Announcing... Mage to Order!

On February 4th, 2021, Drowning Moon Studios will be launching its first crowdfunding project, Mage to Order, as part of Kickstarter’s ZineQuest 3 event! We know this is probably the first time you’re hearing of Mage to Order, and you might be curious about ZineQuest as well, so let us give you the details.

Mage to Order is a wry, tongue-in-cheek tabletop roleplaying game about magical maintenance workers in a sprawling, technomantic city called Thelema. Characters are members of MOTE—the Municipal Order of Technomantic Engineers—and it’s their job to maintain magical utilities, repair artifacts, refresh wards and deal with the occasional summoning gone wrong. If something breaks, they fix it, even if most of Thelema takes their services for granted.

Mage to Order uses a 2d6 system that is streamlined, easy to learn, and prioritizes roleplaying and problem-solving over physical confrontation. Characters have two types of abilities, mundane Skills and magical Specialties, which determine how they succeed in challenges, as well as an Ennui track that determines their innate ability to cast magic. Ennui isn’t your typical mana pool, however; it’s tied to how successful—or rather, how unsuccessful—you are at Skills challenges.

As ZineQuest games are specifically meant to be short-form, one-color, 5.5 x 8.5 projects, we felt like Mage to Order best fit this criteria. Aside from the streamlined rule system, the 36-page booklet has sections dedicated to setting and theme, character creation, safety tools, and a Supervisor’s (i.e. - GM’s) guide. Every backer who purchases a print copy will also receive a complimentary PDF of the game.

We’re very excited to show Mage to Order to the world, and we encourage you to follow our Kickstarter preview page so you’re notified when the campaign goes live. ZineQuest projects only run for two weeks, and ours ends on the 17th. We don’t want you to miss out on Mage to Order. We honestly think it’s pretty magical.