402 is a formerly-weekly episode-based Mage: The Awakening game that ended its first "Season" arc after a two-year span, in December 2009, and plans to continue with the second "season" in September 2011.
The game focuses on a group of five young magi whose lives are all intertwined with the University of Portland. They attend 'Magic Class' in an abandoned old building, taught by a mysterious but trustworthy teacher, Holmes. In the first season, the player characters training started to take a backseat to their duties of saving the world as we know it. The player characters are:
- Quantum, a stoic Action Girl. Master of Time and Adept of Matter.
- Mingan, a New-Age Retro Hippie Shape Shifter. Master of Life and Spirit.
- Smokey, a badass with a Dark and Troubled Past. Master of Forces and Adept of Life.
- Wiki, an aloof Lovable Nerd. Master of Prime and Space.
- Justicar, the Straight Man Ace Attorney of the group. Master of Mind and Adept of Space.
The group have played through 12 episodic chronicles, each with their own distinct stories, that figure into the overall story.
- 1: "Rebirth". The cabal is formed, sans Mingan, and begins to recieve tutelage under Holmes. After he is put into a magical sleep-state by an unknown party, the cabal sets out to find the culprits, but find much more sinister plots at work.
- 2: "Encounter". 402 are attacked by a group of hunters but manage to escape. They track down the hunters and discover that they may not be what they appear to be..
- 3: "Discovery". When Smokey finds a cave that contains the mythical Codex of St. Cyprian, the cabal becomes a target for multiple psychopaths who want to claim the book's devastating power for themselves.
- 4: "Control". When Hyde and The Swarm destroy a convoy being protected by 402, he springs Faust, an infamous mage who caused a catastrophic incident in the past.
- 5: "Midnight". The vampire population in Portland explodes as a huge gang of Brujah descend upon the town.
- 6: "Compulsion". Smokey murders his girlfriend in his sleep, prompting him to join Hyde, as promises of salvation are whispered in his ear. Did Smokey really kill Milly?
- 7: "Origin". Wiki learns that she was adopted, and brings the group to France for an investigation. They discover a conspiracy that threatens mage society everywhere.
- 8: "Resistance". Mingan meets a group of werewolves with which he becomes close. When one of their number is found dead along with an influential mage, tensions fly between the two factions. Who is really pulling the strings?
- 9: "
Retribution". Justicar's pursuit of a serial killer brings him back to Portland. However, the killer is soon found dead, killed by his own mind. And something escaped. - 10: "Epicenter". Quantum starts to blink in and out of another world, one shrouded in red mist. She meets its inhabitants and discovers its properties, while the rest of the cabal struggle to keep her from blinking away forever.
- 11: "Echoes". A surprise attack by Hyde has left 402 in a very tough spot. However, they are suddenly shunted back in time to the year 1207, and meet a very familiar looking knight..
- 12: "Absolution". The final battle between 402 and the Traveler Cult.
There's also going to be a 402 one-shot sidestory that figures into the main plot of the series. It's gonna happen sometime in August, 2011.
402 contains examples of the following tropes:
- Abnormal Ammo: 402's main weakness before Mingan gained the ability to suppress it is to Atlantite, a mysterious stone substance that can be used to cripple a mage's abilities, depowering them for a short time, depending on the dose.
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: The Heart of Time, Quantum's uber-powerful bastard sword acquired in "Echoes". She uses it in conjunction with her Time magic to defeat Hyde.
- Action Dress Rip: Quantum and Wiki in "Echoes", after they're dressed "properly".
- Action Girl: You could pretty much call this "Action Girl: The RPG".
- Acquired Poison Immunity: Discorsi learned to cast despite breathing atlantite gas in "Control".
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The ending of "Epicenter", when Hyde finally infiltrates room 402.
- An Ass-Kicking Christmas: "Midnight".
- Anti-Hero: Smokey. Dark past? Check. Daddy Issues? Check. Occasional severe homicidal tendancies? Check.
- Anyone Can Die: Both subverted and played straight. It's pretty clear that Hyde wants 402 alive, and might not even be able to kill them, but the people around the cabal have no such immunity, and sometimes die.
- Arc Words: "The Traveler is Coming." He does.
- Artifact of Doom: Cyprian's Codex.
- Ascended Extra: Malachi, the meek Guardians of the Veil secretary. He's a fan of 402, and has helped them out on a couple of occasions.
- Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: Smokey's little van stunt in "Rebirth".
- Badass Driver: Corona, Before Sid Dropped a Bridge on Him. At least he got a "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner in.
- Bad Ass Normal: Holmes after his depowering in "Echoes".
- Bar Brawl: The destruction of Earl's Watering Hole early in "Discovery".
- Battle Couple: Holmes and Misty, as well as Mingan and Artemis.
- Bio-Augmentation: Mingan does this. Often.
- Bit-Part Bad Guys: The robbers at the restaurant in "Control".
- Bittersweet Ending: "Absolution". The cabal defeat Hyde's mooks in a massive battle, save Holmes' lost ex-girlfriend, and defeat all of his generals only to realize that they were too late in the beginning, and The Bad Guy Wins, with Rista Odaria and his cronies being brought into the world through a time vortex. Hyde, however, is depowered and captured by the Guardians of the Veil.
- Black Dude Dies First: Averted. No major black characters have died, except for Slug in "Absolution".
- Bolivian Army Battle in the Rain: The climax of "Discovery".
- Bullet Time: Quantum's perferred combat trick.
- Canon Immigrant: Many, most from other tabletop roleplaying games. (Ganymede, Key, Halberd, Ruby, Cacudeus.. etc)
- Carnival of Killers: "Discovery" was made of this trope. A badass punk gang with an insane leader, a homicidal vampire assassin and a group of hunters all try to capture Cyprian's Codex, which 402 recently acquired.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Given that the tone of the game is Whedonesque, one can expect a lot of this.
- Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: The cabal visit France in "Origin". Chaos ensues.Terrified French Man: LE FANTOME!! LE FANTOOOMMMMEEE!!
- Chekhov's Gunman: The Chiurgeon, the mysterious scientist wearing a gas mask who seems to appear every once in a while before retreating.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Thoth in "Origin".
- Civil War: The mage community looks to be on shaky ground after the events of "Epicenter", where Minos and Eva have it out over the treatment of the Dorian files and the Guardians' secrecy.
- Cool Bike: Smokey eventually obtains a motorcycle that is capable of invisibility and can fly. Eat your heart out, Hagrid!
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Ed Scott's death at the hands of Ixion in "Retribution". He seems to have litterally crawled out of his brain into existence.
- Cult: The main villains of the game form the Traveler Cult, and gain many followers, especially among banishers, the homeless, and corrupt businessmen.
- Cultured Badass: Holmes. He drives a restored car from 1940 and uses a reclaimed .44 magnum from the American Civil War.
- Deus Exit Machina: The members of Honored Ascension get subjected to this a lot, seeing as how they are some of the most powerful and influential magi around.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Lupa, in Mingan's, in "Resistance". He is then immediately and forcefully led away as the Guardians of the Veil torch her corpse.
- Ditch the Bodyguards: Lampshaded by the cabal in "Echoes". They go out of their way to avoid the aid of Edward Hyde, the mysterious knight who looks exactly like the Big Bad.
- *Drool* Hello: A Mana Ghoul gives Smokey and Milly a nice welcome when they find Cyprian's Sanctum in "Discovery".
- Epic Fail: by one of the players. Quantum forgot a fairly important plot point involving her character (She once paralyzed Ruby before Cacudeus made her better.)
- Mr. Fanservice: Cacudeus.
- Every Car Is a Pinto: Subverted. Cars take a lot of punishment, as evidenced in "Discovery", where Sid's Mooks attack 402's car using a chainsaw duct taped to a two by four.
- Face–Heel Turn: Smokey in "Compulsion".
- Family Disunion: Wiki's parents in "Origin". Harsh.
- Final Battle: "Absolution". Maybe.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: 402 in "Echoes".
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: Corona. However, Mingan only knew him for a day, and didn't really get to know him.
- For Science!: Said verbatim by Dr. Insano Expy Neuron, the head of Portland's Free Council.
- The Game Plays You: In their first encounter, the cabal play Hyde's "game" in Rebirth. After making both sides lose, he tells 402 where the evil cult's ritual is being held.
- Going Native: What Mingan did upon awakening. He now lives in a tree with functional power, growing pot for pocket money.
- Going to See the Elephant: 402 heading to Augusta to experience the destiny stone in "Encounter". The trip back is where things get interesting.
- Halfway Plot Switch: "Origin". It starts by examining Wiki's family life, and by the end 402 are defending the Hierarch from a Cult of deranged religious zealots.
- Heroic BSoD: Smokey has a bad time in "Compulsion", as he's made to believe that he murdered his girlfriend, then recruited by Hyde who entices him with promises of destiny and salvation.
- Heroic Sacrifice: All of LADY PEACE, minus Cid, in "Absolution".
- Hired to Hunt Yourself: LADY PEACE. They're put in a difficult situation when they harbor a dangerous mage, while being hunters, and being tracked by 402.
- Hollywood Healing: Lampshaded by Cacudeus.
- Hollywood Tactics: "Absolution", arguably.
- Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Sometimes 402 completely destroy their opponents, but they also often are completely outmatched.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Quantum has only ever botched a gunshot twice. With a pistol.
- Jurisdiction Friction: The Red Rock Hunters in "Rebirth". Justicar's uncle convinces the others that capturing 402 is out of their jurisdiction. This leads to the events in "Encounter".
- Karma Houdini: Jim D'Artagnan in "Rebirth" and Antigone in "Absolution".
- Kill Steal: In "Control", just as 402 are rearing to defeat Faust, and after Justicar revives himself from beyond the grave to do so, Hyde appears and shoots Faust with an atlantite bullet.
- Kubrick Stare: Both Quantum and Holmes share this quality.
- Law Enforcement, Inc.: The Adamantine Arrow and The Guardians of the Veil.
- Living Macguffin: Faust in "Control", Edward Hyde in "Echoes".
- The Load: Aponea, frequently. Having a pubescent teenage girl around tends to complicate things. Tessa especially despises the poor girl, constantly arguing with her during her planned "training". It didn't take.
- Magi Babble: Tessa does this a lot. Most of the seasoned magi still have no idea what she's going on about.
- The Magocracy: The combined forces of the Adamantine Arrow, The Mysterium and the Guardians of the Veil. The Free Council are still getting running in Portland, and the Silver Ladder is non-existent.
- Meaningful Name: Mages usually pick names associated with their powers, personality, or particular skills (there are exceptions). Smokey changed his mage name in regards to the incident below.
- No Range Like Point-Blank Range: Smokey used this strategy on a group of cultists, wanting to surprise them. It worked, but backfired when one of the cultists shot him in the chest with lightning, leaving a burned and smoking wound, and resulted in a name change from Mosh to Smokey.
- Padding: Some of the character-centric chronicles, mostly. "Midnight", "Origin", and "Retribution" can be considered this, given their plot irrelevance to the Traveler Arc.
- Police Are Useless: Subverted with the Adamantine Arrow, but played straight with the in-universe cops, who always arrive late.
- Red Herring: Jim D'Artagnan. He refused to tell 402 anything, refuted their accusations, and generally defeated them using nothing but words, forcing 402 to scramble for clues before Hyde contacts them.
- Redemption Equals Death: Three out of the four LADY PEACE members are killed in "Absolution", after making a Heroic Sacrifice that turns the tide for the final battle.
- Revolvers Are Just Better: Holmes is a fan of classic revolvers. He has a gun that, according to 402, shoots explosions.
- RPG Episode: "Echoes".
- Cid: Uh.. wanna play some Final Fantasy XI?
- Rule of Cool: The way the gaming aspect works. Think of something cool? You're a mage, DO IT.
- Satellite Character: Rosaline, Zion's girlfriend. She is literally attached magically to Zion, in a weird master/servant relationship.
- Science Is Bad: Subverted. The Free Council are constantly creating magical devices, even ones that can be used by sleepers. The Adamantine Arrow is also starting along this path, with magically imbued weapons, armor and tools.
- The Scrappy: Jim D'Artagnan is a rare in-universe example. 402 tend to hate him even more than Hyde.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The entire plot of the first "season", really.
- Shapeshifter Baggage: Mingan constantly needs replacement clothes. He carries around a pair of pants in a duffel bag at all times.
- Stable Time Loop: In "Echoes".
- Succession Crisis: In "Absolution", the Adamantine Arrow HQ in Portland is bombed and many of its soldiers killed. Apollo, their leader, is nowhere to be found, leaving low-ranking novice general Bast in charge. She struggles to keep control of the situation, panicing and terrified, until Lancer reappears, with a troupe of Elite Archers and regroups the entire place.
- Suicide Mission: Both "Rebirth" and "Absolution". Not everyone makes it out of the latter.
- Tag Team Suicide: Halberd, Ruby and Slug in "Absolution".
- Taking Over the Town: The Brujah in "Midnight". They just show up in Portland and start wrecking up the place.
- Terrible Trio: Hyde, Sid Suicide, and Antigone.
- Time Travel: "Echoes". The cabal winds up in the year 1207.
- Urban Fantasy: The setting of the game.
- What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Paired with Drives Like Crazy.Smokey: Fuck it, let's just drive towards them!
Quantum: NO. Bad idea. BAD IDEA. Trust me.
Smokey: Oh. Right. - Wretched Hive: Earl's Watering Hole (Until it was destroyed by Ganymede in a shootout) / Earl's (Until it was destroyed by the Bruja/ Pistolero. Earl hates vampires.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Hyde in "Rebirth".
- You Are Too Late: The ending of Absolution.
