Review: Mage: The Awakening – Legacies: The Ancient
Product Name: Legacies: The Ancient
Publisher: White Wolf Publishing
Author: Howard Ingham, Matthew McFarland, Peter Shaefer, Malcolm Sheppard, and Dean Shomshak
Page Count:160
Price: $26.99 Hard Copy / $16.19 PDF
From the Publisher
Heritage of the Exiles
After the Fall of Atlantis, mages wandered as exiles in the wilderness, forced to eke a living without the protection of their grand city. With new eyes, they explored the world they had so long ignored, unhindered by Atlantean creed. They discovered that magic was not born in Atlantis — it had always existed, hidden in the land itself. Sometimes, even Sleepers knew more of it than mages. From this primal knowledge, the exiles created legacies whose names have reverberated throughout time.
A sourcebook for Mage: The Awakening™
• 13 new legacies for players to choose from
• Long-awaited details on many legacies introduced in the Mage rulebook, from the Dreamspeakers to the Thrice-Great
• Includes 2 “Left-Handed” legacies — mages who follow a dark path — and 1 “techgnostic” legacies, for mages who mix magic and technology
First Thoughts
I wanted to see how the Threadcutters and the Thrice Great were treated (the two Legacies that correspond to the Euthanatos and the Order of Hermes from the old Mage: The Ascension game. I couldn’t wait, actually.
The Good
This book is packed full of goodies for Mage players – and is actually a throwback to the old WoD books in that a causal fan can read and enjoy what is there.
The Bad
Like many of White Wolf’s products, they are a group effort. The writing style ranges from excellent to fair throughout the book. I’d also have liked more technomancy than I got.
The Ugly
None.
It’s Time to Play The Game
This supplement reveals the remainder of the mysterious Legacies from the core book, along with a few others. As is the standard, each Legacy gets the same basic write-up, along with the background, Attainments, plot-hooks and sample characters.
In order, here are the Legacies presented:
- Dreamspeakers
- Elemental Masteries
- Forge Masters
- Skald
- Sphinxes
- Thread Cutters
- Thrice-Great
- Echo Walkers
- Logophages
All in all, the book is excellent. It was nice to have some examples of how culture influences magic (something that the forth-coming Magical Traditions promises to show more of). As an oWoD player who remembers Mage: the Ascension, I found the new take on some of the old material especially nice. I strongly recommend this book.
Overall Rating
[...] you seen Legacies: The Ancient from White Wolf for Mage: The Awakening? Brian at Geekcentricity took a look and thinks the book is excellent, offering some “examples of how culture influences magic” and is something of a [...]