From:	Josh Harrison mataxes@****.net
Subject:	SR vs White Wolf's Mage
Date:	Wed, 14 Jun 2000 00:04:52 -0400

----- Original Message -----
From: Kismet <kismet-sr@****.com>
> We recently decided to try out White Wolf's Mage: The Ascension. (I know,
I
> know, most people play SR after playing through WW but we're strange.)
> Anyway, I couldn't help but notice A LOT of similarities between the
worlds.
> Their Virtual Adepts are a lot like Deckers, Riggers-Sons of Ether, etc. I
> was wondering which game came first?

First Edition SR premiered in 1989. Mage: The Ascension was first released
in 1993.

And I don't think the similarities are that striking, yeah the Virtual
Adepts are kind of deckerish, but that's really a trope of the cyberpunk
genre, and not exclusively a Shadowrun property. I personally don't see much
smilarity between the SOns of Ether and riggers, myself.

I have to say that Mage is the one WoD game that I most wanted to like, but
I ultimately found it disappointing. The magic system in SR works. After
half a dozen read throughs, I still can't get a handle on how magic in M:tA
operates. I get it from a game mechanics perspective, but from the setting
end of things? Sorry. This strikes me as a major flaw in the writing.
Supposedly the third edition clears some of this up, but I haven't bothered
to take a look yet.

-- Josh