[Mage] Horizon

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So I just picked this up for a couple bucks in B&N's used section. Yeah,
I know, I'm way behind the times. Everyone else is talking about Exalted
and WoD 2.0, and here I am talking about a Mage 2nd supplement. I'm used
to it. I only "discovered" ska punk about two years ago. Oh well.

Anyway, the book's very odd. The opening fiction/intro piece, where
Dante and Nile go around...it's just weird. Who talks like that? Who
politicks like that? I thought it was pretty funny, all things
considered. Now I know why Porthos was -- apparently -- so popular. He's
like a quasi-senile Doctor Who with Gandalf's magic. Entertained me, at
least.

The rest of the book was kind of wishy-washy. "Everything's great. Not
much really goes on, except for what the mages do." It was a very flat
presentation.

It made me think of something else entirely. Suppose Horizon had been
one last, great attempt to integrate the Awakened and Sleeper populaces,
instead of shutting out everyone but the highest ranking mages and their
support staffs. I keep thinking about it in terms of some sociological
experiment, where you kidnap 50 mages and a proportionately larger
population of Sleepers, dump them in Horizon, lock the doors, tend the
support Nodes for five hundred years, and then look inside.

Or maybe if Horizon had been a pilot colony of some kind, an attempt by
utopianists to create a society with a less rigid, broader paradigm. As
it was, Horizon was more like Ye Olde Fairy Land.

Hmm.

--
Tyler

tfdion at syr dot edu

 

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Archived from groups: alt.games.whitewolf (More info?)

Well, if you think about it, Horizon was created 500 years ago, with
people from that era. And back then, people believed in more dtuff,
in if you could see them, as they can see them in horizon, there
would be no reason not to believe in them, as in faeries or other
stuff. That's why it's so "magickal".

And, by the way, I'm still with 2ed, too. It was the best edition
ever.



25-06-2004 20:09:39

Tyler Dion <tfdion@spammenot.com> wrote in message

<o_mdnaB7R8VzIkHd4p2dnA@telcove.net>



> So I just picked this up for a couple bucks in B&N's used section.
Yeah,

> I know, I'm way behind the times. Everyone else is talking about
Exalted

> and WoD 2.0, and here I am talking about a Mage 2nd supplement. I'm
used

> to it. I only "discovered" ska punk about two years ago. Oh well.

>

> Anyway, the book's very odd. The opening fiction/intro piece, where


> Dante and Nile go around...it's just weird. Who talks like that?
Who

> politicks like that? I thought it was pretty funny, all things

> considered. Now I know why Porthos was -- apparently -- so popular.
He's

> like a quasi-senile Doctor Who with Gandalf's magic. Entertained me,
at

> least.

>

> The rest of the book was kind of wishy-washy. "Everything's great.
Not

> much really goes on, except for what the mages do." It was a very
flat

> presentation.

>

> It made me think of something else entirely. Suppose Horizon had
been

> one last, great attempt to integrate the Awakened and Sleeper
populaces,

> instead of shutting out everyone but the highest ranking mages and
their

> support staffs. I keep thinking about it in terms of some
sociological

> experiment, where you kidnap 50 mages and a proportionately larger

> population of Sleepers, dump them in Horizon, lock the doors, tend
the

> support Nodes for five hundred years, and then look inside.

>

> Or maybe if Horizon had been a pilot colony of some kind, an
attempt by

> utopianists to create a society with a less rigid, broader paradigm.
As

> it was, Horizon was more like Ye Olde Fairy Land.

>

> Hmm.

>

> --

> Tyler

>

> tfdion at syr dot edu

 

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Archived from groups: alt.games.whitewolf (More info?)

In article <40e08f0c$1_1@nova.entelchile.net>, Rodolfo Schmauk Ortúzar
<ermordung@uraniomail.com> wrote:

> Well, if you think about it, Horizon was created 500 years ago, with
> people from that era. And back then, people believed in more dtuff,
> in if you could see them, as they can see them in horizon, there
> would be no reason not to believe in them, as in faeries or other
> stuff. That's why it's so "magickal".

Well, I'm not getting down on Horizon's magical nature. It's a
self-contained world created by mages. Of course it's magical.

I was put off by the execution of the book. If you're going to create a
world that's supposed to be a unity-oriented amalgam of nine
heterogeneous schools of thought's own view of the perfect world, it
shouldn't turn into a generic fantasy land.

On the other hand, I suppose Horizon as-is could be read as the result
of the overdominance of certain traditions within the Council, like the
Hermetics and Verbena.

--
Tyler

tfdion at syr dot edu