Mage: The Ascension - Sunrise City

The complete series

Lore from a certain point of view

One of the great joys of running a Vampire chronicle for people who have never played Vampire before is tossing them into a stew of contradictory conspiracies. Vampires love to present themselves as erudite and sophisticated, but they have very little evidence about their own supernatural world.

So far my group has heard...

* Three different creation myths about vampires

* Two different theoretical ways out of the curse

* About the existence of bloodlines, but not specifics

* About the existence of the Sabbat, with some (useless) history

* About werewolves and ghosts

They also heard about wizards ("they died out in the Middle Ages") shortly before meeting a mage, and about unaligned clans ("mostly weirdos who have very limited power") before running afoul of a Follower of Set/Ministry vampire.

They met a vampire who can survive sunlight at dawn

They met a mortal who can just see through Obfuscate. No idea why

They ran away from mortal hunters wearing FBI jackets, who were obviously not real agents

They have failed several gambits to get blood, and are coming to grips with the fact that they will have to do some questionable things

They discovered that animal blood is not very satisfying, then met a Kindred who feeds on animals exclusively

They heard that the Prince is Malkavian, then met her and the coterie's Malkavian immediately clocked that she is not

The Malkavian learned to aura read and has no idea how to interpret it

Everyone seems to be having a great time. It's a World of Darkness where there is lore, there is history, there are societies, but a rule is only a rule until it's broken. Supernatural things work the way they do because of magic, and symbols, and metaphors, not because of science.

Soon they'll get introduced to Gehenna, the End Times, Gehenna cults, and the mythology of the turning of the age. Probably hand-in-hand with crossing paths with actual Sabbat, an Anarch Revolt in their city, and thin-bloods looking for a place to survive.

The huge, sprawling metaplot of the World of Darkness causes some players to pursue setting mastery, to have full fundamental knowledge of the "truth" of the world, so I've made it pretty clear through events that "truth" is highly subjective and context-driven.

Everyone's got goals and agendas, but at the end of the night, it really comes down to, what will you do to survive? How are you going to make it happen? Where are you going to get blood? And who's going to pay the price for your sins?

Jesse Heinig

Mage: The Ascension - Sunrise City action figures

Mage: The Ascension -  Sunrise City action figures

Sunset City figures

And if we ever figure out a design for fashion dolls those are definitely happening.

Set 1: Arrival

Our heroes meet up for the first time in 1883.

Each comes with a hat, gloved and ungloved hands. Simon comes with an openable umbrella, doctor's bag and book, Michael with his revolvers and Bowie knife, and the ladies with an openable parasol and fan and a reticule purse.

TPO Cara: "Michael's figure gets two guns and a Bowie knife and all we get is a parasol, a fan and a purse?"

ST: "Like you couldn't kill somebody with any of those."

Mage: The Ascension - Sunrise City

Mage: The Ascension - Sunrise City

The further adventures of a circle of mages in San Francisco

Sunset City 1 (not yet called that)

Sunset City 2

Sunset City 3

Sunset City 4

Cara Lawson, Akashayana

In every generation there is a chosen one

Simon Donovan, Hermetic

May have consulted on the new season of The Librarians

Alissa Kwan, Ecstatic

All the pretty girls and all the pretty boys they get dressed up and go out dancing

Michael Lang, Verbena

Cowboy Druid

And last but definitely least:

Didi Duvall, Hollow One

Wants to be Agatha Harkness when she grows up

4A.01: Into The Portal

26/07

Our heroes (and Didi) have been enjoying relative peace and quiet - cut to Cara kicking a ghoul in the face and Simon casting out a demon - when Martin, the master of Time magic who pressed them into rewriting history to save his wife a while back, approaches them seeming tense.

Someone is planning to launch an attack on the city's Tradition Library, the base of the mages on the west coast.

When it was built.

Over a century ago.

It's been well enough concealed that he just detected it.

We go to try and stop the time warping ritual before it activates.

But it's too late.

Whiteout, hard to look at.

So Martin throws us back in time to stop it.

At least this time he tells us that's all he can do and gives us a moment to nod before he widens the portal and in we go.

Promising a soft landing.

--

Didi wakes to find herself in a nice bed. In a nice room.

With a couple of women in old-fashioned maid uniforms coming to help her get ready for the day.

II's 1883.

Surprise! Mage: The Ascension - Victorian Age

Didi tries not to look too stoked about getting a wardrobe full of Victorian dresses in mourning colours.

Miss Didi Duvall

200 posts in the new blog

And by the power of Photoshop, another present!

So you know that girl

She's new in town

But you better be careful

She'll put you down

She's an evil chick

Said she's a witch

Dark Shadows

Dark Shadows animated series? Maybe.

Designs by Abigail Larson? YES NOW PLEASE

Mage: The Ascension Action Figures! (not really)

Mage: The Ascension group photo led to ST making fake toys with computer... and then spending hours making the packs match and the accessories scale together.

Yes I want the whole set.

And the followup Halloween Formal fashion dolls.

Set 1, based on the photoshoot

Didi comes with different hair and higher heeled boots because I couldn't think of anything.

Didi's mischievous / evil smile fits the group photo but not the figure set, so a variant with a more neutral expression. Still adorably life-ruining but maybe 30% less obvious about it.

--

Set 2: Halloween Formal

And like many real toy lines the accessories aren't 100% episode accurate. Nobody used the weapons included - Cara had to fight wrathful spirits with a hairpin - but we did use the wraps and purses and Simon definitely looked in a book.

Sunset City photoshoot

Mage: The Ascension: Sunset City

The visual references for the player characters from Mage: The Ascension - Sunset City
Michael (Luke Grimes), Didi (Ksenia Solo), Cara (Holland Roden), Alissa (Paris Berelc) and Simon (Rupert Evans)
together by the power of photomanipulation

My background-selecting hand hurts

And the Halloween formal last season. Should have thought "hey, don't have a background that matches somebody's hair"...

And for the Goth gig 4.19

Buffy

Hulu turned down the Buffy revival series.

Hurts.

Mage: The Ascension - Sunset City 4

OH YES

Mage: The Ascension - Sunset City 4

Sunset City 1 (not yet called that)

Sunset City 2

Sunset City 3

The further adventures of a circle of mages in San Francisco

Cara Lawson, Akashayana

She is beauty, she is grace, she will stab you in the face

Simon Donovan, Hermetic

The token like a wizard type

Alissa Kwan, Ecstatic

She can dance if she wants to, she can leave your friends behind

Michael Lang, Verbena

Into weird old magic with sticks and stuff

And last but definitely least:

Didi Duvall, Hollow One

Hell-o boys

4.01: Nightmares

2/1

It's been a quiet summer -

Simon banishing a spirit, Cara fighting a pack of ghouls, Michael investigating a spooky old mine, Alissa leading a tai chi class, Didi cheering at a gig

- but now people around the city are having strange dreams...

Didi's Anniversary

October 2018

And on that night a monster was born

Vampire: Lonely City

Vampire: The Masquerade 5th edition

Lonely City

New York, and the Camarilla cracking down on Anarchs

0: New Players

0 part 2

28/9

Alice, Thin-blood runaway

Marla, Gangrel street defender

Steven, Brujah student activist

Swan, Ravnos courier

1: Fall

28/9

At a raucous meeting of the anarchs of Brooklyn, the borough's elder Stirling confirms that Callihan, the Baron of the Bronx and liaison with the Queen of Manhattan, is dead. Nobody knows how or why, yet, but he had a long list of enemies across the city.

Florence + The Machine - Everybody Scream

Florence + The Machine - Everybody Scream

House Carna recruitment video

Next time we play Mage I will have Didi pop out from behind Cara and make funny faces like that as she marches confidently towards an opponent.

Buffy!

Sarah Michelle Gellar returning as Buffy The Vampire Slayer, pilot directed by Chloe Zhao. Fingers crossed.

Sunset City 3.23

Our beloved Hollow One shitposter Didi and her long-suffering circle complete another Mage: The Ascension series.

Will there be more? I'd be up for it.

Jentry Chau Vs. The Underworld

Jentry Chau Vs. The Underworld is pretty fun. Kind of a weird mix of serious YA urban fantasy heroics with funny side characters so the cartoon style would look weird without them rather than balancing those things, but.

Month Of Darkness 2024 addendum

Month Of Darkness current character speedrun

Didi Duvall, Mage: The Ascension Hollow One, concept "The Worst"

1: Original Character (OC)

Didi Duvall, Hollow One, concept "The Worst"

Ksenia Solo as Kenzi in Lost Girl
You can trust her with your life.
But not your boyfriend or wallet.

Agatha All Along is sooooo my thing

"We are not cool, Teenager!"

"Damn, using his full name."

Agatha All Along

Agatha All Along stuck the landing so managed to be one of my favourite things of the year.

The Crow (2024)

The Crow (2024) was alright. Adequate.

Not as close to the comic as the original film, with a couple of its elements the original didn't use but not much. Takes a long time to get you invested in the central love. Solves the problem of an unstoppable hero by not getting there for over an hour. Nothingy villains. Mostly good but not new soundtrack. Would have been better not calling them Eric and Shelly.

On a purely superficial level, Brandon Lee was achingly beautiful and Bill Skarsgård isn't.

Then again there hasn't been a really good story in the comics since the original either.