most common issue. People want to play, not run games. I am one of those people as well haha.

I've run a ton of games... I need to recharge my batteries before I do it again...

and another player enters the fold T_T. Seems to be the blight of mage players, is it really that unpopular? The times i've seen other white wolf games seems astronomical compared to mage.

I have a mage character I've been wanting to use, so I'm another player I guess I think the reason it's "unpopular" is because the rulebook is so confusing, 2e needs to come out fast

Ninjasanta - I've never found Mage all that confusing personally. It is pretty straight forward. The problem with Mage is that, really, it requires more thought than say Vampire or Werewolf. I'm not knocking Vampire or Werewolf players either (I have played both many times!) here. The thing is, with Vampire, you drop down your discipline dots and you know what you can do. Your ST knows what you can do. You aren't going to really surprise him with a power that he never even considered before. In Mage, an Obrimos might have 3 Forces, 2 Life, 1 Prime (using an example of a possible starting character build) and the rotes for: Optimize Kinetic Attack (GoG), Self Healing (MtA), and Prime Sight (MtA)... But creative thaumaturgy is still an option and he's literally got access to: 55+ Forces Effects 27+ Life Effects 5+ Prime Effects It is a lot for players, and even more for STs.

I always had fun with mages in Ascension, as well as the couple of times that I've played Awakening. I like the flexibility of mages, and the fact that players can be rewarded for knowing what their spheres can do and being creative with that.

Me too Megan - It takes a degree of "player skill" that a lot of games don't do anymore. I was going to run an Awakening game recently but none of the players could get on the same page so I dropped it.

Another thing that works against Mage: The Awakening is that players of White Wolf games are used to what I call, "shotgun powers" namely, they get really beefy powers up front. In Mage... Not so much... Pound for pound an individual Rank 3 Arcana effect is going to be far weaker than a Rank 3 Discipline or Gift... On the other hand... Mages can start combining their Arcana effects and together that can blow past anything anyone else can do. Not just in combat, but that is where people most often see it... Scariest thing I ever personally witnessed was at a demo game... Guy with an Enhanced Rifle (+4 base, +2 for enhancements) Dexterity 3 Firearms 3 Arcana: Life 2 Fate 3 Time 1 Before going into a meeting with the "Powerful Werewolf Leader" (who was all kinds of evil and corrupt.) he cast Puissant Skill: Firearms, Superlative Luck, and went into the meeting... When things went sour, the Mage got lucky and went first... Used Time 1 - Perfect Timing (3 successes) Fired his rifle - Dex 3, Firearms 3, +6 from the rifle, +3 from the Perfect Timing, +3 from a Willpower Point for 18 dice, the Werewolf's defense didn't apply because, well, firearm. He fires... 26 successes... (18 dice base, reroll all failures 1 time (puissant skill), reroll all 8's, 9's, and 10's (superlative luck)) Literally dropping the "big bad" in one shot as the Werewolf brains sprayed across the landscape. The poor GM running the demo was just slack jawed...

Congratulations, you gave a reason to don't call you to my games. This win-win situation is what taint mage player mentality. With the right group mage is awesome, but with players who brings other rpg addictions, like sheet optimization, it is one way to the hell

Eavatar - I was recounting one of the scariest things I ever saw at a demo game. Not something I did. Something I saw happen as part of my example of what scares GMs away from running the game. You are being far too judgemental and I'm pretty insulted. Though, this also marks one of the reasons why I don't think you and I would get along so the feeling is mutual. People who jump to conclusions taint the mage player mentality even worse.

The problem, as I was explaining, is the game can break so easily from the most innocuous abilities being used that it scares many players away from the game and even more GMs. I've had entire games totally derailed from players taking simple, common, things and using them in ways that have turned major challenges into things that were trivial. Perfect example of that: Had a whole chapter planned out. The PCs were supposed to explore this manor and look for clues to where something was hidden. What I didn't consider was a 1 dot use of Space... BOOM... Space 1 and zap... They knew where the hidden room was and it was a simple matter at that point for them to tear the wall down to reach it. I remember wincing behind my ST screen going, "Oh... Right... I forgot they could do that." Its just one of those games where, as an ST, you have to plan, because you can have the example above, where someone combines completely normal-on-their-own abilities to get some ridiculous combination that nobody considered *OR* you have to hawk sheets because of things like, "If I want to make this a mystery on who killed so-and-so, I had better make sure nobody has time 2, or the opponent needs Space 3, and Time 2, in order to ward the area and stop post-cognitive scrying." Or you have to think, "If my players are going to try to kill this target... What is going to stop them from simply sitting in the room and using Psychic Assault to covertly kill him without anyone being able to trace it back to him?" Mage just tosses so many variables and "what if" scenarios that, as an ST, one has to be supremely careful when crafting an adventure because there are virtually any number of a million things that can turn your "big focal point" into a trivial matter.

I run some mage games and I can say mage is the game which needs more improvisation ever. One thing is okay there are a hidden room at the manor and to open it you need to gather all the clue, another is there are a hidden room at the manor and I am not counting they would use their arcanas. I usually keep the original plan, but I demand a different method to proceed, like "they found the room, but did they know what this hidden room means? And sudenly the players needs to explore all the manor again because they don't know why this hidden room is vital to them

Eavatar - Unfortunately they knew what they were looking for when they got there. I'm not going to rebuild an entire story because a player used their powers. That smacks of railroading to me. That isn't fair, if a player comes up with something you didn't think of, it isn't generally cool to simply say, "Okay, but no." That is just me though. I respect when players outsmart me, and in Mage, I've seen it all. Much like you jumped the gun about an example... That wasn't an optimized character... It was just a combination a player hit on that was enormously effective. It happens. On the other hand, I've also seen the reverse, I've seen players over-complicate things and miss the simple and easy path... Which has turned out very amusing before.

I usually am cool about finding everything before I wanted. But it is easier to the players overcomplicate everything else and they start their own chase about a missed clue, which was introduced as a red herring and it was told it was a red herring

Just popping in to say that I'm interested in giving a Mage game a go. Never played it, but I am playing a nWoD mortals game currently. I have read over the rules and think I have a fair grasp of the mechanics, although the lore is a bit overwhelming.

That is one thing about mages... They can be very unpredictable if the players are savvy with the system. It's not just knowing what spheres/arcana you have, but also what they let you do. If you know that, and are crafty about how you combine those effects together, you can make some truly amazing things happen. My last game was very anti-mage, though. The ST raised all of the magic difficulties (highest sphere +5 instead of +3), removed all of the usual ways to lower those difficulties (like spending quintessence or having helper abilities, and basically made it really hard to do anything. Then, he allowed a DnD-type wizard into the party, so we had a character who could basically do whatever he wanted with the spells he had, because he rolled a stat+skill combo for each one, had lower difficulties than me, and didn't have to worry about Paradox. All the while, he kept telling me that it would work out in my favor in the end, because I'd be a "god" when I had 5 in a sphere. He seemed to forget that I would also have a 10 diff to use any power that high, and would have no way to lower that difficulty. With a 10 difficulty, you are basically doomed to fail consistently, and have an equal chance to succeed as you do to FAIL MISERABLY.

Yeah Megan, sounds like that ST was a jerk. I'da walked out of that game. Oh yeah you start combining things and you can get some INSANE effects that is what makes Mages scary. Mages aren't supposed to be "weaker supernaturals" a Mage is supposed to be just as terrifying as a Vampire or Werewolf pound for pound.

I did walk out of that game. :P

Good on ya! *hugs the Megan* Heh for those wondering, Megan is a player in one of the games I am currently running.

I'd be interested in running a Mage game, but I would want to have been a player in more than just a single one-shot before I try to take on such a difficult task.

Yeah, it can be a bit daunting Lee, but it is worth it.

Run mage isn't hard. What you need is be very imaginative and know how to improv. And I don't know about Hnery, but for me, what matter is the story being told and the character development. It is easy to mess with the world being a mage, but it is hard to keep it as it is when you have powers to shape it

Well, if anybody would be willing to set up some practice games so I could better learn the mechanics and what to expect from players, I would be grateful.

I'm game for anything except gming myself

I'm currently running one on Mondays, but I'd really like one I could join.

Mind if I sit in and watch your game tomorrow?

I don't mind. I don't think the group will either. I'll get a link to you once I check with them.