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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tyrrell" data-source="post: 5480363" data-attributes="member: 5839">I really prefer Ars Magica (especially fifth edition) to everything else I've ever been exposed to.What it does better than any other game is personalize the magic of an individual character.  The five verbs and ten nouns are only one factor, there are also the character's natural proclivities expressed as virtues and flaws and the character's balance between all of the different ways that he or she can advance (which I'll break down for you in a simple manner):<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">acquire raw power (arts), </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">create lots of tools (formulaic spells and enchanted devices), </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">improve general competence (theory, finesse, concentration ,spell penetration, and magical defense), </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">being a master of specific spells (spell mastery skills), and </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">twisting your magic so it breaks the rules that others have to follow (mystery initiation and original research).</li> </ul>The books have spells developed in them but it is expected that characters will develop their own spells and items.  Ars Magica has a very nice system for determining exactly what it takes to produce a particular effect.  Also the character's virtues and flaws will greatly alter the approaches that they take to problems.  the by product of this is that magician characters are wildly different from one another, it isn't just a difference of being a fire mage or a mind mage, it really comes down to each individual character. There are dozens of substantively different ways to be a mage who specializes in string, no two elm tree focused mages are going to play the same as one another.Ars magica characters have the ability to create magic spell on the fly, if they need to open a wooden door from across the room they could check their control verb and wood/ plant noun scores and take a shot at opening a door without knowing a particular spell to do it.  However unlike most other games that handle magic in this way the character also has spells that he knows, spontaneously created magic is weak but tends to be applicable, formulaic magic (spells that you know) can be at least twice as powerful as spontaneous but you have to spend the time to learn it.  This give a power spread for magicians that I personally find much more satisfying than oWoD mage and Talislanta (other free form magic systems that I've been exposed to).</blockquote>

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