[Recruitment] Mage the Ascension - Legacy of Lazarus

In the Ascension War, your parents were heroes. Or terrorists. Or both.

Not that they told you about any of it, even though your bloodline carries the magic of civilisations. They must have had their reasons for not doing so, perhaps they were trying to protect you from some larger threat, perhaps this was their way of preparing you for what lies ahead, perhaps they are now unable or unavailable to reveal the truth to you. As far as you know, you live in a world that is ordinary. But something feels off. You’ve had moments: a coincidence that was too perfect, a truth that felt known, not taught, a flash of insight or terror that bent the world around you. You are Awakening, but you know nothing about it.

What you do know is that you are senior students at St Lazarus Academy, a preparatory high school for some of the prestigious colleges in Massachusetts.

Your school is not neutral ground. Not when you are beginning to impose your reality on the world around you. This makes you dangerous. This makes you valuable. This makes you a target.

Ready to Awaken?

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Game System
We are playing Mage the Ascension: 20th Anniversary Edition. Your characters are the children of Tradition mages, Technocratic agents, or total Sleepers, all navigating the perils of high school while your powers inevitably manifest. Game-wise you are starting level characters, aged 16-18, from the Nine Traditions, attending or connected to the Academy.

Story, Theme, Content
Story: A lot is about to happen in your senior year! You’re about to discover that acing the finals and getting a date for the prom is the least of your concerns.
Themes: Legacy, identity, power, control, found family, cost of magic
Playthemes: Character drama, supernatural action and mystery, low level combat
Content warnings: Teen trauma, emotional turmoil, moderate violence, psychological manipulation, mild romance

Player Experience
I’m looking for players with interest and/or experience in the World of Darkness in general. No explicit experience with Mage necessary, although there’ll be a bit of a learning curve as M20 (the 20th anniversary edition) is a very comprehensive set of rules. Ideally you enjoy inner conflict and moral ambiguity in a game, and like weaving backstory into ongoing plots (a necessity in this game).

Game Commitment and Post Frequency
This game will play out one fictional year of high school. Post frequency will be what we collectively agree to, likely somewhere 4-5 posts a week. This is not a speed-run game as we’ll lean into slow-burn character development with magical crises escalating as relationships deepen.

Resources
You will need access to Mage20 rules, but if you have a different edition I’ll be happy to fill in the differences. I maintain a Discord channel for my games for chat purposes because I have found the ease of quick chat and response to add well to the PbP experience. I will ask you to join, but it is not strictly necessary. Other than that, everything else will be on Gamers Plane.

How To Apply
Post here! Please offer a brief character concept that includes their Awakening moment, a personal goal or a background anchor, a tentative secret. No need to fully flesh out all the details, it’s more for me to choose based on synergy of character concepts. Your concept doesn’t have to be set in stone either, we're likely to talk it out and tweak things before we start. And do mention your experience with WoD games and what you’re looking for in this game.

Welcoming Space
This fictional world includes diverse identities, backgrounds and even realities, and is explicitly friendly to ALL groups of players.

GM Style and Experience
I'm a forever GM (and a committed player) across many games and systems for decades, and now primarily play here on Gamers Plane. World of Darkness goes back a long way for me, especially Vampire and Mage. I enjoy detailed setting creation and plot reactivity to character-driven directions. Narrative over rules, which may mean I will relax some of the more legalistic parts of the WoD system.
For those who know me here, 2025 was rough for me in terms of gaming; this game kicks off a regaining of my GMing momentum on GP.

Comments and questions welcome, whether you intend to pitch or just have a chat here!

Yes sir. I'm defently interested.
When we first discussed this, I started developing a character, but now I can't find what I wrote.
I'll look around discord, but if I cant find it, I will recreate that I can remember

Found it
She has been awakened for months or years, but under the houses suppression, it has been as she was not.

I am very interested. I dont have a character concept yep but reading through the rules will change that.

Don't feel any pressure from my character concept. Bedzone loaded this idear more than 6 months ago, and we brainstormed some. Then he got a bug in eye and real life happened.
I managed to dig up my old concept and it is going to get a fresh iteration, but my core concept still stands. And the name! I'm horrible at inventing names and here I got a good one

"Stop saying these negative things about yourself. Look in the mirror and find something about yourself that's positive and celebrate that!"― Tyra Banks

I'd be interested in playing. Dipping my feet back into GP after a hiatus as well.

I mean, I'm right there in the artwork. Third on the bottom 😂

I am working on a concept as well. Very interested.

I am interested. I haven't played since high school though so will need to review things and get up to speed. Mage is my favorite WoD game though I didn't get to play it much as most the other players in my group preferred to play vampire or werewolf.

Thanks everyone for this initial wave of interest! We do have enough people to start, but it's fair that I leave this open for another two or three days.

It's not critical that you pitch a fully thought through character at this point, we can hold off until you have more explicit details on the setting; co-constructing some bits of the world-building might inspire you better.
We've settled your avatar art then!

phooey!

I'm interested as well. I'm working on a concept and should have it soon.

I have a few thoughts floating around now, but want to fill in any obvious gaps more.
Looks like mental/social will have the largest use, curious to see where other character concepts fill in.

Not sure if my statement of interest is within the "enough people to start" or if you already have enough concepts to choose from. I will post my concept below and would be glad if there is still an opening, but I also totally understand that there is limited seats.

Hello ! i would love to be part of the game!, I have zero experience on Mage, or play by post itself, I normally plaid Vampire 3rd edition, but i would gladely spend many hours on youtube videos learning the lore and the rules if you accept me at you campaign.
Would also work hard to get the character done before the end of the week. so please just let me know if there still a spot at your table.

Thanks in advance

I’m interested, and I have WoD experience through each release of Mage but you seem oversubscribed already. I’m also pretty busy right now, although I’m pretty sure one game I’m in has stalled and another might be going that way, so… if I can hatch a concept I will. Edit: I’m most accustomed to Akashics or Hermetics, so likely to think around those. Although… I’m picturing a socially-spiky folkloric bookworm, maybe a Dreamspeaker, Verbena or Thanatoic… dammit now I'm thinking… someone studious, but angry, who’s lost a parent and looks at some of the other kids and their trivial preoccupations as contemptible. They were probably being bullied until something happened to one of their bullies… and now they’re afraid as well, because they’re not sure what they did.

M20 is not exactly familiar for me but I have the rules.
Are you using Virtues and Flaws from the Book of Secrets?

(Oddity; this recruitment thread has been active for days, but I only got the game notification email five hours ago. Do GP notifications usually run this slow?)

The interest check have been since the 11th of january, but the game itself was created today, and BedzoneII linked the game to this post today. The notification is not slow.

So, that was the drum roll, now we are all waiting excitedly. ;)

Good luck to anyone and most of all for Bedzonell a good hand in picking the right group.

Fingers crossed.

I reviewed some of the basics and came up with a character concept. I will get more into the rules if pulled into the game, focusing on character creation and basic lore for now.