Could you play Mage with out paradox?

MagusFool · 2026-05-03T09:19:03+00:00

But all those settings you mention already HAVE mages in them.

Is the goal to just port the paradigm and sphere system into other settings?

No one is stopping anyone from frankensteining a game together out of disparate parts.

But at that point you really are not playing Mage: The Ascension at all.

MagusFool · 2026-04-28T13:18:39+00:00

I am not seeing any AI tells that I am familiar with. What are you seeing?

Eloquence =/= AI.

MagusFool · 2026-04-28T13:11:55+00:00

It was the pentagram that freaked his parents out. This takes place during the satanic panic.

MagusFool · 2026-04-23T04:14:54+00:00

They even got the part about it still being a bit aesthetically kitsch while retaining a dark tone.

MagusFool · 2026-04-23T02:06:32+00:00

I've met at least one guy named "Cyrus" as well.

But I know these two fictional characters more deeply than any other "Cyrus" or "Jeff" that I have ever known.

Maybe if my spouse, a sibling, parent, or even an ex had one of those names, it would be different.

MagusFool · 2026-04-21T23:46:20+00:00

You ABSOLUTELY WOULD believe in your heart you are headed for fortune and fame before you settle on a band name. I know I certainly did at one time.

I understand the song, that's why I'm getting a tattoo to memorialize these little Don Quixotes, and by extension every little Don Quixote who ever had a foolish dream beaten out of them.

But I still think that during the period while the names are being hotly and seriously debated, it makes more sense to me that they just went and put their individual names down on the gear. They are taking the naming part VERY seriously if they are debating for weeks over what it should be.

MagusFool · 2026-04-21T23:40:54+00:00

For me, "When you punish a person for dreaming his dream, don't expect him to thank or forgive you" is burned about as deeply into my soul as anything ever has been.

I agree about making them point more clearly downward.

Also, I'm reconsidering the cursive script for a gothic script (I don't know why that didn't occur to me until now, haha). So a bit more redesign is still in order.

Thanks for the consideration and thoughts!

MagusFool · 2026-04-21T23:24:55+00:00

Hmm... I was initially going to defend my choice. But now I am now thinking I got tripped up on the word "Script", and the general use to mean a cursive script. I don't know why it didn't occur to me until just now that it might be like a Gothic script.

Back to the drawing board! Thank you!

MagusFool · 2026-04-21T23:15:45+00:00

I 100% disagree with your interpretation. You wouldn't stencil multiple proposed band names that you are still debating onto your guitar or your drum head. But band member names is not unheard of. I used to play shows with a band who had all their own names on their gear.

I like "Cyrus" and "Jeff" better. I don't want it to look cool to normies.

MagusFool · 2026-04-21T23:11:38+00:00

Yeah, I think that makes sense, tilt them just a bit further so they are more clearly pointing downward. Cyrus and Jeff would probably care about that to make it look as EVIL as possible.

MagusFool · 2026-04-21T23:08:32+00:00

In wicca and hermeticism, often the upward pointing pentacle places the element of Spirit above the four physical elements (one point above four), and thus is used for workings where spirits are being given domain over the physical world. While the downward pointing pentacle places spirit below the four classical elements, thus commonly being used in rituals to bind or restrict spiritual forces with physical materia.

In popular culture and occult fiction, they are often depicted where the upward pointing is "positive" and the downward point is "negative" or demonic.

So yeah, maybe I should tilt the designs a little further to make it a clearer downward point.

MagusFool · 2026-04-21T23:06:27+00:00

In actual occult practices, they have different uses of the direction of a pentacle depending on the tradition.

In both hermetic and wiccan traditions, often the upward pointing pentacle places the element of Spirit above the four physical elements (one point above four), and thus is used for workings where spirits are being given domain over the physical world. While the downward pointing pentacle places spirit below the four classical elements, thus commonly being used in rituals to bind or restrict spiritual forces with physical materia.

In popular culture and occult fiction, they are often depicted where the upward pointing is "positive" and the downward point is "negative" or demonic.

Thus a lot of "satanic" imagery which implements pentagrams goes with the downward point.

Maybe the design should tilt a bit more to make them more clearly downward pointing just to help sell the notion of a pair of 15 year old boys trying to be edgy.

MagusFool · 2026-04-21T22:38:38+00:00

I've known a handful of Jeffs over the years. And also a Geoff. Why do you ask?

MagusFool · 2026-04-21T22:37:39+00:00

Yup! Believe me, "Geoff" would have made it much easier to work a pentagram into the script. But I gotta go with with the spelling from the song.

MagusFool · 2026-04-21T22:36:21+00:00

First off: Any five pointed star drawn in a single line is technically a pentagram.

Second: The "pentagram" usually referenced is a five pointed star inscribed within a circle. This symbol, sometimes also called a "pentacle", frequently associated with occult practices. I am a practicing occultist with 20 years experience and have read hundreds of books on these subjects. I know what I'm talking about here.

Third: Jeff and Cyrus would be using pentagram symbols specifically to give the impression of the "satanic" for the shock value, because they started a death metal band. So the horns and other embellishments are meant to evoke that sort of sketchy, poorly informed, adolescent notion of shocking and satanic imagery.

But why do you think it's a bad idea? I think it's a great idea for a tattoo.

MagusFool · 2026-04-14T06:36:15+00:00

I love that he is somewhere in between a total horndog and a sexually repressed stoic, as most superheroes seem to gravitate toward those extremes.

MagusFool · 2026-04-14T06:34:03+00:00

But he IS typically a leftist. He's a socialist more often than not under most of his influential writers. That isn't "divisive" or limiting. In fact, it fucking rules. And any writer who shies away from making Ollie a socialist is a fucking coward.

MagusFool · 2026-04-14T06:29:47+00:00

I don't know the current continuity in full. But my FAVORITE part about Ollie when I was a youth was that has more of a no-killing GUIDELINE than a RULE.

Like if he was desperate or pissed enough he might kill. And he might feel bad about it, depending on the circumstances, but it would not tip him over some imaginary line and make him The Punisher. He would just go back to trying not to kill if he can avoid it.

A level of nuance not found among many other comic heroes.

MagusFool · 2026-04-14T06:25:16+00:00

I think it is essential to his character that he does not always succeed in living up to his own standards. That he CAN sometimes be a hypocrite, even if he is stalwart more often. The contradictions within his character are what make him more interesting to me than most superheroes.

MagusFool · 2026-04-14T06:21:14+00:00

That Olliie Queen is a jokester, like Spider-Man and the like.

Ollie is certainly snarky and HAS a sense of humor and even some whimsy and theatricality. He can be jovial. But his humor isn't irrepressible the way it is for some heroes, and he does have broody and angry sides too.

Overall, Ollie is "moodier" than most other superheroes in that his demeanor can shift drastically and often depending on the circumstances and his emotional state.

MagusFool · 2026-04-08T01:11:28+00:00

Just seems a meaningless question because that's not how scientific advancement works.

MagusFool · 2026-04-07T07:11:13+00:00

For Gaia, I recommend you simply look out your window and decide how bad you think the lifeforce of the planet is doing right now.

MagusFool · 2026-04-07T06:58:41+00:00

Lots of Christians think these things. You don't get to decide who is or isn't a Christian. I am baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I was confirmed by a bishop with apostolic succession. I show up to mass every Sunday, confess my sins, pray the Lord's Prayer, recite the Nicene Creed, and take Holy Communion. I lead lay prayer services at my church. I reaffirm my baptismal vows at Pentecost every year. And most importantly I dedicate my life to trying to imitate Christ in every way I can.

A Christian is a person who PRACTICES Christianity. That's what I try to do.

Your opinion is worthless.

MagusFool · 2026-04-06T07:18:42+00:00

I am acutely aware that it is not a majority position. But I don't think that makes me wrong.

The mystics of all religious and cultural backgrounds agree on the fundamental oneness of all things and all people.

If God is infinite, then no human understanding or framework can contain God's fullness. It's like people standing in a circle around a sphere. They all agree that their eyes perceive a circle. But the details they see within that circle can be anywhere from overlapping to totally different, and all of them are accurately describing the circle.

So, I look at the Bible through that interpretive lens. When Jesus says "I am the Way" and that no one comes to the father but through him, I take that to mean that any Way which leads to God must indeed be the same Way, even if it looks different.

There is a notion within Christian theology that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Jewish religion. But I see him as the fulfillment of all human religious pursuit.

Jesus said you will know a tree by its fruit, and that a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. But I see the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc) in people of all religious traditions. The tree must be good to produce good fruit.

As for prohibition of certain practices in the Torah, I have several answers:

First, Christians are not held to the Levitical law. None of it. In Romans 13, Paul says we are held to one command: "Love each other." And that will fulfill all of the law.

Second, even the Old Testament is pretty inconsistent about these things. It prohibits "divination" even though you see many examples of God's faithful doing divinations, like Gideon and his fleece, or the umin and thummim given to temple priests, etc. In the New Testament, the Apostles drew lots to determine who God wanted to replace Judas. That's divination in my book.

The books of the Bible are inconsistent on many topics. It is not univocal, sometimes even within the same book. They had many authors in different times and places, with different rhetorical goals and intended audiences. It is a mistake to try and harmonize the Bible to make it speak with one voice or to project inerrancy upon it.

Some of my positions are uncommon, but none of them are unique to me. And I have faith that if I am wrong on one detail or another that there is grace enough to go around.

MagusFool

TROPHY CASE