History YMMV / MageTheAwakening

* CrazyAwesome: The ''Ancient Lands Pentalogy'', from the Grimoire of Grimoires - a very popular HighFantasy series, authored by son of a radical member of the Free Council. The Diamond Orders find it offensive, both because its villains are uncomfortable {{Expy}}s of their dark sides... and because more than a few copies are encoded spellbooks that seem to be an attempt to induce Awakening-- ''[[CrazyEnoughToWork that is actually effective]]''. There's even a merit for [[AscendedFanboy fans of the book who became mages because of it]].

** [[SerialKiller Aaron Murphy]] is a [[KnightTemplar Banisher]] who leads the Huntsmen Cabal. A former soldier and lifelong [[HeManWomanHater misogynist]], Murphy used his Awakening to join the Banishers, whereupon he was given the chance to torture a female mage for over twelve hours. With the Huntsmen, Murphy hunts down and slaughters Mages under the pretense of defending the world, while [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist only using the hunt to gratify his sick desires]], savoring the death and torture of as many [[WouldHitAGirl women as he can]].

** [[SerialKiller Joe Beal]], aka "the Blood Of the Lamb", is a Scelestus who was entranced from a young age by the story of Jesus, and grew to believe it made Christ the "apex predator" upon his Awakening. Beal hunts down anyone he can, [[TortureTechnician torturing them in every way he can]] think of, [[MindRape psychologically]] and [[ColdBloodedTorture physically]], while considering them his "prey". Eager to even worship the Abyss for more power, Beal's [[{{Sadist}} one joy in life]] is to torture everything he sets his mind to, giving them all manner of pain he can conceive of, until they beg for death.

** Aaron Murphy is the leader of the Huntsmen cabal from ''Banishers''. In a sourcebook where most of the adversaries are portrayed as somewhat sympathetic, he stands out for being a rapist and torturer who uses the Banisher ethos as an excuse to indulge his sick desires. He is presented as a total sociopath, willing to deceive and betray anyone for his ends. Even his backstory of parental abuse and fear of female Thyrsus fails to make him any more sympathetic.
** Joe "Blood of the Lamb" Beal is a SerialKiller Scelestus from ''Boston Unveiled'' and ''Left-Hand Path''. An absolutely insane Thrysus, he started out bad, with his Awakening involving seeing Jesus Christ as an apex predator, and got worse, with him switching devotion to the Abyss because the "natural cycle" most Thrysus respect didn't give him enough power. He's a master of [[MindRape psychological]] and [[ColdBloodedTorture physical]] torture, and what's worse is that he doesn't even have a motive beyond {{sadis|t}}m--to him, his prey are just toys he can inflict various Life-related tortures on until they [[FateWorseThanDeath beg for the end]].

* GameBreaker: For the beginner mage, Extended Casting's geometric progression of effects can be horribly abused. By the time you get to master-level magic you can break the game into tiny little pieces without even trying too hard.

** Aaron Murphy is the leader of the Huntsmen cabal from ''Banishers''. In a sourcebook where most of the adversaries are portrayed as somewhat sympathetic, he stands out for being a rapist and torturer who uses the Banisher ethos as an excuse to indulge his sick desires. He is presented as a total [[TheSociopath sociopath]], willing to deceive and betray anyone for his ends. Even his backstory of parental abuse and fear of female Thyrsus fails to make him any more sympathetic.

* MarySue:
** ''Night Horrors: the Unbidden'' parodies the hell out of them with False Awakenings. The sufferer believes they have awakened on a path no one has ever heard of before. They gain power at an amazing rate (read: from Gnosis 1 to Gnosis 9 in ''a week'')-- and ultimately destroy themselves and a sizable portion of the surrounding landscape trying to reach the Supernal. Poor deluded bastards.
** To a lesser extent this applies to Low Wisdom, High Gnosis Mages, in their own heads... To everyone else it's just AGodAmI with real god-like powers.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: When the corebook came out, it was generally seen as mediocre and inferiors to ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'' due to the loss of emphasis on post-modernist, subjective reality in favor of a vague "Atlantis was real" myth and the switch from the popular and sympathetic Technocracy-- generally considered the highlight of the [=oWoD=]'s villains-- to the (at the time) selfish banality of the Seers of the Throne. Thanksfully, the various supplements, and later the 2E corebook, [[GrowingTheBeard fixed most of these problems]].

* Only in 1e Mage so far, someone found a rather amazing exploit that deals with Goetic Magic (aka, magic that summons your inner demons to do your bidding). It must be fully read [[http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/5898587/ here]], but a short version is essentially making use of the fact that with enough time, one can boost their Goetic to insane levels and use one Numen called Transmogrify Victim that allows you to replace your stats with that of the Goetic's while remaining in control. Now this might not sound so broken, but take into account that Spirits can easily match and exceed the usual 5 dot cap for mortals and most supernaturals combined. Finally, you can also use the Spirit's numina while under the effect of Transmogrify Victim, which also benefits from the insane dicepools available.

* CrazyAwesome: The ''Ancient Lands Pentology'', from the Grimoire of Grimoires - a very popular HighFantasy series, authored by son of a radical member of the Free Council. The Diamond Orders find it offensive, both because its villains are uncomfortable {{Expy}}s of their dark sides... and because more than a few copies are encoded spellbooks that seem to be an attempt to induce Awakening-- ''[[CrazyEnoughToWork that is actually effective]]''. There's even a merit for [[AscendedFanboy fans of the book who became mages because of it]].

* CrazyAwesome: The ''Ancient Lands Pentology'', from the Grimoire of Grimoires - a very popular HighFantasy series, authored by a radical member of the Free Council. The Diamond Orders find it offensive, both because its villains are uncomfortable {{Expy}}s of their dark sides... and because more than a few copies are encoded spellbooks that seem to be an attempt to induce Awakening-- ''[[CrazyEnoughToWork that is actually effective]]''. There's even a merit for [[AscendedFanboy fans of the book who became mages because of it]].

* Only in 1e Mage so far, someone found a rather amazing exploit that deals with Goetic Magic (aka, magic that summons your inner demons to do your bidding). It must be fully read [[http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/5898587/ here]], but a short version is essentially making use of one Numen called Transmogrify Victim that allows you to replace your stats with that of the Goetic's while remaining in control, and lets you use the Spirit's Numina atop of that! Now this might not sound so broken, but take into account that Spirits easily match and exceed the usual 5 dot cap for mortals and most supernaturals combined, and being able to use Numina is having access to paradoxless magic that can do many things depending on what is there. Morphic Form can essentially allow you to shapeshift into any form, including forms to seep through objects and fly. The EXTREMELY broken part comes in with one Numen from Inferno: Hellform. It allows you one extra action per turn per dot of Finesse above 3. In the aftermentioned build, they put their Finesse at 12. That's 10 actions to do massive damage. And if you gave the Blast Numina to the Spirit on all those turns, that's approximately 240 dice to roll for damage alone. [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill Overkill doesn't even BEGIN to describe this!]]

* GrowingTheBeard: The 1E corebook was considered mediocre at best, providing a rather poorly-explained setting that felt considerably weaker than ''[[TabletopGame/MageTheAscension Ascension]]''. The supplements coming up after this provided more information about the lore and setting, and fleshed out the various factions, eventually allowing the game to grow its own fandom. The 2E corebook was overall considered excellent and a huge improvement regarding the rules.

* GrowingTheBeard: The 1E corebook was considered mediocre at best, providing a rather poorly-explained setting that felt considerably weaker than ''[[TabletopGame/MageTheAscension Ascension]]''. The supplements coming up after this provided more information about the lore and setting, and fleshed out the various factions, eventually allowing the game to grow its own fandom.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The general consensus was that the loss of ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'''s heavy emphasis on a post-modernist, subjective reality in favor of "Atlantis was real, and the origin myth of mages" killed a lot of the original's draw, even if it streamlined and clarified a game prone to hard to understand powers and navel-gazing. Furthermore, while the condensed factions of Requiem and Forsaken still kept most of the DNA of the Old World of Darkness' respective factions, the new Mage factions are a bit harder to sink your teeth into than the old archetypes - cleric, shaman, druid, tantric, martial artist, technomancer, etc. Probably the most commented on loss was the switch from the popular and sympathetic Technocracy-- generally considered the highlight of the [=oWoD=]'s villains-- to the selfish banality of the Seers of the Throne.

** Spatial or Temporal Sympathy. All a Mage with two dots in Space and/or Time needs is an object or a person you've been in contact with (the longer you've been in contact with it the better, but even something like a pen or a glass you touched for a few seconds can suffice if the Mage is skilled enough or has sufficiant Yantras), and suddenly he can use the former to cast spells on you even if you are miles away from him and in a different building (including [[BigBrotherIsWatching to scry you]]) and the latter to cast spells on your past or future self. Seers Prelates from the Panopticon Ministry are even worse, as they don't even ''need'' such objects.

** Spatial or Temporal Sympathy. All a Mage with two dots in Space and/or Time needs is an object or a person you've been in contact with (the longer you've been in contact with it the better, but even something like a pen or a glass you touched for a few seconds can suffice if the Mage is skilled enough or has sufficiant Yantras), and suddenly he can use the former to cast spells on you even if you are miles away from him and in a different building (including [[BigBrotherIsWatching to scry you]]) and the latter to cast spells on your past or future self. Seers Prelat from the Panopticon Ministry are even worse, as they don't even ''need'' such objects.

* CrazyAwesome: The ''Ancient Lands Pentology'', from the Grimorie of Grimories-a very popular HighFantasy series, authored by a radical member of the Free Council. The Diamond Orders find it offensive, both because its villains are uncomfortable {{Expy}}s of their dark sides... and because more than a few copies are encoded spellbooks that seem to be an attempt to induce Awakening-- ''[[CrazyEnoughToWork that is actually effective]]''. There's even a merit for [[AscendedFanboy fans of the book who became mages because of it]].