Ascendance

Hmm...

I'm mulling about the idea of running a game set in the World of Darkness again. Still in the planning stages though, but I'm thinking of actually making it organized for once. As such, I'm going to try and make this little blog a sounding board for creating a campaign, beginning from the very basics, and building it up into what will hopefully be a successful game.

For starters, it's going to be a Mage: the Ascension game.

Why Mage? Because it's the most flexible in the three core World of Darkness games in terms of stories. Games can range from the level of personal struggle, to occult conspiracy to battles fought over the very nature of reality itself.

Mage has always been a game of discovery... and knowledge, and I'm thinking of putting that as the core of this campaign. The nature of disovery, the boundaries of knowledge, and the price for such knowledge. Questions I want to raise to the characters involve just how much they plan to risk to gain the knowledge they want... or even need. Where is the line drawn between how much you know, and how much you should know? And when can you tell if the knowledge you have is the right kind, or if its just eating you up in the inside?

At the same time, I want to play up the wonder of discovery, reaching out to find the beautiful among the ruins, to sow hope with the knowledge gained and used properly. Mage is a cerebral game of concepts, bizzare circumstances and lateral thinking, and I want to reward creative thinking in my players, and to encourage their characters to seek what it truly means to Ascend.

I'm sure that these are lofty ideals, and most likely, my rather jovial approach to GMing might not match this at first, but I've got to take the time to settle in and build the mood, working on the fact that this is meant to be the the World of Darkness, and only the characters can truly build a haven of hope for those who need it.

----

Things I plan to incorporate into the game:

Cinematic Storytelling

One of my strengths in GMing RPGs has been the ability to pull off holding very cinematic games. I can build vivid scenes and detailed locations, taking the time to make establishing shots, and basically add life to combat and chase scenes. I'm not sure if my Anime/HK Cinema take on things will work as well here as it did in Legend of the Five Rings or Exalted but I'm sure that I can work something out eventually.

A Cast of Thousands

This, I have to work on. I'm not a genius when it comes to making NPCs like Nicco, so I've got to really sit down and start putting some life into the setting. I need to work on finding the right mix of usefulness and interaction that will make my players feel that they're not the only ones running around in the World of Darkness... and their lives aren't the only ones that matter.

A Worthy Challenge

I'm guilty of being too soft on my players. So far in all my gaming life, I've never really thrown a solid "balls-to-the-wall" challenge to my players when it comes to combat. Sure I've had one or two powerful beings running around, but nothing that was truly nerve wracking for the players. An additional note to this is the fact that I need to start making some pretty good antagonists.

Organization

Now this is something I've got to work on. I'll be using a blog as part of an effort to keep my notes clean and organized for this game. Once I've got a campaign blog set up, I'll be posting a link here for it.

----

Now that I've written this, I've just begun to realize the scope of a project like this. Thankfully, my day job is about to begin, and hopefully that means I've got more time to plan something that isn't from the mind of a sleep deprived zombie.

Poll time: If you guys were to play in a game of Mage, what do you guys want to see?