Concepts from Mage are used heavily by Michael Vassar, Ziz, and yourself. It got me curious and I’ve tried to engage through franchise fiction, but what I’ve read has been not good, and just, I guess, generic compared to what I’ve seen in posts. (Compare Ziz’s posts about the Nephandi to the generic cackling evil wizards in the franchise fiction, for example).
It’s gotten me wondering how you all have engaged with the setting. Are you reading the franchise fiction? (If so, please give me recommendations.) Reading the rulebooks? Or running games?
I’m also wondering about Wraith, since Ziz uses Wraith concepts extensively, especially Oblivion (though I understand her use isn’t directly the Wraith concept, but just something for which Wraith provides a useful analogy or reference). The only Wraith fiction I’ve read so far that seemed to really use the Psyche vs Shadow premise are John H. Steele’s stories: “Glimpses of Before”, and its sequel, “Some There Be That Shadows Kiss”. Were you all reading the rulebooks, reading the fiction, or did you actually run Wraith games? Wraith is so strange that sometimes I wonder whether anyone played it. Although when reading a review of a World of Darkness anthology, the reviewer said:
I’ll be honest, Wraith has a really engrossing setting, but the few times I’ve played, it runs into the issue of every character actually being Psyche and Shadow, which gets confusing easily.
This also seems to be an issue for authors, and it’s been disappointing reading a Wraith story where the Psyche vs Shadow conflict just gets some obligatory mentions rather than being the core of the drama. But anyway, a few times is not nothing, so someone played it. What about you and Ziz?
Concepts from Mage are used heavily by Michael Vassar, Ziz, and yourself. It got me curious and I’ve tried to engage through franchise fiction, but what I’ve read has been not good, and just, I guess, generic compared to what I’ve seen in posts. (Compare Ziz’s posts about the Nephandi to the generic cackling evil wizards in the franchise fiction, for example).
It’s gotten me wondering how you all have engaged with the setting. Are you reading the franchise fiction? (If so, please give me recommendations.) Reading the rulebooks? Or running games?
I’m also wondering about Wraith, since Ziz uses Wraith concepts extensively, especially Oblivion (though I understand her use isn’t directly the Wraith concept, but just something for which Wraith provides a useful analogy or reference). The only Wraith fiction I’ve read so far that seemed to really use the Psyche vs Shadow premise are John H. Steele’s stories: “Glimpses of Before”, and its sequel, “Some There Be That Shadows Kiss”. Were you all reading the rulebooks, reading the fiction, or did you actually run Wraith games? Wraith is so strange that sometimes I wonder whether anyone played it. Although when reading a review of a World of Darkness anthology, the reviewer said:
This also seems to be an issue for authors, and it’s been disappointing reading a Wraith story where the Psyche vs Shadow conflict just gets some obligatory mentions rather than being the core of the drama. But anyway, a few times is not nothing, so someone played it. What about you and Ziz?