It's worth to go beyond - a Mephisto review

The title of the anthology Truth beyond Paradox is a direct allusion to the first short story volume published for Mage: Truth until Paradox. In this new volume, the authors again set out to illuminate the highly diverse world of Mage with their short stories. Accordingly, as diverse as the role-playing world is, the short stories also turn out to be very different in terms of plot, characters, and backgrounds. However, a common denominator is that they all generally focus on individual characters and disregard the larger metaplot of the game world. Here, it's not about the large groups of mages that clash in the Ascension War, but rather the individual paths to a mage's enlightenment.

For example, Wildfire Sky describes a mage for whom magic literally means playing with fire. Here, her personal interpretation of magic is much more important than the actual plot of the story. In Theogenesis Gimmick, the reader experiences the spontaneous and somewhat bizarre awakening of a mage. Famished Road, in turn, is about the confrontation of a mage and his friends with a dangerous threat from the spirit world. Each other story finds its particular topic. From my point of view, however, the highlight of this anthology is the last story. A Firm Place to Stand describes the rise of a young mage. Here, the larger organizations and their far-reaching goals in the world of Mage play a role. What is remarkable here is that the focus is not on the Traditions, but on the Technocracy - and that the portrayal of this organization is quite different from what one might expect.

As with most World of Darkness short story volumes, the focus is not on the system's metaplot or the larger game world. Instead, the stories present individual mages and thus a multi-faceted spectrum of backgrounds, ideas, moods, and characters. Therefore, even if no great metaplot secrets are revealed here, Truth beyond Paradox does an excellent job providing inspiration for Mage players. Alternatively, you can simply enjoy this collection of entertaining and well-written stories.

(Björn Lippold)