The Book of Madness

Mage: the Ascension

by Sam Inabinet, Steve Brown, Kathleen Ryan

The Darkness has Teeth

Beyond the Horizon, dark forces claw at the edges of sanity, battering at the fabric of reality, seeking final night:
* Nephandi, the Corrupters
* Marauders, the Foot-Soldiers of Chaos
* Demons, the Renders of Souls
* Paradox Spirits, the Mage's Bane
* Umbrood, the Living Mysteries
What are they? Why are they? Can we stand against them all? And what if we cannot?

...And It Hungers!

The Book of Madness is a bestiary for Mage: The Ascension, exploring the darker reaches of magick's touch. It includes:
* Details about a mage's deadliest foes;
* Dozens of mystic creatures from the Dark Side;
* Storyteller hints, cosmology, and more.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Gaming, World Of Darkness, Horror, Fantasy, Games, Reference

144 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1994

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is pretty good, though it shows its age and has largely been superseded by more recent books, like the Revised Book of Madness, Infernalism and Book of the Fallen. Still, it covers a lot of ground. It seems to less be about "madness" and more about "antagonists" as it has a whole chapter on Paradox, listing spirits, clarifying Realms and giving several theories as to how Paradox works from random mages. The Nephandi chapter gave a bit of meat to formerly vague antagonists, and the Marauders chapter inched away from "Mage dedicated to dynamism that appears insane" to "Metaphysically mentally ill mage" though with a subconscious devotion to Dynamism. The Demons and Demon Cults chapter doesn't really have a strong analogue anywhere else, with parts of it overlapping with future books, but still might be one of the better sources for infernalism in Mage. And the final chapter on Umbrood was surprisingly concrete.

[Mountainroot · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for every Mage fan......also a must read for every RPG fun.