TTRPGs Where Everyone's a Mage?

[Dannyalcatraz]

H.P. Lovecraft Preparatory Academy

From the game’s DTRPG description:

H. P. Lovecraft Preparatory Academy As a student at the prestigious H.P. Lovecraft Preparatory Academy, you’ll uncover conspiracies, deal with bullies and uncaring professors, explore dangerous steam tunnels, study for exams, escape from horrible monstrosities that humanity was never meant to see, and try to avoid an extended stay at Arkham Sanitarium. And that's just orientation week!

• A semi-humorous RPG in the tradition of Saturday morning cartoons featuring mystery-busting kids…only the monsters are real.
• Features a detailed sandbox environment on the campus of a haunted New England boarding school.
• Six different Student Types to choose from, including Witches, Summoners, or Mad Scientists.
• A simple task resolution derived from the PDQ System: roll 2d6 + skill modifier against a target number.
• Design your own faculty! Want Dr. Frankenstein to be the new Biology professor? No problem!
• Thanks to the medical breakthroughs developed by Dr. West in the school infirmary, your character can’t die…but sanity is another matter entirely.
• Tons of optional rules to customize your individual game.

(Emphasis mine.)

My mind is- I think, understandably- hearing those Bostonian accents again.

 

[aramis erak]

What are some tabletop roleplaying games where every player plays a mage, magician, or wizardy character?

I know of a few big ones like Mage: The Ascension, Ars Magica, or Invisible Sun. What other ones are out there?

I'm more interested in ones that are a bit gender inclusive or not so narrow in scope. I know that there are indie TTRPGs out there where you are, for example, playing as a group of teenage female witches or alchemists in the countryside or similar setups, but I would prefer ones that are a little more open when it comes to personalizing character customization.

Technically, Ars Magica isn't "Everyone plays a magus" - it is suggested but not required. The actual standard for Troupe Style is everyone plays a magus AND a non-magus AND whichever turb member is needed when neither of their existing characters are for whatever reason not in story. In practice, this means playing a wizard about 3/7th of the time in my experience.

Note that Ars Magica and Mage: the Ascension are very female inclusive. It's Pendragon that's not...

RuneQuest 3rd, every character started with some magic, tho' only a few dedicated types practiced the potent form called Sorcery...

Technically, everyone in FFG Star Wars and WEG Star Wars has some magic... but only the believers can be trained past appearance of being lucky.

There's an old game named Sorcerer, in which I believe all PCs are sorcerers. Though I think it uses the term for any people who have the ability to interact with the supernatural.

Yes, Sorcerer by Ron Edwards.
It's kind of a misnomer - the only magic the PCs have is the ability to summon and bind demons., The Demons do all the magic, and are played by the GM. But Sword and Sorcerer (a supplement for it) pushes it towards more typical conanesque fantasy.

I'm shocked no one has mentioned Amber yet.
The princes of amber are damned near gods.

 

[dbm]

I'm shocked no one has mentioned Amber yet.
The princes of amber are damned near gods.

Not every Amberite uses ‘magic’ though.

 

[Mannahnin]

If you're including short indie games designed for one-shots, then Definitely Wizards seems to mostly fit the bill,

 

[Campbell]

There's an old game named Sorcerer, in which I believe all PCs are sorcerers. Though I think it uses the term for any people who have the ability to interact with the supernatural.

Sorcerers in Sorcerer aren't really mages in the cast spells sense of the word. They bind and make pacts with demons.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Though in some cases the distinction between "Cast spells myself" and "bind things to do my magical will" can be subtle, but that doesn't mean Sorcerer isn't distinct here.

 

[Aldarc]

Sorcerers in Sorcerer aren't really mages in the cast spells sense of the word. They bind and make pacts with demons.

Even better!

 

[aramis erak]

Though in some cases the distinction between "Cast spells myself" and "bind things to do my magical will" can be subtle, but that doesn't mean Sorcerer isn't distinct here.

Sorcerer itself makes serious efforts to distance itself from sorcerers being able to do so broadly. It's about long term deals with soul-eating monsters for short term gains.

 

[Staffan]

In Exalted, everyone (or at least all the PCs) have Charms, which are special abilities powered by magic. Actual sorcery is pretty rare, however.

There is an adventure path for Pathfinder 2nd edition named Strength of Thousands where you're playing students at (and eventually graduates of and teachers at) the Magaambiya magic academy. It makes use of the Free Archetype optional rule which makes everyone a multi-classed Wizard or Druid (so you can be a Fighter with a bit of magic).

If using a more liberal definition of "wizard", Trinity Continuum: Aeon assumes everyone's a psion (although some other character types are available).

 

[Thomas Shey]

In Exalted, everyone (or at least all the PCs) have Charms, which are special abilities powered by magic. Actual sorcery is pretty rare, however.

This was the issue I was having deciding whether RQ was a fair example; pretty much everyone has battle magic/spirit magic in it, but that's because its pretty much folk magic in a setting where its a given. I doubt almost anyone in the setting would think of themselves as a mage the way they would a sorcerer, priest or shaman.