Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

3203

Abstract

</figcaption></figure>Here’s a quick crash course on the Mage brand. There are two RPGs called Mage:<ul><li>Mage: the ASCENSION is part of WORLD of Darkness, formerly called OLD World of Darkness, or oWoD.</li><li>Mage the AWAKENING is part of CHRONICLES of Darkness, formerly called NEW World of Darkness, or nWoD.</li></ul>The oWod/nWod thing is a story in itself and I don’t wanna get into it. You can read about it <a href="https://1d4chan.org/wiki/World_of_Darkness">here</a>.Back in the day there was a lot of crossover between the kind of people that were into occult stuff and the kind of people that played Mage. So much so that they printed an official Mage: the Ascension tarot deck. There must STILL a lot of crossover, because they made a Mage: the AWAKENING tarot deck too. And I own one.The very existence of these tarot decks is beyond cringe-inducing. It’s the same sort of cringe you feel when your friend is playing Guitar Hero in front of a real guitarist in a real band. Except it’s backwards because a wannabe occultist is even lamer than a tabletop gamer. I know this because I was both a tabletop gamer AND a wannabe occultist.<figure id="dc60"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*D8JnksvnRLJbfxzE2SOWTg.jpeg"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>I was a fortuneteller for about 7 years. I didn’t read tarot. I did [REDACTED] instead, because it seemed more manly to me. At first I worked for tips. Later I started charging $5 for readings. In retrospect I should have charged way more from the get-go. My low-low prices made it all seem less valuable. If I ever find myself so desperate for cash that I do it again, I’ll keep that in mind.Never mind the fact that I snapped out of it a long time ago. Even before I bought my Mage deck. Note that I quit before I stopped believing because of burn-out. I got tired of “solving” people’s problems for pennies. And I honestly thought I was actually solving people’s problems. If I was, it’s because everyone has the same problems. No one is special.I’m sure some current practitioners will think it was my focus on the money that stunted my spiritual growth. That being so mercenary about it was why I failed to find enlightenment or whatever. These people are full of shit.<figure id="c560"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*GewOXHsVlboGN1egTuUyOw.jpeg"><figcaption>30 points of Challenges vs 4 Strength and 13 Vitality left. I was doomed, and it was only the 3rd Journey.</figcaption></figure>I rarely beat The Fool’s Journey. It’s possible my go-to strategy is to blame. I believe that a good plan now is better than a great plan later. But I’ve lost several times while on the final journey. I usually lack the resources to beat the remaining Challenges and I’m too low on Vitality to survive them. It’s the push-you-luck mechanism that does me in. Mainly

Options

because I assume that some saving grace is around the corner, and I’m often wrong.<figure id="51e9"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*KPrWC25igzek52_B3DlM4w.jpeg"><figcaption>Note that I technically play it wrong. You’re supposed to leave Volition cards on top of Challenges and Challenge cards on top of Strength cards to denote damage. But if you buff a Volition card, use that to partially damage a Challenge, then lay those three cards on top of a buffed Strength card, it gets confusing. I just use tokens to keep track of “health”. Also, I forgot to put tokens under the Strength card.</figcaption></figure>A gamer can take a lesson away from any game if they try hard enough. I’ve played The Fool’s Journey at least three dozen times and I’ve only beaten it twice. Initially I though the lesson was “slow down”. And slowing down did help me avoid making dumb and obvious mistakes.<figure id="73cf"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*zQFZ6cRxcOCLMRgvDAUa5A.jpeg"><figcaption>Once again I lost on the last Adventure.</figcaption></figure>Another strategic takeaway is to keep your options open. A friend of mine once told me that Hell is a state of having no options, and that applies here. There are a LOT of decisions to make. It’s easy to back yourself into a corner strategically. Defeat the largest Challenge with Vitality alone and hope for Sword and Wand cards next? Pick off the smallest Challenge and save your resources? Use whatever is in front of you and ignore future what-ifs?<figure id="b7eb"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*0oILyyCCoxgN0DMmQz_FOg.gif"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>This game isn’t kind. It’s not uncommon to lose in the first few hands. This reflects starting life with few resources. Note that losing The Fool’s Journey might not mean you die. It might represent getting eaten up by The America. In The America, there are events that fuck you so hard it makes it next to impossible to do anything other than survive hand-to-mouth. Life “happens” to you. Unplanned pregnancy. Injury. Illness. An arrest. Some people never shake that sort of thing off. The ones that do either started life with the resources to recover or they luck into a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.It’s The America that drives a lot of people to occult bookstores and witchcraft websites and the metaphysics isle at Barnes and Noble. People chewed up by The America who need money, validation, or respect dive into that stuff headfirst, hoping to find something that will save them. Astrology. Fortunetelling. Remote viewing. Love potions. Crystal healing. Basically, a miracle.Some of them realize it’s all bullshit before they spend too much of their non-existent time and money. Some, like me, find a way to monetize it and become part of the bullshit. But True Believers can go years and decades not realizing, or not admitting to themselves, that they’ve been conned by the Occult-Industrial Complex. Hustled. Tricked. Cheated. Lied to.Fooled.</article></body>

A weak-ass Strength 2, Me with 15 Vitality (health), and a Volition 4 buffed to 8.

Games and Culture

Confessions of an Ex-Fortuneteller

The Fool’s Journey + Mage: The Awakening Tarot

“The America is not a place you live in. It’s a video game that you survive.” — Henry Rollins

A few days ago, while paying the tab at a local diner, I made the mistake of engaging in small talk with the cashier. She mentioned, for some reason, that the staff in the back was freaked out about an item in the lost-and-found box. The item was a miniature Ouija board on a necklace. I was a bit confused and wasn’t sure I heard her right so I asked her to repeat her concerns. After she voiced her fears about the artifact, I considered wishing her luck and being on my way. But this is me, and I couldn’t help myself.

“You want this watered down or straight up?” I asked. She paused, then responded, “Straight up”.

“It’s all bullshit. I know this because I used to be a fortuneteller. I used to believe in all that occult stuff. It’s not real. None of it. The “Ouija” brand is owned by Hasbro, the same toy company that makes G.I. Joe. Because it’s a board game. It’s just a toy.”

I felt a rant coming on so I stopped there. I think I said “good luck” as I walked away and I don’t remember if she said anything back to me. It’s just as well. Any interaction with me past a minute or two is almost always unpleasant.

The Fool’s Journey (version 2.3) is a print-and-play solitaire game played with tarot cards. You’re a Fool on a journey to become wise. Cards are used as so:

The Fool = You
Major Arcana = Challenges (obstacles and enemies)
Aces = Chance (let you redraw a new “hand”)
Royals = Helpers (double the value of Strength, Volition, or Vitality cards)
Coins = Wisdom (spend these to play Royals onto other cards)
Wands = Strength (endurance or armor)
Swords = Volition (attack power)
Cups = Vitality (health)

Here’s the game in a nutshell. You start by drawing and laying out four cards. From there you can regain Vitality, equip Volition and Strength cards, collect Wisdom, stash non-Challenge cards in your satchel, or overcome Challenges. Whenever there’s only one card left, you draw three more cards. That represents a new Adventure.

The game itself is generic fantasy, but the theme mostly hangs on whatever tarot deck you use. So if you have a deck from an existing intellectual property, you’re now playing in that universe.

Here’s a quick crash course on the Mage brand. There are two RPGs called Mage:

Mage: the ASCENSION is part of WORLD of Darkness, formerly called OLD World of Darkness, or oWoD.
Mage the AWAKENING is part of CHRONICLES of Darkness, formerly called NEW World of Darkness, or nWoD.

The oWod/nWod thing is a story in itself and I don’t wanna get into it. You can read about it here.

Back in the day there was a lot of crossover between the kind of people that were into occult stuff and the kind of people that played Mage. So much so that they printed an official Mage: the Ascension tarot deck. There must STILL a lot of crossover, because they made a Mage: the AWAKENING tarot deck too. And I own one.

The very existence of these tarot decks is beyond cringe-inducing. It’s the same sort of cringe you feel when your friend is playing Guitar Hero in front of a real guitarist in a real band. Except it’s backwards because a wannabe occultist is even lamer than a tabletop gamer. I know this because I was both a tabletop gamer AND a wannabe occultist.

I was a fortuneteller for about 7 years. I didn’t read tarot. I did [REDACTED] instead, because it seemed more manly to me. At first I worked for tips. Later I started charging $5 for readings. In retrospect I should have charged way more from the get-go. My low-low prices made it all seem less valuable. If I ever find myself so desperate for cash that I do it again, I’ll keep that in mind.

Never mind the fact that I snapped out of it a long time ago. Even before I bought my Mage deck. Note that I quit before I stopped believing because of burn-out. I got tired of “solving” people’s problems for pennies. And I honestly thought I was actually solving people’s problems. If I was, it’s because everyone has the same problems. No one is special.

I’m sure some current practitioners will think it was my focus on the money that stunted my spiritual growth. That being so mercenary about it was why I failed to find enlightenment or whatever. These people are full of shit.

30 points of Challenges vs 4 Strength and 13 Vitality left. I was doomed, and it was only the 3rd Journey.

I rarely beat The Fool’s Journey. It’s possible my go-to strategy is to blame. I believe that a good plan now is better than a great plan later. But I’ve lost several times while on the final journey. I usually lack the resources to beat the remaining Challenges and I’m too low on Vitality to survive them. It’s the push-you-luck mechanism that does me in. Mainly because I assume that some saving grace is around the corner, and I’m often wrong.

Note that I technically play it wrong. You’re supposed to leave Volition cards on top of Challenges and Challenge cards on top of Strength cards to denote damage. But if you buff a Volition card, use that to partially damage a Challenge, then lay those three cards on top of a buffed Strength card, it gets confusing. I just use tokens to keep track of “health”. Also, I forgot to put tokens under the Strength card.

A gamer can take a lesson away from any game if they try hard enough. I’ve played The Fool’s Journey at least three dozen times and I’ve only beaten it twice. Initially I though the lesson was “slow down”. And slowing down did help me avoid making dumb and obvious mistakes.

Once again I lost on the last Adventure.

Another strategic takeaway is to keep your options open. A friend of mine once told me that Hell is a state of having no options, and that applies here. There are a LOT of decisions to make. It’s easy to back yourself into a corner strategically. Defeat the largest Challenge with Vitality alone and hope for Sword and Wand cards next? Pick off the smallest Challenge and save your resources? Use whatever is in front of you and ignore future what-ifs?

This game isn’t kind. It’s not uncommon to lose in the first few hands. This reflects starting life with few resources. Note that losing The Fool’s Journey might not mean you die. It might represent getting eaten up by The America. In The America, there are events that fuck you so hard it makes it next to impossible to do anything other than survive hand-to-mouth. Life “happens” to you. Unplanned pregnancy. Injury. Illness. An arrest. Some people never shake that sort of thing off. The ones that do either started life with the resources to recover or they luck into a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

It’s The America that drives a lot of people to occult bookstores and witchcraft websites and the metaphysics isle at Barnes and Noble. People chewed up by The America who need money, validation, or respect dive into that stuff headfirst, hoping to find something that will save them. Astrology. Fortunetelling. Remote viewing. Love potions. Crystal healing. Basically, a miracle.

Some of them realize it’s all bullshit before they spend too much of their non-existent time and money. Some, like me, find a way to monetize it and become part of the bullshit. But True Believers can go years and decades not realizing, or not admitting to themselves, that they’ve been conned by the Occult-Industrial Complex. Hustled. Tricked. Cheated. Lied to.

Fooled.