An overview of magickal history in Mage: The Budapest Urbancrawl

Disclaimer: This setting does not follow the Mage metaplot, or rather, it presents its own metaplot, if you need one, and choose to use it. Read: No Avatar Storm.

The Technocracy has had a bittersweet run with Budapest - while the organisation has had a lot of success influencing hearts and minds, and shaping the history of the city, events have largely got out of hand.
My basic idea was to map
on the one hand, the transition from Socialism to democracy in Hungary/Budapest to a parallel power handover within magical secret societies, and
on the other, the arguably failed or at least incomplete adoption of a liberal democracy to a chaotic power struggle

To my mind, at least, this setup creates a lot of potential for campaigns. If your group likes social manoeuvering, there is intrigue up to your eyeballs, but the tensions and instability between factions can easily spill over into physical conflict if combat is more your thing.

Budapest Hermetics more or less equal State Socialism

Unbeknownst to ordinary people, the 'soft oppression' associated with the Socialist regime in Hungary was orchestrated and maintained by a coterie of powerful Hermetic mages.

If you're interested, here's a primer on Socialism.

Soviet Technocrats, after the failed 1956 revolution, started a human experiment in Budapest - give 'progressive-thinking' Western mages free access into the country, limiting them to the Budapest metropolitan area to contain their shenanigans, and recruit them as allies in the Ascension Cold War^TM

Some of those visiting were ground up or sold out, but a Hermetic wizard guild soon outmanoeuvered their Soviet Technocrat hosts, and took over governing the city in all but name. They gradually grew ever more oppressive, stymieing growth and human and civil rights alike, and farming out the city to advance their visions of amassing knowledge and discerning the laws of the universe. Their hold over the city and their tyranny unchallenged, they grew just as complacent as the local loyal Communists had before them, until the tides of history inevitably swept them away. Their gradual unshifting that ended in a popular uprising coincided with the overthrow of Communism in the country at large.
Not many people are aware, but the 1989 change of government saw 'capitalist' Hermetics ousted from Budapest, and 'socialist' Technocrats sent packing in the rest of the country.

Troupes should decide for themselves whether and to what extent they equate the Order of Hermes's Eastern European chapter with the real-life Soviet-influenced ruling elite. While the wizards had surely influenced the architects of the 'Goulash Communist' system, a one-to-one match would be a slippery slope of blaming history on magic.

The 1989 transition to parliamentary democracy was orchestrated by Western Capitalist Technocrats

The power vacuum saw scores of Technocrats from Western Europe and the US arrive into Hungary, eager to 'format' the 'virgin' Hungarian 'sectors'. However, these new Technocrats were careful - they did not want to end up 'forcing freedom' upon the population, as they thought this would make them just as oppressive as the Hermetic regime they had been told the monster stories about. They were subtle: they figured that an increased average wealth would make people more committed to taking active steps against the regime (I have no idea about economic theory; this is just hand-waved "Primal Utility" magic). It was long known that Danube river water (and mineral waters in Hungary in general) are infused with Prime magic. The Western Technocrats manipulated policy to push through a dam project downstream of Budapest (much like the Gabčíkovo – Nagymaros dams project with the important difference that this one was actually completed). The purported reason was to power some hydroelectric power plant, but the real goal was to slightly increase levels of the river within the city to make everyone richer. They then waited. Their projections were right, and the democratic transition happened - made possible by the Technocracy, but carried out by non-magical people.

Laissez-faire politics backfire, and the Technocrats who helped oust the Hermetics are themselves thrown out of power

In their efforts to not repeat the mistakes of the Hermetic Budapest overlords, the Technocrats stayed out of day-to-day policymaking. The free-for-all market democracy that followed eroded the country's economic and social resources, and frustrated and embittered many. (I am aware how simplistic and childish this all sounds - this is an alternate history campaign setting for a tabletop roleplaying game, not a political pamphlet.) A neoliberal faction of the local Technocracy calling itself The Co-Operative ("Szövetkezet") slowly came to overshadow the original Technocratic administration in the city - it had no scruples about directly manipulating politics to make sure that their brand of social engineering stays popular (see my earlier post about current affairs in the Budapest metro area.)

The 2008 financial crisis

The 2008 meltdown hit Budapest hard, and put paid to any hopes for the Technocracy to usher in an era of universal welfare and an egalitarian live-and-let-live society. Budapest became (even more) isolated by its relative wealth. Residents became desperate to hold on to their economic positions. The Co-Operative, basically the local branch of the Syndicate, fueled the bigotry by promoting the mental self-help practices discussed earlier to solidify its position in power.

The Budapest Technocracy now

The Co-Operative is the de facto overseer of all Technocratic activity in the city - up-and-coming bankers, CEOs, industrial lobbyists are calling the shots both for mundane politicians and old guard Technocrats.

There are rumours that the Co-Operative is engaged in drug distribution, either directly or through the Chinese Tongs operating in the city. They might also have something to do with a new paramilitary organisation nominally controlled by the Ministry of Interior. Only the GM knows.

Traditionally the Progenitors have been the strongest Technocratic faction in Hungary (agricultural yield-enhancing experiments, hybridising crops, innovations in food engineering, etc.).

They're still present, but have started focusing on cloning technology - detailed write-up coming soon.

The Technocrat HQ is officially still the vast and labyrinthine underground car park below Szabadság tér left intact from Socialist Technocratic rule, but the amalgams operating out of it are increasingly marginalised by the new Co-Op execs, and are seen as "out of touch". Detailed write-up of the location with NPCs and plot hooks coming soon.
There might be some cybernetics being developed in Budapest, if the GM's plans need Iteration X to be in the mix - after all, Hungarian video game developers are widely known as cheap and excellent.
The Technocracy in Budapest is far from homogeneous - there are groups that blame the 1989 newcomers and their subsequent laissez-faire attitude for all present ills, some who embrace the no-holds-barred market capitalism hyped up by the Co-Op, radicals opposed to both the idealists and the new blood, and of course those that wish the good old Socialist times had never ended.

Although the premise is about Traditionalist mages in an unfriendly city,

there is plenty of room for a Technocracy game in the Budapest Urbancrawl setting, and I'll be adding complications and details to this high-level overview as we go along.