(no subject)

[drydem]

Hello, this is BEn, I am running the Mage game and I need some help with a paper for class. What I would like is for individuals familiar with Mage to write me a short (1-5 paragraphs) statement answering the following question. I would be most thankful and will reward co-operation with an XP(before the game even starts). Feel free to e-mail this back to me, I don't need it in any specific format. or leave it as a comment.
The Question
What does the term tradition mean to the game Mage: the Ascension?


This is an opinion question, you can't get it wrong, I just need your experiences/opinions.

Comments

[ninja-turbo.livejournal.com]

In Mage: The Ascenscion, the term "tradition" refers to an organization of mages who are bound together through a particular set of magical paradigms which veiw a particular type of magic as being central to both their paradigm, one that controls their magic and their other interactions with the world.
The tradition-grouping allows similarly-minded mages to support each other on a grand scale, exchanging news, ideas, and all other forms of information in order to survive in a world that is generally antithetical to their lifestyle.
The traditions of Mage: the Ascenscion follow the spirit of the folkloristic definition, implying not only the shared ideology, but the community which practices these shared beliefs and approaches.

Bla-dow. Hope that helps.

[drake-rocket.livejournal.com]

The concept of traditions in mage is not a straightforward one. No two traditions are organized a like, nor do they really share very many common definitions of what their purposes and structures are like. They are perhaps chiefly bound by being the mages that exist outside the technocracy, the nephendi and the mauraders (and outside of the orphans, if one wishes to exclude them as a tradition).
What they seem like to me is a group of individuals whose belief structures and magical styles are similar enough that they can be combined into a roughly coherent doctrine. Often this is not a complete or perfect work, or even a physically written work. In a perfect world the mages in a tradition would work together and follow nearly the same path. But they certainly do not. They chose to make these groupings no doubt out of a desire to make divisions. Mages are closer to normal humans than any of the other supernatural types in the World of Darkness and humans often feel a call to form nations/clubs/ethnic groups/social orders etc. Traditions are the extension and expression of this desire.
Some traditions bind together for power or knowledge, others because it is convenient. They teach their own often, and have grown into more important institutions as time has passed. But really they should each be taken individually, and asking any given member of a tradition what that term means would yield a different result. It's a bit like asking any given follower of a religion what religion means.

[selenya.livejournal.com]

To me, a tradition is just that: a grouping of traditions that bind a people together to make a unified whole. For example: for the Verbena, it is the earthy way in which they believe in utilizing magic, and for the Hollow Ones it is the lack of cohesiveness and the belief in rebelling against organized tradition. Every tradition has been created from a seperation, a deviation from common belief. The traditions simply serve as ways to delineate Mages(much like styles in literature, such as Romantic and Post Modernist) and make it easier to categorize the different styles in which Mages believe in the education and creation of magic.