Instead of jumping right in I'd like to start off with something I didn't detract stars for; the layout. Between the noise ridden backgrounds and the placement of Tradition/Convention symbols behind the text in their respective chapters it makes for a very hard read for those of us with visual issues. And yes the M20 core book did have the symbols behind their text as well, but they at least had it faded to the point where it wasn't as much of an issue. That said screen readers don't have that many issues with the pdf outside of the pronunciation of certain words. We aren't the main demographic, I get that, but oh boy are the backgrounds a shift from the less chaotic ones they usually use.
My gripe instead comes from this book boiling Mage down into Traditions good Order of Reason bad. This went as far as attributing some of the horrific things the Traditions have done to the Order of Reason instead. Sure, the Celestial Chorus and the Order of Hermes are mentioned doing bad things and the Verbena are mentioned offhand once during one of those segments, but it pales in comparison to what it was. For me one of the main draws of the system was the fact that there were no good guys. The Traditions were abusive and power hungry (and were even more so back when they were at the top). Likewise the Order of Reason/Technocracy had similar failings, only with less infighting. It was very much a pick your poison situation with many mages choosing their respective sides based on which reality best benefitted their particular utilization of magic. Yes there were good aligned characters, but there were not nearly enough of them to try to claim the Traditions are good in general.
That paragraph alone took it down to three stars for me. The additional star was lost due to the overuse of certain terms. Yes they are descriptive and do detail things that were going on at the time, but they really don't need to be repeated as frequently as they are in this pdf.
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