a different premise for Mage: The Ascension

[whswhs]

One of the options I'm considering for my next campaign is Mage: The Ascension (to be set in London in 1905, right after the Sons of Ether defect to the Traditions). This has gotten me thinking about the Mage setting, and a curious idea came to me.

Orthodox Mage says that Reality is Subjective: By the nature of things, human will control the world, with the stronger-willed having more control, and the Order of Reason's achievement was to get the will of the masses attuned to stable natural law and inflicting Paradox on superhumans. And that's one way to do it. But I started wondering about a different way.

In S.M. Stirling's Shadowspawn novels, inspired by Jack Williamson's Darker Than You Think (a classic of sf horror), it's proposed that a certain human strain had genes that enabled them to control reality psychically/quantum-mechanically. At one point, Stirling observes that worlds ruled by such strains of intelligent beings never develop science or advanced technology, because people who control nature by will have little need for tools, and cause a constant flux that makes it impossible to identify natural laws. So in Stirling's history, it's only the fact that standard Homo sapiens came up with effective countermeasures (which is also part of Williamson's history) and thus stripped the magically talented of their quasi-godhood that enabled us to have science.

Okay, but what if it's the other way around, and science itself is the effective countermeasure? What if Awakened mages are not so much clued in to the true subjectivity of reality, but rather have neurological abnormalities that let them control local reality by will? That introduces a big subjective aspect, yes, but it doesn't make the universe as a whole subjective. The Technocracy's account of what it's doing is "hunting down reality deviants"; well, what if the Technocracy is right? How does that affect the possibilities for a Mage campaign?

I don't think I necessarily want to run this. But it's an entertaining idea and I'm certainly interested in playing with it. Anyone want to join in?

[Flyndaran]

If you live on and within a tapestry of reality, why wouldn't you destroy amateur weavers playing with the fabric of existence?
Even if you trusted that single craftsman to not accidentally or purposely tear the universe, wouldn't any sane mundane or even weaver prefer a stable no loose thread-yankers allowed M.O.?

If magic existed, it would almost have to by definition be more like Lovecraftian "wrongness" than D&D cool powers, I would think.

I could see playing sorcerers trying to remove the very thing that makes them special. Like a vampire out to kill all undead before meeting the sun.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

If magic existed, it would almost have to by definition be more like Lovecraftian "wrongness" than D&D cool powers, I would think.

Well, Williamson makes his gifted characters predatory monsters, and Stirling makes them all that, only nastier. But I'd be running this as a campaign of the Technocracy hunting down Reality Deviants.

[Flyndaran]

Monster Hunters where the monsters think they're enlightened humans or gods among men?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Monster Hunters where the monsters think they're enlightened humans or gods among men?

That's Madness Dossier, from the other side.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by johndallman

That's Madness Dossier, from the other side.

In a way, though I think the metaphysics is different: not psionic gifts but paratemporal causality. But the mission statement would be comparable.

But I'm interested in the metaphysics in its own right, and in its impact on what options are open to PCs.

[Anthony]

The main thing it changes is the potential for true victory. In standard MtA, the way you 'win' the ascension war is by convincing consensual reality that what you're doing is normal, at which point anyone can do it. That victory condition seems unavailable to mages if all they can do is manipulate local reality.

[Flyndaran]

It makes mundanes, technology, and even bona fide witch hunts, the immune system of reality.
Shoot the patient to avoid spreading the plague becomes a bit more reasonable than it is in nearly every fiction I know of.
Aliens would have been much shorter, only suffered one casualty, and most importantly saved spreading the contagion if they had just "nuked it from orbit".
If reality warping is a power only sapient life develops, it even makes anti-humanity groups sound a bit more sane. The only true way to protect the universe is by killing all humans.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Anthony

The main thing it changes is the potential for true victory. In standard MtA, the way you 'win' the ascension war is by convincing consensual reality that what you're doing is normal, at which point anyone can do it. That victory condition seems unavailable to mages if all they can do is manipulate local reality.

The victory condition for Homo nocturnis in Stirling's novel is to have large enough numbers, and high enough power levels, so that they can overwhelm mundane tech and organization at any local point. Then they install themselves as permanent superheroic aristocracy. Or supervillainous. Either way, it's back to "the strong do what they can, and the weak do what they must."

On the other hand, in Stirling (though not in Williamson), the victory that's desired is that of Homo sapiens. Or in Mage terms, of the Technocracy.

[Boomerang]

Would paradox still apply in this new variant?