The current news of Elon Musk’s attempt to take over Twitter Inc. make me think of the different philosophies pursued by the two Conventions with the most influence in the Technocracy. The NWO (New World Order) and the Syndicate have always represented two very different approaches to pursuing control of Read more
I recommended The Classic of Mountains and Seas (translated with notes by Anne Birrell, Penguin Classics) as a source of ideas for Storytellers planning a game of Mage the Ascension in East Asia. This week I had time to read it cover-to-cover and although I still recommend it for ideas, Read more
Pg. 180 of Mage20 tells us Adamites in the Technocracy eat apples provocatively in front of clones & other constructs to frustrate them. The scene is a break room in a mixed-Convention Construct. A woman sits with her friend and sees a handsome clone across the room. She doesn’t know Read more
Gygax’s ring of 16 planes was a big idea in the late 70s. Their arrangement gave them relationships to each other that were organized around the twin axes of law/chaos and good/evil. They explained where clerics, priests, monsters and others got their supernatural aid and supplied an adventuring challenge for Read more
One of the purposes of the Planescape setting was to bring the Inner & Outer Planes of Gygax’s 1st Edition setting to the forefront. Although Planescape made some changes there really weren’t many. To get up to speed on what Planescape was building on I read some parts of Monster Read more
My interactions on MeWe this month have reminded me how important it is for RPG fans to contribute blog posts to inspire each other. Rather than considering a few people to be top tier thinkers and passively follow their blogs, we should all take time to hammer our thoughts into Read more
As I continue on my survey of the Pulps – fiction magazines that ruled the news stands from roughly 1900 to 1950 – I continue to see interesting ideas to pull into Mage the Ascension. Mage fans know that Pulp stories from the 1930s were an inspiration for the first Read more
At the Discord server for Mage the Podcast Ailon Rouge asked “Design a chantry for you to live in for the rest of your life. What’s it like?”. This is my attempt to answer. Hopefully I’ve understood the question properly. Ailon generously granted me 88 Chantry creation points (Book of Read more
Razorfist and Jeffro Johnson both recommended the Solomon Kane stories of Robert E. Howard. Since Howard was a fellow Texan in his time I decided to pick up Del Rey’s The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane (July 2004). The book collects all of Howard’s stories about that character along with Read more
“They don’t make them like they used to.” “You can’t live in the past.” Two expressions that seem to contradict each other. Many people would say the first expression sounds like an old person letting nostalgia cloud their judgement. These same people would tell you the second expression is a Read more