Every game set in the World of Darkness has its own themes, but don’t be afraid to apply to Mage the lessons that you’ve learned running other games. Storytelling any game with flair gives you the skills to run Mage, but the devil is in the details. Mage puts its own twist on familiar themes and gives you new ways to tell old stories. From this base, you can go on to entertain players with distinctively weird, horrific and ultimately memorable tales.
This chapter assumes that the reader is going to be Storytelling the game. When the text talks about “you,” it refers to a potential Storyteller. If you plan to only play the game for now, don’t be put off. If you know what a Storyteller needs to do to run a successful game, you’ll be better equipped to play along and help the whole group enjoy itself. Besides, it’s entirely likely that you’ll want to try Storytelling. Now is a good time to read Chapter 8: Storytelling in the World of Darkness Rulebook, pp. 188-219, to familiarize yourself with the fundamentals and general advice. The material in this chapter expands upon and supplements that section.