(OT) Ars Magica

[The Traveler]

Ars Magica skips some of the vagaries of European politics and customs in the era as well because they assume that if you want that much depth in your game, you're capable of doing the research. After all, Ars Magica couldn't possibly contain all that, and if it even tried it'd be an approximation at best, so it leaves it to the GM to decide how deep into the era's realism the campaign should go.

 

[Gez]

Ars Magica is, in my own Top Ten, the "Best RPG Ever". Seconds are Rêve de Dragon and D&D ex-aequo.

The combat system isn't very brilliant, as D&D's one is; but the magic... Ah, Ars Magica allows you to play mages exactly like mages should be played. And the faeries... Faeries just like faeries should be. Elves and gnomes and goblins are not plain humanoid races, but strange and impredictables creatures you never know if you'll be happy or not to have encountered them.

My only reproach: the Mythic Europe setting is hard to DM, because I, as a learned person; and my historian brother as an even more learned one is this matter, don't really like to make dramatic changes to history. It's why it's easier for our group to play in totally fictional worlds. Worlds that, like Ars Magica or White Wolf's World of Darkness, are parrallel to the real world are hard to DM for this reason.

That's why in my Ars Magica campaign, I have used a world that's a bit copied on real world, but with dramatic changes from start. This way, I'll feel less hesitation to have a revolution in 1300-and-so, massive supernatural events, a more challenging church, more hermetic influence on the world, etc.

Ars Magica is really an excellent game. The "covenant" concept is something that lend itself naturally to campaign playings, and we found very refreshing the fact of alterning play between magus, grog and companion -- sometimes in the middle of a session.

Also, we didn't found the stress roll system so harsh -- in fact, it was rather advantageous to the players. Maybe that's because our d10s were expecting we were playing a White Wolf game, but '1' are a-plenty and '10' are oh-so rare... That's maybe just us, though. However, still, the '10' needs to be confirmed by rolling another, so disasters are not that frequent.

Edit: missing portion of a sentence...

 

[Dinkeldog]

This is my favorite game that I never get to play. I would advise with Gez, however that moving out of Europe could be a good thing. Especially if the DM is not the history major in the group. It also lends itself extremely well to a tag-team DMing situation.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Overall, I love Ars Magica. Some of the mechanics are just not my cup of tea, but the entire concept is outstanding. I'd love to see someone make a serious attempt at adapting the magic system to d20.

Ars Magica has some of the best RPG supplements I've ever read. The Order of Hermes is a great sourcebook for wizards of just about any RPG. The Storm Rider is a very nice adventure.

 

[Pyske]

Ars Magica has my undying loyalty for a number of reasons. It has the best magic system on the market (IMHO). It was the system in which I ran my best campaign. John Nephew supports the game (and fans) very well: for example, Atlas ate the loss on shipping the last issue of the fanzine to subscribers despite the fact that Atlas was not even the publisher! There is a very active and enthusiastic (and open) Ars Magica "community" on their mailing lists. Basically, it is strong in a bunch of different areas; definitely worth your while to pick up.

. . . . . . . -- Eric

PS -- As a couple people have said, the combat system is imperfect, although I have heard that Ordo Nobilis has several good fixes. I personally often import the dice system and criticals rules from Feng Shui, with a few tweaks.

 

[Ziggy]

I'm got mixed feeling about Ars Magica.

The setting is brilliant, and I've seen no other RPG that come even close to Ars Magica for magic centered campaigns.

OTOH the system breaks down in a couple of places:

- The spontanous magic system is *too* flexible. When everybody gets a decent score in most Arts and Techniques, difficult situations tend to bog down while everybody flips frantically through the book trying to solve the situation using different spontanous combinations. As the power of the different combinations are unique, this tends to take a long time before we can resolve whether the desired effect is within the powers of the mage. A more limited system would have negated this effect.

- The system promotes studying too much. While this ties into the "covenant" style of playing, there really is too few incentives to do anything else than study, and there is a limit to how many times you can threathen the covenant in order to make the bookworms look up from their tomes.

- The combat system has a few flaws, but that didn't bother up too much.

The most successful campaign I've DM'ed was a campagn set deep in the woods of Russia. The focus was to build a new covenant, and most of the mages were nature-oriented (Herbam and Animal). The setting made them focus on survival and exploration, thus minimazing the "book-keeping" previous campaign often devolved into.

.Ziggy

 

[Paka]

Ars Magica is a brilliant system. Its magic is something really special.

The Magus' spells aren't just a cold list of powers but a dangerous possibility, always with a touch of the unknown.

The magic system is, simply put, magical.

The Mythic Europe setting is pretty neat too, the library being your best sourcebook.

Have fun and let us know what you think.

 

[Tempuswolf]

Er, you're in medieval or renaissance Europe. You expect this to be politically correct? It's just a game, dude.

Medieval. I am not sure what you mean by "politically correct" in this context. I was refering to the fact for all of the supposed wisdom of the Magi, they are just as much playing for the wrong team metaphysically as are the Muslims, Pagans, and Jews.

 

[The Traveler]

Medieval. I am not sure what you mean by "politically correct" in this context. I was refering to the fact for all of the supposed wisdom of the Magi, they are just as much playing for the wrong team metaphysically as are the Muslims, Pagans, and Jews.

I just said medieval or renaissance because while the original Lion Rampant edition of Ars Magica placed it in the Medieval era, the Fourth Edition under Atlas is closer to the Renaissance.

What I meant was that this is a setting in which most of what was popular superstition in that era is real. It's also set in an era in which religious thought pervaded and God and the devil were quite concretely believed in.

If you excise this paradigm for a more postmodern, or relativist one, you rob the setting of much of the mysticism that makes it work. Postmodernism and relativism may work in Mage: The Ascension's favor, but they'd ruin the flavour of Ars Magica.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

The impression I get from the game and its supplements is that each power was as valid as the others. That is, wizards wouldn't necessarily go to hell, they would just fade away into Twilight, eventually entering a magical afterlife. Where someone went in the afterlife depended on what regio was dominant in their lives.