Author: Dave Brookshaw

  • Signs of Sorcery [Mage: The Awakening] [Open Development]

    Signs of Sorcery [Mage: The Awakening] [Open Development]

      Welcome once again, faithful readers! Or as Frank would say… Mage: The Awakening Second Edition (featuring the Fallen World Chronicle) is still moving its way through layout, but my cabal of authors have not been idle since its Open Development ended. We’ve been writing the first sourcebook for the new edition, Signs of Sorcery.…

  • Day 11: Fallen World Chronicle Anthology

    Day 11: Fallen World Chronicle Anthology

    Onyx Path’s Month of Nightmares features games, stories, and more to celebrate the spirit of Halloween. Count down the days with us by reading our excerpts, participating in the discussion, or by taking advantage of our special offers leading up to a haunted Halloween. The Nemean took his lead-heavy hand off my chest. I wept…

  • Ascension [Mage: The Awakening]

    Ascension [Mage: The Awakening]

    What seems like a lifetime ago, two months before the first of these Open Development posts, I was on holiday (that’s proper English for “vacation”) in the Orkney Islands. One day, I visited a Distillery and bought a reasonably old whisky. It’s sat, undisturbed, in its bottle in the corner of my living room ever…

  • Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Seers of the Throne) [Mage: The Awakening]

    Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Seers of the Throne) [Mage: The Awakening]

    Time for the Devil to get his due. But first, some musical accompaniment. Several years ago, when we were writing what is now Vampire: The Requiem Second Edition, I was taking a lot of notes about how I’d handle Mage in what was then still The Fallen World Chronicle. Rose’s decision to put VII at…

  • My Body Is A Cage (Silver Ladder) [Mage: The Awakening]

    My Body Is A Cage (Silver Ladder) [Mage: The Awakening]

    First, some Peter Gabriel. The end is approaching. Not global Ascension, but of these Open Development posts – we have only two more of these posts to go. Game’s nearly out of Development and into Editing, the playtest groups are beavering away, and my Development “to-do” list now fits on one page. What to say…

  • Endless Wonder (Mysterium) [Mage: The Awakening]

    Endless Wonder (Mysterium) [Mage: The Awakening]

    (Warehouse 13, property of SyFy) Welcome back, faithful readers, to another in the pre-GenCon Order writeups. This time, we’re looking at the Mysterium. If the Guardians, early in Mage‘s gameline, showed what the Orders could be like when expanded upon, the Mysterium were the first Order I really “got,” as I one of my players had a Mystagogue…

  • A Beautiful Crime (Guardians of the Veil) [Mage: The Awakening]

    A Beautiful Crime (Guardians of the Veil) [Mage: The Awakening]

    Welcome back, faithful readers! Continuing our pre-GenCon run through of the second edition Orders, it’s time for the Guardians of the Veil. First, some music from Tamer   What to say about the Guardians? More than any other Order (except maybe the Seers) they were most clarified and improved by their Order book, so readers jumping…

  • We Can Make The World Stop (Adamantine Arrow) [Mage: The Awakening]

    We Can Make The World Stop (Adamantine Arrow) [Mage: The Awakening]

    Welcome back, faithful readers! I knew we’d be over-subscribed for the playtest, but not that I’d be disappointing quite so many people. To try to make up for it, spoilers will continue until morale improves. First, some music with a very appropriate video, courtesy of the Glitch Mob. A looooooong time ago on this blog,…

  • Playtesting! [Mage: The Awakening]

    Playtesting! [Mage: The Awakening]

      EDIT: Okay, everyone – check your private messages. In the end, we had a staggering 95 groups apply for playtesting, so please don’t feel bad if you don’t have a message from me waiting for you, but that number of groups is simply impossible to manage. I have not sent “rejections” out, as I…

  • The End is the Beginning is the End [Mage: The Awakening] [Dark Eras] [Werewolf: The Forsaken]

    The End is the Beginning is the End [Mage: The Awakening] [Dark Eras] [Werewolf: The Forsaken]

    (Photo by Michel Wal, under creative commons) Welcome back, faithful readers! Mage: The Awakening Second Edition is firmly into Development now. My pasted-together working copy of the book, all of the drafts from authors assembled into a single file, is 420 pages long in Word. I ran the game last week, and I’m much happier…