Quote:
Originally Posted by Terwin
'Magic' in Mage the Ascension was less about 'magic' as used by Merlin, and more about exerting your will on the reality around you like a minor deity.
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On the contrary: “Magic” in MtA is
very much about “magic” as used by Merlin. It’s also about the stars of
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, faith healers, tantric muses, shamans, the witches in
MacBeth*, chaos magicians, mad scientists, druids, hackers, cyborgs, men in black, genetic engineers, financial wizards, space marines, and a bunch of others.
And it’s about exerting your will on the world around you like a minor deity, once you reach the later stages of the game; but we need little in the way of help in implementing that last one.
As Mr_Sandman said, the key issue here isn’t about how to replicate the capabilities of the MtA magic system; that’s nicely handled by Realm Magic. It’s about how to make the paradigms more meaningful. Tossing them out entirely is exactly the opposite of what we’re trying to do here.
* Note to lugaid: that’s a place to go for Euthanatos inspiration. The concept of the witch is actually split between the Verbena (who emphasize the fertility treatments and home remedies side of things) and the Euthanaoi (who deal in determining peoples’ Fates and placing curses or geases on them).
Quote:
Originally Posted by David Johnston2
Incidentally, I found that it helped a lot to write up rotes that really specified the ritual elements of the specific rote you were doing when I was playing GURPS M:tA. I thought their official rote collection really fell short in that it left out what the magician was actually doing. A Verbena flight rote is much more interesting when you include the part where you strip naked and rub the fat from a goose or a swan over your body
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Or, you know, grabbing a broom and straddling it.
It’s also worth noting that
GURPS Mage: the Ascension was based on the first edition of the game, which was rendered obsolete within a year of its publication. So yes, the official rote collection (among many other things) really fell short.