1Contents

By Allen Varney, Brian Campbell, Phil Brucato and John R. Robey

™

Second Edition Screen and Lore

Sample

file

2 Hidden Lore

CreditsWritten by: Rotes/ Mages: Allen Varney; Setting: John R. Robey, Brian Campbell; Mages/ St. Hints: Phil Brucato; Sphere sheets: Designed by Wayne Peacock; Spheres: Kevin A. Murphey, Phil Brucato; Fiction: Deena McKinneyDeveloped by: Phil BrucatoEdited by: Cynthia SummersVice President in Charge of Production: Richard ThomasArt Directors: Lawrence Snelly & Aileen E. MilesLayout and Typesetting: Aileen E. MilesArt: John Cobb, Daryll Elliott, Scott Johnson, Dan Smith, Andrew Trabbald, Lawrence Allen WilliamsMaps: John ParkBack Cover Art: Alex ShiekmanFront Cover Art: Mark JacksonFront and Back Cover Design: Kathleen Ryan & Aileen E. Miles

Special Thanks to:Brad “Conan” Butkovich, for spreading NERO’s gospel

throughout the land.Wes “Not My Fault” Harris, for joining Mark in

Quakesville. Mike “Wolfdaddy” Krause, for raising his child among

the pack.Danny “Outta Here” Landers, for taking his toys and

going back to school.Elizabeth “Karate Kid III” McKee, for her dancing

exploits at DragonCon.Christian “The Great Grape Ape” Naberhaus, for his

dietary experiment at the company picnic.Stephe “Jet Set” Pagel, for letting his rent money go

to waste.Jane “Reach Out and Kill Someone” Palmer, for the

Furious Phone-Line Follies. Fred “Collectible Tarot Card” Yelk, for dodging the

Mage developer’s thrown pillows.Diane “Cattleprod” Zamojski, for threatening to liven

up the party the hard way.Sarah “Mystery Mistress” Timbrook, for having an

amazingly useful shadow.Nathan “Invisible” Jones, for being Sarah’s amazingly

useful shadow.Rachel (Remy) “Fast Talker” Blaine, for something — if

only we could only understand what she just said…Greg “Knockers” Fountain, for discovering just how

silly a $12.00 Halloween gargoyle can be.

© 1996 by White Wolf. All rights reserved. Re-production without written permission of the publisher is expressly denied, except for the purpose of reviews. Mage: The Ascension and Hidden Lore are trademarks of White Wolf Game Studio. All names, titles, char-acters and text herein are copyrights of White Wolf unless otherwise noted.

The mention or reference to any companies or products in these pages is not a challenge to the trade-marks or copyrights concerned.

Due to mature themes and subject matter, reader discretion is advised.

A Parting HowlYipe! It seems like just yesterday that a handful of

wolves fought it out for space in an old office building. Now we’ve moved to a new headquarters and our staff has boomed proportionately. To be honest, I kinda miss the days when our pack of black-leather degenerates would grumble off to Steak and Ale, scare the crap out of the wait staff, stake out our own room and complain endlessly about how little money we were paid for the work we did. We’re still not rich, but our respectability quotient has gone up a bit since then (sigh).

Sadly, two of our longtime packmates have departed for other forests. Bill Bridges, Werewolf’s developer and co-creator, has joined HDI (Andrew Greenberg’s computer game company), while convention god Danny Landers has returned to school to pursue his masters degree. Their jobs have fallen into the capable hands of Ethan Skemp (formerly Game Studio Editor) and Kim Pullen, respectively. No one, however, can match the contributions these two have made during their stay here. We’ll miss them both.

Good luck, guys.

Sample

file

3Contents

™

ContentsIntroduction 5

Chapter One: Lore 7

Chapter Two: Shadows in the Rain 29

Chapter Three: Storyteller Goodies 47

Chapter Four: Handouts 63Sample

file

4 Hidden Lore

Sample

file

5Introduction

The old woman gave Cat a haughty sniff as the young mage blew a loud, smacking bubble.

“What do you mean, I have to go wash my hands?” Cat asked. “What kinda screwy library is this, anyway?”

The woman slapped a ruler down hard on her desk. Cat jumped.

“This, young lady, is a place where the tomes of accumulated knowledge from many Houses and

many ages past have been gathered for the benefit of those who wish to learn and better themselves. Yet, I find it hard to believe that someone who has obviously slept in her clothes without the benefit of regular baths would even be interested.” She straightened her bun, which had come loose.

“Who the hell died and made you health inspector of the universe?” Cat snarled.

The librarian’s shaky old fingers lowered her glasses as she peered over them with a withering look.

“Here, young lady, I am not just the health inspector of the universe, I am the universe. If you wish to paw my books, you’ll wash those grimy mitts now!”

How To Use This BookLet’s be honest: this is an overflow book. The material

here had to be cut from Mage Second Edition to bring the book down to an affordable size. The goodies herein, however, were too good to go to waste. While they aren’t essential to playing the game, they’re nice tidbits to have around.

A quick overview of this book’s contents: a pile of rotes and Effects for your players and Storyteller characters; some lesser-known facts about the mystick world, includ-ing a short Who’s Who; quick-reference Sphere sheets; a setting Chantry based in Seattle; variant game suggestions and more. The general organization is as follows: Chapter One is general stuff for players, Chapter Two concerns the Conjurer’s Cubbyhole, a magic shop that is more than it appears. Chapter Three’s information is best left in Storyteller hands, and Chapter Four offers a selection of photocopiable handouts for all Mage players.

Open, peruse and enjoy.

Introduction

Sample

file

6 Hidden Lore

Sample

file