Ars Magica - Experiences

[ArghMark]

Hello all!

I've been running an Ars magica game (Ars-ing it up as we call it) and been having a lot of fun playing with history and myth.

Just wondering.. how many people play? How many people have even heard of the game, and would they play if they had heard about it? What are your experiences with the game and have you any stories to share about it?

The reason why I bring this up is because Ars Magica really seems disharmonious amongst gamers. There are ones who look at the paperwork and freak, ones who look at it and cheer, others who freak at the troupe-style roleplaying and others who enjoy it. Just wondering what sort of population we have of people who like or dislike the game, and why.

 

[Nagol]

Hello all!

I've been running an Ars magica game (Ars-ing it up as we call it) and been having a lot of fun playing with history and myth.

Just wondering.. how many people play? How many people have even heard of the game, and would they play if they had heard about it? What are your experiences with the game and have you any stories to share about it?

The reason why I bring this up is because Ars Magica really seems disharmonious amongst gamers. There are ones who look at the paperwork and freak, ones who look at it and cheer, others who freak at the troupe-style roleplaying and others who enjoy it. Just wondering what sort of population we have of people who like or dislike the game, and why.

I ran a bunch of Ars Magica campaigns in the late '80s through mid-'90s. I started with 2nd edition and played through to after 4th edition was released, though we didn't convert teh campaign from 3rd.

I found the base system very strong and had a terrific "mages with supernal ability" feel to it. I was disenchanted by the optional subsystems and several of the changes introduced by White Wolf, True Reason, for example. I liked the majority of the changes made in 4th edition.

All in all, a lot of fun was had. The seasonal activity could lead to lots of bookkeeping.

 

[jdrakeh]

Well, it was a beautiful read in all four editions that I have owned (1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th), but I never found a single person who was interested in playing it. (Although I will admit that I didn't try to find online gamers for a PbP or PBeM).

 

[ArghMark]

Could I ask why players weren't interested, jdrakeh?

 

[Woas]

I've been as close to playing as having 4 people generate about 3/4ths of their characters and start to brainstorm/generate their covenant but never actually got to play. I think having only one book was a killer since we wanted to do the whole 'make characters together' but didn't have the 20 hours to sit and share the book between us all.

I'd LOVE to play it and have been trying to get a game of it together.

 

[Crothian]

I've played very little. We did make characters and had some fun but at the time it was not the right game for that group. It is a game I've always liked and would get more books for it if I ever thought I'd get a chance to use them.

 

[Stalker0]

I've played a bit in both 4th and 5th editions and it wasn't my cup of tea.

Main reasons: I really didn't enjoy the mechanics. Generally they encouraged the mage to sit in his tower and study all day while the rest of your guys do all the work. That was the way to real power, and not the style I enjoyed.

I'm also not a big fan of troup style gaming. I've noticed it throughout my gaming career, I like playing one character. When I play multiple ones, I always focus on one and tend to neglect the others. Its just how I play.

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

I was in regular Ars Magica campaigns in Chicago and LA from '94 to '98 or so and had a great time with it. The fact that Ars Magica co-author Jonathan Tweet was one of the 3E design team was a big part of why I got back into D&D after a long time away. Some things I think you could usefully lift from it into other games:

- the action/verb spellcasting system; a big "aha" moment was that if you made a mage who was good at destroying things, or working with air, you'd find ways to approach every problem that way so that the system reinforced the concept of your character by the things it let you do.

- being set in real world history; this was awesome in the early-online days and would be even more so now. It gave a lot of shared-world responsibility to players - you could read up on universities in the 11th century and bring that to the table - without losing the sense of the imagined world as existing outside your head (as I find other shared-creation-mechanic games do for me).

- the mage covenant creation system; I really enjoyed the rules & process for setting up a stronghold, working out the agreement between the different characters, etc.

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

Ars Magica

I read the Ars Magica books and began work on a campaign right before 3rd edition D&D came out. Truthfully though, troupe style play isn't really my thing. It's a spectacularly ambitious system, though. When I saw Johnathan Tweet's name on 3E , I was like, 'wow, he wrote Ars Magica...I should look at this!'.

Ken

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I really like the game but have only ever been involved in 2 campaigns, neither of which ran for long. I recently bought a couple of the 5e books just for my own reading amusement. Will say that they could have been edited better, misspellings and malapropisms through the things. But hey, that's a small gripe and certainly not one that would discourage me form playing.

The troupe system is great, magic system is great, the style of the books/adventures is very evocative of a medieaval feel. Double thumbs up!!

But yeah, I don't think too many of my players would be that keen on it. Some love the bookkeeping and the seasonal play (including me!) but others just look at it and recoil in horror/apathy/confusion.

It is a pretty intensive system, not for casual gamers.