If April sees a Hermetic draw a pentagram on their belly and then fart a lightning bolt, guess what? Drawing a pentagram on your belly and farting out a lightning bolt becomes possible in April's paradigm. Only I can tell April what to believe, and I don't even tell April what to believe. More than that (my new character is an apprentice and hasn't cast a single spell yet), I don't want anyone telling me what my character believes or considers to be possible. Peer review and repeatability is at the core of scientific discovery! If mundane scientists cannot independently verify it, it ain't science, it's magic cloaked in scientific jargon. The difference between science and all magical powers in World of Darkness is that ANYONE can verify and repeat scientific phenomena. But she doesn't believe Science! = science. I was literally told "April makes a great mundane sceintist, but under no circumstance can we let her be an Etherite." W.?!T?! F?! For Christ’s sake I explicitly made her a Technomage, with all the Etherite foci and the Ehterite's can-do attitude towards science. I had to create (or retrofit) a new character because I couldn't play my Etherite April St. I was thinking the issue might be that this is a 'hard paradigm' rule. Something about this game and it may not be Mage itself, makes me roll my eyes and go 'whatever.' And for the first time, I have a character who enjoys the game more than me. I believe firmly that the CHARACTERS are real, and many of them are well designed and played, but the world they live in is not. There's no tangible sense of realism, and believe it or not Werewolf has it. Bu in general, I can't seem to immerse myself into the game, lose myself and see everything through my character's eyes. D&D is dumb, Pathfinder is dumb, World of Darkness is dumb, Tales of the Floating Vagabond is dumb (and uses that dumb to hilarious effect).
But then again, the only setting I've ever played that wasn't full of dumb was my first game, Serenity. I mean there are the usual problems: it's World of Darkness, and it's full of dumb. And the STs are trying really hard to get me to enjoy it, but I'm not. I love my character, the interactions with the other players has been great. Mage doesn't do this, but after both sessions I couldn't help but ask myself why I came in the first place. When I played Vampire, I felt like I was dogpaddling in a latrine and thus unclean in ways words fail to convey. Despite major problems (mostly that the Garou are douchebags) I've really, really been enjoying myself in my Werewolf: the Apocalypse LARP and was hoping to branch out a little bit.Īfter two five hour game sessions, I've yet to have any real fun. I can't find any other games to play in my area and 3. I said I would try the game before I wrote it off 2. In the last month, a Mage: the Ascension LARP has started in my area.