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Mage: The Victorian Age (Roleplaying Game)
Queen Victoria is on the throne, the British Empire is growing, and the Order of Reason projects a bright, shining future…as long as you go along with their conception of it. The Traditions are reeling but not defeated. Will history unfold as we know it, or can the paradigm be changed?
Similar to several of the 20th anniversary Werewolf products connecting problems in Garou society with real-world white dudes being stupid, this directly connects the rise of the Order of Reason and transformation into the world-controlling Technocratic Union with European imperialism and colonization. While the nobler ideals within the Order hope to bring enlightenment and technology to the masses, the general impact of the group is to drive out the innovation of individual cultures and, y’know, kill and enslave lots of people. (They also have a side note about “some” of the Celestial Chorus backing this plan—I think they were trying to split the difference between Christianity’s role in colonialism, the fact that the Traditions are still nominally supposed to be “good guys”, and the fact that technology “won” the paradigm wars of the era and miracles really didn’t.)
I give them a lot of credit that they did some research and clearly tried to take a lot of the unflattering stereotypes of the era and turn them into “bad publicity” by the Order—Africa has both highly capable mages and technomages of its own, and the colonization of Africa was a very deliberate war against them. (America, Asia and the Middle East, too.) A number of the sidebars focus on racism of the time (and our popular view of the time) and encourage players not to fall into it. The writers have definitely evolved beyond being edgy teenagers of the 90s, and they have asides about sensitive topics and making sure players (and the GM) are having fun and are comfortable; though thankfully they don’t get bogged down in it the way some indie publications have. There’s a lot of effort, like in other M20 books, to acknowledge and incorporate what came before and what was great about earlier editions while still trying to appeal to modern sensibilities.
(Though as an aside, I think there was an undercurrent of queerness and kinkiness in the 90s books—though how much was just “edgy” versus personal wish-fulfillment by the authors, who knows—that the 20th Anniversary books shy away from. Which I suppose is fine when you’re writing a book line for 40-somethings who have come to terms with themselves rather than repressed teenagers in the Casually Homophobic 90s.)
Anyway, they fill in a lot of gaps between Mage: The Sorcerer’s Crusade and the modern books with more detailed events (including lots of sidebar options with ways history could diverge) and politics (including the splintering and re-arrangement of various factions). The paradox system for this leans much more heavily into the “local paradigm” determining whether things are Elegant (coincidental) or Uncanny/Catastrophic, with the idea that you’re “straining” the local reality as opposed to calling down Divine Judgement or outright causing a Paradox between belief systems. There’s no universal consensus in this era, especially when you consider the entire rapidly-shrinking world is the setting.
The theme is Gaslamp Fantasy, as it’s not really Steampunk (though it can be) and it’s only Historical Fantasy if you lean into it. There are a LOT of story hooks for a lot of different parts of the world, and a campaign set in Britian (which is kind of the core setting) would be radically different from one in America, Russia, or India. Ostensibly this era and setting can include Sherlock Holmes, the Wild West, Samurai, anything Steampunk, and lots of other concepts separately or all mashed together.
I really like the idea that part of the Order’s plan to conquer the world is with maps: They convince enough people that Lemuria or Atlantis don’t exist, and therefore those places stop existing. I suspect it would be a fun hook to set up a group of characters from a place that had very much existed but then written off the map, and they fled to Britain seeking revenge for their vanished homeland.
Very little of the book is dedicated to rules and systems; this is very much a companion book to M20 rather than a standalone game. It assumes you know M20 well and mostly just explains the differences.
Overall: There’s a solid expansion setting here; it’s interesting both for the story hooks and for what it adds to the history of the World of Darkness. And I will say, I’m glad they wrote this now and not 25 years ago. In the wrong hands, this could have been a generic steampunk game or worse, another World of Darkness: Gypsies.
Similar to several of the 20th anniversary Werewolf products connecting problems in Garou society with real-world white dudes being stupid, this directly connects the rise of the Order of Reason and transformation into the world-controlling Technocratic Union with European imperialism and colonization. While the nobler ideals within the Order hope to bring enlightenment and technology to the masses, the general impact of the group is to drive out the innovation of individual cultures and, y’know, kill and enslave lots of people. (They also have a side note about “some” of the Celestial Chorus backing this plan—I think they were trying to split the difference between Christianity’s role in colonialism, the fact that the Traditions are still nominally supposed to be “good guys”, and the fact that technology “won” the paradigm wars of the era and miracles really didn’t.)
I give them a lot of credit that they did some research and clearly tried to take a lot of the unflattering stereotypes of the era and turn them into “bad publicity” by the Order—Africa has both highly capable mages and technomages of its own, and the colonization of Africa was a very deliberate war against them. (America, Asia and the Middle East, too.) A number of the sidebars focus on racism of the time (and our popular view of the time) and encourage players not to fall into it. The writers have definitely evolved beyond being edgy teenagers of the 90s, and they have asides about sensitive topics and making sure players (and the GM) are having fun and are comfortable; though thankfully they don’t get bogged down in it the way some indie publications have. There’s a lot of effort, like in other M20 books, to acknowledge and incorporate what came before and what was great about earlier editions while still trying to appeal to modern sensibilities.
(Though as an aside, I think there was an undercurrent of queerness and kinkiness in the 90s books—though how much was just “edgy” versus personal wish-fulfillment by the authors, who knows—that the 20th Anniversary books shy away from. Which I suppose is fine when you’re writing a book line for 40-somethings who have come to terms with themselves rather than repressed teenagers in the Casually Homophobic 90s.)
Anyway, they fill in a lot of gaps between Mage: The Sorcerer’s Crusade and the modern books with more detailed events (including lots of sidebar options with ways history could diverge) and politics (including the splintering and re-arrangement of various factions). The paradox system for this leans much more heavily into the “local paradigm” determining whether things are Elegant (coincidental) or Uncanny/Catastrophic, with the idea that you’re “straining” the local reality as opposed to calling down Divine Judgement or outright causing a Paradox between belief systems. There’s no universal consensus in this era, especially when you consider the entire rapidly-shrinking world is the setting.
The theme is Gaslamp Fantasy, as it’s not really Steampunk (though it can be) and it’s only Historical Fantasy if you lean into it. There are a LOT of story hooks for a lot of different parts of the world, and a campaign set in Britian (which is kind of the core setting) would be radically different from one in America, Russia, or India. Ostensibly this era and setting can include Sherlock Holmes, the Wild West, Samurai, anything Steampunk, and lots of other concepts separately or all mashed together.
I really like the idea that part of the Order’s plan to conquer the world is with maps: They convince enough people that Lemuria or Atlantis don’t exist, and therefore those places stop existing. I suspect it would be a fun hook to set up a group of characters from a place that had very much existed but then written off the map, and they fled to Britain seeking revenge for their vanished homeland.
Very little of the book is dedicated to rules and systems; this is very much a companion book to M20 rather than a standalone game. It assumes you know M20 well and mostly just explains the differences.
Overall: There’s a solid expansion setting here; it’s interesting both for the story hooks and for what it adds to the history of the World of Darkness. And I will say, I’m glad they wrote this now and not 25 years ago. In the wrong hands, this could have been a generic steampunk game or worse, another World of Darkness: Gypsies.