Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Ars Magica To Get A New Edition
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="TrippyHippy" data-source="post: 9241673" data-attributes="member: 27252"><p>Ars Magica uses a D10 roll for everything. It can be rolled as a simple die, reading the numbers 1-10 (0 counts as 10), or a ‘stress' die which is read 0-9. When rolling a Stress die, a 1 allows for a double die roll to be added to the score, but rolling a 0 counts as ‘0’ with a potential ‘botch’ die then rolled to see if it was a catastrophic failure (if you roll another 0). Depending on the stress level of the task you can increase the number of botch dice you roll. </p><p></p><p>The core mechanic is Stat + Skill + die roll vs Target number which goes up with difficulty.</p><p></p><p>Magic also operates like this, except you add Stat <em>+ Verb + Noun</em> vs the casting level of the spell. Spells can be <em>designed</em> where you have scores in 5 different techniques (verb) and 10 different forms (noun) which you can combine to create effects. So, for example, you could have a score in Creo (“I create”) of 8 and a score of Ignem (“Fire”) of 7 and combine them to cast a level 25 fireball spell where you roll 8 + 7 + stress die vs a 25 target. The higher the level of the spell the more powerful it gets. However, casters can also create spontaneous magic rather than use a formulaic spell by casting at a fractional level below their magic score totals.</p><p></p><p>The first edition didn’t have any setting, so the Mythic Europe Setting is one that has been developed over several decades and is based on very well researched historical Europe but with a mythical fantasy overlay. It is basically a magical version of history where the superstitious beliefs are real. It is, however, entirely optional - you can set the Order of Hermes in any fantasy setting with little trouble.</p><p></p><p>There are something like 40 published supplements that are now available in POD. These include lots and lots of adventure and campaign material. Atlas Games maintain a forum on their site which is still active and some gamers play Ars Magica exclusively for years. Its entire set up is for long term, extended play and the main ’splats’ are geographically based Tribunal books. There are some books with a good range of adventure anthologies though.</p><p></p><p>You’ll also note there are three tiers of play - Mages (which are powerful), Companions (which are advanced, independently thinking non-magical characters) and Grogs which are basically servants and guards, but you can still make them individually interesting to play in low key games. All live together collectively in a Covenant that the players collaboratively design together.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TrippyHippy, post: 9241673, member: 27252"] Ars Magica uses a D10 roll for everything. It can be rolled as a simple die, reading the numbers 1-10 (0 counts as 10), or a ‘stress' die which is read 0-9. When rolling a Stress die, a 1 allows for a double die roll to be added to the score, but rolling a 0 counts as ‘0’ with a potential ‘botch’ die then rolled to see if it was a catastrophic failure (if you roll another 0). Depending on the stress level of the task you can increase the number of botch dice you roll. The core mechanic is Stat + Skill + die roll vs Target number which goes up with difficulty. Magic also operates like this, except you add Stat [I]+ Verb + Noun[/I] vs the casting level of the spell. Spells can be [I]designed[/I] where you have scores in 5 different techniques (verb) and 10 different forms (noun) which you can combine to create effects. So, for example, you could have a score in Creo (“I create”) of 8 and a score of Ignem (“Fire”) of 7 and combine them to cast a level 25 fireball spell where you roll 8 + 7 + stress die vs a 25 target. The higher the level of the spell the more powerful it gets. However, casters can also create spontaneous magic rather than use a formulaic spell by casting at a fractional level below their magic score totals. The first edition didn’t have any setting, so the Mythic Europe Setting is one that has been developed over several decades and is based on very well researched historical Europe but with a mythical fantasy overlay. It is basically a magical version of history where the superstitious beliefs are real. It is, however, entirely optional - you can set the Order of Hermes in any fantasy setting with little trouble. There are something like 40 published supplements that are now available in POD. These include lots and lots of adventure and campaign material. Atlas Games maintain a forum on their site which is still active and some gamers play Ars Magica exclusively for years. Its entire set up is for long term, extended play and the main ’splats’ are geographically based Tribunal books. There are some books with a good range of adventure anthologies though. You’ll also note there are three tiers of play - Mages (which are powerful), Companions (which are advanced, independently thinking non-magical characters) and Grogs which are basically servants and guards, but you can still make them individually interesting to play in low key games. All live together collectively in a Covenant that the players collaboratively design together. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Ars Magica To Get A New Edition
Top