I got this expecting a Technocracy with updated science and aesthetics, but instead I got a Technocracy with updated aesthetics, the same technology and none of the interesting parts from Guide to the Technocracy (like how they view the Spheres), the Syndicate's Special Projects Division, the Void Engineer's BBEG Threat Null, or Iteration X's Machine Cult. Instead, I get a bunch of current-day identity politics and other worthless BS. Onyx Path is obviously not up to the task of expanding Mage

Another great entry for mage 20th.

I love the tone of this book and again storyteller choice is encoraged. Do you want to run your Technocrats as something more fun like the MIB movies? Or do you want something more terrifing and ominous like the X-files? You can go either way easily or a little of both.

Speaking of movies, so many modern sci-fi movies can easiler be tapped for insperation for this book and it really encorages players to do so.

This book also continues the trend of taking the Technocrats away from their monolithic evil badies roots in 1st ed and pushing further down the path of shades of gray and how these are people using 'enlightened' science sometimes to protect or sometimes to control.

Part of this book are scary to think about and others are hilarious (seriously the part about the TBE's had me laughing so hard. Who hurt you pal?) All in all its a great book and I enjoyed reading it and refrencing it.

This book is overall...good. It just rubs me the wrong way. The book starts with a very jokey, Paranoia-esque tone that feels very off for Mage. Honestly, that's the thing about this book, there's a lot of good things, but it feels off in a bunch of ways. For example, putting Machine Learning under Iteration X instead of the New World Order is certainly a choice, but not one that makes sense to someone who knows machine learning and how closely tied it is to data science (this could also create an ItX/NWO rift/rivalry over AI approaches, adding potential stories that are just being ignored). There's other places that are just baffling, like getting approximately the same number of words about Control as about sexuality within the Union, followed by a bizarre set up regarding family life that would cause almost every actual human being to abandon the Union.

Overall, though, there's a lot of useful material, particularly on the Conventions and their Methodologies, some interesting Union projects around the world (with some oddities there as well), and especially if you don't have the old Guide to the Technocracy it's useful, though it does assume that you have the Revised Convention Books rather than standing on its own as part of the 20th Anniversary Edition.

My first encounter with Mage was reading the 1st edition's player's guide "The Book of Shadows" on a lazy afternoon at a friend's place. I remember telling my friend "I'm willing to run a game as soon as the Technocracy become a playable faction, they are the only ones who at least have a chance to make sense in this world"

I kept my promise when Guide to the Technocracy came out and I have been running games with Union protagonists for many years since. After the Revised Convention Books and M20 this was a book I truly looked forward to and backed it right away.

So far I have not yet received the final copy, but I have read through most of the pre-release PDF that backers got. This copy still has a number of editorial flaws which I hope will not still be in the final edition, but in general it seems to me like a very fitting re-orientation of the Technocratic Union for the 21st century.

The presentation is part in character and part pure game information, and they flow nicely together. Often the crossover line between one and the other is not handled too well in WoD publications, but this book does a good job. The themes of the "reloaded" Technocracy feel real in the world of today. Here we have an organisation - while still powerful - that had to let go of its aspirations for total control. Many of their grand plans have turned against them, and in the face of failure they have to also admit that the world hasn't become better because of them; that in their single-minded pursuit of "winning" they have completely lost sight of the ideals which were supposed to give them true purpose.

Yet, the "reloaded" Technocracy is still an organisation of global totalitarianism. In its reformed, more diverse and egalitarian approach even more than before. For this Technocracy it finally doesn't count anymore which ethnicity, gender or nationality you were born with. All those attributes are ultimately meaningless and have to be overcome for the greater good. As long as you can play your part in the project of creating a unified global humanity you're welcome.

In their own way they are as sinister as ever though, but now their tactics are no longer about dragging deviants into windowless rooms and brainwashing them. Today's Technocracy does its work by rallying the idealists of this world for the last stand against complete collapse and completely immerse them in this gritty campaign to create an utopia against all odds.

My main criticism against this book is that it lacks a bit in historical context. Of course, seasoned Mage fans will know much about the backstory of how they came to be like they are, but I would imagine that a first time Storyteller who wants to understand who the Technocracy are and why they are like that will be left with too many questions. Devoting too much on the same history would of course also have disappointed the long-term fans who wanted to read mostly new stuff. The writers had to walk a narrow line there but even as an old Mage player I found they went a bit too much on one side.

Also, I hope that the final version contains more example Procedures, because nothing helps both players and storytellers understand the complications of playing this game like practical examples.

I backed this product as soon as it was announced and its a tremendous leap from the original Guide to the Technocracy (itself one of the best Mage products ever produced), this new Guide updates the Union and the Conventions for M20 and the results make playing Technocratic agents a lot more viable than ever before. Well worth the price so, if you play Ascension, this is a MUST HAVE!

A worthy spiritual successor to the original Guide to the Technocracy

M20 Technocracy Reloaded have a big identity problem. I understand that this book wants to please the most gameplay style and the most varied interpretations of the Technocracy possible, but this have the side-effet to dilude the focus to a point that this book feels empty. Takes a new player picking this book : can he say was is the Technocracy after reading this book ? I hightly doubt it. A clear focus on what is the Technocracy, with a wealth of option to customize it would have made a better book. Also, for a book about the various options, this book missed a lot of options on previous editions factions and groups. For exemple, the Syndicate's SDP, Revised's Panopticon and the Cult of the Machine are all missing. These omissions, on a product line as M20, open to the various "future fates", is a baffling, especially when the main draw of the book is supposed to be "Technocracy is everything YOU want it to be". On the bright side, there is various interesting lore options, but the lack of focus on these options made the Technocracy less interesting.

I want to preface this by saying that I am not a Mage player. I've looked into the game a few times over the years and the it just never clicked with me. Until I read this book. I found myself connecting to the Technocracy more than I ever did with the Traditions. I think it's due, at least in part, toe spending the past 15 plus years working in Corporate America that made things a bit more relateable. Anyone who has had to sit through a performance review can account of how dreadful they can be and this book nails that feeling perfectly. The style of writing style throughout felt more relatable than over MtA books I've read (or attempted to read). There's a conversational tone throughout the book. You aren't reading a text, it's a conversation with the writer.