So I was reading Imperial Mysteries for Mage: The Awakening and all I can say is, I'm not disappointed. It offers an endgame of sorts for Awakening, but it also recasts the good old days of Ascension's giant Chantries in the Horizon (like Doissetep), the open warfare for reality that took place there, and the wacko archmages behind it. Those who like Awakening but miss Ascension's epic, cosmic scope will love this book.

There's this bit about how, since the Fallen World exists merely as a sympathetic shadow of the Supernal Realms, destroying something in the Supernal completely erases the thing (or rather, the thing's equivalent in the Fallen) from existence (i.e. as if it had never existed in the first place). It's like you wander into the world of Platonic ideals, and kill (e.g.) the Platonic ideal of dinosaurs, and poof, dinosaurs go extinct. This is one of the examples they give:

Quote from: Imperial Mysteries (for Mage: The Awakening), p. 44 sidebarThe Libertine Basileus claims that Europe's leading religion used to be the cult of Sol Invictus. In 1977, the archmage Hyperion Ascended in union with the God Mithras. This erased much of the deity's history, so that the world now believes Christianity, not the Unconquered Church, spread throughout the West. Basileus points to the common sign of the cross, and the apparent contradiction of a Roman ritual official (the Pontifex Maximus) controlling an
Abrahamic sect.

I love it because this is just the sort of Ars-Magica-meets-Unknown-Armies thing that makes me love Awakening.

So, if you have any awesome passages you want to share from recent RPG readings, post it here.

"My only advice to you is simple: Do as much good as you can in this world for as long as you possibly can." - Nikolai Federick, Reclamation

I love this quote because it helps set up Reclamation as something I'm not used to: a post-apocalyptic setting with a sense of hope. I reviewed it on my blog recently.

"It is the spirit of the game, not the letter of the rules which is important.  Never hold to the letter written, nor allow some barracks-room lawyer to force qutations from the rule book upon you, if it goes against the obvious intent of the game."

Some book I picked up Tuesday.  I grabbed three RPG books that day so who knows

Quote from: thedungeondelver;562143"It is the spirit of the game, not the letter of the rules which is important.  Never hold to the letter written, nor allow some barracks-room lawyer to force qutations from the rule book upon you, if it goes against the obvious intent of the game."

Yeah, if the players get uppity just force this quotation from the rule book on them!

Things We Think About Games by Will Hindmarch and Jeff Tidball is a collection of quotes about games. All kinds of games: RPGs, CCGs, board games, video games, even poker.

My favorite: (may or may not apply to RPGs; I think it does)

QuoteWe should fix the fact that the average cartoon does a better job of portraying the human condition than our games do.

--Raph Koster, A Theory of Fun for Game Design

...and I'm probably gonna catch some hell for posting a quote here with the words "human condition" and "game" in the same sentence.

"Decide on the campaign tone you want to have, and discuss your decisions with your players."-D&D Cyclopedia.


Emphasis mine.

QuoteThe main thing that described old school gaming
as compared to "new school?" The game is your own.
A simple sentence, but it has many attributes that fall under its
umbrella. The first of which is that any rule that you don't feel makes the
game more fun for you should be ignored or changed. Talk with your
players and get a consensus of how you want to the game to be from a
mechanics standpoint, and go for it.
The second attribute is fun. This is the most important, and why we
play the game. If the game is not fun based on rule or something, then
get rid of it. That's why we play the game. HAVE FUN!

Altus Adventum forward

"By ordering things as they should be, the game as a WHOLE first, your CAMPAIGN next, and your participants thereafter, you will be playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons as it was meant to be."

"Use care, caution and common sense.  This book is not for children or morons."
-William Powell, The Anarchist's Cookbook

I was looking up some items in my RPG bible, Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games by Lawrence Schick (Prometheus Books, 1991), and I came across this article by one of the first Game Masters:

"In the old days, I had plenty of time to sit down and design things.  Today most people, if they have the spare time, would rather be playing than designing.  It is easier for a game master to take an already worked-out scenario, modify it, and refereeit than to try to create the same thing from scratch.  With a few exceptions, most scenarios are pretty bland, but add a vew ideas or emphasize the scenario's best points, and voila!--you are off and running.  You and your group will be happy for several sessions.

When I design a scenario, sometimes the plot or situation will come from books I read, and sometimes it just pops into my head.  Then I draw my maps (I love maps) and think about the setting by running possible adventures through my head.  I thin fill in the plot-line and either run a few friends through it or talk it out.  Changes are made, and then the work is sent off to be butchered-er, ah, edited, I mean.

Most referees change a published scenario as it is being played.  This is done for several reasons.  Perhaps the demands of their own campaigns require changes to be made.  Usually the changes are the result of the way the adventure develops during play.  Many of these modified scenarios are far better than the originals.

The original Blackmoor supplement included what was the very first published scenario.  My intention was that it would serve as a guideline for other GMs to design their own.  Instead it spawned an entire "service" industry.  Oh, well..."

David L. Arneson

From ICONS:

QuoteBatman to all points: I could use some air support, since I can't fly ...
At all ... Now would be good

Okay, so this totally misses the point of the thread, but anyone who has seen the animated Justice League series will understand how awesome this quote is.

Quote from: Soylent Green;562332Okay, so this totally misses the point of the thread, but anyone who has seen the animated Justice League series will understand how awesome this quote is.

"Sorry I'm late - there was a landslide in Peru.  What did I miss?"  is my personal favourite.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;562143"It is the spirit of the game, not the letter of the rules which is important.  Never hold to the letter written, nor allow some barracks-room lawyer to force qutations from the rule book upon you, if it goes against the obvious intent of the game."

Some book I picked up Tuesday.  I grabbed three RPG books that day so who knows

Well, my most awesome quote would come from real life then:

ASPIRING DM: I want to learn the rules, first. You know me: I'm a by-the-book type.

ASPIRING DM AFTER HER FIRST SESSION: Well, I made up 75% of the rules... and of the rolls, too.

ME: That's good. You have taken your first step into a larger world.

Well, regarding game design:

QuoteThe game's designer, Jason Bulmahn, did an amazing job creating innovative new mechanics for the game, but he started with the premise that he already had a pretty good game to build upon. He didn't wipe the slate clean and start over. Jason had no desire to alienate the countless fans who had invested equally countless hours playing the game for the last 35 years. Rather, he wanted to empower them with the ability to build on what they'd already created, played, and read. He didn't want to take anything away from them—only to give them even more.

- Monte Cook, Pathfinder's Introduction

Quote from: Reckall;562413Well, my most awesome quote would come from real life then:

ASPIRING DM: I want to learn the rules, first. You know me: I'm a by-the-book type.

ASPIRING DM AFTER HER FIRST SESSION: Well, I made up 75% of the rules... and of the rolls, too.

ME: That's good. You have taken your first step into a larger world.

That is a good one.

JG