Pyramid Review
Ascension of the Magdalene (for Unknown Armies & d20)
Published by Atlas Games
Written by Rick Neal
Illustrated by C. Brent Ferguson, Chris Schott and David White64 pages; $13.95
Ascension of the Magdalene is the second title to appear under the Coriolis imprint from Atlas Games. Each Coriolis book provides a single adventure, but with dual stats for two different RPGs. One is Wizards of the Coast's d20 System, but the other is what provides the adventure with a setting, background and flavor. In the first Coriolis title, Burning Shaolin by Robin D. Laws, this other RPG was Atlas Games' Feng Shui. This took the characters back to the game's 69 A.D. Juncture for a round or three of butt-kicking Hong Kong wuxia style, with a side trip into the Netherworld along the way. The RPG that provides Ascension of the Magdalene with all of the essential ingredients is Unknown Armies, the game of modern occult intrigue, also from Atlas Games.
The first thing to note about Ascension of the Magdalene is that it slips into neither RPG with any ease. This is because it is set in the city of Prague in the year 1610 -- too late for an atypical quasi-medieval d20 game and far too early for a late twentieth, early twenty-first century Unknown Armies campaign. The author makes some suggestions to get around this inherent problem. One is to use the adventure to kick-start a renaissance-era set campaign using either d20 or Unknown Armies and several suggested plots are given so that a GM can . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: May 3, 2002
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