Pooka and T.L. Webb crack open Truth Until Paradox, Mage’s first fiction anthology. They chat why tie-in stories matter, then speed-tour 17 wildly uneven, very ’90s tales—Technocracy vs Traditions, Nephandi schemes, HIT-Marks, odd Wonders, and fan-fic energy.

• Truth Until Paradox (Mage anthology, Feb 1994) - Tucked inside are seven tales from the World of Darkness, a place that looks a lot like our own, except the supernatural is real, and shadowy forces are always moving just out of sight. They’ve been chosen and edited by Stewart Wieck, the creator of Mage: The Ascension and co-creator of the World of Darkness.
• Key faves: “Silver Nutmeg, Golden Pair” + “Grim Reminders” (Penny Dreadful)
• Concepts: Ascension War vibe, coincidental magic, backstabbing, Wonders, Paradox oddities
• T.L. Webb on Bluesky and Tumblr

The most powerful skill in Mage is uncovered at last.  Join Adam and Pooka as they lay bare the stone cold facts about Stone Lore.  The mystic qualities of malachite, how to use Stone Lore in your games and the merits of marrying Spanish dancers are all discussed as your hosts try to penetrate the deepest secrets of Ascension.

• Geologist’s Primer⁠ - A friendly, picture-packed guide that mixes myth, folklore, old-school magic, crystal lore, and real science, giving writers and game masters everything they need to make rocks, metals, and gems feel alive in fantasy worlds or modern tales alike.
• ⁠Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones⁠ - Told through art, myth, power, and a bit of hard science, this wide-ranging tale follows sixty unforgettable stones to show how rocks shaped human history, and how our hopes, work, and wants shaped those stones right back.
• ⁠Amulets and Superstitions⁠ - This old-school, picture-filled classic by Egyptologist E. A. Wallis Budge shows how folks across the ancient world leaned on stones, symbols, numbers, and amulets to heal the sick, keep bad luck at bay, fend off evil, and make sense of fate and the unseen.
• ⁠ Gemlore: Ancient Secrets and Modern Myths from the Stone Age to the Rock Age - This down-to-earth guide rambles across cultures and centuries, mixing the hard facts of geology with myth, symbols, and old stories to show how gemstones have both shaped our beliefs and mirrored the way people make sense of the world.

Once again, we’re going back in time to PAX Unplugged 2024 and a series of interviews conducted by Terry Robinson. This installment features five conversations with various folks in the gaming space. We hope you get some joy and wisdom out of these chats. Perhaps they’ll inspire you to jump into writing and creating as well, and we’ll see you behind a table at PAX this coming December…

The interviewees, in order:

• Eloy Lasanta (Third Eye Games): https://www.thirdeyegames.net/
• Chris Pramas (Green Ronin): https://greenronin.com/
• Eric Portney (Alexandria RPG Library): https://alexandriarpg.org/
• Jason Cordova (Gauntlet RPG, Brindlewood Bay): https://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/brindlewood-bay.html
• Spencer Campbell (Gila RPGs): https://gilarpgs.com/

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Adam talks about bringing the Ananasi into games of Mage the Ascension. Ananasi are the were-spiders of Werewolf the Apocalypse. Where do they come from? How do they operate? What can they bring to your Mage games? Whether enemies or allies, the spider folk have much to offer. This is the first in a series of crossover episodes.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/12/ananasi

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This episode travels back in time to PAX Unplugged 2024, where Terry Robinson captured interviews and loose, late-night conversations with creators and friends. This first installment (of two, or possibly three) features interviews with folks from AED Publishing, The Bodhana Group, and a rambling roundtable with Pooka and Mike from Darker Days Radio. We hope these final recordings from Terry are a fitting addition to his memorial and a little gift for the end of your year. Go forth, Mage strong!

• PAX Unplugged – A tabletop gaming-focused convention specifically tailored to lovers of board games, RPGs, miniatures, cards, and more.
• AED Publishing – An independent and privately owned publishing company focusing on the creation and distribution of character and story driven games founded by Stephen Koontz.
• 5th Conspiracy (RPG) – Urban fantasy where belief shapes reality published by AED Publishing.
• The Bodhana Group – Therapeutic tabletop gaming nonprofit.
• Darker Days Radio – Premier horror rpg podcast

Adam and James walk you through the Digital Web books. Then James discusses topics to consider when taking your players to the digital realm.  Where is it in the Mage cosmos? How do you get there? How do you move around and work magick? What might you meet there? How does Augmented Reality really work? These topics and more are laid out to help you make the Digital Web a part of your Mage games.

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What hath Empire wrought? Pooka and Jenna poke at that question today as they open up the supplement Weird Wonders and Revolutionary Magicks for Victorian Age Mage. The book features dozens of items, rotes, and story hooks, and while your mileage may vary with how much use you get out of them, there's no shortage of ideas to enrich any historical game.

• Weird Wonders and Revolutionary Magicks
• Victorian Age Mage

Ever wandered into a garden so beautiful you forgot the way out? 🌿 In this week’s Mage: The Podcast, Adam explores The Gardens of Inn — a mysterious, decaying fae realm from the OSR classic by Emmy Allen — and shows how it can bloom in your Mage: The Ascension game. Plus, a new “Paradigm Shift” series connects unexpected RPG books to the World of Darkness. 🎲

Download the transcript for today’s show here.

• Beyond the Barrier: The Book of Worlds - Step through the Gauntlet and explore endless realms.
• Tomes of Magick episode - Adam and Terry take us on a wild Umbra tour: gods, dreams, and dinosaurs beyond the Barrier.
• Infinite Tapestry - Mages brave storm-torn roads to rediscover lost realms and rekindle the world’s magic.
• Tomes of Magick: Infinite Tapestry episode - Adam and Terry weave through the Umbra’s mysteries in Infinite Tapestry.
• Bygone Bestiary - Unleash your inner dragon and dance with monsters/
• Tomes of Magick: Bygone Bestiary episode - Adam and Terry wrangle dragons, unicorns, and more.
• Book of Crafts: Whispers of Dissent - Step off the main path and meet voodoo priests, alchemists and Amazons.
• Tomes of Magick: Book of Crafts: Whispers of Dissent - Adam and Terry meet mambos, dragon wizards and kahunas.
• Gods & Monsters - Meet gods, beasts and odd friends—the World of Darkness just got wilder
• Tomes of Magick: M20 Gods and Monsters episode - Adam and Terry chat Loa, HIT Marks and godforms.

Howdy, Mage fans! Adam and Pooka are back with big news, a new Changeling magic book, and invites to TryItCon2: TerryCon and PAX Unplugged. This time they dig into The Crow, from comic grief to film justice, goth rain, Brandon Lee, and Mage-style ideas. A quick stop with Philip K. Dick, a chat about sanity and Quiet, and a reminder that it cannot rain all the time. Tell your friends, because madness loves company.

• Pooka’s A Book of Gramarye (Storytellers Vault) launch
• Philip K. Dick’s Clans of the Alphane Moon: sanity, Quiet, and Mage editions
• James O’Barr’s The Crow (graphic novel vs. film): grief vs. justice, myth vs. grit
• Brandon Lee, Michael Wincott, Alex Proyas, and goth-punk aesthetics
• Mage-adjacent hooks: Euthanatos vibes, coincidental magic effects
  • Destiny’s Price
  • Orphans Survival Guide
  • Tradition Book: Hollow Ones
  • The Book of Secrets
  • Wraith: The Oblivion’s The Risen
• Using NPC relationships and “human moments” to anchor grim settings
• Soundtrack as mood tool for tabletop scenes
• Which Mage editions this best complements (1e/early Revised vibes)

Today's episode is a memorial to our departed friend and co-host, Terry Robinson. Join Adam, Bryce, Charles, Josh, and Pooka as they share some memories, followed by a series of messages submitted from our community and some words from Joseph. We also invite you to download the free PDF of the Book of Tributes, a collection of written tributes from our Discord that was produced for Terry's memorial. We hope that this episode will help you to keep Terry close at heart, and remember that Ascension is the friends we made along the way.

(Thanks to Brian Grossman, Brian Johnson, Hal Case, Harry Heckel, Jacob Klünder, Jonathan Fii, Justin Achilli, Kim Godwin, Kris Newton, Lauren Roy, Leonardo Rezeda, Matthew Dawkins, Matthew Webb, MJ, Panos Skordas, Satyros Brucato, Sebastian Yūe, and Stefan Carton for your words shared in this episode. And thank you to all of our listeners for your continued support and dedication.)

(Now go change reality. <3)

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