I own the 1st through 5th editions (okay, I only started playing with the 2nd ed, but when I found an old copy of the 1st for cover price, I had to pick it up!).
I've done playtesting for 5th ed, including the core rulebook and Realms of Power: Divine.
I am working on a set of notes for setting AM during the Napoleonic/Regency era, a la
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell to be put up at the website I co-host (see tagline).
Hi, my name is Wombat
("Hi Wombat")
I'm an Ars Magiholic...
One of the things that really drew me to the game (other than the setting itself -- found it while I was working on my medieval history degree) was the whole notion of troupe play and the covenant. Groups were now together for a reason. There was no question why your adventurers stayed together -- they were all part of the same, larger community. And you could play different types of stories simply by varying which character you brought along on any given adventure. I had used variants of this in the past, but this was the best version I had ever dealt with. In addition, the rules for magic and, even more importantly, magical research really jazzed me.
Still, despite what people think, this games does
not require you to know Latin, does
not only have wizards as characters, and does
not have to be set in a low fantasy setting. Like any other set of rules, it is easy enough to pass it into another setting, with the usual adjustments. Yes, some of the supplementary material will be less useful then, but if people can make D&D effectively low-magic and gritty, people can also certainly make Ars Magica high fantasy and OTT. It only requires a little work and imagination.
