Fantastic read. I do think this book could have been made considerably shorter without some of the fluffy language as they describe aspects of Mage and Magick. But in saying that, that language very much is Mage: the Ascension.

If you have the determination to read through it, book mark pages and run the game for friends, you'll get some good use out of the book. Though it is highly advised to purchase/find additional material. Even with near 700 pages they couldn't cover everything but did cover a good hearty chunks of the core system meaning you can run a game with just this book alone

DrivethruRPG did a great job printing, I received the standard colour book and it arrived in very good condition.

This is a vast tome and makes a credible effort of pkeasing fans of both 2E and revised. The down rating is because in a book that is almost 700 pages they decided to save page count by not describing the spheres that make up the core of the magic system. There is stuff here that is great, but if you are looking to get started with Mage I'd recommend the POD of 2nd Edition which is half the length and playable without prior knowledge of the magic system.

There are some great things I will take from this, but it just isn't a core book.

The system itself: 5/5 The book: 2/5 It's a very cool part of the World of Darkness and is very in depth. A shame that the book is printed on some of the worst paper I've ever touched so I'll probably have to stick to the pdf and relegate the book to a conversation piece. Do not buy the book, buy the pdf.

My favorite World of Darkness game line. I love vampires and werewolves and all, but i cannot get enough of my funny wizard game.

not happy less than a year after purchase the book is already falling apart.

my god how have i missed this game for so long. the art is impeccable, the setting interesting without being bloated, and the magic system is superb. goddamn this is a glorious game. Don't worry if this behemoth of a book seems confusing, You'll get it in no time and love it all they way.

The content of the book is great and the PDF is well scanned. HOWEVER, the print-on-demand physical book is atrocious for the price. Here are the reasons:

1. The paper is low quality, about a step or 2 above "Bible quality"
2. It's gluebound which is ridiculous both for the price and the size of the book (600+ pages). This will fall apart very fast when in actual use
3. The print quality is awful, the text (and especially pictures) are ACTUALLY BLURRY.

Note that this is not necessarily a dig at DRPG as I've ordered good quality print-on-demand books from here before. But I am still saddened by DRPG collaborating with such a low-quality printing company.

Wish I had believed the other 1-star review on here.

Mage is an amazing game. Most mage products are five stars. I gave four stars for this product because some moron editor inserted a bunch of woke garbage. Earier versions are free of foolishness yet this new version's rules are better, more streamlined.

I got this book mostly because of nostalgia. I have very fond memories of the short time i spent playing Mage. I give this one star for several reasons.

Firstly, the book as recieved from DriveThruRPG is very expensive for the quality. I believe it is print on demand? This book cost me £137 , the paper is rough and the colour isn't brilliantly done. The binding looks cheap.

In direct contrast I paid £124 for a deluxe set of Call of Cthulu books (both main rulebooks, a GM screem, maps etc) in a hard slipcase. These are all glossy books, with excellent strong pages and great colour.

Besides the quality of the physical book, the layout and information in this is just a mess. Most of it is interesting, and i LOVE the idea of the system...but this is incredibly difficult to figure out how to actually play the game from the book itself. Various rules and even elements of character creation are scattered throughout the massive tome, with no real way to find them. Comapred to all the various other RPG rulebooks i have in my collection this is one of the worst overall.

Worth it!

Yes the book is very LARGE. Thats because they had to fit so much in. Everything from more clarity on how magic dificulties work, how to explain paradigms to your players (which was a problem ive seen even so called experinced players have issues with) to having entries on ALL of the groups of mages. Every tradition, every convention, and every craft.

Is it new player friendly? Yes and no. As far as how the rules have been cleared up? Absolutly. The only factor against new players and this book is again its sheer size is nothing short of intimidating. An experinced storyteller however can easily help guide their players, and a new one starting out couldnt hurt getting a quickstart guide.

How hard is it for new players to grasp? Well I have a friend who had NEVER played a single storyteller system game in his life and a week after getting the book was running a Mage game of his own. Storyteller system has always been more intuitive for new players then most other TTRPG's out there and Mage 20th only made it better.

Beyond the rules mage 20th does a fantastic job catching the world of mage up on the last 20 years. Current technology and events are factored into the plots and some of the meta plots of ages past are presented in a "Take your pick" fashion so a storyteller doesnt have to include things like the Avatar storm if they really dont want to. The golden rule still applies and always has- Have fun!

All in all Mage 20th is the very best of all of the old World of Darkness anniversery editions and was worth every penny.

Jesus Christ, that felt long. I didn't like how they changed the Stereotypes about other groups into general groups based on larger alliances, and SO MUCH felt long and drawn out, but now that that's over I feel like incorporating it into games could be really fun. Also, I think this might be one of my favorite magic systems ever. Hated the propaganda though.

Dissapointed in the binding, Cheaper than finding the original print but you would need to hire someone to rebind the book as the pages will fall out. I wish Drivethru RPG would have the option to choose bindings. I like to have my books intact for a long time.

Oh boy where do I start, 20th anniversery mage the ascension should have been great. Mage the Ascension was one of the first RPGs I ever picked up, I had a passion for the story and the idea of such an urban fantasy. Unfortunately this is an echo of it's former self. The layout and formatting are decent enough but the art is incredibly mediocre. It's sanitized to the point of having no soul. Everything is written to be as inoffensive as possible and with it there is no daring or flare. Several factions are renamed to a more politically correct name and the focus has moved from the traditions to the orphans, because hermeticism is bad or something. The book is incredibly preachy especially when you get to the appendexes. Don't get me wrong, the game is very playable and the rules themselves are just 2nd edition in a new packaging. But i'm going to quote dragon magazine 39 here, published in 1981

"If someone uses a fantasy game or novel as a soap box or a pulpit, that person has...turned a form of art into a form of propaganda or pornography." - Dragon Magazine Issue 39.

I'll stick to the older editions if I want more mage, or my own homebrew urban fantasy setting. This is a hard pass for me, but don't be surprised if this review is deleted soon. DTRPG acts awfully suspicious when it comes to negative reviews.

The book is phenomenal.

It is actually a tome, hardback, solid, well bound, the artwork is absolutely stunning and for the price it's amazing. I am in love with this book, and am so glad that I got it.

On receiving this masterpiece, I am off now to buy the Tarot Deck.

Absolutely one of my all-time favorites. Huge amount of information in really nice looking book.