ANDERS MAGE PAGE 2.0

On a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of "bleak darkness", 1 being Cyberpunk 2020 (some elements of darkness, makes a nod at realism), 10 being Kult crossed with SLA Industries (so dark as to be totally unplayable and utterly non-fun), I put the World of Darkness games at: Vampire 7, Werewolf 9, Mage 4, Wraith 8.5.

Now, this is not a problem. Just an observation. I like three of the games a lot and Mage is one of them. I like Cyberpunk 2020 a lot (a heck of a lot more than Werewolf, I can tell you that...) However, Mage just doesn't rank with the other games in terms of "darkness". This, to me is the greatest problem with crossovers, not whether or not Mind 3 can detect Obfuscate 4. Mages just live in a different world. In a different game, if you will. So here are my suggestions on how to darken Mage. Take a few of them and find a combination you like. Using all of them would be going a little overboard.

Dismal Failure

Mages can change reality. They are powerful beings whose mere whim can alter the shape of things in the present and the future (some even say the past). So why is the world so crappy? The Technomancer dream has utterly failed to become a reality. The Traditions' efforts are both no better and no more likely to succeed. Anyone who thinks different is living on hubris and needs to be taken down a notch. The winning coalition in the Mage world is the Nephandi, not the Technomancers. The Techies are totally ineffectual in the world compared to the Fallen Ones.

Emphasize the failures of the characters. Have they won a victory? Make it a pyrrhic one. A scorched-earth scenario. Both sides lose. The world returns to its natural course.

The Traditions Bite

Akashic Brotherhood
Play up the utter pointlessness of the Akashic Brothers. Their meditation doesn't take them closer to solving the world's problems, it takes them further away from the world. This abandonment of the world is absolutely necessary to their paradigm. Force the characters to give up everything they like, everything they want and everything and everyone they ever loved. It's a pure paradigm, but an empty one.

Celestial Chorus
Failure again. They had control a while back but they dropped the ball. Continually emphasize how the hierarchy stumbles on, blindly making the same mistakes over and over again. Paralyze the Choristers in internal strife while around them the world marches on. Point out how hopeless the world is and how Paradox prevents the Chorus from bringing hope back. Love, neighborliness, spirituality? These are from a world that no longer exists. Kids murder each other in the street for shoes and everything the Chorus does is empty self-gratification.

Cult of Ecstasy
Not much has to be done to make these guys more dark. Just make sure they always have the opportunity to be partying when they should be somewhere doing something that would have saved the day, and things will take care of themselves.

Dreamspeakers
Boy, you want to talk about your failed paradigms, take a look at these goons. These are religious adherents of the worst kind: avid faithful who are set upon with a growing idea not that their religion is false, but that their goddess is useless. Another good alienation group. All their gallivanting around the Umbra can't solve anything in the "real world". Make sure they go home and have to see what happened while they were gone.

Euthanatos
Not much needs to be added to make these guys more dark. Just point up the total autocracy of the Euthanatos. Show how they are the sole and final judges of human life — of any life on Earth, and how pointless their whole reincarnation schema is. Souls are born and reborn into a terrible world. Wouldn't it be better just to go the route of the Nephandi and get rid of them entirely? They should be portrayed as one step away from the Nephandi and maybe that step was in the wrong direction...

Hollow Ones
Play with these ones like you would a jaded Toreador (a vampire clan). Make their callousness to human suffering and continual angst backfire by putting them in gradually worse and worse situations. I'll bet that by the time they're watching their loved ones get roasted by that Marauder, they'll be squirming to get out of their dead-end nowheresville paradigm.

Order of Hermes
A) Emphasize the meaninglessness of it all. How come there are 49 kinds of angels and not 50? Because that's the way it is. B) Emphasize the dictatorial atmosphere. C) Make sure they have to do some really gross occult crap every once in a while. Otherwise, I don't have too many suggestions.

Sons of Ether
For "pulp" Sons of Ether, throw them into a harshly realistic world. Imagine the cast of "I Love A Mystery" tossed headlong into a modern day comic book. Can you say "culture shock"? They'd be dead in 10 minutes, and not at the hands of a super villain, either. Force them to choose between pushing themselves further into delusion or to admit utter defeat.

For other Sons of Ether, emphasize the "mad" part of "mad scientist." Fanaticism. Delusions of grandeur. Vicious in-fighting. When you enter a SoE lab, it should be less like the Back to the Future theme and more like the Terminator theme; less heroic trumpets and more buzzing, impersonal machines.

Virtual Adepts
Make sure the Virtual Adepts understand exactly what place their product has in the real world: the tool of the Technocracy. Fight the Technocracy all you want. It's too late. The Sleepers already have a hold of it and they've already put it in the paradigm. You won before you left. Now you lost.

Technocrats

First of all, I think Technomancer characters are just fine. In fact, even for the dark campaign it's a good idea.

First, make sure they understand that they are parts in a machine and are no more cared for by their superiors than they care for the parts in their car. They should be under nearly constant surveillance by the New World Order and Iteration X.

Second, make sure they understand that they do not control the paradigm. If the paradigm were under their control, things would be alright. Things are not alright. Things are definitely not alright. Why are things the way they are? The Technocracy doesn't know either. Point out over and over the differences between Technocracy idealism and actual reality.