Mage: The Podcast

Pooka and Lee Webb revisit White Wolf's 1995 anthology City of Darkness: Unseen, a collection of interconnected stories featuring mages, vampires, werewolves, and wraiths.
This episode focuses on the Mage stories and examines magical hubris, the Technocracy, supernatural crossovers, and what makes fiction feel true to Mage: The Ascension.
Spoiler warning: Major story spoilers throughout.
Show Notes
“Assault on Treasure Island” by Bill Crider: A Dreamspeaker, a Hollow One, and their allies attempt an ill-advised assault on a Technocratic stronghold.
“Persistence of Vision” by James Lowder: An Etherite filmmaker confronts a supernatural reflection and the consequences of her cinematic experiments.
“Self-Portrait in Nightmares” by Thomas S. Roche: A Verbena's blood paintings become entangled with a vampire's desire to escape his existence.
“Antiphon” by Jackie Cassada: A Progenitor confronts a crisis of loyalty when a Celestial Chorister becomes the target of a cloning operation.
“The Dark of the Year” by Kevin Andrew Murphy: Necromancy, supernatural contracts, ghostly legal intervention, and the continuing Penny Dreadful storyline.
“Sparrow's Song” by James S. Dorr: A jazz musician uses supernatural music to evade the authorities.
“Career Move” by Edo van Belkom: A stage magician recovers from a previous encounter with the Technocracy while pursuing his career.
“A Place to Stay” by David Chart: A young mage and a lupus Garou form an unlikely partnership around an urban Node.
“Shadow of a Reflection of a Cat's Head” by Jane M. Lindskold: An Akashic mage investigates altered memories, betrayal, and the death of fellow mages.
“Waiting for Goddard” by Philip Nutman: An encounter involving mages and a Silent Strider leads to further supernatural complications.
Related material Truth Until Paradox — earlier Mage fiction anthology
When Will You Rage? — Werewolf fiction anthology
Death & Damnation — Wraith fiction anthology
The Beast Within — Vampire fiction anthology

The cats are out of the bag! Adam is joined by Pooka for a tour through the Bastet, the werecats of the World of Darkness, and the many ways they can complicate a Mage: The Ascension chronicle.
Show Notes
Bastet biology and shapeshifting
The supernatural weaknesses called Yava
All nine Bastet tribes
Bubasti connections to magic and ancient Egypt
The mysterious Celican
Qualmi riddles
The possible connection between Den-Realms and Mage Shallow Realms
Never underestimate what a target word count and a heaping ladle full of passion can get you.

Pooka and TL Webb discuss the finer points of Dark Destiny and Dark Destiny 2.  These short story collections offer World of Darkness stories.  The ones that involve mages get special focus.  What drink helps a mage warp reality?  What sport do mages love to interfere with?  All that and more in today’s episode.

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Adam and Pooka discuss Algernon Blackwood’s fiction, his occult interests, his fascination with nature, and what his stories can teach Mage: The Ascension Storytellers about the sublime, supernatural uncertainty, spirits, Correspondence, Awakening, and psychological horror.
Show Notes
Mage 20 SRD
Blackwood, the Golden Dawn, and psychical research
Why “The Willows” remains influential weird fiction
The sublime as a tool for Mage
Correspondence and “A Victim of Higher Space”
Magical instruments in “A Psychical Invasion”
Hermetic magic in “Smith: An Episode in a Lodging House”
Reincarnation and “Ancient Sorceries”
Psychic vampirism and “The Transfer”
Sleepers encountering the supernatural
Playing Awakening instead of relegating it to backstory
Using wilderness settings in Mage and “The Wendigo”
Psychological horror without Nephandi or cosmic monsters
Mystical isolation, obsession, and chantries
Using Sphere perceptions to generate story hooks
Why Blackwood may feel especially appropriate for Mage: The Ascension (Second Edition)
A note on the 1910 wilderness novella
The episode discusses Blackwood’s use of material drawn from Algonquin-speaking Indigenous cultures while distinguishing his Edwardian weird fiction from the living traditions he transformed.

Tomes of Magick: The Other Side of the CoinWe’re returning to Tomes of Magic in Translation with a Spanish-language introductory adventure for Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition.
La Otra Cara de la Monera is an 18-page one-shot for two to five players that introduces the Traditions, Sphere magic, Resonance, Paradox, Avatars, and magical Focus through an investigation into a series of horrific supernatural crimes.
The trail leads from an impossible murder scene to corrupted young mages, the Nephandus Mark Frazier, and an expanding metaphysical void that may eventually consume the surrounding neighborhood.
We break down all seven scenes, examine the five pregenerated characters, and discuss what happened when the adventure was actually run for a table containing both new and experienced World of Darkness players.
Show Notes Introducing new players to Mage
Spanish-language M20 material
Investigation using Sphere magic
Resonance and Paradox
Nephandi as introductory antagonists
Magical temptation and corruption
Focus, paradigm, and Avatars
Collaborative Sphere effects
Running the adventure as a one-shot
What worked—and what could be changed—after actual play
Spoiler warning: The adventure is discussed almost completely.