ANDERS MAGE PAGE 2.0

Editor's Note: Mage came out in the early 1990s and the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was still a topic of discussion. Following a series of posts on the Mage mailing list about using Cold War concepts in Mage the Ascension one person decided to type up his ideas.

Stories

Sometimes you need a one-shot, either as a lead in, an introduction or even a way to get a matrix or open Chronicle moving. Or maybe you're in an established Chronicle, and need an idea for where to send the characters this week. Or maybe you need a nice finale, a set piece to close a Chronicle and open into the next one. There are a lot of scenarios that can be created on a moment's notice that fit well into the Cold War collection.

Bodyguard

One of the simplest scenarios known to man, the characters are asked/forced/volunteer(ed) to protect a key figure of their own "side" that has been targeted by the opposition. This could be a half-hearted "Oh yeah, if you find him, try to help him" to a full-out running firefight with lots of flashing lights and vulgar magic. The characters may be assigned to the person indefinitely, as a stopgap or maybe to cover during the most dangerous stretch.

Search and Destroy

Another simple scenario, the Cabal has to get in, destroy and get out. For a twist, they may not know where they are supposed to go, or the details. This could be a surgical, precision military operation with guards and stakeouts and information gathering or it could be an ad hoc operation against something that has just been discovered. The main emphasis, like on the Bodyguard mission above, may well be on combat, but not necessarily. Sometimes getting there is more than half the battle.

Assassinate

Like the Search and Destroy mission, this one is mostly military, but with a twist. They have a moving, live target, a spy, a major figure or maybe a researcher who's been a nuisance and getting too close. This person could be Awakened or not, public figure or private, and there may be mundane as well as magical resistance and repercussions. The twist is, of course, that the characters are working under false assumptions and end up discovering this through the course of the story.

Coming in From the Cold

Defection. The stuff spy stories are made of. A high level insider from another faction wishes to defect, and must be found (not as simple as getting in a boat and floating through international waters), identified, protected, brought home and then interrogated. Conversely, they may be called in to prevent a defection from occurring, by any means necessary.

The Mole

The characters learn about (or are told of) a mole within their own faction. They have to find this individual and neutralize him, whether that means simply reporting him to the elders or "liquidating" him. The flip side of this coin is, of course, trying to convince a member of another faction to become a mole for your side.

Intelligence

Typical cloak and dagger stuff. The characters must infiltrate an organization, gather information and get out. This could be a break-in, a hit and run or a slow, tedious process of earning trust. If they go in both guns blazing, they will probably fail.

Agent Provocateur

The characters are approached with some rather strong information pointing them to actually supporting the wrong side. They must verify or refute the information, and deal with the consequences of what they discover. This may result in the characters actually defecting to one of the other factions, or exposing an entire chain of alliances and shifting loyalties amongst their own ranks.

Chronicles

The Ascension War has been going on for centuries, with hot and cold flashes as time goes on. This is the source of any number of Chronicle ideas, from beginning to advanced characters of nearly any power level. To survive, the characters must know when to fight, and know when to sneak in and sneak out.

Initiates

The characters start on one of the above scenarios, yet they know nothing of the real reason behind what they are doing. During the course of successive stories they discover more and more, until eventually they are at the heart of the Ascension War.

The Intelligence Community

The characters are put in charge of getting information and infiltrating the enemy. They may be called on to occasionally act in ways counter to what they may wish, and as time goes on they may begin to forget what their original purpose was. They begin by infiltrating themselves, maybe with small robberies and petty infiltration, then extending onward to gathering a network of moles and informants, to encouraging individuals to defect and trying to disable enemy organizations from within. The characters may be directly supervised, or have to start pretty much from scratch, with only a shadowy contact through which they can funnel information. They may eventually defect themselves, or discover moles in their own organization, or any manner of complications and twists.

The Mandarin

For some reason, the characters have become major players in the Ascension War, or they wish to. They must make themselves a place amongst the various warring factions, prove their worth and make gains, all while the rest of the world is trying to beat them down. They must recruit new members, look for holes in their own organizations and infiltrate and dismantle others.

The Organization/The X-Files

The characters, in the course of their adventures, begin discovering shadowy links between members of all three sides in the Ascension War, plus ties to mortal organizations, vampires, Garou and even the dead and the Umbral Courts. They have stumbled upon something deeper and darker than they realize: A group of beings bent on some unfathomable goal. A secret society among secret societies. They first must find more information, then they must decide if they wish to ignore it, join it, find out more about it or attempt to destroy it. Of course, this will make them some powerful enemies rather quickly, and just having an Arcane of 5 won't hide them for long. Of all the scenarios, this is the one that requires the most effort on the part of the Storyteller, but can also be the most involving and engaging of all the storylines. It may even span multiple Chronicles, and involve a literal cast of thousands.

The Conspiracy of Light

The characters have learned more than they wanted to know about the Ascension War. In fact, they've discovered that the sides fighting in it have lost their original purpose, and the war is continuing for the sake of the war and those who are empowered by it. The characters must remove the jaded, entrenched people in power on all sides, in an attempt to protect the very people the Ascension War is supposed to help: the Sleepers. This could eventually result in th characters trying to form a super secret organization of their own, like The Organization, above.