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Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade
 
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Average Rating:3.8 / 5
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Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade
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Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade
Publisher: White Wolf
by Alexandros M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/06/2020 10:58:01

Since i already own the original book since the late 90s, i purchased this pdf with the exact purpose of sharing it with my gaming group. I was honestly horrified by the bad criticism concerning the pdf quality, but i went for it anyway. The only thing i can assume (as another reviewer has already pointed out) is that the pdf was replaced at some point, because this product here is complete, very well oriented and crystal clear to read. As for the actual product, to me it's just gorgeous to behold. Apart from the very few typos here and there, the book provides an immense volume of information, the artwork is amazing, the esthetics as a whole resemble a manuscript or a codex, of sorts, coming from the middle ages and the top quality writing feels like reading a novel. Highly recommended.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade
Publisher: White Wolf
by Charles S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/10/2019 22:36:05

I've been looking forward to reading this, as this line was Satyros Phil Brucato's baby, and he's very proud of it, and it should tell me a lot about his attitudes towards M20 (I've liked the Mage Revised books by him I've read, though this will be a line that he had nigh complete editorial control over, to my understanding).

And right out of the gate, I'm blown away by the fact that there's a map! And better, it has the White Tower, Mistridge and Doissetep on it, answering questions I've been wondering about for years, and making me feel truly stupid. Well, that's part of the point of this, to find all the things I've missed in Mage by coming to it so late (2001 was my first Mage game).

The introductory fiction is quite good, and I'll avoid spoilers other than that, like many Mage books, it involves an Awakening, though this one is a bit unusual. The only thing that bothered me was the font, and that's a matter of taste, but it made even the pleasant writing into a chore to read through for me. The intersticed art, however, by Greg and Tim Hildebrandt, was very good and very atmospheric.

The introduction itself is everything that I've come to expect from White Wolf over the years. It was appropriately dramatic, grabbed my attention and roughly laid out what else would be in the book, the sections being Magick (setting), Science (character creation) and Faith (rules) which I can't believe were chosen arbitrarily, but rather to highlight specific connotations, and I'm particularly amused by the fact that they ask us to have Faith in the rules.

On to Magick, beginning with Chapter 1: The Path of Thorns. It begins with a general overview of the Mage setting: what an Awakening is, Seekings, the Spheres, etc, but all in Renaissance terms, and considerably more god than in the modern books, fitting to the setting.

The chapter goes on to explain the general Mage concepts in character for the Renaissance, talking about Covenants and Crays (Chantries/Constructs and Nodes), Resonance and The Scourge (paradox), tass and companions. The coolest thing, though, which was lacking in Mage Revised, where I learned the game, was a list of "Major European Crays and Covenants" both the Council and the Daedaleans! This is great, it's just name, faction that owns it, and location, but that gives such a good picture of what's where and who's where that it seems essential now that it's been presented to me.

Chapter 2: The Mortal World, is a history. It's VERY Eurocentric, being told in character by a European to a European for a game set in Europe. But even so, there are a few nits to pick. For one thing, the world was precisely how large most people thought it was, Columbus was wrong in thinking it smaller, which is why he thought he'd made it to India. Rather, most people thought that the world was empty sea between Europe and Asia via the West. This particular nit is probably redundant, due to the language being likely a bit florid, but it's a personal pet peeve to give Columbus too much credit, so I couldn't help but point it out.

There's a bit of ahistorical references inside, though that's clearly for the benefit of the modern reader (there wasn't really a "Germany" during the Renaissance, and the word was used often to denote the modern region, which at the time was more accurately the Holy Roman Empire.) A few more nits to pick, because very little is said that is substantially wrong (making this one of the better researched history sections in an RPG book I've seen, though I'm not a Renaissance historian), but the number of people killed by the Inquisition seems high, though I don't know how the historical discussion has changed over time (I can find some references from the early 2000's indicating very low numbers, but the numbers do seem to be in some dispute, and I see numbers ranging from 1800 (Spanish Jews) to 40,000,000 (all of Europe, for almost 700 years) depending on what you include in the Inquisition, which era, and which historians you trust).

The mundane history closes on a strong note: a good timeline. It hits a lot of major events, including things that most people wouldn't think about (like the implementation of + and - to denote addition and subtraction) along with all the obvious ones, like the War of the Roses.

And then we get to the magical history, a huge part of what makes it a Mage book rather than a Renaissance history text, and they start at the beginning, with the roots of so very many magical traditions, including the Order of Reason, tracing back to ancient Egype vis Thothmes and Hatshepshut. The rest of the history is pretty solid with a detailed timeline, though there are a few unfortunate things, with terms like "Gypsy" left in, and I hope that Mage 20 does a better job with such groups.

Chapter 3: I feel like I'm getting a bit long winded, as I'm only just now getting to chapter 3. Now we're into the world of magick, and the part of the setting that makes Mage tick, and finishing off Book I: Magick. Then we get into Faith and Science, which will go much faster, because I'm not going to go into so much detail on reviewing game mechanics (though I'll note anything that jumps out at me) as I will setting and character.

This chapter includes a VERY detailed discourse on the Mists, which in the modern line are called the Umbra, and frankly, presents a far more coherent cosmology than Mage Revised does, making clear the various relationships and where different realms live (inasmuch as location makes sense) and what the Horizon actually is: the furthest reaches, where all the realms are carved out by magi. It even makes mention of some of the big ones: Horizon, Doissetep, Fors Collegis Murceris (all Hermetic), Helekar (Euthanatos) and Perseus Sanctum (Skyrigger). It then continues to the Fragmentum, the realms of the Spheres/Planets, and then down to the Underworld. As a curious aside, it's here that I realized that the word "entropy" used throughout the book and referring to a sphere, was first used in 1865, combining the English root "en" (meaning inside) and the Greek root "tropos" meaning change or transformation. Funny that it should be used in a Renaissance book, but I can assume that is for consistency with Mage: the Ascension.

When discussing the Void, there's the curious fact that the narrator, a Verbena, speaks casually of having lovers among the Skyriggers, a faction of the Order of Reason, which tells us many things about the War at the time, namely that the sides are more permeable than most mages wish to admit. And now I'm looking at that sentence and wondering when my hobby of historiography started asserting itself into reading about fictional worlds centuries before the games that I actually play take place...I suppose I could just write something like this out as a dissertation or excerpt from something from an in-character historian...

Moving on to Book II: Faith

Chapter 4 is Character, and it starts out as a fairly standard character creation section for a White Wolf book. I've never been a big fan of a strict "one tool per sphere" method of assigning foci, preferring instead holistically defined paradigms where how to do each individual effect has to be considered and must flow naturally. But I know that's rather hard (people with a stronger interest in philosophy or investment in a particular paradigm tend to do better with this) so this system is fine as long as it's optional, and it hasn't really gone away. Though previews of M20 indicate that this system is finally being toppled by a game mechanically defined holistic paradigm approach, which I very much approve of.

There's a nod in the direction of craft names, though throughout the run of the whole game this is something that comes and goes. The rest of the chapter continues to be fairly standard, a few different abilities are mentioned to match the time period, but nothing earth-shattering.

Chapter 5: the players, is another meaty one. Here we get to factions. The sections on the Ahl-i-Batin and Solificati are very nice, though the other Traditions don't really have much to add compared to their modern selves. This is unsurprising, because their modern selves evolved from these versions, after all. But the real joy of the chapter is in the Order of Reason getting a detailed description. They've changed so much more to the modern setting that this look into their origins is very well placed, describing the early Conventions with precisely the same care that the Traditions got. (Something, to note, which was entirely lacking in Mage: the Ascension Revised)

Chapter 6: The Storyteller, has advice on storytelling. The advice is generally solid, though nothing an experienced ST hasn't figured out on their own by that point. It does, however, have a bit on how magick works, and more importantly, how it feels and how Resonance works.

Book III: Science

Chapter 7: Rules, contains the rules. How success and failure work, damage, combat, etc. It also has an extended discussion of the Umbra and spirits.

Chapter 8, Magick Rules, is the heart of any Mage core book's mechanics. This is one of the better ones I've seen. It's got a long list of common effects and how to do them with spheres. Including a section titled "How do you do that?" which is going to be a title of an upcoming book is great. This section covers Shapechanging, permanent effects, creating wonders, necromancy, otherworldly travel, perception, summoning and warding, charms, possession, exorcism...it's truly excellent. And then it goes into "Roleplaying the Magician" another very good section that I recommend for all players. It discusses several paradigms and mystic tools, and then moves on to spells. This is the best magick rules section I've seen, though admittedly, it's only my third one to go through carefully.

Finally, we reach the Appendix. This consists of characters and wonders, spirits and machines, along with the mood resources that are usually discussed at the beginning in Revised books. It's notable that Ars Magica is still on the list at this point, before the WoD/ArsM break became complete.

And that's it. I think the review speaks for itself, but I'll just sum up with this: the Sorcerer's Crusade is an excellent book, and I'm tempted to try to run a game based on it, I just need players, time, and a bit of a plot to start from.

Honestly, other than M20 itself, this is the best core book for Mage, by a good amount.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade
Publisher: White Wolf
by Esteban M. V. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/06/2017 00:20:20

The quality of the scan is ATROUCIOUS. ONLY buy IF you need a quick reference DESPERATELY. The text is searchable. (most of it) It is INCREDIBLE that the pirated versions swiming in the web look better than this.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade
Publisher: White Wolf
by Patrick L.
Date Added: 04/08/2015 16:35:06

Highly, highly disappointed.

This is just an extremely poor scan, which is absolutely not worth the money. One could finde these scans in illiegal download areas. But I would never have expected this when paying almost 20$ on a - what I expected - digital copy! This is nothing like it, it's just a scan I could've done better with the camera snapshot app of my modile phone. The thing is, that it's not even readable at all, as just trying to decipher the poor quality hurts my eyes! Is there a refund option with drive thru? I'll gladly delete this copy and swear an oath not to have any copies on my systems!

I have to say this, though, that, until now, all of my other purchases at drivethru have been very satisfying!



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade
Publisher: White Wolf
by Rory H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/03/2012 03:50:20

Very pretty book that holds together well as a pdf copy. Pushes the Mage game fully in the direction of a full on, high fallutin', kitchen-sink fantasy with Renaissance Europe merely as a convenient historical backdrop. Of interest to anyone who found the Mage game a wild and engrossing read (this book is made up of it!), although it's a little inconsistent and ahistorical to be a true classic in my view - and it's not entirely complete as a standalone game (really more of an advanced supplement to the uninitiated).



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade
Publisher: White Wolf
by Peter F. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/24/2012 03:18:01

I don't know if the scan has been improved since the original reviews (given how long it's been, that does seem likely), but with the ability to search the book to some extent, the PDF has value of its own. Rules and writing, being Mage only more swashbuckling, are five stars easily. It's still not a perfect scan by any means, however. While most of the pages came out quite nicely, many of the charts are cockeyed and at different angles, and there are cases of pictures being poorly scanned and many sections of text not having been picked up by the automated system. Still, it's Sorcerers' Crusade. Few games this fantastic have ever been produced. Don't let a so-so scan stop you from checking out this mind-bending, reality-jamming ride.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade
Publisher: White Wolf
by Richard S.
Date Added: 07/25/2004 13:48:04

What a disappointment.

No, not the rules or the game. My gripe is with the poor quality of the scan. Its one of the worst I have ever seen. You can't even read it without your eyes throbbing after half a page. (And thats on a page thats straight...some of them are wonky). Tried printing some of the pages, but the're just as bad. The text is all fuzzy and too light. In other words, this scan is useless for my needs.

Now, if I had just downloaded this off a filesharing network, I wouldn't be complaining. But I actually paid for this. Did anybody at White Wolf actually look at the file after it was made? Did they even try to read it? I think somebody at White Wolf needs to take a look at the free Witchcraft PDF. Its free and you can actually read it!



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade
Publisher: White Wolf
by Sherri S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/18/2004 20:50:31

While the content for this game system is excellent, the scan job done on this is crappy at best. Many pages are at angles and the text resolution is poor. Needless to say, you cannot text select which is a problem if you hoped to use this to make quick reference sheets for play. Image capture gives bad results as well and OCR won't read anything. I'd hoped to be able to use material from the .pdf to support a SC campaign, but I'm disappointed. I love this game and give it a 5 for that; if you can't find a paper edition then you'll want this. If you'd hoped to have a copy of this as a GM to use for support materials for a game then don't buy it. My score below reflects the scanning.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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