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Mage:The Ascension is a White Wolf game from the early Nineties which had a postmodern take on urban fantasy, with mages shaping reality according to their beliefs. The good guys were The Traditions, magicians and shamans and witches and Kung Fu fighters and virtual reality hackers and steampunk mad scientists; the bad guys were The Technocracy, who wanted to impose the rule of science and reason over reality. This sorta sucks (they got the sides wrong!) and also doesn't really represent how magical thinking works in the real world - mystical thinking doesn't deny science, it tries to subvert and incorporate it into itself (look! Modern Physics proves Genesis! etc.)
But, there are cool things to take from M:TA. It's philosophy may be dumb, but it does foreground philosophy; it presents a world of exhilarating vistas and extra-dimensional exploration; it does improvised magic and encourages subtlety.
I hope we haven't already taken all the cool things from this game for other campaigns…
Also something I want to run but have already probably ripped off too much is GURPS Cabal.
