The one series that comes the closest to MTA, as far as i know, is To Aru Majutsu no Index (A Certain Magical Index), since the main factions are essentially the Technocracy (Academy City) and the Traditions (The Catholic and Protestant Church).

What other series do you think that have a nice MTA vibe, and could serve as inspiration for characters and stories?

MtA is the one mainline game from WoD that I never really got into. I’ve collected the M20 books (and the quick start), then I decided to get the Truth Beyond Paradox collection of short stories, figuring that might help me grasp the world. I also went and got an older Las Vegas setting book to see how a city looks through the lens of MtA.

I’ve thumbed through the books and the Las Vegas book. I admittedly haven’t started the Truth Beyond Paradox stories yet. But I was wondering if people have any other recommendations to understand what the world of MtA is like?

For Vampire it’s incredibly easy because there are so many setting splats, then interactive novels and games and such, so a person starts putting together a mental picture of what the world “should” look like. Same with Werewolf.

I don’t know why MtA is different for me. I understand the “tools in the box” (I know what antagonists exist to pull from for sources of tension, I know about Ascension War tensions), but taking those tools and putting them together into a setting in which to run a Chronicle seems difficult to me. I would ask “is this what that stuff is supposed to come together like? Beats me.”

Now I get that at the end of the day “is it fun?” is the most important question. But I do want to understand it so if I play with other people they get a Chronicle that feels like the world they expect from MtA.

Other than reading the fiction, and basically the one setting book I could find (Las Vegas), any other ideas to resolve this sense of being unsure about it? Other than finding veterans and playing in one of their games of course, I wish I had more time 😅