- Jun 8, 2020
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I grew up in Texas. Feisty country girl with a gun and a pickup was the "girl next door" type
- Thread starter Nine of Swords
- Start date
- Sep 18, 2021
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I definitely understand why people have trouble with Mage. Part of it is because the Spheres are so vague, and it's kind of left up to the players and the ST to decide exactly what's possible at any given level (and different STs may allow or disallow different things). That's what the original point of Rotes were - not to give you a specific list of powers to memorize and dogmatically stick to, but to give you a feel for the sort of combinations you can do and ways to build your own effects. They're kind of supposed to be crutches to help you ease your way into using the Spheres more directly.
(And Heaven help you if you're playing a game with a science major who has a high rating in Forces, and is using real world physics knowledge to come up with game-breaking effects that are technically feasible within a given rank.)
But it's not all that intuitive to people who are used to playing games where the mechanics are essentially "At this level you get this specific power". It's how most of the other World of Darkness games work, it's how D&D works, it's how most video games work. So it takes a bit of a shift of mindset to get used to Mage, and not everyone can do it. Or want to do it. Sometimes it's more fun/easier to just be told what you can do specifically and then just do it.
But the other problem with Mage is that it's so damned broad. Three different Vampire STs can run games where you're focused on the personal horror, or one with a political focus, or even one where you're traveling the world trying to avert Gehenna. But Mage campaigns can be almost anything. Street-level mages fighting other supernaturals, desperate rebels trying to fight back against a totalitarian techno-army, hometown philosophers trying to make the world a better place from the ground up, scholar adventurers fighting against Elder Horrors, hidebound wizards scheming and playing deadly political games for control over a powerful stronghold, weird maniacs sailing galleons through space, young students training in a magical academy, strange sorcerers fighting magical battles to defeat ancient Asian demon lords, or just literally copying The Matrix. So even if you FIND a Mage game, there's no guarantee it will even be a game you want to play.
The greatest strength of Mage is that it can be anything you want it to be. But the greatest weakness of Mage is that it can be anything you want it to be.
Changeling is kind of weird because it was originally designed to work with a deck of cards (and then that was removed from later editions but the mechanics were mostly left the same and jury-rigged into working with dice instead). But ironically, it's not that different from the mechanics of Ars Magica - where you basically add the "type" of magic you want to do to the "effect" you want to create, in a sort of Verb/Noun language structure. So "Creo Ignem" creates fire while "Perdo Herbam" destroys plants).
Changeling Arts are mostly just power+target, with an added negative effect because Fae magic in folklore usually has some sort of price or flaw built into it. And with Glamour and Banality mechanics that aren't that different from Quintessence and Paradox in Mage.
I've always kind of seen Changeling mechanics as being a sort of halfway hybrid between Ars Magica and Mage (which makes sense because all three were made by the same company, more or less). Changeling powers aren't as flexible or open-ended, but the focus on Realms means you can have two characters with the same Art but with different Realm preferences who use the same powers in very different ways. In theory, anyway. The real problem is that most of the Arts are heavily focused on effects you'd use on people... so Realms like Nature or Prop can feel kind of useless. While Scene and Time feel more metamagic-y.
But honestly, it's very telling that in most Changeling games I've played, people have kind of handwaved a lot of the mechanics (and ignored Bunks almost entirely) in favor of focusing more on character interactions and storytelling. It's like the difference between a D&D DM who forces players to use Spell Components and one that just sort of ignores it because spellcasting is more fun when you're not having to micromanage how much flower petals, mushrooms, and bat guano you have in your satchel.
Then again, my ideal tabletop RP experience at this point is pretty close to freeform. Which is probably why my favorite system/setting is Amber Diceless RPG, which has almost no rules whatsoever. With a GOOD GM (the crucial part), you can tell awesome stories that everyone loves. But GMs need to view the game more as collaborative storytelling and not "my job is to kill the players", while players have to be more focused on narrative and characterization than combat, and they absolutely need to trust the GM not to screw them over. It's a hard mindset for a lot of players to get into.
But if you can find a group of players who can really get into the freeform groove, it can kind of retroactively be applied to almost any other game. So games with more complex or discouraging mechanics like Mage can be kind of stripped down to a freeform framework, and magic can be more off-the-cuff and creative rather than confusing.
- Aug 9, 2020
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And now you've all gone and made me miss playing RPGs.
The fifth Chapter Three Mythos Poster! Chapter Three will be up for free tomorrow!!!
- Mar 24, 2021
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forget the chapter, I need one hundreth of your talent!
- Jun 8, 2020
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(fangirl squeals of joy) MARA!!!
It's Halloween!!! Or... close enough, I guess. Whatever. The point is, Mythos: Book One, Chapter Three Turbo Championship Edition Alpha is free to the pubic public!!!
Get it here!!!
Get it here!!!
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- Aug 22, 2018
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Hope you all have a very spooky Halloween
- Apr 25, 2017
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- Aug 13, 2018
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consumed by new attention, does that mean the MC can become corrupt?. Moral compass goes out the window
- Aug 31, 2018
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Mythos Book One [3.11] Compressed (Half-Tested)
Win/Linux/Mac (2.6 GB/ 390 MB) :
Win/Linux/Mac (2.6 GB/ 390 MB) :
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Seems like CH3 requires a full restart. Unless I missed it somewhere, it might be nice to add a note to the OP.
- Jan 3, 2021
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Aye I know how you feel but you can choose to be a MALE or FEMALE in this game.
That's why the lesbian tag is there. I played both routes and I don't think the male have none of the girls fucking each other or no lesbian or nothing.
It's not really a dual protag game. You either be a male or female.
That's why the lesbian tag is there. I played both routes and I don't think the male have none of the girls fucking each other or no lesbian or nothing.
It's not really a dual protag game. You either be a male or female.
- Aug 30, 2016
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- Sep 5, 2022
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wow! this game has A LOT of charm, witty dialogue and likeable characters.
I hope, we see the end of it!
oh, and I LOVE what he did with the introductions!
I hope, we see the end of it!
oh, and I LOVE what he did with the introductions!
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Ooops! Sorry! I talked about it in one of my updates and on the thread, but forgot to put it in the top post. It's there, now!
- Oct 23, 2016
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Yeah, same here. I saw it in latest updates, saw the OP and thought: "Hm, why does this seem so familiar."