You're getting a whole computer just for Mage Wars? Seriously why not just wait for tabletopia? It will be much cheaper and will be compatible with Mac.
Eh?
WHAT?
Eeeeehhhh???
Magic. When is that out? I already use Tabletopia...
Tabletopia is in its beta stages. You paid for early access and maybe some extra features. It's going to be free at the bronze level once it's officially released. It will be available on steam as well btw.
Personally I think that if enough players use Tabletopia I will prefer it over OCTGN, but I'll probably end up using both.
As for OCTGN do you have a flash drive and a local library? If yes, then you can just play at the library computers. It's very quick and easy:
1. Download and install OCTGN on the library computer
2. Install the Mage Wars game database from the OCTGN game directory
3. Download and install the Mage Wars image packs
4. Install the spellbook builder plugin
5. When you are done with your first session, move the entire OCTGN folder to your flash drive.
6. When you want to start another session at the library, plug in your flash drive, open OCTGN, and replace the automatically created OCTGN folder with a copy of the one on your flash drive. In order to do this you'll have to open and close OCTGN first.
7. When you're done with your session, if you have any new custom maps or spellbooks, merge the decks folder in the automatically generated OCTGN folder with the one on your flash drive, and the custom maps folder in the automatically generated OCTGN folder with the one on your flash drive. Or if you only have one or two new spellbooks or maps, you can just save them to their appropriate locations on your flash drive. Then trash the copy of the OCTGN folder on the library computer.
It doesn't need to be a flash drive of course. You could always zip up the folder and email it to yourself.
To turn a folder into a zip file, right click the folder and the option will be there, then you can just upload the zip file as an email attachment to yourself.