Monday 31 August 2015

RPGaDay: Favourite Horror Game


Image result for mage the ascension

There's only one option for me on this one; Mage the Ascension.

Whilst on the surface it seems to be the least horrific of the old World of Darkness games, to me it has a number of advantages over even the other World of Darkness games. In part that's because it isn't about being a monster in the literal sense, or about things that are so arcane it sometimes isn't that clear how they intersect with the rest of the world. In Mage everything boils down to us, normal humanity, and the extremes we can go to. I like that there's no real 'good' side in the Ascension War, only which one will screw us over the least. No mater which set of Mages win we could lose. As with the other games in the line, there are attractive options to play, but you can never quite shake the feeling that all the factions would be insufferable if they won.

From the perspective of playing the game I'm fond of the fact that at one level the game gives you access to more or less unlimited power, if you can work out how to use it, but at the same time makes you have to consider how to use it without pulling a lot of pain down onto yourself. Paradox is a powerful tool, one that ties really well into the rest of the game.

This is what really makes it a horror game to me, that knowledge that you could do anything, be anything and yet we choose to dwell the way we do. That's powerful.

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