Short version here. This is the music that was a digital download and physical CD goal in the Kickstarter campaign for Dragon Kings. Dragon Kings was created by Timothy Brown, the creator of the Dark Sun campaign setting for AD&D.

Dragon Kings is the spiritual successor to Dark Sun. Timothy Brown sought to bring in art, maps, music and game text to create an interesting and immersive world. He brought in Mike Stone, formerly with Queensryche, and other musicians to join his for the music portion of the world.

While I backed the Kickstarter at the physical level and found it had many quality materials, I did not run a game in it. However, when I'm trying to get into the mindset for my other RPGs in a gritty desert world, the evocative guitar playing, singing, and other musical work in this CD get me ready to roll dice. Each song is a story in the game world and it's a rock album.

There was also an instrumental version of each song for Kickstarter backers--I find these are good when I need some guitar-driven rock for keeping focused.

So, if you're thinking about a Dark Sun theme or a dying world and want some music, check out the previews and buy this unique music if it fits your tastes.

SPOILERS

I just ran Weighing the Cost for my group. I had 2 players participating remotely and 2 players and I met in person. Here I present a playtest review.

The adventure, one of the few adventures for Mage, is well-written. You know what the themes and moods are and can adapt the main antagonist's actions a little to fit the player's needs.

As other reviewers have noted, the Marauders are difficult to handle in Mage. Presented as a threat, they can inspire tactical innovation by players. Presented in this book, a Marauder can lead to a human story.

We played all the scenes except the last one. This was my group's first session other than some connected preludes and Session Zero (planning). The 4 PCs participating were an Akashic Brotherhood with a focus on Life and Mind, a Dreamspeaker with Matter and Spirit focus, and two Virtual Adepts (Correspondence and Mind focus and one who had some Forces and Time). I started everyone with Arete 3, so most characters had 3 in their main sphere. The PCs met together beforehand and then wanted to meet Adeptus McCallister so they knew the mission.

McCallister's original request for help I had funneled through the chantry the PCs were about to join, with a clear hook of 'Help Hermetic Adept and collect a boon and prove you're worthy to join.' Adeptus McCallister is given a brief writeup in the adventure, but not enough to figure out what he could offer as a boon and what he did besides being friends with Jeremy Branton. I went with the name and make McCallister a good-old boy from the Midcontinent oil region (southern Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas) and his original statement was 'Branton went off the reservation.' McCallister was an Adept of Matter in my book--a sphere that complemented those of his best friend. I also gave him a little Correspondence to be able to help scry his friend.

The group and McCallister tried scrying Branton and failed to find the Marauder. The Akashic Brotherhood PC had asked about whether the enemies of Branton could have done something and asked for a police report. I had the helpful McCallister say it was an accident and provide the government report of the incident. From there, seeing as the death happened at a lake, the group jumped to the lake.

Seeing as there was no-build up to the final scene and with the players having already considered that Branton might have been home and not scrying the kids, I had McCallister say he saw the door to the Branton home open and that it must be Jeremy or someone who looked like him. The PCs and McCallister then went to the house and played out that scene.

The Virtual Adept with Time decided to set a bomb inside the family car parked in the driveway and to watch. The rest of the group investigated the home and after a botched Mind magic roll by the Akashic to scan minds and failure by the Akashic to mind control Tricia, the wife of Jeremy Branton, the Virtual Adept without Time helped restrain her.

Jeremy left and was going out in the car with the zeitgeist that looked like his late daughter. Through his Time magic, the Virtual Adept with Time noted something was wrong. The player did an excellent job dealing with Wrinkle, once he understood in character whom Wrinkle was. He offered Wrinkle a deal--I'll help you stop the ritual for a small favor. The group was to suffer less Paradox if things went bad. . . That part was fun, as the Virtual Adept with Time has few ties to anything as befitting a corporate spy who blends in with the scenery. Now he's got Wrinkle on his radar and has made an offer to aid Wrinkle for appropriate remuneration.

The group then split up--the Virtual Adept who had bound up Tricia and McCallister went to the lake to stop the ritual and the Akashic, Dreamspeaker and Virtual Adept with Time went to her house. They were a little late, so they moved to Mark's house where the final piece was being gathered.

As the players were debating, I upped the ante by having them see lighting bolts shoot into the house and the smell of burning flesh. Although Branton was himself untrackable, the zeitgeist was trackable with Correspondence and Time conjunctional magic and the aid of Wrinkle since Jeremy Branton's effective did not extend to the zeitgeist.

Mark and Jeremy were fighting upstairs--I put Mark in a large two-story expensive house. The Akashic and Dreamspeaker went up to help. Before they could, Jeremy grabbed Mark and used Correspondence to teleport into the car outside. Unbeknownst to Jeremy, the Virtual Adept with Time had placed a brick of plastique under the seat. I had him roll randomly for the dice of the brick-he rolled a natural 20.

So, a 20-dice brick of plastique went off in the car with the zeitgeist, Mark and the Marauder inside. I had forgotten about Katherine, or something, so I just later went with Wrinkle helped her out. I'd rolled badly on a few teleport rolls so it was easy to assume Jeremy didn't bring her because his main emotion was wrath at the universe and he was mad at Mark who tried and failed to save her.

17 successes on the damage roll and 3 dice soaked by Jeremy ended the Marauder. Mark had some protection because the blast was under the seat, but everything in the car was blown up in a fiery blast. Although the car still existed after the blast, it was in many small pieces and completely unrecognizable. So were the late passengers of the car--the zeitgeist went away when Jeremy died.

Wrinkle returned to say the problem was resolved. The group decided to cover up the explosion--a false call report was made to the police on the exploding car. They then debated whether to make the cover story an exploding tank of gasoline for a long road trip. This being 2040 in my campaign, with more electric cars, they decided to go with the second explanation.

There was a family BBQ and they had just bought propane and it was another tragic accident as propane blew up the car. Well, the new car, as they took the existing one in the driveway and used Matter to change its license plate and Virtual Adept hacking and the Akashic's influence merit with the DMV to take away the remaining car. So, it was like there was a new car and it just blew up, killing everyone inside, include Jeremy Branton.

Branton, being a family friend, would plausibly be traveling in the car to set up a BBQ.

The Akashic played his demeanor well and wanted to have Tricia looked after. He learned his Mind magic, previously something he considered very powerful, had limits. There was some excellent character growth there. The bomb-happy Virtual Adept was properly played for his Nature of Vigilante and Demeanor of Hacker, but realizing the shock on the faces of the group, offered a Major Favor as recompense to the other PCs for his out-of-bounds actions.

Adeptus McCallister is not sure what to do next. He definitely believes the Virtual Adept with Time was careless with Sleepers (there was a bomb planted in the sand at the site where the ritual would take place), but understands that with Marauders, one shot is all you get sometimes. McCallister's world is shattered--his best friend is dead. He lost three friends to death (Mark and his parents) and his best friend's wife is insane.

So, the group ended up gelling over tragedy. With only 1 Paradox gained in the session and no damage taken, they got out pretty light. They are now in Portland, full members of a chantry where their interactions with others in this adventure have been added to what others know about them.

The Dreamspeaker player had to leave early due to real life, but the other players enjoyed the adventure. Whether they explore Marauders and Paradox more, I leave up to them.

SPOILERS

Overall, this is an adventure that presents a clear problem to the PCs. They must resolve it, but how they resolve it will impact themselves and the world. As the title says, the costs and benefits of actions must be weighed, for reality will be reworked by the PCs.

I recommend this adventure, though if you have combat-focused characters with access to large quantities of explosions, adding additional protective effects would be prudent if you wish the challenge to be more difficult.

Having a Hermetic with great hubris die to a mundane bomb because he lacked the Matter sphere works for me, but your group may want the antagonist to fight longer.

Buy this book--you've got something you can run for a variety of characters and in a variety of locales.

An updated Sons of Ether book is a good thing for those who play Mage: Revised, but for those who like the 1st and 2nd edition SoE there's less here.

The major changes between editions were changing the history section and teaser story to fit the new plotline and adding Merits and Flaws appropriate to the tradition. The story is pretty good, but the Doc Eon story and Paradigma excerpts were more enlightening. Of the two merits, one is a very conditional merit and the one flaw is fine but also somewhat duplicative of other mage merits.

On the other hand, this version of the SoE book does a better job explaining the factions and listing their members.

Neither this version nor the original version was great on rotes or how the SoE see spheres, but that is hard given their archetypes.

The choice between which SoE book really is going to come down to which story you like best unless you want a SoE-heavy game in which case this book would be recommended for better coverage of factions.

This is the first city book for Mage, and set in the Revised time frame.

The book has chantries and the statistics of NPCs there. Vegas has a lot more mages by the numbers but most are left for the ST to define-though there's some of every major faction listed.

There's background on the various casinos in Vegas, general happenings and history, and other material so you can start a chronicle-pretty standard White Wolf fare. There's also rotes and a sample adventure which are neither exceptionally good nor bad.

The main issue is that this book presumes the Ascension War is over and conflict is minimal. The Technocracy and Traditions are a bit too cozy and you would think that in a city where great fortunes are won and lost every night there might be more power plays between mages.

An excellent old-school module, I adapted portions to Hackmaster with moderate success.