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The Bastard Out of Boston and the End of the World

One of the interesting things about tabletop roleplaying is the ability to set up tensions between the game’s concepts and practical play considerations. Many tabletop gamers have a Manichean streak where something has to either cleave to the Big Idea or the Big Idea has to utterly suborn itself to practical issues. To my way [...]

Mage: The Dirty Version – The Metaphysic of Magic

From A Practical Reader on Occult Philosophy and Insurgency (aka “The Little Purple Book”)
Although it’s loaded with inaccurate connotations, the Consensus is still a useful shorthand term to describe the elements of existence that are most vital to the Ascension War. It isn’t as simple as majority rule, though the instincts of millions exert undeniable [...]

RPGs and Art That Challenges

Art isn’t always for challenging the audience, but a creative community needs that if it’s going to thrive. RPGs aren’t doing that. By “challenges,” I don’t mean Maybe old D&D rules kicked ass! or I bet we can do this without a GM! because these things don’t have wider social relevance. This also applies to [...]

Mage: The Dirty Version – The Hegemony

That a person exerts his will over another is instinct, but how he structures the act is technology, and his justifications? Magic. Therein lie the roots of the Hegemony: a network of Awakened who uphold modernist values – including those the great Masses, its protectorate, rarely speak of but firmly believe. The Hegemony is the [...]

Mage: The Dirty Version – Transhuman Adept Tradition

Transhuman Adepts
We Are All Beautiful Information
Immortality is a dream as old as Gilgamesh. Scholars have hungered for transcendental knowledge from the most ancient days, and didn’t separate numinous enlightenment from their pragmatic studies. The Transhuman Adepts may be a new movement but they partake of that most ancient impulse – the same felt by Plato, [...]

Mage: The Dirty Version – Transhuman Adept Tradition Prologue

It’s a toss up between the eye socket and nostril. The nose is safer, but the eye’s quicker, more direct. Luc doesn’t want to go blind but part of him thinks that if the Wire goes down wrong he’ll toss something steel in there – a few LEDs, a half-petabyte SSD – something that proves [...]

Poooooooodcasting! On Darker Days

I did an enormous podcast interview — almost three hours — with the folks at the Darker Days podcast. Check it out! I think the important bit is where I answer why I like RPGs, but there’s lots of bits and bobs about the Mages and many other things. Kudos to both interviewers, who did [...]

Mage: The Dirty Version – Eumenides Tradition

Eumenides
Love, Death and Justice Until the End of the World
Death is a lover and a lesson, walking with us all our lives, teaching the value of every moment – and when life ends, Death gives us a chance to explore the universe again, atone and learn. Still, this incarnation is critical. As a human you [...]

Mage: The Dirty Version – Eumenides Tradition Prologue

Kira’s rough kiss had put a ragged mark on the inside left of Markus’ mouth last night, but he regained some sickening symmetry when Jude’s fist snapped out a tooth on the right, ripping its root straight through the gum. Jude picked it out of his glove; Markus spat out a thin line of bloody [...]

Mage: The Dirty Version – Traditions Summary

I know y’all really want this information, so here it is:
Traditions of the Council of Eight
Æther Society: Scientists and adventurers devoted to forgotten, “obsolete” and fringe theories who are convinced that True Science has limitless scope. Metascientists are famous for their eccentricity — as obsessives who master one field, or polymaths who make bizarre connections [...]