Ars Magica 4th Edition
Welcome to Ars Magica, and to the world of Mythic Europe. It is a place where the glories of the Classical world are dust and the promise of the Renaissance is yet to come. The time is the 13th century —1220 to be exact. Life is a struggle: wars and plagues stalk the land, the Church and kings rule with an iron fist. Yet Mythic Europe is also a place of magical wonder, inhabited by all the creatures of folktale and myth. What the folk of the land believe holds true: faeries and rural spirits must be placated; demons corrupt everything they touch; divine power is accessible through prayer; and magic is everywhere.
Against this background, you will play a magus, a member of the mcal Order of Hermes. You and your fellow players will also portray the loyal companions and grogs that stand with the magi in their covenants. These stalwart protectors provide a buffer between the magi and the mundane world that often misunderstands their power and motives. This is the setting for Ars Magica.
The award-winning first edition of Ars Magica set the benchmark for magic in fantasy roleplaying. It pioneered the storytelling style of roleplaying that has become so popular today. Its setting, Mythic Europe, sparked the imaginations of fantasy fans and history enthusiasts alike. The 272-page fourth edition introduced improved systems in several key areas such as combat, character advancement, and covenant generation. This version of the game retained and improved upon Ars Magica's powerful and flexible magic system —widely regarded as the best rules for magic in all of gaming. Ars Magica Fourth Edition also remained fully compatible with the game's previously released supplements. Ars Magica won the Gamer's Choice Award for Best Fantasy Roleplaying Game of 1988; the fourth edition was nominated for the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Rules of 1996.
Retrieved from "http://www.atlas-games.com/arsmagica/index.php"
Ars Magica
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Ars Magica is a role-playing game set in Mythic Europe, an idealized (or quasi-historical) version of Europe around 1200 AD. The game revolves around magic-using wizards and their allies. The game was originally developed by Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein-Hagen in the late 1980s.
Player characters take on the role of either Wizards (Magi; singular: Magus (male), Maga (female)) or Companions (Consortes, singular Consors). Additionally, there are Grogs (menial workers) played/controlled by all characters. The wizards live clustered in specific citadels (called Covenants), which are often built in places of power. (Covenants are the home base for the Magi, but they tend to roam the Magical Europe for their adventures.) Companions are select skilled non-magi (warriors, foresters, castellan, and so forth) who help wizards conduct their affairs (Magi tend to be distanced from "mundanes" due to their study of magic). In addition to the "authentic" feel from having such a historical setting, the game uses medieval Latin for a number of key terms..
The game system is considered innovative, with everything based on d10. The heart of the game is the magic system, the most celebrated and emulated magic systems among role-playing games. There are 15 "Arts" divided into 5 "Techniques" and 10 "Forms." The Techniques are what one does; the Forms are the objects one does it to or with; this is sometimes called a "Verb/Noun" magic-system. The Arts are named in Latin; the Techniques are: Creo, Intellego, Muto, Perdo, & Rego (Create, Perceive, Change, Destroy, and Control, all Latin verbs conjugated in the first-person singular.) The Forms are: Animal, Auram, Aquam, Corpus, Herbam, Ignem, Imaginem, Mentem, Terram, and Vim (Animal bodies and minds, Air, Water, human Bodies, Plants, Fire, Images/Sensations, human Minds, Earth, and raw arcane Power, once again, all Latin, declined in the accusative case). Thus, Creo Ignem spells create fire (and the normal effects of fire, such as heat or light), while Perdo Imaginem spells destroy images and other sensory experiences (such as invisibility or inaudibility.) Muto spells change the fundamental nature of objects, whereas Rego spells control things without altering what they are. Thus, Rego Aquam could turn water into ice, while Muto Aquam could turn water into oil, stone, or weasel.
Magic is treated in this game-system as a serious object of study: magi are supposed to spend a long time in their laboratories, preparing new spells and potions, and increasing their knowledge of the Arts. The other systemic innovation was the insistence on play-acting the characters - indeed, many characteristics of the later Storyteller system developed by White Wolf Game Studio can be traced to Ars Magica (and the fact that both Ars Magica and the Storyteller system were both developed by the same person); White Wolf's Mage: The Ascension was envisioned as "Ars Magica in the Modern World," and many of the changes in Ars Magica's 3rd edition were introduced in order to make the game-worlds more compatible.
Ars Magica is an example of a Troupe System, although a number of campaigns (known as Sagas) will have most stories run by the same person, known as the Alpha Story Guide. For the length of a story (adventure) there will typically be more Companions than Magi. At the end of a story the players have the option of changing characters (becoming Magi, or Companion) or taking on the role of Storyteller.
Ars Magica was first published by Lion Rampant games, who also published the 2nd edition of the game. In the early 1990s, rights to Ars Magica were acquired by White Wolf, the company that Rein-Hagen had in the meantime founded. White Wolf published the 3rd edition, which greatly expanded the settings and peripheral rules while leaving the core system intact. White Wolf also published many supplements, detailing specific regions of Europe, or outlining stories that could be played in the original setting. Ars Magica was later sold to Wizards of the Coast, who produced several supplements, but just before publishing a 4th edition sold the rights to Atlas Games. Atlas published the fourth edition and has published new source-books since.
The 5th edition was released by Atlas in 2004, including extensive changes to the system, especially the combat system and character creation. Ars Magica 5th edition won the Origins Award for Best Role Playing Game of 2004.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ars_Magica"
Welcome to Ars Magica, and to the world of Mythic Europe. It is a place where the glories of the Classical world are dust and the promise of the Renaissance is yet to come. The time is the 13th century —1220 to be exact. Life is a struggle: wars and plagues stalk the land, the Church and kings rule with an iron fist. Yet Mythic Europe is also a place of magical wonder, inhabited by all the creatures of folktale and myth. What the folk of the land believe holds true: faeries and rural spirits must be placated; demons corrupt everything they touch; divine power is accessible through prayer; and magic is everywhere.
Against this background, you will play a magus, a member of the mcal Order of Hermes. You and your fellow players will also portray the loyal companions and grogs that stand with the magi in their covenants. These stalwart protectors provide a buffer between the magi and the mundane world that often misunderstands their power and motives. This is the setting for Ars Magica.
The award-winning first edition of Ars Magica set the benchmark for magic in fantasy roleplaying. It pioneered the storytelling style of roleplaying that has become so popular today. Its setting, Mythic Europe, sparked the imaginations of fantasy fans and history enthusiasts alike. The 272-page fourth edition introduced improved systems in several key areas such as combat, character advancement, and covenant generation. This version of the game retained and improved upon Ars Magica's powerful and flexible magic system —widely regarded as the best rules for magic in all of gaming. Ars Magica Fourth Edition also remained fully compatible with the game's previously released supplements. Ars Magica won the Gamer's Choice Award for Best Fantasy Roleplaying Game of 1988; the fourth edition was nominated for the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Rules of 1996.
Retrieved from "http://www.atlas-games.com/arsmagica/index.php"
Ars Magica
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Ars Magica is a role-playing game set in Mythic Europe, an idealized (or quasi-historical) version of Europe around 1200 AD. The game revolves around magic-using wizards and their allies. The game was originally developed by Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein-Hagen in the late 1980s.
Player characters take on the role of either Wizards (Magi; singular: Magus (male), Maga (female)) or Companions (Consortes, singular Consors). Additionally, there are Grogs (menial workers) played/controlled by all characters. The wizards live clustered in specific citadels (called Covenants), which are often built in places of power. (Covenants are the home base for the Magi, but they tend to roam the Magical Europe for their adventures.) Companions are select skilled non-magi (warriors, foresters, castellan, and so forth) who help wizards conduct their affairs (Magi tend to be distanced from "mundanes" due to their study of magic). In addition to the "authentic" feel from having such a historical setting, the game uses medieval Latin for a number of key terms..
The game system is considered innovative, with everything based on d10. The heart of the game is the magic system, the most celebrated and emulated magic systems among role-playing games. There are 15 "Arts" divided into 5 "Techniques" and 10 "Forms." The Techniques are what one does; the Forms are the objects one does it to or with; this is sometimes called a "Verb/Noun" magic-system. The Arts are named in Latin; the Techniques are: Creo, Intellego, Muto, Perdo, & Rego (Create, Perceive, Change, Destroy, and Control, all Latin verbs conjugated in the first-person singular.) The Forms are: Animal, Auram, Aquam, Corpus, Herbam, Ignem, Imaginem, Mentem, Terram, and Vim (Animal bodies and minds, Air, Water, human Bodies, Plants, Fire, Images/Sensations, human Minds, Earth, and raw arcane Power, once again, all Latin, declined in the accusative case). Thus, Creo Ignem spells create fire (and the normal effects of fire, such as heat or light), while Perdo Imaginem spells destroy images and other sensory experiences (such as invisibility or inaudibility.) Muto spells change the fundamental nature of objects, whereas Rego spells control things without altering what they are. Thus, Rego Aquam could turn water into ice, while Muto Aquam could turn water into oil, stone, or weasel.
Magic is treated in this game-system as a serious object of study: magi are supposed to spend a long time in their laboratories, preparing new spells and potions, and increasing their knowledge of the Arts. The other systemic innovation was the insistence on play-acting the characters - indeed, many characteristics of the later Storyteller system developed by White Wolf Game Studio can be traced to Ars Magica (and the fact that both Ars Magica and the Storyteller system were both developed by the same person); White Wolf's Mage: The Ascension was envisioned as "Ars Magica in the Modern World," and many of the changes in Ars Magica's 3rd edition were introduced in order to make the game-worlds more compatible.
Ars Magica is an example of a Troupe System, although a number of campaigns (known as Sagas) will have most stories run by the same person, known as the Alpha Story Guide. For the length of a story (adventure) there will typically be more Companions than Magi. At the end of a story the players have the option of changing characters (becoming Magi, or Companion) or taking on the role of Storyteller.
Ars Magica was first published by Lion Rampant games, who also published the 2nd edition of the game. In the early 1990s, rights to Ars Magica were acquired by White Wolf, the company that Rein-Hagen had in the meantime founded. White Wolf published the 3rd edition, which greatly expanded the settings and peripheral rules while leaving the core system intact. White Wolf also published many supplements, detailing specific regions of Europe, or outlining stories that could be played in the original setting. Ars Magica was later sold to Wizards of the Coast, who produced several supplements, but just before publishing a 4th edition sold the rights to Atlas Games. Atlas published the fourth edition and has published new source-books since.
The 5th edition was released by Atlas in 2004, including extensive changes to the system, especially the combat system and character creation. Ars Magica 5th edition won the Origins Award for Best Role Playing Game of 2004.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ars_Magica"
