Whether you’re discovering Mage for the first time or returning after years away, Mage: The Podcast is your guide to one of tabletop gaming’s richest and most rewarding settings.
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Mage, Reality, and Looking Back at That First Interview
For the first episode I sat down with Satyros Phil Brucato, one of the main creative forces behind Mage. I asked him the dumb obvious question. What is this game, actually? He said: Mage is a game about reality on the brink. I’ve been chewing on that ever since. Because it was true in the ‘90s when the game came out. It was true in 2018 when we talked. And honestly, in 2026 it might be the most true it’s ever been, which is either exciting or alarming depending on the day.
In Defense of Prime
Adam and Heilong talk all about Prime, the Sphere that turns Quintessence from airy theory into table-ready trouble. They tackle the “Sphere tax,” node-scrubbing, Primal Utility, Platonic ideals, and why Prime makes Mage’s reality-wrangling feel real enough to kick the furniture, and maybe rewrite the town.
Tower of Babel
We climb John H. Steele’s Tower of Babel, a Mage novel full of creators, characters, conspiracies, and reality getting mighty leaky around the edges. It’s metafiction, Technocracy trouble, dream-tower theology, and one poor writer learning that when your fiction talks back, maybe don’t answer after drinking.
The Sound of Awakening: Building Atmosphere in Your Mage Chronicle
Rules matter. Characters matter. Your city matters.
But there’s another tool that's surprisingly powerful, and surprisingly underused.
Music.
Crossover: Rokea in Mage
Adam swims with the sharks to bring you information and ideas to help you add the Rokea, the shape shifting sharks of the World of Darkness, to your games. What are the Kahu hiding? What lies at the bottom of ocean trenches? Why don’t sharks floss? Tune in and find out.
Reality Deviants Book Club: Dark City
Adam and Pooka discuss Dark City (1998). Another movie that paints the World of Darkness on the screen for you to see. This one aligns so closely with Mage: The Ascension (First Edition) ; watch out for Paradox. Can this inspire you to portray Sphere effects in your game? Is it a good example of a mage’s Awakening? Can bald, creepy kids boost your game to the next level? Tune in and find out!
Chronicle Planning: Building Mage Campaigns That Change the Way Your Players See Reality
The best Mage chronicles don’t ask players to imagine an impossible world.
They ask them to look at the real one a little differently.
Once your players start questioning what’s behind the next door, beneath the next city block, or hidden inside the next news story…
…you’ve succeeded.
Paradigm Shift: Stygian Library
Adam talks about Emmy Allen’s Stygian Library, the library that doesn’t end. Will your players find the knowledge they’re looking for? Can they evade the mysterious librarians and their super computer? The sister volume to Gardens of Ynn is full of ideas that may find a place in your Mage games. Just watch out for the ink blots. They stain.
Such Pain
Pooka and Lee discuss Such Pain, the first Mage novel published in 1995. Can novel-length stories help you envision the world of Mage? Did the author hit it out of the park with this one? Hear Pooka and Lee’s review of the book. Their commentary highlights how the World of Darkness was a little different during Mage’s first edition.